Reaching Actualisation After Resettlement: A Qualitative Analysis of Afghan Refugees in the U.S.

In 2021, following the U.S. withdrawal and Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, approximately 120,000 Afghans were evacuated by the United States. Many cities in the Midwest U.S. resettled these evacuees, including St. Louis, Missouri, which welcomed over 1,200 Afghan evacuees from 2021–2023. This study uses a qualitative approach to explore the empirical social, emotional, and economic resettlement experiences of Afghan refugees in the Midwest, with the goal of determining integration outcomes salient to refugees. The researcher conducted a qualitative study with seventeen (17) Afghan refugees in the Midwest through semi-structured interviews and grounded theory method analysis. The result was a posited integration model grounded in the empirical data. The model offers insights on Afghan refugee resettlement experiences based on gender, culture, ethnicity, migration context, and self-defined integration goals. From this data, the researcher offers recommendations for future scholars, local service providers, and national policy makers.