Disclaimed or Reclaimed? Muslim Refugee Youth and Belonging in the Age of Hyperbolisation

Abstract

Using data derived chiefly from the Somali community in Minneapolis, Minnesota, this paper explores the challenges confronting its youth. The findings are the result of an ongoing ethnographic engagement with this community that has been conducted for over a decade. Stressing that marginalisation is due to the combined impact of race, religion and class, the article points to the factors that have led some youth in the direction of drugs and crime while others have opted for radical Islam. In the post-9/11 era of securitisation, with evidence of over-policing of the Somali community, the challenges to incorporation are intensified due to the ongoing Othering process of this refugee group.

Keywords:

• Refugees
• Radicalisation
• Racialisation
• Policing
• Intersectionality
• Belonging
• Securitisation
• Youth
• Class
• Muslim
• Race
• Religion

Notes

[1] Notwithstanding his place in Somali literature, Mr Isse has left the USA under a cloud of suspicion, with allegations that he sexually abused a 10-year-old girl in the 1990s. His criminal proceedings were never completed after his flight to the Horn of Africa, which resulted in his name being placed in the most wanted sex offenders list in the USA (Pioneer Press 2007).

[2] My transcription of a video posted on CBS local, Minnesota, 2015. The italicised are my additions for clarification.