Relational Trust in the Post-Migration Friendships of Young Refugees

Trust plays a key role in the resettlement experiences of young refugees, who often face disrupted relationships and heightened mistrust due to the trauma of forced migration. During resettlement, these youth strive to reconnect with trusted individuals from their countries of origin while forming new, meaningful relationships in host countries. These relationships are essential for fostering support and a sense of belonging. In this chapter, we explore trust as a dynamic, relational, and learned process, emerging through shared care practices and social interactions. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 17 young refugees building new lives in Finland, our study highlights how this relational trust is cultivated through social practices and shaped by broader socio-political and material contexts. Our findings highlighted how relational trust was linked to active, dynamic and reciprocal forms of participating in shared care practices. Participants could be seen to draw on their moral, emotional, intellectual and practical know-how to simultaneously trust and be trustworthy as they flexibly and attentively support each other within the unstable and shifting circumstances and conditions they encounter during their transitions to a new life in Finland. This research offers insights into how trust transforms across cultural boundaries and contributes to refugee youth wellbeing.