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The data is organized into ten themes, as shown in Table 3. Two themes pertain to the adversities participants had experienced, the next two describe their emotions, and six themes concern factors promoting Syrian refugees’ resilience.
Adversity
Theme 1: Pre-resettlement adversity
This theme maps the participants’ traumatic war experiences and adversities during migration. In Syria, the refugee participants experienced torture, assault, destruction of their homes and villages, witnessing physical violence against friends and family members, the death of family members and friends, and a lack of basic supplies. During the war, the refugee participants experienced bombs and military airstrikes that devastated their homes and villages and damaged key infrastructure. ISIS [The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria] besieged their cities, and no one could go in or out. Many participants lost family members and friends. Two participants witnessed physical violence or assault by the military force on family members and friends or acquaintances. Another traumatic experience during the war was living without electricity, food, and other essentials. In one participant’s words:
The city lived under siege and lacked food for more than three and a half years. I know some people who were my age and died because of starving, the media wasn’t covering that time a lot . . . And that made me feel like going through a terrible time. And no electricity, no connections that were even worse. But what I found it I counted until now, and the worst experience is when I saw my little sister . . . said that she’s hungry . . . and I felt that I’m useless. [P12-Male]
Participants had to flee to a neighboring country to seek refuge; all of our participants went to Turkey. There, they faced other traumatic experiences, such as worker exploitation, physical violence, and threats to their lives. The most difficult challenge was racism, and chronic discrimination, which they said happened to almost all Syrian people. Chronic discrimination limited their economic and social opportunities. They could not get a work permit, so they had to work illegally. This meant that they worked maximum hours for minimal pay, resulting in financial strain. Also, getting a job without a residence permit was difficult, so they lived illegally and tried to do everything they could to survive.
In Turkey, you don’t have a residence card. You are living illegally. So you don’t have any right to work or go to school or learn the language or anything. So the day you work you can eat, the other day if you don’t work, you cannot eat. We tried our best to stay in Turkey because it was near Syria and it was an Islamic country, but it was really difficult, and we faced many problems. Not only financial problems but also problems with people there. They don’t accept strangers or foreigners. [P5-Female]
Theme 2: Post-resettlement challenges
This theme outlines the participants’ experiences after they arrived in the Netherlands. First, they had to spend some time in an asylum center before being assigned to their own house. Most participants thought they would only spend a short time living in the asylum center, but there was a longer waiting period than expected. Some participants said that boredom always accompanied them since they did not find the limited activities helpful. Safety was another problem that the participants encountered in the asylum center. One participant witnessed women and children being abused by their family members there. For example, husbands abused their wives, and adults abused children. Half of the participants experienced bureaucratic barriers during the asylum process, which affected their waiting period in the asylum center. One participant said, “I did the procedures and waited. I didn’t get the status at once… And 25 days later, I got it. But it wasn’t as expected even though it was quite clear that I had all the documents” [P1-Female].
After the asylum process was finished and the participants got their residence permits allowing them to live in the Netherlands, they embarked on a new stage of life. They were resettled into their accommodation and started integrating into the new society. However, the participants faced some challenges while navigating their new life in the Netherlands. More than 60% of participants reported having problems adjusting to the new culture, typically related to adapting to new houses and surroundings, the climate, food, making friends, trying to fit into the Dutch community, and culture shock.
Another challenge was language difficulty. Half of the participants said Dutch was not an easy language to learn, and they were still struggling to master it. Participants also suffered from various psychological problems due to war and forced migration. Almost half of the participants mentioned how complex they found the system in the Netherlands when they wanted to work or continue their education. Another difficulty was that their pre-existing qualifications were not recognized in the Netherlands. This prevented them from getting a job matching their qualifications. As one participant, who was already a licensed pharmacist in Syria, explained:
And then, as I noticed it, there was no opportunity, no job as a pharmacist . . . Yeah as a pharmacist even after I qualified with my diploma, to qualify a diploma costs about four years. I have to study something called AKV. It’s a sort of examination for pharmacists and doctors, you know; after I passed our AKV, I have to study pre-master for one year, then three years master. So it costs about four to five years, then I can work as a pharmacist. [P7-Male]
Emotions
Theme 3: Key emotions in the pre-resettlement period
This theme outlines the key emotions of our participants in the pre-resettlement phase. When living in Syria before fleeing, fear was an everyday emotion for most participants. In our study, many participants experienced the unexpected loss of family members and valued belongings and a loss of their sense of safety. They were continuously worried about whether they could survive the next day and if they could escape the danger. One participant described a constant fear of losing someone or something he loved, as well as the challenge of displacement.
