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IRIN Web Special on Separated Somali Children
Chapter 6: 'Deported' home: between two worlds
Introduction
There are many "returned" children in Somali territories, struggling with an extraordinary form of culture shock. Often tricked on to the plane by relatives or sent away in disgrace, they go back to a "home" that many barely remember. Conspicuous as they are to their peers and elders - in the way they talk, and dress, and behave - they are an invisible phenomenon in every other way. Little is known about how these returnee children cope or the special sort of difficulties they face. In the absence of effectively functioning Somali institutions, there are no registers to indicate numbers, and no services to give support. But, according to the children themselves and concerned Somali adults, these diaspora minors face daily bullying and isolation; at worst, they meet with extortion, rape and murder
Family deportees
Among those returning, unaccompanied children face particular difficulties. When they are sent back, they are likely to be already burdened with emotional and psychological problems from their experiences abroad.
The trauma of being "deported" back to the homeland is, in fact, very similar to that of being sent overseas in the first place: the child arrives precipitously in an unfamiliar environment, faces language problems and culture shock, and is devoid of critical support and guidance. Many also have to suffer "disgrace" because they have failed to thrive overseas or have become an economic or social burden to their extended families.
Once back home, the returnees are taken in by parents or relatives who aim to subject them to a rigorous programme of re-assimilation, more often than not expressed in terms of "discipline" - religious, educational and cultural. In the more extreme cases, minors are sent off to rural areas to work, boys are sent off to religious boarding schools, and girls are married off to older men. Some find their new life consists of hanging around a volatile and decaying urban centre, unwilling to step outside the front door for fear of what they may encounter. Others become marginalized, finding themselves on the fringes of the society they are supposed to "belong" to and resort to drugs and violence.
"There is no modern system that has evolved to support these children, and traditional systems of social support do not exist for them either. While returning adults can choose go back to their villages and depend on their clan and friendship networks, there is no such option for the diaspora youngster," Dr Bulhan of the War Torn Societies project, told IRIN in the Somaliland capital, Hargeysa.
The dangers of peer pressure
Returning diaspora children face an unforgiving - and sometimes brutal - response from their peers. "They get bullied because they just don't 'look right', and because of resentment and jealousies", one mother said. In some cases, the daily teasing and bullying result in the children becoming withdrawn, fearful and depressed. Some refuse to leave the house; others have to get used to living in a very restricted, heavily protected environment.
In the more extreme cases, returnee diaspora children have been attacked, kidnapped and killed. They are targeted because of their clothes, their "foreign" manners, and their apparent affluence. When IRIN was conducting research in Mogadishu25, a Somali boy visiting from the United States was kidnapped for ransom and killed.
The attitude of relatives may compound the children's problems - they jealously protect them and escort them even as they advise the returnees to be "inconspicuous" and dress down to deflect attention. Relatives tend to treat diaspora children as a form of life insurance - or a sort of reservoir of wealth. "When [diaspora] children return to Mogadishu, they are protected, sometimes sent around with an armed escort for fear of kidnappings," Abdirashid Haji Nur from CONCERN Worldwide observed.
[Samatar Sudi, 28, resident in Canada, visiting Mogadishu]
25 June 2002. In the absence of functioning institutions, there is no available date on this sort of incident; but it is a known hazard for returning diaspora children.
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