| 22.08.2022
Factors that are associated with unintended pregnancies among 1.5 and second-generation young refugee women in South Africa

PRESENTER: Dr Marcia Mutambara
DATE: Wednesday, 24 August 2022
TIME: 10h00 – 11h00 (CET)
Zoom link: https://ukzn.zoom.us/j/94209674360?pwd=NVFBbWJ2U3FHalIxUUdUYUpJRWRHQT09
Meeting ID: 942 0967 4360
Passcode: 266838
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Dr Marcia Mutambara is a Research Fellow at HEARD working in the gender-based violence (GBV) research cluster focusing on issues on migration and Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR). She holds a PhD in Conflict Transformation and Peace Studies from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and undergraduate and post graduate qualifications in International Relations and Political Science from the University of Venda. Her research interests include, gender, human security, migration, sexuality and SRHR particularly highlighting how different systemic and social structures construct the different experiences of marginalised and minority groups in Sub- Saharan Africa.
PRESENTATION OUTLINE:
Young refugee women are a vulnerable population who experience conflict, sexual violence, poverty, and a lack of access to sexual reproductive health (SRH) services which can negatively impact their SRH outcomes through their entire migration trajectory. Less, however, is known about the SRH of young refugee women who migrate to their destination country as young children or during their adolescent years (1.5 generation) and those who are born in the destination country to refugee parents (second generation). This seminar is a reflection on some of the key learnings and observations from a recently completed study that explored the reproductive health and rights challenges amongst young refugee women who have settled in South Africa. We will discuss the constructions and experiences of SRH among the different cohorts of refugee generations, particularly the 1.5 generation and the second generation. We will show how social-cultural factors act as barriers to reproductive health knowledge and the ways SRH outcomes intersect with legal, economic and social insecurities inherited from their first-generation parents or guardians. In closing, we will discuss the implications of the findings for designing holistic approaches aimed at improving the SRH of these young women.