And that was very tough for me. Also, the fact that I was always feeling afraid because of the things that are going over there and the situation and the bombing and feeling afraid to lose one of my family or my friends, I had to lose my place . . . we have been displaced more than like 13 times. And as you know, like for me personally, I hate moving from one place to another. I just find it hard. So I have done it a lot of times, and that’s very bad. [P12-Male]
When the participants left Syria, they felt sad because they had to leave behind their home, family, and memories. One participant said he felt lonely then, leaving his home and imagining living in a completely new place. In contrast, the dominant emotions in the transit countries were fear and anger. Their illegal status and lack of opportunities scared the participants, forcing them to build temporary survival strategies, for example, taking any job even if it was underpaid. Anger was caused by racism and chronic discrimination. They also felt that they were taken advantage of and used for cheap labor due to their illegal status. One participant said, “it was not easy. Because we were from one to two places, we had to deal with the people, maybe rude and bad people. We suffered a lot. You know, until we came to the Netherlands” [P17-Female].
Theme 4: Key emotions in the post-resettlement period
Living in an asylum center in the Netherlands was difficult for our participants. Hence, the dominant emotions in this phase were anger and fear. Participants were angry when they had to deal with the bureaucratic barriers and wait longer than expected in the asylum center. The long waiting periods increased participants’ fear of the uncertainty of their future. Participants were wondering when they could start a normal life and what would happen with their future.
You still have the feeling of that you’re going to the unknown, or you are feeling unstable, or you’re feeling like stressed about what will happen next, and yeah, it’s just mixed of the feeling of you are, I feel unsettled because you never know what will happen next. [P10-Female]
Once the asylum application of our participants was granted, they began a new phase as they moved into their own houses. The dominant emotion in this phase were three positive emotions: happiness, hope, and gratitude. One participant stated that she was happy because she felt accepted in the Netherlands, even though she came from a different culture. Being accepted by society created hope for the participants: “here, people are much more accepting. And that that also kind of makes a person happy and hopeful for the future” [P6-Male].
Another positive emotion mentioned concerning the period after the participants finished their asylum process was gratitude. They felt grateful to live in a safe country and for all the challenges they had been through, which made them stronger. Gratitude also contributed to the hope of our refugee participants, which could serve as a source of their resilience: “so, I am grateful. I’m grateful. So my best is something for the Netherlands. This is what gives me hope for the ideal of the future” [P5-Female].
Resilience
We argue that the last themes relate to resilience and all periods, especially the post-resettlement period. Given the centrality of emotions to resilience, we believe it is worthwhile to include them in our analysis as an additional category. These pathways between emotions and resilience are of course are not mutually exclusive. Evidence from previous research has showed that positive emotions are the result of being resilient [31], but that they can also aid individuals to use their resources to cope with difficult life events [32].
Theme 5: Future orientation
The most frequent topic mentioned under this theme was hope for the future. For the participants, it was essential to have a plan for the future, so they had something to work towards, which gave them hope. All participants shared similar plans for their future, either working or studying. Additionally, the family was a source of hope for most of them.
A second thing is how my parents are at the moment gives me hope for the future. I see their content. I see them happy. I see them not overly anxious anymore. So, that also strengthens one’s resolve . . . gives me hope for the future. And of course, another thing is how I see all the people around me . . . I see how everyone is moving on with their lives, despite what they have been through. I see how everyone is growing up and how everyone is flourishing in this new environment. [P6-Male]
Besides hope, the participants also stated that having meaning in life is a source of their resilience. Participants viewed meaning in life as goal-directedness or purposefulness. It helps create an orientation towards the future by giving a reason for actions and consequences. What gave them a sense of meaning in their life is similar to what gave them hope: family. Therefore, we categorized future orientation as a family-level factor. In addition, maintaining a healthy lifestyle was also an aspect of the future orientation. Many participants started to develop healthy habits in the Netherlands, giving them positive feelings about themselves.
