Somali Children and Youth's Experiences in Educational Spaces in North America: Reconstructing Identities and Negotiating the Past in the Present
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Scholarship@Western Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 12-5-2012 12:00 AM Somali Children and Youth's Experiences in Educational Spaces in North America: Reconstructing Identities and Negotiating the Past in the Present Melissa Stachel The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Randa Farah The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Anthropology A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Melissa Stachel 2012 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Stachel, Melissa, "Somali Children and Youth's Experiences in Educational Spaces in North America: Reconstructing Identities and Negotiating the Past in the Present" (2012). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 983. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/983 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SOMALI CHILDREN AND YOUTH’S EXPERIENCES IN EDUCATIONAL SPACES IN NORTH AMERICA: RECONSTRUCTING IDENTITIES AND NEGOTIATING THE PAST IN THE PRESENT (Spine title: Somali Children and Youth’s Experiences in North America) (Thesis format: Monograph) by Melissa Stachel Graduate Program in Anthropology Collaborative Program in Migration and Ethnic Relations A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Melissa Stachel 2012 THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO SCHOOL OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION Supervisor Examiners ______________________________ ______________________________ Dr. Randa Farah Dr. Sherrie Larkin ______________________________ Dr. Andrew Walsh ______________________________ Dr. Belinda Dodson ______________________________ Dr. Rima Berns McGown The thesis by Melissa Stachel entitled: Somali Children and Youth's Experiences in Educational Spaces in North America: Reconstructing Identities and Negotiating the Past in the Present is accepted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Date_____________________ _______________________________ Chair of the Thesis Examination Board ii Abstract In this dissertation, I examine the experiences of Somali children and youth in both state sponsored and community educational spaces in North America to investigate how these experiences shape their identities and worldviews in the context of displacement, prolonged armed conflict in Somalia, and a post-September 11 environment. This work is based on two years of preliminary research (2008-2010) and 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork (2010-2011) among Somali youth and their families in Kitchener-Waterloo and Toronto, Ontario and Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota. I draw on life history interviews and focus group sessions of 51 Somali children and youth between the ages of 14-30 as well as interviews and focus groups with 24 Somali elders, mothers, fathers, educators, and community leaders. Using popular memory and post-colonial approaches to examine the experiences of displaced children and youth in educational spaces, I make two interrelated arguments. First, the North American view that Somali children and youth are simultaneously ‘at risk’ and ‘the risk’ is inseparable from the larger ‘War on Terror’ led by the US, in which Muslims including Somalis are perceived and treated as potential terrorists or its victims. The ‘War on Terror’ and the ‘risk’ discourse in Western societies have been fostering Islamophobia, as well as obscuring the involvement of powerful Western states in either creating or spurring conflicts, resulting in massive displacements. The risk discourse has another consequence: it conceals or dismisses the strengths and capabilities of Somali children and youth. Furthermore, by perceiving Somali children and youth in terms of risk their actual experiences in Canada and the iii US are obscured. This includes their experiences of structural violence, including poverty, access to education, unemployment or underemployment, and Somalis’ positions in gender and racial hierarchies. My second argument is that contrary to popular perception that Somali youth are experiencing an identity crisis, my research reveals that youth are actively engaged in reshaping their social and political identities, negotiating and questioning their past in the present, imagining their future, and granting meaning to their experiences in state sponsored and community educational spaces. Keywords Somalia; North America; children and youth; educational spaces; refugees; migration; popular memory; identities; past-present relations; colonialism and imperialism; structural violence; agency iv Dedication To Wesley and To Somali children and youth who are struggling to receive an education in North America and to Somali communities who are providing spaces of belonging and learning to the children and youth in community educational spaces v Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without support from a number of people. I would like to send my appreciation to all of the Somali children and youth and their families on which this research is based and who gave me their time and trusted me with their stories and dreams. I would especially like to thank Mohamed Hassan, Faduma Awow Mohamed, Abdulrahman Adem, Sadia Gassim, Zeinab Mana, Fartun Ahmed, Abdulkadir Egal, Saida Sheik, Abdullahi Hussein, and Idil Osman. I would also like to thank the countless Somali community leaders, organizations, and centres that helped me in my research, including the Somali Cause, Somali-Canadian Diaspora Alliance, African-Canadian Association of Waterloo Region and Area, the Kitchener mosque, Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota, Somali American Parent Association, Center for Somali Solutions and Unity, and the Somali Action Alliance. As well, I would like to thank Pathways to Education, World Wide Opportunities for Women, and the other refugee serving organizations that helped me with my research. Thank you to the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, the Faculty of Social Science at the University of Western Ontario, and Regna Darnell (award for fieldwork in socio-cultural anthropology) for funding to support my fieldwork. I cannot give enough thanks and heartfelt appreciation for the hard work, dedication, and guidance of my mentor and supervisor, Dr. Randa Farah. Thank you for taking my research and analytic insights to the next level and always having confidence in my abilities as an anthropologist. I want to thank Dr. Sherrie Larkin and Dr. Andrew Walsh for their comments and guidance on this research project, and throughout my vi graduate career. I would also like to thank Dr. Belinda Dodson and Dr. Rima Berns McGown for their comments and suggestions. Thank you to Intisar Awisse for copy editing the dissertation. I would especially like to thank my husband for always believing in me and supporting me, my son for providing me with constant inspiration, and my parents and brother for all of their help throughout my education. vii Table of Contents Page Certificate of Examination……………………………………………………………..ii Abstract…………………………………………………………………………….......iii Dedication………………………………………………………………………….......v Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………….vi Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………viii List of Tables……………………………………………………………………...........xi List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………..xii List of Appendices…………………………………………………………………......xiii Chapter 1: Somalis in North America: Conceptualizations of Children and Youth in Terms of Risk in a Post-September 11 Environment ………………………………......1 1.1 Introduction: Somalis in North America……………………………………1 i) Definitions of Key Terms and Concepts……………………………………...7 1.2 Fortress America in a Global World: The Effects of Geopolitics on the Experiences of Somalis in North America……………………………………...11 i) Multiculturalism and Hierarchies of Citizenship………………………….....17 1.3 Somali Studies……………………………………………………………...22 1.4 Refugee Children and Youth: Deconstructing Children and Youth as ‘At Risk’ and ‘The Risk’……………………………………………………………22 1.5 The Geopolitics of Educational Spaces: Reconstructions of Somali Children and Youth Identities……………………………………………………….........29 1.6 The Reconstruction of Somali Youth Identities in North America: A Popular Memory Approach……………………………………………………………...33 1.7 Methodology: Fields of Research, Subjects, and the Researcher’s Position 35 i) Fields of Research: Toronto the Largest Somali Centre……………………..35 ii) Main Field of Research: Kitchener-Waterloo……………………………….38 iii) Field of Research in the United States: Minneapolis- Saint Paul…………..39 iv) Fieldwork: Participant-Observation and Interviews………………………..41 v) Oral Histories………………………………………………………………...45 vi) Generational Analysis………………………………………………………46 vii) Position of Fieldworker/Researcher………………………………………..49 1.8 Organization of the Dissertation……………………………………………51 Chapter 2: The History of Somalia in a Global Context……………………………….54 2.1 Introduction: Deconstructing Internal Explanations and Western