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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
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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

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