Refugee women face gender-specific challenges in navigating daily life at every stage of their migration experience.The United Nations Refugee Agency. Women's Concerns. Retrieved 14 November 2010. Common challenges for all refugee women, regardless of other demographic data, are access to healthcare and physical abuse and instances of discrimination, sexual violence, and human trafficking are the most common ones. But even if women don't become victims of such actions, they often face abuse and disregard for their specific needs and experiences, which leads to complex consequences including demoralization, stigmatization, and mental and physical health decay.International Rescue Committee. The Forgotten Frontline: The Effects of War on Women. Retrieved 14 November 2010. The lack of access to appropriate resources from international humanitarian aid organizations is compounded by the prevailing gender assumptions around the world, though recent shifts in gender mainstreaming are aiming to combat these commonalities. Health
Health issues faced by refugee women range from dehydration and diarrhea, to high fevers and malaria. They also include more broad reaching phenomena, such as gender-based violence and maternal health. The leading causes of death to refugee women include malnutrition, diarrhea, respiratory infections, and reproductive complications. Health concerns of refugee women are influenced by a variety of factors including their physical, mental, and social wellbeing. Health complications and concerns for refugee women are prevalent both during their time as refugees living in transient camps or shelters, as well as once they relocate to countries of asylum or resettlement. External factors contributing to the health concerns of refugee women include culturally-reinforced gender inequality, limited mobility, lack of access to healthcare facilities, high population density within the refugee camps, and low levels of education.
Reproductive health
International humanitarian aid organizations, such as the United Nations, agree that adequate reproductive care must be "safe, effective...[and] affordable." According to the United Nations, while universal values in human rights support the availability of reproductive health care needs of all women, services that conform to adequate standards while respecting cultural differences are rarely provided to refugee women. Due to the lack of satisfactory reproductive health care in refugee camps, complications related to child delivery and pregnancy was one of the leading cause of both death and illness among refugee women living in transitory camps in 2010.
Refugee women who have left humanitarian aid camps and have moved permanently to countries of asylum and resettlement also face reproductive health challenges. A study published in 2004 by the Journal of Midwifery and Women's Health found that refugee women living in wealthy nations face troubles in accessing appropriate reproductive care due to stereotyping, language barriers, and lack of cultural respect and understanding.
Mental health
Refugee women often face a host of mental health complications in their home countries, in refugee camps, and in countries of resettlement or asylum. In their native countries, women who have fled as refugees may have been psychosocially or physically abused for a variety of reasons, including genocide; an attempted shaming of a family, community, or culture; or for being seen as " politically dangerous." These forms of abuse often lead to exile or fleeing, and have the propensity to cause distress and detrimental harm to the mental health and wellbeing of refugee women. In refugee camps, the mental health of refugee women is also affected by incidences of discrimination based on gender, sexual and domestic violence, forced labor, and heavy responsibilities. Many refugee women are also found to experience and post-partum depression and severe perinatal depression that can affect their day-to-day life and even their families. In countries of asylum and resettlement, complications with mental health also prevail due to language and cultural barriers, the post traumatic stress of fleeing persecution in their home countries, difficulty seeking mental health treatment, and an increased likelihood of facing abuse as compared to host-country nationals.
In response to fleeing their home countries, refugee and asylum-seeking women develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Many researchers subcategorize the construct of trauma as sexual assault, physical abuse, witnessing violence, partner violence, interpersonal trauma, childhood trauma, and complex trauma. Also, research studies define posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as outlined by the American Psychiatric Association. Some symptoms of PTSD include intrusive and recurrent experiences such as nightmares or flashbacks, intense experience of feelings associated with the event, feelings of detachment, avoidance of stimuli associated with the traumatic event, increased arousal, negative alterations in mood, and exaggerated startle response. If symptoms are left untreated, many survivors may experience depression, anxiety, problems with concentration, sleep difficulties, irritable behavior, angry outbursts, and difficulty establishing healthy and meaningful relationships.
Fleeing a home country can cause prolonged psychological distress of marital and family relationships. In some cases, women's investment in family and community life has been detrimentally impacted, leaving them particularly vulnerable to the effects of the trauma because of the impact on women's gender roles in various countries. Women have at tendency to nurture others and maintain relationships. This dynamic ultimately contributes to attachment and attunement towards others. Attachment towards others is one of the social dynamics that is impacted when one experiences PTSD. These effects can be exceptionally detrimental for females who tend to thrive through creating and maintaining connections with others biologically. Unfortunately, refugee and asylum-seeking women face family displacement exacerbating symptoms of PTSD.
