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How Music Can Support Refugee Children During Resettlement
(2023-04) Mabus, Rebekah; Brown, Kellie
As of 2021, over 30 million people worldwide lived as refugees or asylum seekers having been torn away from their homes and normal lives by war, violence, natural disasters, or persecution. Upon arriving in a host country, these individuals face various resettlement challenges including a lack of resources, language barriers, and cultural disparities. Rather than giving in to despair, activists, educators, and refugees themselves can employ a critical hope framework to imagine a brighter future and to work towards its fulfillment. One way of building this new reality is through music. For young refugee students, music can not only provide a catalyst to education and language learning but may also aid in community formation by transcending barriers between them. For some students, music can also become an avenue through which they maintain complicated identities, build self-esteem, and release distressing emotions. These effects may be observed in various music classes around the world including at the Global Village Project where the author observed refugee minors from across Asia and Africa making music together. While group music sessions like these present a multitude of challenges, they also support young students through an often disorienting and painful migration experience.