Somali Report Cover Nov 07 21/11/07 1:49 pm Page 1

Identities on the Move: the integration experiences of Somali and young people

Deborah Sporton • Gill Valentine © cover photograph copyright of Chris Clune Chris of copyright photograph cover ©

Identities on the Move: the integration experiences of Somali refugee and asylum seeker young people

Deborah Sporton, Department of Geography, University of

Gill Valentine, School of Geography, University of Leeds Notes i Definitions: an asylum seeker is someone who has applied for asylum and is awaiting a decision on the outcomes: they do not have the right to work or to benefits and have only limited access to further and higher education; a refugee is someone who has been granted leave to remain in the UK as a refugee. ii The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 does not apply to children arriving under the age of 18 who are granted leave to remain under the Children’s Act (1989) under which they are placed into the care of a Local Authority until their asylum claim is assessed at 18. iii When the integration policy was tightened in 2002 the number of successful applications for Danish fell by 72% (Danish Refugee Council, 2004). • Young people are wary of Identities on the Move: claiming a British identity the integration because ‘British’ is implicitly still experiences of Somali imagined as a white identity. refugee and asylum • Community space for migrant groups, such as the , to seeker young people define their own identities is important in giving these groups Most research about the the security to feel they belong to experiences of refugee and asylum the nation. seekers has addressed the experiences of adults. Little is • Integration policies which stress known about the experiences of national identity have the young asylum seekersi, yet they potential effect of legitimising constituted 23% of all asylum negative attitudes by the majority applications in 2005. population towards migrants and their cultures. This two year study by the Universities of Sheffield and Leeds • Somali children (and their focused on the lives of young parents) receive very limited Somalis aged 11-18 in Sheffield, support at school to learn English UK. Using quantitative and and to integrate into the British qualitative methods it explored the educational system. ways in which young Somalis’ identities and affiliations are shaped • Funding is needed to develop the by: their histories of mobility, their educational support that Somali experiences of home, school and community homework clubs community life in the UK; and the provide for Somali young people implications of these experiences for and to link this more strongly their social integration. The research with the British school found that: curriculum.

• Intercultural differences are emerging between the generations within the Somali Findings: community. Young people commonly feel their parents do • Somali children have limited not understand their experiences memories or direct experiences of trying to integrate in the UK. of Somali and gain their understanding of what it means • A general crisis of masculinity to be Somali from their families and lack of male mentors is and communities. contributing to a high incidence of youth offending. • Experiences of forced mobility and loss of attachment to place • There is an emerging — but mean the identity ‘Muslim’ hidden — culture of smoking and becomes for many young Somali drinking amongst Somali young people the most important and people which has implications for consistent way that they have of the development of health defining who they are. education initaitives.

Identities on the Move: the integration experiences of Somali refugee and asylum seeker young people 1 internal and international migration About the Project as well as the limitations of how The study employed a multi-method data is collected and categorised. It research design combining is estimated however, that about quantitative and qualitative 5,000 Somalis are thought to be elements. The quantitative research living in Sheffield, compared to involved an in-depth survey of young approximately 4,000 in . people in schools. This was Given the nature of the administered within class time, to there are close links between all pupils in years 7, 9 and 11 in Somalis living in Sheffield and eight Sheffield secondary schools Aarhus. This close contact was, for and one further education college. example, experienced in the This provided a database (3313 recruitment of research participants. responses) which allowed the Some Somali families in Sheffield researchers to compare the Somali have either lived in Aarhus respondents’ affiliations and identity themselves prior to undertaking a practices with those of children secondary migration to Sheffield, or from other minority ethnic groups have extended family members and white majority children. currently living in Aarhus.

The qualitative stage of the research The interviews were conducted in included work with Somali English, Danish or with a Somali communities and families in interpreter. Quotations from the Sheffield UK, as well as additional interviews that are used in this work in Aarhus, . report are verbatim, spoken or grammatical errors have not been • participant observation in Somali corrected. All names of specific community spaces, such as people or places have been removed homework clubs; in order to protect the anonymity of the informants. • in-depth interviews with Somali children and their parent(s) exploring their particular histories of mobility, senses of attachment, and understandings Background of their own identities; Asylum seeker children entering the • in-depth interviews with key UK (either as dependents or stakeholders (such as unaccompanied) have until recently representatives from the local received scant attention in authority, schools and immigration and asylum debates. community) about the broader However, in 2006, the UK received contextual issues that shape over 23,000 applications for asylum, young people’s identities; over one-third of these were made by those aged 20 years or under and of • an online exercise in which, these 3,245 were unaccompanied children from Somali homework children (Home Office Asylum clubs were given user names and Statistics 2006). Indeed since 2000 invited to participate in an on- an estimated 24,000 line WebCT forum; unaccompanied children have entered the UK without • and art workshops conducted by identification, documentation or professional therapists. guardians. In particular, those fleeing from conflict in have figured The numbers of Somalis in Sheffield among the top five groups of asylum and Aarhus respectively are difficult seekers entering the UK in recent to estimate because of the complex years (Henderson 2005). These histories of forced and voluntary, figures mask important differences,

