A Somali Refugee Family's Quest for Healing

Large numbers of Somali refugees like Yahya Iman have resettled in the United States, but freedom from war and persecution are not always without a price. Iman's mentally ill sister was put under the care of Minnesota social services, and the family is finding their culture at odds with the state's efforts to meet her needs.


"[Iman's family members] find their values and assumptions don't have a place in America," writes journalist Joel Grostephan, who interviewed the Iman family, now living in Minnesota. "For a Somali family, having a daughter succumb to mental illness and not being able to care for her is a humiliating cultural clash. In Somalia, family takes care of family."


Since Yahya Iman's sister Samira fainted and went to the hospital in 2007, her family has struggled against Minnesota state privacy laws for information about her whereabouts.


Only recently did Samira return home, and for a period of time the Iman family did not know where she was living.


Some mental health professionals in the state -- which has a large Somali diaspora -- are making an effort to adapt treatment practices to Somali culture.


Nonetheless, the Iman family has been frustrated that they have not been able to play a large role in caring for Samira, nor have they been able to provide her regularly with the traditional spiritual treatments they would primarily have turned to in Somalia. (See Grostephan's full story below.)


Out of the 25,000 Somali refugees who have been admitted into the U.S. since 1990, about 16,000 live in Minnesota, writes Marc-Antoine Perous de Montclos in his essay, "A Refugee Diaspora: When the Somali Go West," published in New African Diasporas.


The majority of the Somali diaspora in Minnesota live in the poorer parts of Minneapolis and other urban areas, where they likely have limited access to health care. Like other refugee groups, displaced Somalis may suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or other mental illnesses due to conditions in their native country.


After Iraq, Somalia is the top country of origin for people seeking asylum in industrialized nations, says the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) annual report.


Roughly 21,800 Somalis applied for asylum in industrialized nations in 2008 a 77 percent increase from 2007. Others are fleeing to neighboring countries like Kenya, where they are largely met with violence, corruption, and deplorable living conditions, reports Human Rights Watch.

Source: Portalangop.co.ao