Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T06:41:02.986Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 5 - Forced Separation, Ruptured Kinship and Transnational Family

from Part I - Refugee Family Relationships

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2020

By
Ditte Shapiro  and
Edith Montgomery
Edited by
Lucia De Haene  and
Cécile Rousseau
Lucia De Haene
Affiliation:
University of Leuven, Belgium
Cécile Rousseau
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montréal
Get access

Summary

This chapter explores the personal meanings and emotional effects of ruptured kinship ties, including challenges related to sustaining emotional bonds. By illustrating how the fragmentation of family communities continues in exile, the analysis adds to the growing awareness of daily stressors in receiving countries as challenging the well-being and agency of refugees. The analysis shows that forced separation is experienced in the context of relatedness created through social practices of family members beyond the nuclear family in home and transit countries. The emotional distress related to forced separation from kin are aggravated by ongoing war that is highly present in the everyday life of refugees. The impact and personal meaning of forced separation are also shaped by living conditions and possibilities for access to and participation in local communities. The analysis pinpoints the importance of exploring the variation of family practices and understandings in refugee populations in order to grasp the personal meaning of forced separation and support refugees in re-establishing their everyday life and coping with dramatically altered family configurations.

Keywords

refugee familiesforced separationruptured kinshipeveryday liferelatednessemotional distresstransnational family lifesocial isolationintegration
Type
Chapter
Information
Working with Refugee Families
Trauma and Exile in Family Relationships
 , pp. 87 - 102
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Shapiro, D. K., Familieliv på flugt: Syriske familiers oplevelser af brud og genskabelse af hverdagsliv (Roskilde: Institut for Mennesker og Teknologi, Roskilde University, 2017).Google Scholar
Shapiro, D. K., Disrupted refugee family life: Collective agency and conflictual care. In Sullivan, G. B., Cresswell, J., Ellis, B., Morgan, M. and Schraube, E., eds., Resistance and Renewal in Theoretical Psychology (Concord: Captus Press, 2017).Google Scholar
Olwig, K. F., ‘Integration’: Migrants and Refugees between Scandinavian Welfare Societies and Family Relations. Journal of Ethnicity and Migration Studies, 37(2) (2011), 179–96. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369183X.2010.521327Google Scholar
Larsen, B. R., Becoming part of welfare Scandinavia: Integration through the spatial dispersal of newly arrived refugees. Journal of Ethnicity and Migration Studies, (37)(2) 2010, 333–50.Google Scholar
Rousseau, C., Mekki-Berrada, A. and Moreau, S., Trauma and extended separation from family among Latin American and African refugees in Montreal. Psychiatry Interpersonal & Biological Process, 64(1) 2001, 40–59. http://guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/psyc.64.1.40.18238CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mcdonald-Wilmsen, B. and Gifford, S. M., (2009), New Issues in Refugee Research: Refugee Resettlement, Family Separation and Australia’s Humanitarian Programme (research paper no. 178).Google Scholar
Rousseau, C., Rufagari, M.-C., Bagilishya, D. and Measham, T., Remaking family life: Strategies for re-establishing continuity among Congolese refugees during the family reunification process. Social Science and Medicine, 59(5) (2004), 1095–108. www.sciencedirect.com.ep.fjernadgang.kb.dk/science/article/pii/S0277953603006993?via%3DihubCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, A., Hess, J. M., Bybee, D. and Goodkind, J. R., Understanding the mental health consequences of family separation for refugees: Implications for policy and practice. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 88(1) (2017), 26–37. http://doi.apa.org/getdoi.cfm?doi=10.1037/ort0000272Google Scholar
Lim, S.-L., ‘Loss of Connections Is Death’. Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology, 40(6) (2009), 1028–40. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022022109346955Google Scholar
Boss, P., Ambiguous loss theory: Challenges for scholars and practitioners. Family Relations, 56(2) (2007), 105–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dreier, O., Conduct of everyday life: Implications for critical psychology. In Højholt, S., ed., Psychology and the Conduct of Everyday Life (New York: Routledge, 2016), pp. 15–33.Google Scholar
Schraube, E., Why theory matters: Analytical strategies of critical psychology. Estudos de Psicologia (Campinas), 32(3) (2015), 533–45. www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-166X2015000300533&lng=en&tlng=enGoogle Scholar
Højholt, C., Situated inequality and the conduct of life. In Højholt, S., ed., Psychology and the Conduct of Everyday Life (New York: Routledge, 2016), pp. 145–63.Google Scholar
Holland, D. C. and Lave, J., History in person: An introduction. In Holland, D. C. and Lave, J., eds., History in Person: Enduring Struggles, Contentious Practice, Intimate Identities (Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press, 2001), pp. 3–36.Google Scholar
Højholt, C. and Kousholt, D., Participant observations of children’s communities Exploring subjective aspects of social practice. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 11(3) (2014), 316–34. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14780887.2014.908989Google Scholar
Kousholt, D., Researching family through the everyday lives of children across home and day care in Denmark. Ethos, 39(1) (2011), 98–114. http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/j.1548–1352.2010.01173.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dreier, O., Psychotherapy in Everyday Life (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 333.Google Scholar
Holzkamp, K., Conduct of everyday life as a basic concept of critical psychology. In Schraube, E. and Højholt, C., eds., Psychology and the Conduct of Everyday Life (New York: Routledge, 2016), pp. 65–98.Google Scholar