2 Deborah Sporton • Gill Valentine however, both in the journeys and regions. For those who are asylum seeking strategies, embarked subsequently granted refugee status on by young Somalis on route to the or exceptional leave to remain, UK that have implications for the NASS support is terminated and shaping of their identities. It is replaced by Local Authority and known that a large number of Social Services support. For this Somalis arriving in the UK have first group, new initiatives have been set spent time in refugee camps in in place through the Government’s neighbouring , and Full and Equal Citizens strategy . Other unaccompanied (2001) to assist their integration as young children have, according to ‘equal members of society’ across a the United Nations, been smuggled number of spheres including to the UK and other European employment, education, housing etc. countries, dumped at ports where they are able to seek asylum as More recently the plight of asylum unaccompanied minors (IRIN 2003). seeker children has been at the As the law stands, unaccompanied forefront of public debate with the children are automatically granted piloting of changes in policy temporary leave to remain in the UK targeted at so-called ‘failed asylum until a decision is made on their seekers’ who are being ‘encouraged’ status at the age of 18ii. Given that to return home through removal of many of those arriving have no all forms of support. This policy has papers, the assessment of age is however revealed a lack of both open to abuse with those over understanding of the circumstances the age of 18 strategically claiming of children who are subject to to be younger and subject to error as different legislation under the 1989 witnessed by cases of children Children’s Act. As support is detained as adults. An increasing, removed Local Authorities are but undocumented, number of young obligated to take destitute children Somalis are arriving in the UK from away from their parents into care other countries in , in until the age of 18. particular from Scandinavia and the where they have already Despite these initiatives, the been granted refugee status. This integration experiences of asylum secondary movement following seeker and refugee children in the several years of residence in Europe UK are poorly understood yet it is is motivated by the desire to reunify particularly pertinent to develop families separated during the conflict policies to support their integration. and has also been associated with an Firstly, because if young people are increase in discrimination and equipped with appropriate skills this unemployment in Europe. will help minimise their risk of social exclusion in adulthood. This increase in the number of Secondly, childhood is perhaps the asylum seekers, including children, best time to intervene to address arriving in the UK over the last integration difficulties because decade have prompted changes in young people are more open to UK government policy embodied in learning and change than adults. the 1999 Immigration and Asylum Thirdly, young people who are not Act and more recently the integrated into society are at risk of Nationality, Immigration and Asylum social harms that can further Act, 2002. In particular, the contribute to processes of creation of the National Asylum marginalisation, such as for Support Service (NASS) has taken example, becoming involved in over responsibility since April 2000 drugs, or crime. Finally, refugee for asylum seekers whose claims are children require specific measures being considered and for their to address their needs because of dispersal away from and the their particular social and legal south east to accommodation in the position. Prompted by recent

Identities on the Move: the integration experiences of Somali refugee and asylum seeker young people 3 government initiatives notably the last phase of migration began UK Government’s Green Paper, around 2000 when Somalis who had Every Child Matters (DfES 2003) — obtained refugee status and later which was subsequently citizenship in other European incorporated into The Children’s Act countries such as The Netherlands, (2004) — proposing wide-ranging , , and Denmark, reforms to help children (and in began secondary migrations to the particular minority ethnic children) UK. The Somali community in the overcome disadvantage and improve UK is thus characterised by different their life chances, more attention arrival scenarios (see figure 1). needs to be paid to the experiences of young asylum seekers. Compared to the long tradition of Somalis living in the UK, the period of Somali migration to Denmark is relatively short. The majority of Somalis living here arrived as asylum Background on Somalia seekers fleeing the civil war between the late 1980s and the 1990s. Migration to the UK Many of these obtained refugee status and have subsequently In 1988 Major-General Mohammed applied for, and received, Danish Siyaad Barre, who had ruled citizenship. Recent years have seen Somalia as a political dictator since a significant trend of many Somali a military coup in 1969, began a families leaving Denmark. campaign of persecution against the Isaaq clan ordering the bombing of The numbers of Somalis in the UK Somali northern towns (a stronghold is difficult to estimate because of of this clan) in an attempt to the complex histories of forced and eliminate opposition to his rule. In voluntary, internal and international the backlash which followed Barre migration as well as the limitations was eventually deposed and civil war of how data is collected and broke out. By 1992 the UN categorised. It is estimated however, estimated that one million Somalis that about 75,000 Somalis live in out of a total population estimated the UK. at anywhere from five to eleven million were , scattered in: This research found that 28% of the Kenya, Ethiopia, Western Europe, Somali young people who responded and Australasia to the questionnaire survey had (Berns McGowan 1999). Despite the come to the UK direct from Somalia; spread of the across 33% had migrated to the UK via the globe family members and another European country; and 6% relatives remain in contact on a had arrived in the UK via, or from, a regular basis. Middle Eastern country.

The Somali migration to the UK can These results reflect the complex be divided into different phases: patterns of mobility that are around the turn of the 20th century characteristic of the Somali Somali seamen came to work in the Diaspora. The following sections of British Merchant Navy, when this this report explore the implications was run down in the 1950s, Somalis of these experiences of mobility for moved to work in the industrial young people’s sense of identity cities of , Sheffield and focusing on what it means to them . At this point, many of to be: Somali, Muslim, and British. the seamen were joined by their The report then considers specific families. From the late 1980s relationships between language and onwards, significant numbers of integration and education and Somalis arrived in the UK seeking integration, as well as gender asylum because of the civil war. The issues.

4 Deborah Sporton • Gill Valentine Scandinavia UK Holland

USA

EUROPE

Middle East

East Africa

Somalia

Mountain High maps® Copyright© 1993 Digital Wisdom, Inc. Figure 1. Migration Pathways of Young Somalis (born abroad) to Sheffield

In doing so, we draw on particular unconsciously) in social narratives academic ways of thinking about rarely of our own making’. In identity. In outlining a narrative particular, we seek to understand approach to identity, Margaret how young asylum seekers negotiate Somers (1994: 606) argues that and position themselves within social ‘...all of us come to be who we are narratives that are not of their own (however ephemeral, multiple and making, that are valued/judged in changing) by being located or particular ways by society, and locating ourselves (usually which: define their role as children,

