Somali Bantus in Pittsburgh: An Adventure in Qualitative Research

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Somali Bantus in PittsburghAn Adventure in
Qualitative Research

• Leah M. Taylor
• Practicum Research
• Behavioral and Community Health Sciences
• Graduate School of Public Health
• University of Pittsburgh
• Spring 2007

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Background

• Somali Bantus are a group of refugees who were
  brought up to Somalia from Tanzania and
  Mozambique as slaves
• The Bantus have experienced centuries of
  oppression and discrimination within Somalia
• Ethnic Somalis have lighter skin and more Arab
  facial features
• Somali Bantu is a loose grouping based on
  darker skin and African facial features. There
  are 2 language/ethnic groups within the Somali
  Bantu designation living in Pittsburgh
• Zigua speakers, who retain strong linguistic and
  cultural ties to Tanzania
• May speakers, who speak a dialect of the dominant
  Somali language, Af-Maxaad,
• In January 1991, Siyad Barre, how mismanaged
  Somali as president for 22 years, was thrown out
  of power in Mogadishu, Somalias capital, and
  civil war has continued ever since
• The civil war created a large number of refugees,
  among them, about 15,000 Somali Bantus, who fled
  south to Kenya
• Somali Bantus continued to experience
  discrimination in the refugee camps where they
  lived for 10-15 years

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Somali Bantus Coming to America

• In 1999, U.S. agreed to resettle the Somali
  Bantus
• Preparation process was interrupted with
  terrorist bombings in New York and Washington,
  D.C. in 2001
• First Somali Bantus were resettled in the U.S. in
  2003
• Refugees, including Somali Bantus, are resettled
  in the U.S. by one of ten agencies that have
  contracts for resettlement with the federal
  government
• Resettlement agencies provide case management
  services for three to six months and help
  primarily, though not exclusively, with
  employment services

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Somali Bantus in Pittsburgh

• First families in Pittsburgh arrived in spring
  2004
• About 35 families resettled in Pittsburgh with
  around 200 people
• Service providers knew resettlement would be
  difficult because of
• Large family size
• Young population
• Polygyny widely practiced
• 75 of population is women and children
• Preliterate population
• Prior existence as rural subsistence farmers

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Choosing the Topic

• Volunteered as an English as a Second Language
  (ESL) tutor for two refugee families previously
  1999-2001
• Have tutored a Somali Bantu family for the last 2
  and a half years
• As someone on periphery of Somali Bantu and
  service provider community, I heard rumors of
  poor service provision
• Decided to do an evaluation of the services the
  Bantus have received through the resettlement
  process in Pittsburgh
• Research goal Improvement in services for the
  Somali Bantus
• Secondary goal Improvement in resettlement
  services for future refugees
• Came up with a research question
• Got IRB approval

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Research Methodology

• Grounded theory approach
• Glaser and Strauss (1967) through work with dying
  patients in hospitals
• Followed Charmaz (2002, 2006) who details
  grounded theory within the constructivist, or
  interpretivist paradigm
• Researcher is a product of time and place
• Research is a product of the interaction between
  researcher and participants

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Research Logistics

• Interviews
• 24 planned, 13 conducted
• Face-to-face, digitally recorded between January
  and March 2007
• One interview was not recorded at participants
  request, notes were taken instead
• Interviews lasted 35 to 90 minutes
• Sampling
• Somali Bantus
• Snowball
• Service Providers
• Theoretical/purposeful
• Analysis
• Constant comparison, review of each transcript at
  least four times
• Coded in three stages codes, categories, themes
• Memoing initial impressions then longer more
  substantive pieces

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Changing Research Questions

• Original research question What are the quality
  and completeness of resettlement services
  provided to Somali refugees in Pittsburgh,
  according to both the Somalis, and to key
  informants from service provision agencies?
• With a further question Is there any difference
  between the Somalis and the agencies regarding
  their services?
• As interviews proceeded, realized this was not
  the question I meant to ask
• New question How has the process of resettlement
  been viewed by the Somali Bantus as well as by
  the service providers?

