Refugee Oppression in Media and Politics: Vicarious Trauma, Burnout, and Opportunities to Thrive in Refugee Advocates

Objective: Within Australia, there is incongruence between individual microlevel attitudes toward forcibly displaced people, and macrolevel attitudes within the media and politics. Seeking the lived experience of refugee advocates, the current study explores the perceived impact of macrolevel attitudes on the wellbeing of advocates and the wider community. Method: A purposive sample of 10 refugee advocates participated in semistructured interviews which were then transcribed verbatim. Scripts were analyzed individually and jointly as per the protocols of interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results: One superordinate group experiential theme emerged from the analysis, kyriarchal system of oppression, acknowledging the intersections of oppression within macro societal power structures. The theme conveys paternal, patriarchal, racial, and imperialistic oppression and overarches six subordinate themes: political and systemic cruelty, dominant group thinking, media as mediator, advocacy overwhelm and burnout, shattered schemas, and opportunity to thrive. Discussion/Conclusion: The findings of this study prompt debate regarding the critical issue of migration and refugees and how discord between personal views, media, and political commentary have the potential to influence mental distress at many levels of society. For these participants, vicarious exposure to trauma and discord between their own and macroattitudes toward the extreme distress of refugee and asylum seeker populations for whom they cared, precipitated susceptibility to burnout and secondary traumatic stress. The findings provide pathways for future research including psychological risks to volunteers and advocates, and inform future policy and practice for successful refugee integration.