Identities on the Move: the integration experiences of Somali refugee and asylum seeker young people 5 are founded on particular I would love to live in my constructions of asylum seekers, and what it means to be countery somalia because i left British. At the same time, we are behind my family and my friends also alert to the ways that Somali whom i love so much. The young people choose to position themselves in relation to these weather is very good. But because dominant narratives and produce of the war there is no good school their own personal stories of who and there is no peace and also they are and where they belong. This involves consideration of the ways life is hard always. that individuals claim or prioritise some available narratives of identity or disavow and reject others. Somali is nice and Of course these identity practices do beutiful country not occur in a vacuum, rather And if you haven’t seen somalia identities are situated you batter go. accomplishments that emerge through specific social practices And if you seen somalia tall which are produced in, and through smathing about somalia. different spaces, at a range of scales The people who haven’t seen from: sites such as the home, and neighbourhood community, through to the nation and transnational Most of the children’s parents diaspora. One consequence of this is encourage them to speak Somali at that a given identity is not just home, they eat Somali food, something that can be claimed by an celebrate Somali festivals and the individual rather it is also children strongly identify as Somali. dependent, at least in part, on an Most of the children however, left individual being recognised or their homeland when they were very accepted as such by a wider young or were born while their community. A further implication is families were on the move. As such that having a particular identity in they have limited, or in some cases, different contexts can define no direct memories of Somalia. individuals as ‘in place’ or ‘out of Indeed, the memories they have are place’; as belonging or excluded often of domestic life, of pets or according to spatial norms and school friends. Rather, their expectations in that space. knowledge and understanding of the country is largely second-hand, coming from adults in their families who remember growing up there, from their friends who may have What it Means visited the country, or from media representations. These young people to be Somali must position themselves in relation to public narratives about what it For some young Somalis who means to be Somali that are not of remember their homeland it is a their own making and are predicated powerful part of their identities. on sometimes differing and These extracts taken from an on-line contradictory accounts of a place of web discussion forum with Somali which they have limited memory. young people reflect their Whereas media reporting of Somalia attachment to Somalia: focuses on the civil war, disorder, famine and terrorism, parents tend to offer a more positive i like somali so mcuh caz is my representation to their children of a conter thanx beautiful country and family life,

6 Deborah Sporton • Gill Valentine glossing over some of the hardships ‘that’s how they are because of and violence which they, or relatives, may have experienced: your walk and the way you talk’. Cos I used to talk English to my My grandmother tells us a lot brother in Somalia and they used about it…that it was really to turn round and stare at us and beautiful, that they had a good they knew that we were not from life, had a big house. But then here… A lot of people, now these there was the war. So when I days that are scared to go to think about Somalia I think civil Somalia because they’re like war and then also that it was a people stare at you and they talk beautiful country before this…It’s about you. (girl, aged 17) such a big part of me and I really want to see it. See how it is, how Sometimes I feel Somali and the nature is and see how sometimes I feel British. Like if I different it is from here so I can went to my country they would create my own opinion more or make me feel British. They less, so that’s not just what wouldn’t even call me Somali. everyone else says. Even if I spoke perfect Somali (girl, aged 15) they would say to me ‘You ain’t

Somali parents acknowledge their Somali you just learnt it like a children’s lack of understanding of language’ [laughs]… And then their homeland and their curiosity to they’re like ‘You know where the experience it for themselves and so in recent years many families have airport is, you know your way travelled back to Somalia on visits back’. (girl, aged 17) where the children can get to know ‘their’ country and its people. On these trips however, some children Return visits have had a powerful described feeling out of place and impact on a number of the young that they did not belong. It is not people interviewed. Several of the enough to claim a self-identity, children described how these rather belonging requires that an experiences made them more identity must also be recognised or appreciative of life in the UK, and accepted as such by a wider particularly the education community. The children who have opportunities which they have returned on visits described received. One boy described for experiences for example of: being example, how he used to be stared at; being accused of having a disruptive at school, but having been pale skin or not speaking Somali to Somalia he had become motivated properly; being hassled for money or to pursue an education so that he English lessons. might give something back to his country in the future. Girls, in particular, recognised that as young women in the UK they are not so When we used to go to Somalia a confined by gender roles and lot of people used to say ‘oh you responsibilities and have more lot, people from England’. And I opportunities, than their counterparts in Somalia. In such ways, return visits just said to my Mum ‘how do gave young people a stronger sense of they know?’ And My Mum goes the value of life in Britain, cemented

Identities on the Move: the integration experiences of Somali refugee and asylum seeker young people 7 their recognition of Britain as a up. But if I walk in [Sheffield positive place to live, and in some cases led young people to re-consider place name removed] without whether they should self-identify as scarf the whole community will British as well as Somali. Yet, despite embarrass me… I got some the shock of ‘being out of place’ or not belonging in Somalia, and in school mates here and when we some cases losing the ability to come together we talk about why, communicate effectively in Somali, you know we have, we never have all the young people nonetheless continued to identify themselves first, scarf in Somali why we having it and foremost, as Somali. now in here…There’s no good answer but I think people are now interested with religion and coming more religious than The Importance before…People don’t want to lose of Being Muslim their identity of Islam, so if me and you walked together in the Virtually all Somalis are Muslims, street and I got the hijab, representing a significant non-Asian and non-Middle Eastern Muslim everybody knows I’m a Muslim voice. Previous studies of Somali woman and whether you are a refugee and asylum seeker Christian, Jewish or Hindu, they communities (e.g. Berns McGowan 1999) have argued that prior to know you are different from me, immigration many Somali adults so that’s identity of the Islam took their religion for granted but woman. (Mother) that following migration to Europe or North America their faith became a more important focus of their lives For the majority of the young people and identities. This research who participated in this research suggests that many Somali refugee (their forced history of mobility both and asylum seekers study the moving between various countries Qur’an, ensure that Qu’ranic before arriving in UK, and also education is an important part of between cities/places within UK) has their child’s education, and that left them with a relatively ‘rootless’ women dress in accordance with identity and a confused attachment, Islam in ways that they would not or no particular attachment, to have done when they were in place. Yusef for example, is 11 years Somalia. This increased importance old, he was born in Europe and was of a Muslim identity to Somali eight years old when his parents refugees and asylum seekers adults moved to the UK. Most of his Somali stems from the fact that faith peer group in Sheffield have lived in provides an important anchor within different countries (e.g. in Ethiopian their broader experience of mobility and Kenyan refugee camps, or other and dislocation, and provides a European countries such as Denmark means of ensuring that they do not and Netherlands), but Yusef lose their children to an ‘alien’ dismissed these experiences as western individualistic culture. irrelevant to their identities, explaining that they do not talk among themselves about the diverse places When I was in Somali everyone, in which they have lived because ‘it’s not only me, women, there’s no just countries’. Rather, in this context of mobile childhoods the identity compulsory to put scarf…that’s ‘Muslim’ becomes for many young the way I like and the way I grow Somali people the most important and

