Motherhood, Self-Determination, and Guaranteed Income in Refugee Resettlement

Background and Purpose: This study explores the experiences of mothers in the first guaranteed income (GI) pilot for families with refugee and other humanitarian immigration statuses in the U.S. This privately-funded pilot provided 25 families with $750 per month for 12 months in a Midwestern metro area. The limited existing literature on motherhood in refugee resettlement points to a lack of financial resources as a limit to mothers’ self-determination. This study focuses on GI participants’ abilities to exert self-determination and fulfill their own ideas of what motherhood should look like.

Methods: This study is an inductive qualitative inquiry that draws from narrative inquiry and critical ethnography, using a cyclical and iterative approach to inquiry based on long-term engagement (Mertens, 2009; Riessman, 2008). Data analyzed for this paper includes 10 semi-structured interviews with mothers across two rounds of interviews as well as a photo elicitation component completed with a subset of five participants. Photo elicitation consisted of taking photos of ways GI affected participants’ lives and discussing the photos in an interview. All interviews were recorded, transcribed, and documented using reflective memos. Transcripts and photos were coded inductively, with emergent themes generated through the coding process, analytic memos, and collaborative data sessions.

Results: Emergent findings from this study revealed the ways in which access to GI bolstered self-determination and self-efficacy of mothers while they were enrolled in the program. Despite facing considerable threats to their stability when the GI ended, mothers in this study maintained a sense of hope for the future, rooted in their faith, in examples of their own perseverance and problem-solving, and in the imaginary future lives they dream of for themselves and especially for their children.

Conclusions and Implications: This research documents the ways a GI pilot impacted forcibly displaced mothers’ lives during their first years in the Midwest. While all mothers in the study spoke about ways the GI improved their lives, such as through helping their families afford their housing, purchase clothing for their children, and occasionally enjoy special experiences with family, the lasting impacts in terms of financial stability were limited. However, hope and a sense of self-efficacy persisted years after the program ended. This study provides preliminary evidence that supports expanded utilization of guaranteed income for refugee families, particularly early on in their resettlement process, and suggests that effects from GI may be more pronounced and lasting in extended programs.