Navigating Economic Self-Sufficiency in Washington State: The Capabilities Approach and Employment Services for Refugee Women

Abstract

By the end of 2015, global mass displacement reached a record high of 65.3 million people, of whom 21.3 million were classified as refugees (Zong & Batalova, 2017). A refugee, as defined by the United Nations, is a person who has “been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence”, “a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group”, and “cannot return home or are afraid to do so” (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2019). In response, actors around the world are concerned with supporting displaced peoples and refugees. Since 1975, 3.3 million refugees have resettled permanently in the United States (US) and federal programs operate resettlement social services for them (U.S. Department of State, 2019).