Mental health services would benefit refugees, and asylum seekers as PTSD symptoms could worsen if left untreated. A study conducted on refugee and asylum-seeking women examined the effect of a group-based mental health program designed to alleviate posttraumatic stress for Bhutanese refugee women who recently resettled in the United States. Participants were placed into several groups to determine the efficacy of the program. Women were divided into three groups; two groups provided a version of the intervention, and one group served as a control. Results from pre, post, and follow-up assessments show that participants in both intervention groups experienced significantly less anxiety, depression, anxiety, somatization, and PTSD symptoms at posttest. Interestingly, mental health improvement amongst these participants continued at the 3-month follow-up. Contrastingly, control participants who did not receive the same type of treatment showed their mental health symptoms became more severe over time. Importantly, these results suggest that a group-based mental health program designed to address posttraumatic stress can yield positive outcomes on the mental health of recently relocated refugees. Furthermore, these results provide substantial evidence that without intervention, recently relocated refugees could potentially experience declines in mental health over time while resettling in their host country. More research on program efficacy is necessary to provide much-needed support for refugee and asylum-seeking women.
Nutrition
Malnutrition of refugee women manifests in a variety of ways both in refugee camps and in countries of asylum and resettlement. Issues of food security, economic and political misunderstanding, and discrimination within refugee camps contribute to the poor nutrition and health of many refugee women. In a study of food aid in Rwandan refugee camps, experts found that international aid agencies' lack of consideration and attention to the political, economic, and cultural workings of countries in crises can lead to inadequate and inappropriate food aid, which in turn may result in malnutrition for refugees. Likewise, studies have shown that despite no legal distinction between male and female refugees, international refugee communities and even aid organizations tend to uphold discrimination based on gender. This translates into disproportionate malnutrition for refugee women through lack of priority in food distribution as well as medical attention for nutrition-related issues and lack of reproductive nutritional care.
Issues of malnutrition persist in countries of asylum and resettlement for refugee women though mechanisms of food insecurity and lack of nutritional education. A study on Somali refugee women in 2013 found that rates of meat and egg intake were significantly higher in refugee women than comparable populations of host-country national women, while rates of fruit and vegetable intake were significantly lower. A related study of Cambodian refugee women found that common reasons for poor nutritional intake were living in food insecure, low-income areas, lack of economic means to purchase nutritious food, and lack of education about nutritious eating in their new country of residence.
Labor Refugee women are often subjected to forced labor in refugee camps through the reinforcement of traditional gender roles and stereotypes. Women in refugee camps are often the primary sources of physical labor for water collection and filtration, as well as small gardening and agricultural tasks and food preparation. Also as Despite their large roles in these areas, women are excluded from leadership on committees and planning parties within refugee camps and are relegated to strictly laborious roles. Meanwhile, male refugees are frequently seen in positions of influence and power within the camp and among international aid agencies.
Refugee women in transitory camps are also frequently subjected to forced labor, encompassing both forced prostitution and forced physical labor. In addition to violating the legal rights of refugees, forced labor experienced by women in refugee camps has been found to be detrimental to their physical, mental, and social well-being. Often, women subjected to these and other forced labors are sought out on the basis of their race and stereotyped low position in society.
Education In 2020, the enrolment rate of all primary-school-age refugee girls was only 67%, and only 31% for secondary-age girls. Some of the major barriers that girls face in areas like Syria and Lebanon include a high risk of SGBV (sexual and gender-based-violence), financial insecurity, discrimination in curriculum and professional positions, and opportunity costs of avoiding domestic responsibilities. Practical research on girls' and women's education is limited, but there is a lot of literature that identifies why emphasizing education for them is especially important. Investing in education helps with economic and labor force growth, lessens the rate of child marriage and domestic violence, empowers women, and gives them agency.
Sexual and gender-based violence According to the United Nations, gender based violence in the context of assault against refugee women is "any act of violence that results in...physical, sexual, or mental harm or suffering to women including threats. . . coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty." Assault on refugee women is both sexual and non-sexual, although instances of violence manifest most often in the form of sexual violence for refugee women.