Believing in Light after Darkness:

Displacement and Refugee Resettlement

Forthcoming in March 2026 with the University of California Press

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As war, persecution, and climate change force people from their homes and across borders, most refugees remain in difficult conditions in neighboring countries. The less than one percent of refugees offered resettlement to another country gain access to an alternative path forward with specialized supports and services traditionally understood as a program of integration and a solution to displacement. By examining the complexities of refugees’ lived experiences, this book reframes resettlement as a period of disruption and disorientation as newly arrived refugees navigate the rules and expectations of a new country. Rather than a solution that marks the end of displacement, resettlement becomes another uprooting for refugees who have already rebuilt their lives numerous times. Believing in Light after Darkness reveals how humanitarian solutions do not immediately resolve displacement, as refugees continue to experience familial, economic, and social instability.

 

Based on over 1,000 hours of ethnographic fieldwork at a refugee resettlement agency in San Diego, CA and Boise, ID and 102 interviews with refugees and service providers, I reconceptualize early resettlement as a time of disorientation and disruption rather than one of settlement and integration. Believing in Light after Darkness progresses through the stages of a refugee’s resettlement and examines how displacement permeates multiple domains of refugees’ lives as they settle in a new country.

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This research was supported with funding from the National Science Foundation and P.E.O. International.