8 Deborah Sporton • Gill Valentine consistent way that they have of important to them. Many of those defining who they are. Notably, 92% interviewed already hold a British of the Somali respondents to our passport or aspire to one. Most survey claimed that their Muslim faith acknowledged that Britain has given was ‘important to their everyday life’. them a safe home, an education and This role of religion was significantly many opportunities. Indeed, some higher than for all other minority acknowledged that they now speak ethnic groups surveyed. In this English better than they speak context it is possible to see how, Somali. However, there was a general and why, the identity ‘Muslim’ wariness about publicly claiming a becomes for many young Somali British identity. This is because of people the most important and fears that to do so would be received consistent way that they have of negatively by family members and defining who they are. the Somali community as it would be read as shame at, or rejection of, their Somali heritage, particularly I’m a Muslim and I’m always a given that many parents retain a Muslim and my Mum goes no belief that at some point their matter where I am I’m always a families will return to live in Somalia. Muslim. (girl aged 15) Britain even though I’ve lived here all my life, I just don’t think Well Muslim…that’s my faith and like it’s our country… Somalia’s before anything else that comes my country cos you’ve got all your first in my life […] So that’s the family there… I just don’t think most important thing to me in British is important…Like there’s my life. That comes first before a lot of Somali/British people out anything; parents, friends, there, they don’t think being anything. That comes first. British is important. Like mothers (girl aged 11) don’t think British is, [they say] ‘you can’t just keep saying your Young women in particular British, you’re Somali, it’s your experience strong social pressure to practise their faith by managing country, Britain’s not your their identities (for example, in country, Somalia’s your country’. terms of wearing the hijab, speaking And you’re like, yeah it is, that’s Somali) in a modest, respectful and controlled way in order to maintain how it is…My Mum used to say their own and their family’s that…she said to me when I was reputation within the a little kid you’re going to neighbourhood. Although, young women also described some of the Somalia and then she goes, we’re ways that they get round or re- going back to your country. I goes negotiate these expectations. ‘That’s not my country, Britain’s my country’. She’s like ‘No, Somalia’s your country’. (girl aged 17) Ambivalence about being British At the same time, some of the young people were also wary of claiming a Only 19% of the Somali respondents British identity because ‘British’ is stated that being British was implicitly still imagined as a white

Identities on the Move: the integration experiences of Somali refugee and asylum seeker young people 9 identity. Some recalled for example, I’ve got a British passport. I live experiences of when their assertions of Britishness were challenged by here. But I don’t. I say ‘Somali’ others. As such, several of the because that’s really important. interviewees acknowledged that a It’s like I don’t need to be British identity can only be claimed at particular times and places to ashamed of my country. I don’t particular audiences. need to be ashamed of who I am or who my people are...But at the Its like sometimes it sounds same time I am kind of British weird coming out of my mouth because I live here. I eat their ‘oh yeah British’…I’m British food…I shouldn’t be ashamed of holding a passport and saying I’m British because it’s everything but when I’m talking the country that actually gave me to my friends like the ones what something. They gave me have lived in the UK all their education and things like that. lives they’re like ‘No you’re But at the same time people say Somali’... The thing is yeah, if you’re not white why should Somalia always going to be my you call yourself British?…I home in my heart yeah…but if I wouldn’t go to anyone and say go to Somalia I feel like a visitor I’m British. …it depends on the there and when I’m here [in UK] person that I say it to. Some I just feel, I don’t know, at people I’ll say ‘I’m Somali’. home…Britain is where I feel Some other people…then I’ll say comfortable…but they’re going ‘I’m British’…It’s a bit difficult ‘Oh you’re not British, you’re not when you come out with it — It’s from Britain you’re not like ‘I don’t think you’re British’ British’…I goes I bet you I know [mimicking response]…just more about Britain than your because you’ve got a passport in daughter whose white and born this country doesn’t mean’…so here and everything and they’re you have to be careful who you like ‘Oh no, no’. I’m like I say it to… (girl aged 17) probably do…and like most of the time I’m always right. (girl In contrast, the Somali children aged 17) interviewed in Aarhus, Denmark emphasised that they do identify as Danish (among other things e.g. Muslim, Somali and so on). This is perhaps not surprising given the I’ve only lived in Sheffield for emphasis the Danish State places on five years now, nearly six… but it the need for migrants to assimilate. doesn’t mean you’re not a In Aarhus there is a relatively small Somali Muslim community which is Somali. I might live in fragmented and relatively unstable. Sheffield…I might have their The Somali community has not had accent or whatever but when space to establish its own identity in Denmark because the Government people ask me ‘Where are you has placed great emphasis on the from?’ I could say ‘I’m British’. importance of migrants becoming

10 Deborah Sporton • Gill Valentine Danish. All newly arrived adult (18+) imagined itself to be a liberal and refugees must take part in a three tolerant place predicated on a strong year ‘integration programme’ where commitment to social equality in the they are taught about Danish society context of a supportive welfare state, and culture, to speak the language commentators have observed a and undergo other training to prepare significant shift in social attitudes as them for the labour market. In order a reaction to the perceived threats of to get permanent status a refugee European integration and associated must complete the integration immigration (Wren 2001). Since the programme, pass a early 1990s there has been growing test and a test about Danish society concern within Denmark about and have no convictions or debtsiii. immigration and integration which Likewise, upon starting school in has seen a tightening of asylum Denmark refugee children are sent to legislation, an increased focus on the ‘reception classes’ in specific schools importance of preserving ‘Danish’ where they are taught Danish culture, a discouragement of intensively, alongside other subjects, immigrants from maintaining with a focus on preparing them for transnational relations with their entry into a mainstream classroom. diasporic communities and the Increasingly, new initiatives to emergence of far-right groups provide kindergarten places for (Østergaard-Nielsen 2002). Indeed, refugee children are being introduced immigrants are often referred to as to ensure that they are able to speak ‘the strangers’ in popular discourse Danish before they reach school-age. illustrating their perceived lack of Indeed, many of the Somali families belonging in the national living in Aarhus speak Danish within imagination. Research has identified the family home as well as in public evidence of widespread space whereas Sheffield Somalis discrimination in terms of housing predominantly speak Somali at home. policies and the compulsory dispersal of refugees, practices which have The Somali community in Aarhus is faced little significant opposition located within neighbourhoods that from the liberal professional have a significant but very diverse establishment (Wren 2001). The minority ethnic population. These reception of areas are regarded as quite ‘rough’ has, according to some and so there is a tendency among commentators, been negative Somali families to try to move out as compared with the response to other soon as possible to better war refugees such as Bosnians, with neighbourhoods or to areas just the media and politicians frequently outside Aarhus which tend to be focusing problems of integration, and predominantly white. Others regard targeting Somalis for special Denmark as a stopping off point measures such as repatriation (Fadel rather than a final destination and so et al 1999). This phenomenon in have international mobility on their Danish society has been described by minds. As a result the Somali some commentators as Muslim children in Aarhus are ‘Somaliphobia’ and has provoked sometimes isolated in predominantly Somali representatives to complain white schools where they encounter to the United Nations High institutional and peer pressure to Commissioner for Refugees and to conform to secular Danish culture. request that refugees be located in a Yet despite enacting a Danish more tolerant country (Fadel et al, identity through language many of 1999). Perhaps not surprisingly, it is the Somali young people interviewed a desire to escape such prejudice in Aarhus described encountering and discrimination which is one of significant experiences of the most common motivations for discrimination and harassment in Somalis to undertake secondary everyday life (c.f. Essed 1991). migration once they have a European While Danish society has traditionally Union passport from Denmark to the