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Changing Numbers

• Planned to interview 14 Somali Bantus, 7 of each
  sex and 10 service providers in three months
• Thought I had entrée into the community because
  of the work I had been doing with a particular
  family for 2 and one half years
• Entrée with one family was not enough
• Was very nicely stalled on being introduced to
  other Somali Bantus
• Interviewed four Somali Bantus and 9 service
  providers
• Three Somali Bantus agreed to be interviewed and
  then, very nicely, refused to set times

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Results Service Providers

• Service providers included
• Three people working in literacy programs
• Three people working in the primary resettlement
  agency
• Three people from advocacy agencies
• Five administrators and four direct service
  providers
• Questions focused on
• Services provided (job descriptions)
• Participants thoughts about working with the
  Somali Bantus
• Collaboration efforts

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Service Providers Working with the Somali Bantus

• Challenging
• Everyone mentioned how difficult it was working
  with the Somali Bantus due to
• Language
• Rural, farming backgrounds
• Large families
• I give them a lot of credit
• All providers agreed
• Theyre doing good
• Theyve come a long way

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Service Providers Collaboration

• Almost no formal collaboration exists
• Informal collaboration is necessarily ad hoc
• Participant responses to collaborating
• Yes (1)
• Sort of (5)
• No (2)
• Half of participants believe lack of
  collaboration is negative
• Contentious collaboration based on
• Personality differences
• Turf battles
• Somali Bantus as resettlement agencys
  responsibility
• Toes being stepped on/duplication of services
• Need of the Somali Bantus drove much of the
  turf battles
• Effect on the Somali Bantus
• Duplication of services
• Lack of reliable information sources

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Results and DiscussionSomali Bantus

• Questions focused on
• Relationship with service provision agencies
• Ease of adjusting to new life in Pittsburgh
• Ability to navigate the system
• Very quickly became clear the interviews
  themselves were data, not just what was said
• Language was a barrier
• Two interviewees used an interpreter
• Interviews are means by which authority figures
  control services
• UNHCR in refugee camps, provides basic
  necessities including food
• USCIS, designates people as refugees eligible for
  resettlement
• Local agencies, provide services based on stated
  need
• No context to understand research

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Somali BantusEnglish Language Skills

• Lack of language skills equals lack of ability to
  control conversation
• Especially problematic at beginning of
  resettlement process with only one interpreter
  available in Pittsburghall of the Somali Bantus
  had to trust that this one person was speaking
  for them in the way they wanted
• Everything is good and everyone is nice
• Indication of both lack of control over situation
  and perception of my ability to control service
  provision
• 1 interviewee with very good English skills
  registered protest about resettlement process
• Sign of ability to control the conversation and
  stake a claim for what is right

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Somali BantusPersonal Agency

• Personal agency
• Concept from social cognitive theory
• Judgments and actions are partly
  self-determinedpeople can effect change in
  themselves
• Three modes of personal agency
• Direct personal agency
• Proxy agency
• Collective agency
• Somali Bantus have historically not be able to
  exercise personal agency
• Fleeing homes
• Living in camps
• Being resettled in the U. S.
• Third choice after asking to resettle in Tanzania
  and Mozambique

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Somali BantusNavigating the System

• Navigation of bureaucratic system is impossible
  without language skills
• Personal agency is therefore gone
• Proxy agency can exist
• Difficult in Pittsburgh with history of
  non-collaboration between service providers
• Collective agency was initially difficult, more
  established now
• Who do you ask for help?
• Interviews with minimal English skills
  caseworker
• Interviewees with English language skills It
  depends

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Evaluative Statements of Resettlement Process in
Pittsburgh

• Research turned from evaluative to exploratory
• Volunteers responded more quickly and completely
  to problems
• Resettlement agency is constrained by contract
  requirements
• Resettlement system is flawed

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Challenges to Research with Refugees

• Research as an outsider
• Less a problem with service providers
• Definite problem with Somali Bantus
• Language
• No linguistic ability to make Somali Bantus feel
  comfortable and in control
• Did not want to recruit an interpreter from
  outside the community
• Considerations for future research
• Longitudinal study for long-term adjustment and
  integration
• Language
• Re-think interview method focus groups might
  work better with such a community-oriented
  culture
• Include wider variety of service providers
• Schools and hospitals

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Recommendations

• Reassess interactions with other agencies
• Build collaborative initiative along BNAC lines
  (based on previous research)
• Diversify funding to lessen contract-associated
  constraints in providing services
• Somali Bantu organization consider setting up as
  a non-profit
• Becomes face of Somali Bantu community in
  relation to outside groups

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