Højholt, C. and Schraube, E., Introduction: Toward a psychology of everyday living. In Højholt, S., ed., Psychology and the Conduct of Everyday Life (New York: Routledge, 2015), pp. 1–14.Google Scholar
Carsten, J., Cultures of relatedness. In Carsten, J., ed., Cultures of Relatedness: New Approaches to the Study of Kinship (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 1–36.Google Scholar
Long, J. C., Diasporic families: Cultures of relatedness in migration. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 104(2) (2014), 243–52. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00045608.2013.857545Google Scholar
United Nations High Commisioner for Refugees, (2015), Worldwide displacement hits all time high war persecution increase. www.unhcr.org/new/latest/2015/6/558193896/worldwide-displacement-hits-all-time-high-war-persecution-increaseGoogle Scholar
Gammeltoft-Hansen, T., Hvordan løser vi flygtningekrisen? (How do we solve the refugee crisis?) (Viborg: Informations Forlag Moderne ideer, 2016).Google Scholar
United Nations High Commisioner for Refugees, (2017). Syria emergency. www.unhcr.org/syria-emergency.htmlGoogle Scholar
Jefferson, A. M. and Huniche, L., (Re)Searching for persons in practice: Field-based methods for critical psychological practice research. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 6(1–2) (2009), 12–27. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14780880902896507Google Scholar
Brinkmann, S., The ethics of working with everyday life materials. In Brinkmann, S., Qualitative Inquiry in Everyday Life (Los Angeles, CA: Sage, 2012).Google Scholar
Guillemin, M. and Gillam, L., Ethics, reflexivity, and ‘ethically important moments’ in research. Qualitative Inquiry, 10(2) (2004), 261–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallagher, S., Contemporary Issues in the Middle East: Making Do in Damascus: Navigating a Generation of Change in Family and Work (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2012).Google Scholar
Nielsen, S. S., Norredam, M., Christiansen, K. L., Obel, C., Hilden, J. and Krasnik, A., Mental health among children seeking asylum in Denmark: The effect of length of stay and number of relocations: a cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health, 8(1) (2008), 1–9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471–2458-8–293Google Scholar
Miller, K. E. and Rasmussen, A., The mental health of civilians displaced by armed conflict: an ecological model of refugee distress. Epidemiology & Psychiatric Science, 26(2) (2016), 129–38. www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2045796016000172/type/journal_articleGoogle ScholarPubMed
Betancourt, A. S., Ito, B. S., Lilienthal, G. M., Agalab, N. and Ellis, H., We left one war and came to another: Resource loss, acculturative stress, and caregiver–child relationships in Somali refugee families. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 21(1) (2015), 114–25. http://doi.apa.org/getdoi.cfm?doi=10.1037/a0037538Google Scholar
Weine, S. M., Levin, E., Hakizimana, L. and Dahnweih, G., How prior social ecologies shape family resilience amongst refugees in US resettlement. In Ungar, M., ed., The Social Ecology of Resilience: A Handbook of Theory and Practice (New York: Springer, 2011), pp. 309–23.Google Scholar
Hadfield, K., Ostrowski, A. and Ungar, M., What can we expect of the mental health and well-being of Syrian refugee children and adolescents in Canada? Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, 58(2) (2017), 194–201. http://doi.apa.org/getdoi.cfm?doi=10.1037/cap0000102Google Scholar
Baldassar, L. and Merla, L., Introduction: Transnational family caregiving through the lens of circulation. In Baldassar, L. and Merla, L., eds., Transnational Families, Migration and the Circulation of Care: Understanding Mobility and Absence in Family Life (London: Routledge, 2013), pp. 3–24.Google Scholar
Weine, S., Muzurovic, N., Kulauzovic, Y., Besic, S., Lezic, A., Mujagic, A. et al., Family consequences of refugee trauma. Family Process, 43(2) (2004), 147–60. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15603500CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weine, S., Family roles in refugee youth resettlement from a prevention perspective. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 17(3)(2008), 515–32, vii–viii. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1056499308000205CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guribye, O. B., Life in exile before and after a crisis in the country of origin. In Overland, G., Guribye, E. and Lie, B. N. J., eds., Nordic Work with Traumatized Refugees: Do We Really Care? (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2014), pp. 88–101.Google Scholar
Harlacher, U., Nordin, L. and Polatin, P., Torture survivors’ symptom load compared to chronic pain and psychiatric in-patients. Torture, 26(2) (2016), 74–84. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27858781Google Scholar
Montgomery, E. and Foldspang, A., Discrimination, mental problems and social adaptation in young refugees. European Journal of Public Health, 18(2) (2007), 156–61. https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/eurpub/ckm073CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Larsen, B. R., Drawing back the curtains: The role of domestic space in the social inclusion and exclusion of refugees in rural Denmark. Social Analysis, 55(2) (2011), 142–58. https://search-proquest-com.ep.fjernadgang.kb.dk/docview/892574439/fulltextPDF/C0FE9AF0980F4B49PQ/1?accountid=13607Google Scholar
Bendixen, M. C., (2017), Family reunification for refugees. Refugees.dk. http://refugees.dk/en/facts/legislation-and-definitions/family-reunification-for-refugees/Google Scholar
Measham, T., Guzder, J., Rousseau, C., Pacione, L., Blais-McPherson, M. and Nadeau, L., Refugee children and their families: Supporting psychological well-being and positive adaptation following migration. Current Problems in Paediatric Adolescent Health Care, 44(7) (2014), 208–15. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1538544214000303Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×