Tol , Xeer , and Somalinimo : Recognizing Somali and Mushunguli Refugees as Agents in the Integration Process A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Vinodh Kutty IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY David M. Lipset July 2010 © Vinodh Kutty 2010 Acknowledgements A doctoral dissertation is never completed without the help of many individuals. And to all of them, I owe a deep debt of gratitude. Funding for this project was provided by two block grants from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota and by two Children and Families Fellowship grants from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. These grants allowed me to travel to the United Kingdom and Kenya to conduct research and observe the trajectory of the refugee resettlement process from refugee camp to processing for immigration and then to resettlement to host country. The members of my dissertation committee, David Lipset, my advisor, Timothy Dunnigan, Frank Miller, and Bruce Downing all provided invaluable support and assistance. Indeed, I sometimes felt that my advisor, David Lipset, would not have been able to write this dissertation without my assistance! Timothy Dunnigan challenged me to honor the Somali community I worked with and for that I am grateful because that made the dissertation so much better. Frank Miller asked very thoughtful questions and always encouraged me and Bruce Downing provided me with detailed feedback to ensure that my writing was clear, succinct and organized. I also have others to thank. To my colleagues at the Office of Multicultural Services at Hennepin County, I want to say “Thank You Very Much!” They all provided me with the inspiration to look at the refugee resettlement process more critically and dared me to suggest ways to improve it. Many of them were refugees and immigrants themselves and provided me with ideas to test and questions to ask. I particularly want to thank Joa Carlson for helping me organize my thoughts, the draft, and my presentation at the defense. She also read countless versions of the prospectus and different chapters and provided me with great feedback including organizing the final edition of the dissertation. In the field, Abdoul and Mabruka were my two teachers that allowed me a window to the Mushunguli culture and community and countless other Somali refugees who took the i time to share with me their pain, their hopes, and their dreams. These refugees lived in Kenya, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. I also want to thank the many service providers and the leaders of the various organizations that I spent time with. I learned a tremendous amount from them. I also realized that theirs was, in many ways, a thankless job and for many of them, the main reward and reason to go back to work was the smile on a refugee’s face when an insurmountable problem was resolved. They are the salt of the earth and I salute them for what they do on a daily basis – happily, joyfully, and always without complaint. Some of them work in Kenya and many others live and work in the Twin Cities and in Greater Minnesota. Above all, I want to thank my family – Indran Kutty, Krishnan Kutty, and Rebecca Kutty. My debt to all of them goes far beyond what can be expressed here. Their love and support nurtured me all the time while I read, planned, researched, conducted fieldwork, and wrote. I could never have completed this endeavor without their blessings. I also want to thank my mother-in-law, Charlene Lucken, who provided me with editorial feedback on the draft of the dissertation. Without them and many others who go unnamed in these pages, this dissertation would not have been possible. Like I mentioned earlier, a dissertation is never a singular effort. To all of you I say - Thank you all for helping and teaching me. ii Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my wife, Rebecca Kutty, and my sons, Indran and Krishnan Kutty, who gave me their time, love, support, and blessings while I worked on it and to the memory of my parents, Mr. and Mrs. A.N. Kutty, who instilled in me a curiosity about others and the joy to learn. iii Abstract The problem with how to approach the integration of refugees is both conceptual and practical. Not only do researchers in the field define “integration” differently, but also those who define and develop policies relating to integration tend to approach the issue in different ways. In current anthropological literature, empirical studies about integration have tended to adopt a “top-down” approach to the concept of integration and, therefore, to focus on structural and organizational aspects of the integration system. There is little research that focuses on the “voice” of refugees and even more of a dearth of research that studies them as active participants in their own integration process. Integration impacts upon both the refugees and the host community and requires the willingness of both groups to adjust. This does not mean an abandonment of roots and native cultures; rather it is a process of building bridges and reshaping identities to accommodate the transnational realities of the modern world. As