Paper short abstract:

As female refugees often were confronted with gender-based violence in their past according to previous studies there is a high risk of re-victimization. Social workers and refugee women in the welfare system are walking a tightrope between power gaps and intersectional processes.

Paper long abstract:

Flight reasons and conditions of female refugees are often

different from males. Additionally to conflicts and wars they suffer also from patriarchal oppressing

conditions and gender based violence like forced marriage/virginity and/or genital mutilation.

Considering their background, refugee girls have a high risk of traumatization (Mazurana 2005) and

the development of their gender-identity, as a task of adolescence (Erikson, 1973), becomes an even

bigger challenge. Studies (Gahleitner, 2005; Hagemann-White, 2002) showed that coping-strategies

are very gender-identity stereotyped as traumatized males tend to develop offender behaviours,

females instead often have a high risk of re-victimization.

The perception of terms like trauma, violence or identity cannot remain detached from intersectional

processes and cultural explanations of symptoms can be very different from Western view.

Resettling in a host country female refugees get institutionalized in the welfare service and get

confronted with new belief systems and values (Papadopoulos, 2001). Social workers are responsible

for the care of the women but at the same time they take part of a significant power

gap and value-system.

The discrepancy between adjusting to a new belief system of the institutions of the host country and

the pressure to conform imposed from within their communities seems to be a walk on the

tightrope. The aim of this paper is to show the current state and lack of research and literature about

the coping process and the development of a gender-identity of refugee women in the

residential welfare.