Family from Afar? Transnationalism and Refugee Extended Families after Resettlement

Abstract One of the unintended consequences of the US refugee resettlement program is that it separates extended families through the resettlement process. Although the Trump administration has focused on what types of familial relationships 'count' as family in resettlement and family reunification, extended families have long been a point of contention and difficult to navigate under US resettlement policy. The policy and consequent debates draw upon US-normative assumptions about refugees, family, and what it means to live apart from family. Drawing upon a multi-sited ethnography of a Somali Zigula refugee community in the US and their loved ones in Tanzania and Kenya, this paper examines how refugees negotiate and maintain extended familial relationships after US resettlement.