Violation and hope: Refugee survival in childhood and beyond

The International Journal of Social Psychiatry
Lynne McCormack, Brigitta Tapp

Abstract

The psychological complexity of refugee status for children is poorly understood. Alone or with family members, child refugees are exposed to multiple and potentially traumatic events, including conflict and human rights deprivation in their country of origin, perilous and life-threatening escape journeys, years of statelessness, and isolation and discrimination in their new host country. This phenomenological study explored the positive and negative interpretations of four adults as they sought to make sense of their experiences of refugee status as children. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) guided the development of semi-structured interview for data collection and analysis. One superordinate theme, Violation and Hope, overarched three subordinate themes, Violent detachment, Refugee identity, and Resourcefulness and reciprocity. One divergent theme also emerged: Clashing identities. These themes provide unique insight into the interpreted experiences of escaping oppression and persecution in each participant's country of origin as children, and the ensuing bleak interval as refugees, belonging nowhere. They identify the risk of becoming pawns of opportunism without human rights protection. Once stateless, surviv...Continue Reading

References

Dec 1, 1989·Clinical Rheumatology·K KaarelaR Luukkainen
Jan 1, 1980·Behaviour Research and Therapy·S Rachman
Jun 19, 2008·Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America·Melissa J BrymerRobert S Pynoos
Feb 2, 2010·The British Journal of Psychiatry : the Journal of Mental Science·Aina Basilier VaageEdvard Hauff
Jan 12, 2011·Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health·Aina B VaageEdvard Hauff
Jan 27, 2011·Journal of Traumatic Stress·Hannah StocktonStephen Joseph
Aug 17, 2011·Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. Supplementum·E Montgomery
Apr 10, 2014·BMC Psychiatry·Angela NickersonRichard A Bryant

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IPA
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis ( IPA

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