Living Within Hyphenated Paradoxes - The Canadian Adolescent Refugee Experience

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dc.contributor.advisorVisano, Livy A.
dc.contributor.authorNoori, Sofia
dc.date.accessioned2020-11-13T13:59:44Z
dc.date.available2020-11-13T13:59:44Z
dc.date.copyright2020-09
dc.date.issued2020-11-13
dc.date.updated2020-11-13T13:59:44Z
dc.degree.disciplineSocial & Political Thought
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractIn 2018, the Canadian government admitted 46,500 refugees. This followed a remarkable record resettlement of Syrian refugees in Canada from 201517, with just under half aged 17 or younger. This dissertation addresses how adolescent refugees negotiate the issues and aftermath of living in civil unrest, war, migration, transitory states, refugee camps, and resettlement. I analyze published memoirs and vlogs by Canadians who were adolescent refugees when they arrived in this country. By highlighting the life stories of ten Canadians who experienced varying degrees of refugee-ness, I argue that these asylum seekers contend with paradoxical claims to their subjectivities. While witnessing conflicts and camps traumatizes these young people, they successfully achieve independence and greater stability after settling in Canada. Shifting cultural practices informed by their native and host countries are factors that influence refugees sense of identity liminalities: being too young, too old, not westernized enough, not native enough, lacking schooling and wanting academic accolades. Readings of their narratives informed by psychoanalysis and postcolonial theory show that young refugees employ ancestral coping mechanisms, intellectualization, and sublimation to make meaning from their experienced losses and grief. Fanons and Saids theories address the violent colonial context of exile and alienation. Anna Freud and Winnicott explain the internal mechanisms of resistance. In the native land, children inherit epistemologies of coping to survive and make sense of the atrocities they witness. During escape plans, young asylum seekers come to face their greatest fear and reality of losing their loved ones and voices. The disorganized and inhumane conditions of refugee camps further develop an inferiority complex. For the fortunate ones who make it to Canada, they must navigate through refugee boards, schools, and formalities that position them as outsiders. Ultimately this dissertation provides a platform for the various socio-political complexities and challenges (acculturation, enculturation, racism, sexism, relationships, learning) that adolescent refugees must bring to a functional cohesion as they form a sense of self and stability from the chaotic marginal world they are emerging from.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/37981
dc.languageen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectHealth sciences
dc.subject.keywordsRefugee
dc.subject.keywordsAdolescents
dc.subject.keywordsResettlement
dc.subject.keywordsTeens
dc.subject.keywordsCanadian history
dc.subject.keywordsSubjectivity
dc.subject.keywordsIdentity
dc.subject.keywordsNarrative analysis
dc.subject.keywordsPost-colonial theory
dc.subject.keywordsPsychoanalysis
dc.subject.keywordsYouth studies
dc.subject.keywordsMental health
dc.subject.keywordsResilience
dc.subject.keywordsTrauma
dc.subject.keywordsPTSD
dc.subject.keywordsDepression
dc.subject.keywordsImmigration
dc.subject.keywordsCitizenship
dc.subject.keywordsBoat people
dc.subject.keywordsChilean refugees
dc.subject.keywordsVietnamese refugees
dc.subject.keywordsPalestinian refugees
dc.subject.keywordsGenocide survivors
dc.subject.keywordsPost- WWII
dc.subject.keywordsMulticulturalism
dc.subject.keywordsHybridity
dc.subject.keywordsDialogical discourse
dc.subject.keywordsPolitical violence
dc.subject.keywordsWar
dc.subject.keywordsMilitary occupation
dc.subject.keywordsDislocation
dc.subject.keywordsRefugee camps
dc.subject.keywordsMinority rights
dc.subject.keywordsUndocumented people
dc.subject.keywordsNon-status
dc.subject.keywordsAsylum seekers
dc.subject.keywordsAfrican refugees
dc.subject.keywordsUnaccompanied minors
dc.subject.keywordsDevelopment
dc.subject.keywordsDevelopmental psychology
dc.subject.keywordsRacism
dc.subject.keywordsDevelopmental health
dc.subject.keywordsRefugee success
dc.subject.keywordsRefugee stories
dc.subject.keywordsAsylum success
dc.subject.keywordsRefugee school
dc.subject.keywordsCamp life
dc.subject.keywordsSecrecy
dc.subject.keywordsVoice
dc.subject.keywordsLimits to voice
dc.subject.keywordsSilence
dc.subject.keywordsSublimation
dc.subject.keywordsIntellectualization
dc.subject.keywordsCoping mechanisms
dc.subject.keywordsIdentity crisis
dc.subject.keywordsMusic therapy
dc.subject.keywordsArt therapy
dc.subject.keywordsWorking through
dc.subject.keywordsMelancholy
dc.subject.keywordsAsylum claims
dc.subject.keywordsCanadian refugee history
dc.subject.keywordsCanadian refugee narratives
dc.subject.keywordsIdentity formation
dc.subject.keywordsIdentity negotiation
dc.subject.keywordsAcculturation
dc.subject.keywordsEnculturation
dc.subject.keywordsRacism in schools
dc.subject.keywordsAnti-refugee racism
dc.subject.keywordsRefugee mental health
dc.subject.keywordsRefugee survivors
dc.subject.keywordsAdolescent refugee development
dc.subject.keywordsResettlement
dc.subject.keywordsCanadian resettlement for refugees
dc.titleLiving Within Hyphenated Paradoxes - The Canadian Adolescent Refugee Experience
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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