Identities on the Move: the integration experiences of Somali refugee and asylum seeker young people 11 UK. Indeed, some commentators Somali. But now they speak (e.g. Hamburger 1990) have argued that although the aim of Danish Somali fluently [laughs] because policy has been to integrate migrants so many Somalis live here, and into Danish society, the effect has they play together with them, and been to legitimate negative attitudes by the majority population towards the neighbours are Somali, and migrants and their cultures. The they go to school with Somalis, extent of this hostility is apparent in so they speak a lot of Somali. the way Somali young people themselves reproduce popular […]So when people speak Somali discourses about themselves as here when you go outside, you ‘foreigners’ and ‘dark people’ when think that you’re in Somalia. I’m describing their own everyday lives happy about this. (Mother) In contrast to the Danish respondents, and despite disavowing While, some of the Sheffield the identity British, or being fearful interviews did describe experiences of claiming this identity, the majority of racism, these negative events are of the Sheffield interviewees countered by a broader perception of nonetheless described feeling ‘safe’ safety and trust that comes from and ‘at home’ in the UK. Across the being part of a strong and stable Somali diaspora there is an image of local Somali Muslim community. It ‘Britain’ as a place of freedom to be might also reflect the fact that in whoever you are (Nielsen 2004). spite of racism and xenophobia in This perception of Britain as a safe Britain there has also been another place to live was contrasted more benevolent history in the UK of favourably with the experiences of hospitality (Nava 2006). Ash Amin those who have been migrants in has (2003) observed for example, other European countries. Unlike the that in the last 30 years mainstream Danish Somali community, none of British society has become more the families who participated in the cosmopolitan, multi-cultural and Sheffield research had any explicit tolerant in the UK. He attributes this plans to leave the city or the UK in change in part to a public culture the immediate future. following the Labour party’s election victory in 1997 which has addressed institutional racism, discrimination I feel that I live in my country, and racially motivated violence, as like in Somalia. Because my well as the importance of the micropolitics of everyday social cousins, my aunts, my uncles, encounters in overcoming cultural they live here [in Sheffield]. And differences. In one sense then it’s so free, I feel so free, I don’t Somalis in Sheffield feel that they belong in the UK because they feel know why. […] [In Denmark] all secure in their local community the time on the television they without necessarily being included in, talked about refugees and or self-identifying with, the nation. Somalis. Oh, it’s difficult to relax Belonging to a nation is not just then. […] There’s a big about citizenship per se (i.e. rights difference between Denmark and and responsibilities) it is about ‘the emotions that such memberships the UK. If we talk about evoke’ (Yuval-Davis et al 2005: Sheffield, there are many 526). Specifically, it is about the Somalis. So when we lived in security that being in ‘place’ provides. The Aarhus Somalis do not Denmark, my children spoke feel that they belong in Denmark, Danish fluently and only a little even though they enact a Danish

12 Deborah Sporton • Gill Valentine identity (e.g. through language) they legitimising negative attitudes by the remain ‘strangers’ without a liveable majority population towards migrants place within the nation. As such and their cultures. their networks and ability to reproduce a community of practice are fragile and precarious, leaving them feeling vulnerable in the face of narrow definitions of Danish Language nationhood. In contrast, the Sheffield Somalis feel that they and Integration belong in the UK — even though they do not identify as British — Research has shown that refugee because at a local level they have children are generally quicker to learn defined their own community in the language of the countries in which terms of shared values, networks they settle than their parents and practices, and in doing so have (Anderson 2001). This is because made the place their own. As such children are immersed in the they feel secure within their dominant national language at school, community and have a sense of whereas if parents are unemployed stake in its future. This stability and they may spend most of their time in emotional sense of being part of a community spaces where they have larger whole, which resonates from a limited exposure to and opportunities sense of having a place enables the to learn the new language. Children Sheffield Somalis a freedom to are also commonly less fearful of define their identities beyond narrow attempting to communicate with local prescriptions of Britishness. people than their parents, and as such may assume the role of family This comparison of the experiences interpreter at an early age, taking on of Somalis living in Aarhus and what can be extremely adult Sheffield has potential UK policy responsibilities in the family implications in the light of interim, and subsequent final, report by the Commission on Integration and My Mum if, if she wants to speak Cohesion (2007). The interim report to teacher or if, if say…my Aunt’s contained a warning that by going to a meeting and I can promoting respect for difference UK policy may be facilitating separation. translate to the people that she’s It identified a shared national vision having a meeting with…I’ve been of ‘Britishness’ as an important to the Town Hall. I’ve been to potential unifying force, and argued that an inability to speak English is Sheffield University with my Dad a critical barrier to the integration of and I’ve been to Birmingham migrant groups and to cohesion. In with my Dad to a meeting [acting many respects this emphasis in the interim report on the importance of as an interpreter]. (girl, aged 15) speaking English and the promotion of ill-defined notions of ‘Britishness’ The complex routes that Somali has echoes of the Danish policy of refugee and asylum seeking families ‘integration’. However, the danger of have taken to arrive in the UK mean such attempts to reduce or stabilise that different linguistic preferences, migrants’ identities into narrow as well as different linguistic categories of belonging is that they competencies between children and may threaten the space to define parents and even between siblings their own identities which gives themselves are commonplace. migrant groups, such as the Somalis Amongst recent arrivals Somali is the in Sheffield, the security to feel they common first language of parents. belong. At the same time, it also School age children arriving into the risks having the potential effect of UK via European countries are usually

