Research Paper - The experience of exile-related stress among Iraqi refugee men in Sweden and its implications for counselling and psychotherapy: A qualitative study

Background A growing body of research suggests that exile-related, or post-migration, stressors are responsible for much of the observed distress among refugees. However, few attempts have been made to explore how counselling and psychotherapy can be used to address refugee clients’ experiences of exile-related stress. Additionally, refugees are often discussed in the literature on refugee mental health, yet they are rarely given the chance to describe for themselves their own experiences of post-migration stress. These observations, coupled with my own experiences as an Iraqi refugee and later as a psychologist working with refugees, collectively formed the basis for this study. Aim This study aimed to explore how Iraqi refugee men can experience, and deal with, exile-related stress and what implications these experiences might have for counselling this client group. Method The exile-related experiences of 10 Iraqi refugee men, who had lived in Sweden for at least five years, were explored with specific emphasis on social support, acculturation, racial discrimination, and support/help systems. The 10 participants were individually interviewed using semi-structured interviewing. The interviews were conducted in Arabic, translated, transcribed, and then analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Findings Three super-ordinate themes emerged from the analysis. Accordingly the main findings were that participants expressed feeling disempowered, racially discriminated against, and generally marginalised by Swedish society. Participants also expressed valuing social support from fellow Iraqis, and described maintaining links to Iraq and Iraqi culture as helpful strategies in dealing with exile-related stress. Discussion The findings suggest the need for promoting social justice through empowerment and advocacybased counselling approaches as participant accounts revolved mainly around their experiences of various forms of oppression in Swedish society.