Examining the needs of refugees and refugee service providers: a case file examination

Refugees are people who have fled their country as a result of experienced persecution or fear of persecution. Research shows that refugees face many challenges and have many needs after being relocated in the United States. Once refugees are resettled, the goal of resettlement organizations and agencies is that refugees achieve self-sufficiency and be integrated into the community. This research aims to discover if refugee demographic characteristics have an effect on the amount of financial assistance refugees receive for relocations or an effect on achievement of self-sufficiency. This research is a quantitative secondary analysis taken from the case files of 230 refugee clients of a resettlement agency in in southeast Tennessee. The measures in this study included descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and simple linear regression. Results from the study indicated that many demographic characteristics were significant predictors for both amount of received financial assistance and for achievement of self-sufficiency. Recommendations and implications for future research, practice, and policy are discussed