Identities on the Move: the integration experiences of Somali refugee and asylum seeker young people 13 fluent in a European language such as children. Parents often therefore try Dutch or Danish, having spent several and enforce the formative years in a European and culture in the home, whereas education system. Whereas, younger children often prefer to speak children who have had little or no English and identify with English formal education prior to arriving in lifestyles as a result of their the UK because of their age at the experience of schooling. As a result point of migration pick up English intercultural differences are very quickly. Many children described emerging between the generations. different intrafamilal linguistic Young people feel their parents do competencies and preferences. not understand their experiences of trying to integrate in the UK. Me now with my Mum yeah I talk just normal Somali yeah and with I believe they losing Somali my Dad. [edit]. I speak with my because they speak in English. sisters and my little brother And if they lose, it’s hard to speak Dutch… teach again or also it’s hard to speak to other Somali people if Interviewer: Why do you speak they go back to Somalia or if they Dutch with them and not Somali meet my parents or if they or English? answer the phone when my Dad or Mum phone me. They [the I speak like, no I don’t speak children’s grandparents] can’t Somali to them yeah, I just speak speak English so that’s, I always Dutch and English. I can’t be thinking all that stuff, so I keep bothered to speak Somali you know, to teach them Somali, [laughs]…it just comes out yeah yeah. (Mother) when I’m talking to my sisters, I just talk Dutch. Dutch comes out of my mouth. When I talk with my parents like always Somali cos it goes like respect innit, Education yeah. (girl, aged 15) and Integration

The issue of language is often a Somali children (who now constitute cause of intergenerational or familial the third largest minority ethnic tensions. For parents speaking grouping in Sheffield) have been Somali at home is an important way consistently at the bottom of of ensuring their children retain their achievement tables suggesting roots, and develop a Somali identity. potential problems of integration in For many of the parents the the education system (ESES 2002). possibility of a ‘return’ to Somaliland figures significantly in their Many young Somalis arriving in the geographical imaginations. As such UK have had limited or no schooling ensuring their children are fluent in as a result of the Civil War and the Somali is also preparation for their associated disruption of mobility. It is imagined futures (as well as allowing estimated that 22% of 10-13 year old them to communicate with diasporic boys, and 24% of girls have been families) although this vision is not engaged in predominantly unwaged shared by the majority of the labour (UNDP 2003). Many have also

14 Deborah Sporton • Gill Valentine been exposed to ‘adult’ experiences of what it’s like, the thing is I’m persecution, conflict and violence in their country of origin or in caring for still young yeah but I know what family members (UN 2003, Naidoo its like to be an adult, I grew up 1997). It is known, for example, that quickly and like it is important to as many as 200,000 children or 5% of Somali children have carried a gun be a child yeah, to have your or been involved in militia activities at little childish moments or some stage in their lives (UN 2003). whatever, but still its’ just like As such many children arrive in the UK with limited schooling, yet years being an adult’s important to of ‘adult’ experience working to me…Cos I need to be an adult support the household economy. The anyway cos looking after my Mum survey findings, for example, demonstrated that Somali is a 24 hour job. (girl aged 17) respondents are significantly more likely than other children in Somali children entering the UK Sheffield to: help look after brothers education system also have very and sisters; help brothers and sisters disparate experiences of formal with their homework; and translate education and diverse language for family members than both white competencies because of their majority children and children from varied histories of mobility. For many other minority ethnic groups. children English may be the second, Perhaps not surprisingly, 68% of third or even fourth language that Somali children agreed with the they are learning (after Somali, statement that ‘I’m treated as an , Dutch, Danish and so on). adult at home’ compared to only 48% of the total sample Many refugee and asylum seeker children experience disadvantage in the educational system. Notably, the I grew up quick because my State school system and most services for children and families are Mum was ill [her father had been neighbourhood based and begin killed in ] and from an assumption that most like cos like I’m the oldest girl so people are located in one place. Yet, young asylum seekers are frequently I had to grow up quickly and like moved as part of dispersal initiatives help out with the house and help and as we outlined above may be the family and everything. By the detained in adult centres. As such young people can struggle to settle time I was what, by the time I in UK schools. Children described was ten I knew how to cook and for example, the way their education clean properly, like literally cook has been disrupted because of the different course content, and proper food. Most people when teaching styles in different schools, they’re 10 they know how to as well as the way mobility has make toast by the time I was 10 undermined their ability to develop relationships with teachers, and the I knew how to cook properly so I upheaval and isolation they was cooking, cleaning. By the encounter leaving school friends and time I was 12 I’d like know how re-establishing themselves within to pay the phone bill and different peer groups. everything and so I had Most of the children stated that they everything sorted so I grew up had not received any formal assistance from teachers to learn quite quickly. And like being an English or settle into the UK adult’s important because I know education system, despite in many

