Psychosocial and Economic Reintegration Challenges of Female Forced Returnees from Saudi Arabia: The Case of Returnees in Shewa Robit Town
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Date
2020-06
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AAU
Abstract
The purpose of this study was investigating psychosocial and economic reintegration
challenges of female forced returnees from Saudi Arabia. The participants of the study were
eight female forced returnees from Saudi Arabia and stakeholders involved in reintegration of
returnees. The study employed qualitative approach particularly, case study to get in-depth
insight of the subject matter. Data collected through purposive sampling. The data was
collected through in-depth interview, key informant interview, and observation. The data was
analyzed thematically. Finding of the study indicates that returnees face psychosocial and
economic challenges which hinder them from reintegrating. Female forced returnees
experienced the following psychosocial reintegration challenges: depression and stress due to
previous and current situation, misconception from the community, pressure from community
including family and friend, social isolation, loss of family care and support, and conflict
among returnees. The returnees also face the following economic reintegration challenges:
difficulty of generating sustainable challenges, insufficient of skill training, lack of market,
lack of access to loan and exaggerated interest rate, and lack of feasible training course.
Moreover the returnee‟s reintegration challenges were affected by lack of timeliness of
reintegration support and decline of follow up and technical support. From the study it wasunderstood that there was gap in providing comprehensive reintegration support for female
forced returnees. The returnees are not happy with reintegration support being delivered by the
town administration it lacked understanding the real need of the returnees. The study showed
that there is a need to establish system which deals with forced returnee‟s reintegration. The
study also revealed that family and community involvement need to be required to ensure
effective reintegration of female forced returnees.
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Data collected through purposive sampling. The data was collected through in-depth interview, key informant interview, and observation