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IRIN Web Special on Separated Somali Children
Chapter 5: Identity: living on the edge
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Somali minors on racism in Finland
"Five men ran after me with baseball bats in their hands. They hunted me by car. We managed to get in safety to a house. I am always afraid when I am walking in town. They still haven't caught me once. No…There have been many threatening situations. It has lead to the fact that I don't go out so much. For instance today it is Friday, but I am going to stay at home because I am too afraid of going anywhere."
"Last May I was fighting with a Finn in a bus. The Finn said: "f***, look a nigger. I do not like them. I am allergic to them." I told him to get out of the bus then. He hit me from behind. I hit him back and my middle finger was broken. He left the bus. Every weekend people shout "nigger"…but I have only once been in a fight."
"I have often been abused. Somebody hit me with a bottle in my head, another one with a base-ball bat- I've gotten stitches every now and then."
Source: Variations on the Theme of Somaliness (International Congress of Somali Studies, Finland, 1999)
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"A tendency towards aggression"
The study also noted the high incident of Somali minors dropping out and missing school lessons. This was attributed to depression and poor motivation among young children who missed their parents and pined for a family reunion. Most of the Somali children interviewed had some siblings remaining in their home country; some did not know if their relatives were alive or dead. All described some sort of loss, including those who had witnessed a parent being killed, or siblings dying in conflict or as a result of the upheaval.
Sheila Melzak, a psychiatrist working with traumatized children23, including separated Somali children, said that Somali children as a group demonstrated a tendency towards aggression and violence in London schools. She told IRIN that, in her experience, there were a high proportion of Somali children in psychiatric hospitals and juvenile detention centres. She attributed this to the high number of Somali children who were separated from their parents, and who had suffered trauma with the collapse of the state. Melzak also pointed to the gap between generations in the Somali diaspora, and the traditionalism of the adults in exile who may be dismissive or distrustful of concepts of mental trauma and depression among the children. Like other professionals, she described institutional and bureaucratic responsibility for separated children in Britain as weak and confused, especially for 16-18 year olds. Under present policies, separated children tend to suffer further instability by being shifted around to different accommodation, to different boroughs, and sometimes to different geographical areas.24
"The children have so little stability in their lives…[16-18 year olds] don't really fit in anywhere. They stop being the responsibility of the schools, and of the social services, and they are 'placed in the community' - which means they have a very tenuous connection to anyone," Shelia Melzak said. Although some authorities create special teams to deal with separated children, lack of resources mean the teams are often short lived or suffer a high turnover of staff - "so the children don't build up any real trust".
Cultural no man's land
Although there is a paucity of statistical information on the experience and circumstances of separated children, existing evidence points to a probability that they are likely to end up in a cultural 'no man's land', unable to "belong" to either their original culture or their new country. Such children appear to encounter little tolerance. Both the host country and the Somali community are likely to consider the child's behaviour inappropriate, unproductive and "anti-social". As a result, a number of Somali children are returned back to Somalia by relatives - "family deportees" - in a turn of events that can equal the trauma of being sent away in the first place.
Ismahan: "I liked my independence... but I didn't have such a good relationship with the Somali community."
Photo: IRIN/Jenny Matthews-Network
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23 Medical Foundation for Torture Victims, London
24 Britain has a policy of dispersal of refugees and asylum seekers, which means unaccompanied children are likely to be sent away from their established communities or place of arrival. For more information see Cold Comfort, Save the Children
[Ends]
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