Identities on the Move: the integration experiences of Somali refugee and asylum seeker young people 15 cases speaking little English when Like in the English exam, the they first arrived in the UK. Rather, most described accounts of being past one they’ll give you a placed in classrooms where they passage and you have to write could not understand the lesson and it’s for ten marks and you being taught and of being expected to pick up English by osmosis. Many have to explain what that passage children reported that it was fellow is in big details. And they [his pupils (both white majority and fellow Somali pupils] won’t be Somali peers) who supported their integration by teaching them able to do that but English English, translating lessons for people will because it’s their them, or re-explaining key concepts language…They’ve been doing it to them. These practices were most evident in schools with ethnically for all their lives when this diverse catchments. However, in person hasn’t been doing it for some cases where children were all his life. (boy, aged 14) placed in pre-dominantly white schools they encountered bullying because of their language Differences between languages difficulties. Many of the children spoken at home and used at school were acutely aware of the education may also contribute to the relative disadvantages they faced. Boys in underachievement of children from particular, were more likely to minority ethnic backgrounds. In respond to the frustrations of their particular, the language patterns communication and integration within white middle class families difficulties by being disruptive in the are similar to literacy practices in classroom, resulting in punishments the classroom thus facilitating the and exclusions which further performance of middle class white perpetuated their sense of children at school. For Somali marginalisation and reproduced their children in Sheffield the emphasis educational disadvantage. placed on speaking Somali within the home means that their skills are not developed In Britain, it’s like when I started within the family and there is also a in year six it’s like I didn’t know disjuncture between their literacy much about what’s going on and practices at school and within their homes. Literacy in Somali is not like what the teachers are saying widespread among Somali speakers and like whiteboards, I didn’t in the UK given that an agreed know cos I used to know about Somali script was only introduced in the 1970s and that the formal like blackboards, like using education system in Somalia has chalk…like the different been severely disrupted by the civil countries [where she has lived], war for several decades. Moreover, because of the Somali children’s like they used to teach different parents’ own lack of formal stuff. Like Denmark was like, education in either Somali or Denmark’s kind of different for English and their unfamiliarity with the English education system most me because I don’t find much are unable to provide effective things hard but like Somalia like support for their children with you have to learn things or you homework in English or with their educational choices. This problem will get hit, if you don’t do your is compounded by high levels of homework, like you’re going to lone parent female headed get punished. (boy, aged 16) households within the Somali

16 Deborah Sporton • Gill Valentine community (as a result of men rootlessness with no particular being killed in the civil war, attachment to place, encountering remaining behind in Somalia, and disconnections between their high levels of divorce amongst those identities at home (treated in an settled in the UK). ‘adult-like’ way, speaking Somali) and at school (treated as a ‘child’ and communicating in English). The problem is that the mother is not, doesn’t get that much education, you know, or she doesn’t know even the language, Gender Issues you know, to go after her children, you know, to read even Most Somali young people start off aspiring to the same things as white the school report or what or majority children: a well-paid job, a anything, you see, or at least you house, a car, and other consumption know, or read even the newspaper opportunities. In this sense they aspire to integration. Many of them or speak to the people and know are happy living in the UK and what’s going on there you see. speak English, even though they This is which is the major thing I identify as Muslim and/or Somali rather than British. However, think they’re [Somali children] because they experience the missing. educational disadvantages outlined (Somali community worker) above (in relation to reception in the UK, language, and bullying) they find it difficult to achieve the Given the problems that Somali lifestyle to which they aspire through children encounter in the education conventional educational and system the Somali community has employment routes. At the same set-up its own homework clubs time, they are caught between their which run for two hours after the desire for a relatively material and normal school day finishes, individualistic British lifestyle and everyday of the week. While Somali the differing parents have little contact with or expectations/identifications involvement in the formal education emanating from their own system they enforce their children’s communities. As such significant attendance at these homework numbers of young Somali men are clubs because they know, they can turning to drugs and anti-social or communicate with, and trust the criminal activities as: alternative Somali volunteers who run it. While sources of material and social offering support in core school status; as an escape from the subjects, such as English, Maths circumstances in which they find and Science, the homework clubs themselves; or as a demonstration also provide Quaranic education. In of their ‘masculinity’ at a time of this way, these community spaces identity crisis. The young people both support Somali children’s interviewed also indicated that education in UK schools while also levels of alcohol consumption and (re)producing a particular smoking are on the rise amongst understanding of what it means to their peers. Such patterns, because be Somali which is predicated on they are largely invisible beyond the the Muslim faith. This faith community, are not yet addressed element is particularly significant through health education given Somali young people’s initiatives, such as the experiences, outlined above, of: Government’s Alcohol Harm missing their homeland or being Reduction strategy.

Identities on the Move: the integration experiences of Somali refugee and asylum seeker young people 17 they [Somali young men] want to respect of their wives and children, as it increasingly women who are be cool and to be cool you’ve got the public face of families, taking to have money. To be cool you responsible for organising housing have to be doing something and welfare issues (e.g. dealing with benefit, local authority, schools dangerous, like if you sell drugs etc.). It is argued, by community you’re going to go to prison. representatives, that this general [They say] ‘I don’t care, I can go crisis of masculinity and lack of male mentors is contributing to the to prison’. They speak that way. high incidence of youth offending. They just think it’s so cool. (girl aged 17) In our country we don’t control boys, we don’t control them at Boy: My friend got shot three all. As soon as he is 11 years, 12 times. He’s been to prison and years, he is the man of the family everything like that. They and he can decide for [parents] don’t understand. They himself…[In UK] they failing at just think we’re bad because we education because father is not want to be bad. ‘Why don’t you helping them, mother’s get a job?’ They don’t understand uneducated, father is [Edit]. Nobody is going to hire undereducated… (Mother) you so you’ve got to make your own way in this world. It’s the fathers who lost their responsibilities because of Interviewer: So it’s difficult for chewing …That’s the young people? problem because father he think he’s not responsible for anything. He don’t go to work, he don’t Boy: Yeah. Some people think educate himself, all he do is go it’s easy but you put yourself in somewhere and socialise with someone else’s shoes and you other same men. That’s what’s see how hard it is. Only because going wrong…When you were in of the lack of education (boy Somalia the men was working, aged 17). they had responsibility, they were working, bringing income to the Indeed, there is a crisis of house…Man was a king in this masculinity within the Somali house, in that world, but when community. While girls are closely he came here he don’t have work controlled in order to protect their own, and their families’, honour, he don’t speak the language. He boys are given more independence. still got that African mentality Many Somali teenage boys have that he is still the king in this grown up in the UK in single parent, female headed households or in place, so everything’s lost from households where the father plays a him. And he lose his minor role. There are high levels of responsibility, the woman see unemployment amongst Somali men and some described losing the him, lose her now, because he

