TPC-Journal-V4-Issue4

The Professional Counselor \Volume 4, Issue 4 319 This study sought to explore what it means to be a refugee from the former Yugoslavia by understanding the thoughts, beliefs and feelings that the participants have about their displacement and forced migration. In order to gain a deeper awareness of the participants’ experiences, the first author asked open-ended, culturally sensitive questions, utilizing an informal, conversational tone. The interviews explored topics and issues that included pre-migration, arrival, reception in the United States and post-migration, following the chronological stages of migration. The authors pretested the questions and protocol with two practice interviews in order to assess how effectively the questions would work and whether they would obtain the type of information they sought (Berg, 2007). The purpose of the pilot study was to determine whether the questions were easily understood and culturally appropriate, and whether the research protocol was adequate. The author asked pilot study participants to give their feedback about the interview process and identify any modifications that needed to be made. The Appendix provides a complete list of interview questions, which the authors used only as a general structure for gathering information and not as a script. The authors modified questions during the interviews, depending on what appeared comfortable and what a participant shared spontaneously. Data Analysis In phenomenological research, the transcriptions are reduced into emerging themes, which are linked thematically until a full description is derived (Moustakas, 1994). The qualitative software used in this research was ATLAS.ti 6.2. After coding all transcripts, the authors identified emerging themes by grouping and classifying similar answers, and then used the themes to construct the narrative describing what the experience meant to the participants. In order to ensure trustworthiness, the authors used three strategies (Creswell, 2007). First, the participants verified the findings for accuracy of interpretation. Second, the authors shared the findings with committee members. Third, the authors asked a peer reviewer to look over the material and react to the themes that emerged. The authors then incorporated the feedback from participants, committee members, and the peer reviewer into the themes. The results are categorized by research question: experiences during pre- migration and experiences during post-migration. Results Experiences During Pre-Migration Participants’ responses were organized into three major categories: (1) living well, (2) tensions building, and (3) the war experience and its effects (Table 1). Table 1 Pre-Migration Perspectives Code and Major Categories Code and Theme Code and Subtheme 1. Living well 1.1 Multinational society 1.2 Normal, good life 2. Tensions building 3. War experiences and their effects 3.1 Hardship 3.1.1 Displacement 3.1.2 Severe living conditions 3.1.3 Loss of freedom 3.2 Trauma conditions 3.2.1 Fear 3.2.2 Other mental health stress 3.3 The experience of loss 3.4 Escape Note. Code indicates thematic hierarchy.