Guro Lauvland Bjorknes.pdf - NMMU

church are double victims of conflict since they encounter both new and familiar forms of
conflict in their daily lives where they live in the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg, and
they employ various strategies to deal with their situation. This is the background to the research
topic of this treatise: coping strategies among female Zimbabwean refugees living in the Central
Methodist Church, Johannesburg: a conflict management perspective.
Coping has been defined by Lazarus, Folkman, Gruen and Delongis (1986) “as the person‟s
cognitive and behavioural efforts to manage the internal and external demands of the person‟s
environmental transformation” (1986:24). Coping strategies that have been recognised among
refugees can include receiving aid from NGOs and UN agencies. Buying lower quality food and
decreased spending on health care were also coping strategies that were used (El-Zein 2008).
Leaning on religion, social networks, hoping for a better future and relying on governmental
services are also coping strategies utilised by refugees (Khawaja,White, Schweitzer &
Greenslade, 2008:504-505).
1.3 Statement of the Problem
Refugee flow into urban centres is a relevant problem of our time. When a population grows,
resources become stressed which leads to conflict, hence refugees‟ distress after escaping
conflict does not end on arriving in a new place because new conflict manifests itself there too,
and this can include the struggle for space, work and money. “The processes and modalities of
humanitarian work need to be adapted - maybe even transformed - to enable us to meet the basic
living requirements and protection needs of the urban displaced” (Tibaijuka, 2010:4). To arrive
at conclusions that can resolve this issue, research on the major problems which refugees
encounter in an urban setting and their ways of coping with the problems is needed, which is the
focus of this treatise. This treatise does not aim to suggest a resolution for this issue because
more on-going research would be necessary to reach conclusions of that nature, but the aim is
rather to highlight more information which will enhance an understanding of the plight of
refugees in general and female Zimbabwean refugees living in the CMC in particular.
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