Reed Coughlan & Judith Owens-Manley 
Bosnian Refugees in America 
New Communities, New Cultures

In April of 1992, war began in Bosnia. Sarajevo, site of the 1984 Winter Olympics, and, we were told, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, became a city under siege. For all of the people of Bosnia, life shifted in unimaginable ways in a matter of hours, days, or weeks. An immediate exodus began from Bosnia, and people who had never anticipated leaving their country became refugees, dependent upon a world system of resettlement for displaced persons. This book relates the experiences of a hundred Bosnian families who came to Utica, a town in upstate New York. Bosnians in Utica came here as refugees – ginning in 1993, having ?ed from the wars of succession in the former Yugoslavia. Our study evolved over several years as a result of our interests in the war in Bosnia and the massive ?ow of refugees that it precipitated. We began work on the project in the late 1990s as we set out to learn about the war and to explore refugee experiences of displacement, transit, and resettlement. Our intent is to portray the experience of Bosnian refugees in one American city and to capture, in their words, in as much detail as possible their adjustment to a new community and a new culture.

Table of Content

Community Research and Practice with Refugees: An Overview.- A Conceptual Framework for Research and Practice.- Bosnians in Utica: A Community Context.- “The Beautiful Life” and the Run Up to War.- The Violence of War.- Displacement and Transit: Traumatic Stress in the Lives of Refugees.- Resettlement: The First Year.- Learning the Ropes.- Challenges to Psychosocial Wellness.- Acculturation: Bosnians in Utica.- Sociological and Social Work Practice: Implications for Humanitarian Work with Refugees in Resettlement.