Displaced Social Suffering: Burmese Christian Refugees in a US Midwestern City

Abstract

Abstract Refugees’ vulnerability to mental illness has been well documented, but challenges in research remain. Following Bourdieu’s approach to social suffering, this article uses Burmese Christian refugees’ life stories to illustrate their lived realities of displacement in which their despair is produced. These stories reveal not only refugees’ subjective experiences but also various structural inequalities in the sending, transit, and receiving social contexts that hinder their well-being. Burmese Christian refugees’ social suffering is created by varied manmade social problems and processes, including the dictatorship and religious intolerance in Myanmar; human trafficking and gang rape in Thailand; labour exploitation and police corruption in Malaysia; and racial prejudice and oppression in the US. Regardless of their contributions to the blue-collar economy, Burmese refugees endure mistreatment and a lack of benefits and promotions in their labour-intensive factory jobs. Their feelings of displacement continue even after finding religious and political freedom in the resettled country.