Theme 6: Coping strategies
Our participants implemented three coping strategies: problem-focused, emotion-focused, and dysfunctional coping [33]. Coping is considered an individual-level factor. In terms of problem-focused coping, half of the participants chose to take action and make plans to try to cope with their challenges directly. The emotion-focused strategy that the participants used most was cognitive reappraisal, that is, trying to reframe the situation in their mind: “… because I had experienced in the Syria war experience let me say, yeah. By remembering the difficulty in Syria, I will consider every other difficulty is nothing… “ [P7-Male]. Participants who engaged in dysfunctional coping used self-distraction. They always tried to keep themselves busy to distract themselves from thinking about their problems.
Theme 7: Social support
Social support contributed to participants’ resilience, with support primarily from family and friends but also the broader community. Hence, this is a family and community level factor. Having social connections (the experience of feeling close and connected to others) helped participants buffer the negative impact of their trauma experiences. Social support from family and friends was crucial for almost all participants in terms of both instrumental (i.e., practical) and emotional support.
I think the family supports it. Like yeah, nowadays I feel very, very comfortable after talking to my sister’s sharing our ideas like talking about what makes you, what points in life makes you feel anxious and what you want to improve in yourself, and what difficulties you have. Having support from your family and having some friends really helps . . . So surround yourself with positive people, and people are that are willing to share positive ideas. [P14-Female]
Theme 8: Opportunities
On the broader society level, having opportunities to develop and grow in a new country was essential to our refugee participants. The fact that the host country provided such opportunities aided their resilience. The chance to build a new future and be able to dream again made the participants optimistic. A sense of safety was the first thing that participants noted as a foundation for other opportunities. War experiences had made them greatly appreciate security. Furthermore, the participants had previous knowledge and skills that they wanted to use to contribute to their new society.
The ability to be actively functioning and participating in society helps me feel like I am doing something that may be important . . . somehow you feel like I am giving back . . . The ability that I am able to serve someone that I am to help someone to support someone in many, like big and small shapes and forms, yet that gives me a sense of achievement or like an accomplishment in my life. [P10-Female]
Mastering the Dutch language was crucial as it dramatically increased opportunities for participants. One participant said that he had worked hard to master the language, and eventually, it paid off. Experiencing positive things in their early time in the Netherlands was also one form of opportunity. One participant had a good experience dealing with COA [Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers], and he also got the chance to volunteer with them, which gave him a positive perception of the Dutch people.
Theme 9: Religiosity
Having faith was one source of participants’ resilience. Believing in God comforted them and helped them make sense of their ordeals. Some of our participants felt that God has a reason behind everything that happens in their life and that God must have a good plan for everyone. Primarily, our participants hold Islamic beliefs, and doing rituals in private space, such as praying five times a day and reciting the Qur’an, relieved them from stress. We place religiosity at the individual level since our participants generally did not mention religion in relation to community, as seen in this excerpt:
I thank God, a believer, and that is very important to me because I can always return to and rely on it. Even though being alone for all these years since I am here alone in this country, if you have God by your side, you somehow feel you’re not alone or something . . . based on my religion and belief, there is always a reason behind anything. And there is nothing just like, out of coincidence or something . . . God has a better plan for me. So that feeling gives me a sense of like to be grounded to be settled to be safe. [P10-Female]
Theme 10: Maintaining cultural identity
The participants tried to retain part of their Syrian identity in their acculturation process. They wanted to be acknowledged as Syrians and maintain their norms and values while at the same time learning a new culture. We consider cultural identity a community-level factor as it typically involves social activities in larger groups. Practicing religious rituals and beliefs, speaking the Arabic language, making Syrian food, and following cultural traditions are ways the refugees sought to preserve their cultural identity.
Yeah, it was like, because it was also like coming from the idea that I have certain principles (religion, traditions). I don’t want to let it go. But at the same time, I want to integrate into the society, and I think upon and to have a place for me . . . I came to that conclusion like okay, this is what I want and like; what is stuff that I cannot compromise, and what? So, and then that moment, it was like really clear to me that what they really want and what are the principles . . . [P3-Female]
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