252 “It’s not really in our job description, but our humanity will haunt us if we don’t do it” : (psycho)social and community workers supporting transnational refugee families undergoing family reunification process

Abstract OP 17: Refugees and Asylum Seekers 1, B210 (FCSH), September 4, 2025, 13:30 - 14:30 Aims The growing number of forcibly displaced individuals, coupled with the tightening of migration policies restricting humanitarian and family migration in Global North countries, prolongs family separations and imposes additional barriers to reunification. This presentation highlights the results of a doctoral research that aimed at studying the experiences of separation and reunification of transnational refugee families to Quebec (Canada) in order to identify how (psycho)social and community intervention can help improve these experiences. Methods/approach Employing a feminist family storytelling methodology, this research juxtaposes the lived experiences of 15 transnational refugee family members undergoing family reunification, with the experiences of 16 (psycho)social and community workers supporting them at various?stages of the reunification process. It develops a critical transnational analytical framework composed of four main dimensions?of transnational refugee families’ experiences of separation and reunification: 1) intimacy and everyday life; 2) bureaucracy; 3) structural issues; 4) (psycho)social and community intervention. Results The findings reveal a comprehensive range of (psycho)social and community interventions employed throughout various stages of the family reunification process. Moreover, the analysis indicates that the intervention space serves dual functions: firstly, a locus that mirrors the inherent complexity and rigidity of the reunification process; secondly, a strategic tool utilized by both families and practitioners to navigate and counteract bureaucratic and systemic challenges that impede refugees’ rights to family life. Conclusions Individual-level interventions within the national borders of country of family reunification are critical for supporting transnational refugee families. However, the complexity of the bureaucratic, structural, and intimate and everyday challenges they face makes individual-level interventions insufficient. Improved organisational conditions are required for practitioners to carry out family level interventions involving family members within and beyond national borders.?They are also essential to sustain effective advocacy initiatives for the protection of transnational refugee families’ right to family life.