“Just because we speak with an accent does not mean we think with one”: Immigrant and Refugee Leadership Experiences in Human Services

Immigrants and refugees resettling in the United States face persistent challenges to integration which are often filled by community-based ethnic organisations (CBEOs) and their leaders, who are often immigrants and refugees themselves. There is a dearth of research on how these CBEO leaders make meaning of their leadership role based on their lived experiences and intersecting identities. Seven purposively selected immigrant and refugee CBEO leaders were interviewed to expand our understanding of the impact of immigrant and refugee positionalities on philosophies of leadership, contextual human services conditions that impact diverse perspectives and construction of leadership diversity in the human services environment. Four salient themes emerged: (a) leadership on our terms: building bridges through collective action and empowerment; (b) the honour of serving immigrant and refugees communities; (c) intersection of multisystem challenges on immigrant and refugee leadership functioning and (d) reimagining CBEOs: aspirations of immigrant and refugee leadership. The analysis has implications for the functioning of human services organisations and their leaders.