TPC-Journal-V4-Issue4

The Professional Counselor \Volume 4, Issue 4 326 and help during the stressful time of resettlement. This community not only offered familiarity and continuity of traditions, religion and language, but also served as a source of advice, emotional support and exchange of resources built on mutual recognition. Several participants invested money, time and effort in building a church and cultural center. Within the cultural community, individuals shared their pre-migration experiences and celebrated cultural traditions through holidays, food, music and dance. Support from family and friends with similar cultural backgrounds is vital for refugees to close the gap between two cultures (Simich, 2003). These cultural relationships provided social support and helped participants navigate the United States system. Participants discussed the importance of maintaining cultural connections with the community from the former Yugoslavia. According to the data, some participants saw this community as a source of frustration and claimed that different groups from the former Yugoslavia could not get along in the United States as well, creating divisions along ethnic and religious lines. They encountered different groups from the former Yugoslavia in their workplaces and neighborhoods. The irony for the refugees was that people on all sides of the conflict that forced them to emigrate were now living as neighbors in the United States. Most passionate were Nikola and Daneil, who stated that the co-national social networks were a problem rather than an asset. Ethnic affiliation was difficult for participants with spouses from another ethnic group or parents from different ethnic backgrounds. Limitations of the Study This study has several limitations. First, the time that has elapsed since the experience of war and the participants’ telling of their stories may be 15–20 years. Second, findings were limited by the small sample of participants and the geographical location of the study. This study used a purposive sample and not a random sample of refugees from the former Yugoslavia. Particular experiences of the participants may not be reflective of the larger immigrant and refugee population from the former Yugoslavia or of refugees from different parts of the world. Third, the composition of the sample may have been impacted by the researcher’s social network in the Yugoslavian community. Fourth, the participants were given the choice of conducting interviews in their first language (Serbian/Bosnian/Croatian) or English. Describing events in their first language provided richer details and descriptions, although translation errors were possible, which could have contributed to misinterpretation or loss of meaning of the data. Fifth, in qualitative research there is a lack of anonymity during the interview process, which in itself may introduce some limitations. Since the first author is from the former Yugoslavia, the participants may have chosen to share perceptions, thoughts and feelings that would be most helpful to the researcher. The researcher’s personal biases and assumptions based on experiences of immigration may have been a limitation in the interpretation of themes and the coding process. In phenomenological research, the inquiry is autobiographical (Moustakas, 1994). This article is a reflection of the authors’ interpretations, which are based on our cultural, social, class and gender beliefs (Creswell, 2007). Thus, the first author’s own experiences with migration issues and the collapse of Yugoslavia framed the research and interpretive process. Suggestions for Counselor Educators and Counseling Professionals It is essential for counselor educators to develop their understanding of refugee populations so that counselors-in-training can improve their cultural proficiency. Counselor educators could benefit from (a) developing courses with a focus on the experiences of refugees or infusing refugee topics into existing courses, (b) inviting speakers with refugee experiences, and (c) generating lists of community resources, with training on how to investigate these resources. Counselor educators can become leaders in educating other professionals who work with refugees and immigrants, such as law-enforcement personnel, social workers and health professionals.