ABSTRACT
Refugee resilience, from a social view rather than a psychological view, attends to the dynamics of both the refugee community itself and the receiving community. Amid the growing number of global refugees and the likely prospect of ongoing increases due to climate change, both the refugee community and the receiving community endure losses. Attentive to the losses, the community narrative is better served by a story of “beauty, gifts, and goodness” than one of “danger, disease and terror.” Successful adaptation requires collaboration of various sectors inside the receiving community, including local government, housing, employment, education, law enforcement and healthcare. The faith community has a special capacity to convene community leadership for collaboration. Further, resilience requires collaboration with, and empowerment of, the refugee community. The primary agents of refugee resilience are the refugees themselves. Community leadership that trusts and respects refugee families to lead their own change empowers further initiative.
