Friends from the Past, Friends for the Future: Exploring How Young Refugees’ Friendship Practices Change and Endure Through Life Transitions

Abstract

For unaccompanied young people, forced migration and resettlement take place within intersecting life transitions into new social, cultural and environmental conditions. Previous research shows that peer networks provide crucial support for young refugees as they navigate through these transitions. This qualitative study used a practice-theoretical lens to better understand how friendships are made and participated in over time as young refugees build new lives in Finland. Using thematic interviews with young refugees on their past, present and future friendships, this study explores how changing conditions enable or constrain the practices through which friendships are maintained. Findings show that some friendship practices endured or evolved within changed conditions related to safety, gender, language, geography and technology. Findings also show that friendships made in residential care had continuing significance in young refugees’ adulthoods, suggesting that facilitating the development of these friendships has positive long-term implications for young refugees’ resettlement and well-being.