18 Deborah Sporton • Gill Valentine don’t bring any money in the has a sense of security and space to define its own identity beyond or house, he don’t do anything with alongside narrow prescriptions of the children. (Mother) national identity. As such, policies that are implemented to support Somali young people to integrate For young women there are emerging into the UK must enable them to significant tensions in relation to retain and develop a strong sense of balancing their sense of duty and their own cultural identity and responsibility towards their parents heritage, while also supporting them and the wider Somali Muslim to access education, services and community and their desire to have similar life opportunities to the rest their freedom to make their own of the population. choices about clothing, dating, and their futures. This was most clearly Specifically, we recommend that expressed in relation to the wearing there is a need to: of the hijab. Many of the young women, particularly those who had • develop more effective processes lived in the Netherlands or of preparation and reception to Scandanavian countries where support refugee and asylum Somali communities adopt a more seeker children’s entry into UK liberal approach to their faith, were schools. ambivalent about wearing the hijab. Some of these women managed their • provide funding to develop the identities differently in different educational support that Somali spaces according to the people they community homework clubs were with, or whom they may be provide for Somali young people; seen by. The interviewees also to link this more strongly with the described an emerging – but hidden British school curriculum; and to — culture of smoking amongst enable these community young Somali women as well as organisations to help Somali young men. Such patterns have parents to understand, trust and implications for health education engage with their children’s programmes. schools.

• beware of stressing the importance of a shared national identity in policy initiatives Recommendations because this can have the potential effect of legitimising This research has explored the negative attitudes by the majority complex, intersecting influences on white population towards young Somali refugee and asylum migrants and their cultures. seekers’ identity formations. The findings demonstrate the importance • address the persistence of the of place or context in shaping how association of Britishness with individuals develop and perform whiteness – which is implicit, if their own identities; and in terms of not intended, in new systems for how their identities are read and developing British citizenship. acknowleged or denied by others. • promote ‘meaningful contact’ The evidence of the comparative between Somali communities and work, exploring the experiences of white majority communities. Somali refugee and asylum seekers in Sheffield, UK and Aarhus, • support and develop community Denmark respectively, demonstrates space and capacity building for that a sense of ‘belonging’ in a Somali organisations, because country develops where a community this gives these groups the

Identities on the Move: the integration experiences of Somali refugee and asylum seeker young people 19 security to feel they belong to the nation. References Anderson, P. (2001) You don’t belong here in • support community projects to …On the social situation of refugee children in Germany’. Journal of Refugee Studies, 14, 187-199. address differences emerging Amin, A. (2003) Unruly strangers? The 2001 urban riots between the genders and in Britain, International Journal of Urban and Regional generations within the Somali Research, 27, 460-63. community. Berns McGowan, R. (1999) Muslims in the Diaspora. University of Press, Toronto. Commission on Integration and Cohesion (2007) Our • train more Somali men as Interim Statement. www.integrationandcohesion.org.uk. mentors to work with young men Accessed February 2007. in their community through both Commission on Integration and Cohesion (2007) Shared national programmes, such as Futures. www.integrationandcohesion.org.uk. Accessed Connexions, and community- November 2007. DfES (2003) Every Child Matters, (London, TSO). based initiatives. DfES (2005) Ethnicity and Education: The Evidence on Minority Ethnic Pupils, Research Paper (RTP01-05) • develop appropriate community (Nottingham, DfES Publications). specific local health promotion Essed, P. (1991): Understanding Everyday Racism: An initiatives to tackle an emerging Interdisciplinary Theory. Sage Publications. Fadel, U. et al (1999): De “besværlige” somaliere, pp. — but hidden — culture of 171-213 In: Hervik, P. Den generende forskellighed – smoking and drinking amongst Danske svar på den stigende multikulturalisme Cph: some Somali young people. Hans Reitzels Forlag. Hamburger, C. (1990) Assimilation som grundtræk i dansk indvandrerpolitik Politica 22:3. Henderson, K. (2005) Protection, Legal Advice and the Asylum Process. Paper presented at the Refugee Children: Safeguarding the Future of Those Hardest to Protect Conference, York, UK, 9th November. More Information Home Office (2001) Full and Equal Citizens, (London, If you would like to know more about HMSO). Home Office (2007) Asylum Statistics 2006, (London, the project and its findings please HMSO). contact: IRIN (2003) A Gap in their Hearts: The Experience of Separated Somali Children, (Nairobi, United Nations Dr Deborah Sporton Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) / Department of Geography Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)). University of Sheffield Naidoo, J. (Ed.) (1997). Somali Children in our Schools. Winter Street A Guide and Information Booklet for Teachers and Sheffield, 10 2TN Professionals Working with Somali Parents and Children. [email protected] (London, Tower Hamlets Language Support Service). Nava, M. (2006) Domestic cosmopolitanism and structures of feeling: the specificity of London, in Yuval-Davis, N., Professor Gill Valentine Kannabiran, K. and Vieten, U.M. (2006) (eds.) The School of Geography Situated Politics of Belonging. (Sage, London) pp.42-53. University of Leeds Nielsen, K. B. (2004a) Next stop Britain: The influence of Woodhouse Lane transnational networks on the secondary movement of Leeds, LS2 9JT Danish Somalis, Sussex Migration Working Paper No. 22, (Brighton, University of Sussex). [email protected] Østergaard-Nielsen, E. (2002) Politik over grænser. Tyrkere og kurderes engagement i det politiske liv i hjemlandet. Aarhus, Magtudredningen Somers, M.R. (1994) The narrative constitution of identity: a relational and network approach, Theory and Society, 23, pp. 605-649. UN (2003) Report of the UN Independent Expert on Somalia, UN Doc. E/Cn.4/2004/103/ 30 November 2003. UNDP (2003) Socio-Economic Survey Somalia. Report No.1 Somalia Watching Brief, (Nairobi, UNDP/World Bank). Wren, K. (2001) Cultural racism: something rotten in the state of Denmark? Social & Cultural Geography, 2, 141-22. Yuval-Davis, N, Anthias, F and Kofman, E. (2005) Secure borders and safe haven and the gendered politics of belonging, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 28, 513-535.

20 Deborah Sporton • Gill Valentine

Somali Report Cover Nov 07 21/11/07 1:49 pm Page 1

Identities on the Move: the integration experiences of Somali refugee and asylum seeker young people

Deborah Sporton • Gill Valentine © cover photograph copyright of Chris Clune