'Should I Have Done More?': Proxy Agency, Gathered Ethos, and Volunteer Responsibility in the Rhetoric of Health Resettlement for Refugees

After relocation to the United States, refugees are often assisted by community volunteers in the process of resettlement, which frequently includes navigating the financial and social aspects of life in the US. However, the medical and health aspects of resettlement, and particularly how volunteers are involved in those aspects, have gone unexplored, leading to tensions within volunteer-led resettlement groups as they attempt to negotiate the limits of volunteer involvement. To investigate how volunteers understand a process of health resettlement, their role(s) within the process, and how they rhetorically position their relationship with resettling clients, this study uses interview data from a local, volunteer-run community resettlement organization to provide a rhetorical examination of health resettlement. An analysis finds that in both contrast and response to a rhetoric of self-sufficiency established by state and federal policy, resettlement volunteers understand health resettlement through a rhetoric of responsibility. This rhetorical framework constitutes volunteers' role as proxy agents in the process of health resettlement. Additionally, volunteers use a gathered ethos approach within this framework, drawing from community networks in order to facilitate persuasion of resettling clients toward desired health outcomes. Ultimately, recommendations are made for community sponsorship and volunteer approaches to health resettlement for refugees in the United States.