Judith Cooper Heitzman

Survival Songs: How Refugee and Immigrant Women Experienced Violence Judith Cooper Heitzman

An interest in privileging the voices of women who are marginalized in many parts of the world coupled with knowledge of the restorative properties of music cultivated this qualitative study. Seven women, ages 20-49 years of age, from three continents were asked the following grand tour questions: What was your experience of violence? What were the residual grief and loss issues that you faced? What, if any, role did music play in helping you cope with the stress of surviving violence? Participants were required to (a) be over 18 years old, (b) currently reside in the United States, (c) have left their native country because of violence, and (d) have arrived in the United States since 1992 with refugee or immigrant status. Individual interviews of approximately 2-1/2 hours were held with each participant. Data were collected via audiotape and then transcribed. Using a grounded theory method, ATLAS-ti was used to create open and axial codes, leading to themes and a theory of these women's experiences. A composite metaphoric story was written and punctuated with quotations from the raw data.