“As pessoas fazem com que você consiga se adaptar”

O papel do suporte social e de outros fatores na adaptação de refugiados

Abstract

The number of refugees in Brazil has grown in the last years, what brings the necessity of looking to this reality to receive this people in a more accurate and assertive way. The main goal of the research was to identify common aspects that benefit or hamper refugees’ adaptation to São Paulo through semi structured interviews with three refugees, that were later transcribed and explored through Content Analysis. Three analysis‘ cathegories emergeed – Past, Present and Future –, that were discussed through the perspective of Social Psychology. Social support emerged a fundamental element in the adaptation of the refugee, in a two-way process: in the same way that a person needs autonomy and to search for herself/himself quality of living in her/his new country, society also needs to respond to the needs of its new citizen, making available, for instance, professional support, shelter and respect.