a host community, Luckenville is experiencing what other host communities first experienced when a huge influx of refugees suddenly came and ended up as neighbors, community members, and colleagues at work. Government institutions and local community agencies have not been prepared and have experienced many challenges when dealing with service provision to the Mushungulis and other Somali refugees. Lacking an infrastructure that is able to provide cultural and linguistically appropriate services to the new Americans who do not speak English as a first language, the host community of Luckenville has struggled to ensure that the Mushungulis and other Somali refugees have the tools necessary to help them integrate as community members and as citizens. By understanding tol, xeer, qabils , and Somalinimo , I propose how the Mushungulis and other Somali refugees can draw upon their culture, identity, kinship ( tol ), the social contract ( xeer ) between the qabils (commonly translated as “clans”) and their “Somaliness” ( Somalinimo ) to help them cope with the integration process as active agents and social actors as opposed to victims as they are often portrayed. This building of social capital needs to be done not only between qabils in the Somali community but between the Mushungulis and the larger Somali community as well. Together with conducting interviews with a cross-section of service providers and members of the host community of Luckenville and the Twin Cities, my research demonstrates how host communities can perceive and participate in the integration process by redefining new meanings of community and building intra-ethnic communal social capital. By building on previous research, this dissertation adds to the anthropological literature and addresses gaps in theory and practice that have not viewed refugees as agents in their own resettlement process and which have rarely paid attention to the impact of refugee resettlement upon members of host communities. It also proposes new recommendations that can help the integration and resettlement process so that refugees and host communities can build mutual understanding and create trust upon which full acceptance and belonging in the community depend on. iv Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDMENTS i DEDICATION iii ABSTRACT iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF FIGURES xii CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION: WELCOMING THE MUSHUNGULIS TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1 Theoretical Frameworks, Concepts, and Studying Refugee Resettlement and Integration 5 The Scope and Organization of My Research 19 Research context 20 A Multi-Dimensional and Relational Model of Refugee Integration in Resettlement 21 Methods 26 Context Specific 28 Emic Perspectives 29 Iterative Nature 29 Power Relations 29 v Chapter Summaries 34 CHAPTER TWO – THE FALL OF SOMALIA AND THE FLIGHT OF THE MUSHUNGULIS 37 Somalia and Its Collapse 38 From Cold War to Civil War 1988-1991 39 State Collapse, Qabil War, and Famine 1991-1992 39 Humanitarian Intervention 40 Governance without Government 42 Building Blocks and Regional Initiatives 43 The Return of Government - Arta Process 45 The IGAD Initiative 46 The Islamic Courts Union 47 Djibouti Talks 48 Situating the Mushungulis or “Somali Bantus” 50 Terms of Identity 51 The “Bantus” or Mushungulis in Somalia 54 vi Slavery and the Slave Trade 55 Maroonage and the Gosha: A Separate Geographical Space 57 Settlement of the Gosha 59 Civil War in the Jubba Valley 68 “Somali Bantu” Identity Formation in Kenya 70 Conclusion 73 CHAPTER THREE – LIFE IN THE REFUGEE CAMPS AND CULTURAL ORIENTATION FOR IMMIGRATION 75 Refugee Cultural Orientation Training in Nairobi, Kenya 78 Life in the Refugee Camps 80 The Refugee Cultural Orientation Session in Brief 92 Conclusion 97 CHAPTER FOUR – RESETTLEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 101 The Influence of Social Welfare Ideology 103 Background on the Resettlement Program in the United States of America 105 Fieldwork in Luckenville and the Twin Cities 106 vii Succeeding in the United States of America 108 Culture and Integration Issues 108 Language 112 Living in the United States of America, “The Somali Way” 116 Integration Challenges by Age 118 Being Muslim in the United States of America 119 Cultural Integration 123 Employment and Education Issues 124 Social Support 128 The Somali Family 129 The Wider Somali Community 130 Church Sponsorship 132 Citizenship and Advocacy 136 The Resettlement Program and the Local Voluntary Resettlement Agency 139 Conclusion 142 viii CHAPTER FIVE – THE “RULES” OF REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT IN LUCKENVILLE AND MINNEAPOLIS-ST.PAUL 150 Shadow States and Opportunity Structures 150 The Self-Sufficiency Paradigm 157 Government-Nonprofit Relationships and the Quest for Self-Sufficiency 158 The Origin of the Confederation of Somali Communities in Minnesota 158 The Transformation of the Confederation of Somali Communities in Minnesota 159 Changes in and Challenges to the Status Quo in the Social Service Delivery System 162 The Landscape of Social Service Delivery in Minneapolis-St.