Finding Refuge Between Worlds
Revisiting a past work on navigating a childhood lost in translation
Translated from the original work in Spanish, Refugiarse entre mundos (2021) was an artist zine meant to merge my own research on third culture kids with what I learnt as a part of the Health & Migration project; to better understand and create more awareness of the overall effects of migration on childhood, including children that are left behind.
How Migration Teaches us to Adapt
A new series of studies between Latin America and Spain have begun to understand migration as a process of adapting to a series of losses and changes that occur in the journey between different worlds. This may include any changes that occur on the way there before, during and after migrating. Whenever we have to leave our family behind or learn a new language, migratory stress teaches us to adapt and in return gifts us with new abilities.
The Journey of Childhood
In many ways, our childhood can be thought of as a journey in search of a home to which to belong. According to experts, there are seven links with which we create this home, but we can simplify them into five broader categories that include: family and friends, language and culture, landscape, ethnic group or social status, and safety.
Five Forms of Belonging
Relationships with family and friends
Expression through language and culture
A geographic connexion to landscape and climate
Belonging to an ethnic group or social status
A physical sense of safety and security
The Role of Family
Our identity tries to answer the question Where is my place? which is another way of saying Where do I belong? Our first relationships with family and friends have a very important role in how we begin to answer these questions as they show us the first model of how we can begin to identify with and relate to the world around us. When a family migrates, the family structure changes and becomes a little fragmented in the process of adapting to a new place. For this reason, a new move or a change of scenery can also mean a new role or changing roles in the world of a child, and two or more places can bring along even more distinct roles, at times confusing or contradictory.
A New Reality
Stress, much like pain, is a natural response to the challenges that can be found on the road between different worlds, but without clear examples to teach them how to manage it, stress can become a new and incomprehensible reality for a child that can cause them a lot of pain and fear. Childhood is a very important period for the development of good mental health that includes values like trust and self-esteem. Therefore, it is up to parents, teachers and other trust-worthy adults to show children a healthy way to understand and process their own grief.
Common Causes of Familial Stress in Childhood
Frequent separation from family and friends
Lack of communication with parents when they travel
Detachment from parents due to frequent absence
Potential risks to parents due to their work
Alienation from friends in their native country
Experiences of discrimination, violence or abuse
A World Between Worlds
Reuniting a family impacted by the trials of migrating requires a lot of time and patience but, in spite of being difficult, not everything that changes is bad. Migration is an exchange of gains as well as losses that call on us to reconstruct our worlds, and in its abundance of expressions and multiple identities, we can mix the best of experiences new and old to find refuge in a better world “between worlds.”
References
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Achotegui, Joseba. “Los duelos de la migración: una aproximación psicopatológica y psicosocial.” In Medicina y cultura: Estudios entre la antropología y la medicina, edited by Enrique Perdiguero and Josep M. Comelles, 81–100. Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra, 2000.
Brara, Noor. “Finding a Place for Third-Culture Kids in the Culture.” The New York Times, Sept. 11, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/t-magazine/luca- guadagnino-third-culture-kids.html.
Cason, Rachel May. “’Third culture kids’: migration narratives on belonging, identity and place.” PhD diss., Keele University, 2015.
Encalada, Santiago Ron. “Impacto de la migración en la salud mental en niños y adolescentes.” PhD, diss., Universidad de Cuenca, 2010.
Espejo, Mariela. Embarque: Para permanecer não é necessário ficar. Engenheiro Coelho: Edición de autor, 2019: 46–50. https://issuu.com/marielasofiae/docs/embarque_-_final_issuu
Johnson, Kelsey A. “Children’s Picturebook as Critical Practice: Constructing a Collaborative Counter-Narrative with Resettled Refugees.” Master’s thesis, Texas State University, 2020.
Park, Sun Young. “Third Culture Kids’ View On Immigration and Global Citizenship.” SIR Journal of International Relations (2017). http://www.sirjournal.org/op-ed/2017/1/20/third-culture-kids-view-on-immigration-and-global-citizenship
Villalón, Roberta. “Una aproximación sociológica crítica activista al estudio de salud y migración: el caso ecuatoriano.” Revista CS 29 (2019): 103-138. https://doi.org/10.18046/recs.i29.3481.