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Abstract
This article considers the emotional geographies of a highly vulnerable demographic: refugee women. As a marginalised and ontologically fragile group, refugees have developed rich and perceptive insight on space and place, by developing a critical vigilance that reflects forward and back on their life journeys, real and metaphorical. Through participation in a psycho-educational course designed by the author, nine women produced their own images of resilience, in creative exercises that provided ‘landmarks’ of recognition for other participants. Via participation in this temporary ‘community of practice’, therefore, another journey was taken; this article will also consider the epistemology of that itinerary using interdisciplinary insights from geography, cultural studies, cognitive behavioural therapy and gender studies.
Este artículo considera las geografías emocionales de una población altamente vulnerable: las mujeres refugiadas. Como grupo marginalizado y ontológicamente frágil, los refugiados y las refugiadas han desarrollado una perceptiva comprensión sobre espacio y lugar, desarrollando una vigilancia crítica que reflexiona hacia adelante y hacia atrás sobre sus viajes de la vida, reales y metafóricos. A través de la participación en un curso psicopedagógico diseñado por la autora, nueve mujeres produjeron sus propias imágenes de resiliencia, en ejercicios creativos que proveyeron ‘hitos’ de reconocimiento para otras participantes. A través de la participación en esta ‘comunidad de práctica’ temporaria, por lo tanto, se realizó otro viaje; este artículo también considerará la epistemología de ese itinerario utilizando ideas interdisciplinarias de la geografía, estudios culturales, terapia cognitiva comportamental y estudios de género.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Mike Collyer and Linda Morrice for their helpful suggestions in preparing this manuscript and especially the women of the Journeys of Resilience course for their spirit of generosity and engagement.
Notes
1. There is a significant body of literature on gender and migration, and qualitative research within population geography. Readers wishing to pursue this should start by reading Silvey's (Citation2004, Citation2006) review essays.
2. In most countries, someone must apply for asylum before they will be recognised by the government as a refugee, which can take years. The 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees declares that a refugee has fled their country due to ‘a well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.’ For definitions of ‘refugee’ and ‘asylum seeker’, see further http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/.
3. More information can be found in the Refugee Council report on the social aspects of integration available at http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/Resources/Refugee%20Council/downloads/researchreports/Integrationresearchreport.pdf. See also Refugee Council (2008, 2009a, 2009b).
4. Photography also has a long history as a therapeutic intervention. See, for example, Josephine U. Herrick's 1941 work with injured and traumatised American soldiers in Second World War (Perchick Citation1992).
5. The author is a Cultural Studies academic with expertise in emotions, identity and subcultures, and also a British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) accredited Cognitive Behavioural Therapist.
6. A Community of Practice (Wenger Citation1998) is a group of people who share a common interest to learn from each other through sharing their knowledge and experience. Wenger (Citation1998, 72–73) explained how the Community of Practice should contain three activities: ‘mutual engagement’, ‘joint enterprise’ and ‘shared repertoire’.
7. Most local forms of refugee provision centred around language teaching; for refugees fluent in English there was little to offer in terms of municipal or community support, seeming to stereotype refugees as non-English speakers. For a study of local resettlement issues in Brighton and Hove, see Collyer and de Guerre (Citation2007/8).
8. Different reviewers of this article were helpful in providing precise additional sources but reviewers called variously for more literature on geography, gender and migration, population studies, trauma and memory research, feminist pedagogy, social and cultural studies, refugee studies, psychotherapeutic theory and simply ‘more methodology’! In doing this, the reviewers crystallised the difficulty of publishing interdisciplinary research. I was relieved that one sympathetic reviewer pointed out that ‘I realise that there could potentially be endless lists of research areas to be included and that it is not possible to include everything’.
9. http://www.rcn.org.uk/development/practice/social_inclusion/asylum_seekers_and_refugees (accessed 4 January 2010). Refugee Council (2008, 2009a, 2009b).
10. Mental health geography can provide further resources for thinking about the spatialisation of psychological harm (Parr Citation2008; Jones Citation2007).
11. Feminist pedagogy attempts to create ‘democracy in the classroom’, interrogating the power dynamics of teaching and avoiding reproducing systems of learning that emphasise masculine rationality, hierarchy, truth and objectivism, instead deploying situated knowledges (Haraway Citation1988). Collaborative learning, respect for social differences, creating an environment of mutual support, listening and consideration for others, these characteristics are all markers of the feminist classroom. Given also that the project was hosted by a local voluntary sector women's counselling service, an organisation formed by feminist activist principals, it was even more necessary to create feminist praxis within that building.
12. The Refugee Council's Specialist Team for mental health runs a small, insecurely funded service in London for women only, the Vulnerable Women Project, and their experience is illustrative:
From 1 December 2006 to 31 August 2008, we assessed 156 refugee women from 27 countries. 74% had been raped and 34% exposed to some form of violence, either in their country of origin or in the UK. 74% were experiencing trauma-related psychological distress including nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety, low mood and hyper-vigilance. 20% had developed gynecological issues as a result of their experiences. http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/howwehelp/directly/theracasework.htm (accessed 3 January 2010).
13. Principles of Multicultural Counselling and Therapy (Gielen et al. Citation2008) offered crucial material on working within this paradigm; of significant relevance was Juris G. Dragun's essay from this collection ‘What Have We Learned About the Interplay of Culture with Counselling and Psychotherapy?’
14. The geographical descriptors ‘Africa’ and ‘Europe’ were the ones used by the women themselves. These are of course geo-political terms of representation.
15. See 2001 census data at ONS Citation2003, and http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/profiles/45uh.asp (accessed 2 January 2010).
16. This is despite the fact that the buses in Brighton are probably the most ethnically diverse places in the city.
17. My own spirituality was carefully verified; I was questioned closely on my own religious practice. None of the women had heard of the Unitarian Church of which I am a member, and they enquired prudently as to its fundamental rites and creed. As the Unitarians pride themselves precisely on not having a creed or set belief system, but respecting the individual's idiosyncratic spiritual journey, my account was scrupulously interrogated to a point that the women were satisfied, although they probably viewed my Unitarianism as another liberal Protestant peculiarity!
18. This debate was generated in response to the Call For Papers for the conference ‘Geographies of religion: a new dialogue’, 8–9 March 2010, Newcastle University, UK.
19. In Islam the Prophet Mohammed travels with his people in the great Hajj from Mecca to Medina in the year AD 622, and Buddha left the comfort of his palace because he was so troubled by the poverty he could see on the other side of the wall, he travelled in order to find the answers to human suffering. In Hinduism, there are many mythologies and stories of resilience, for example, Prince Rama had to travel a long journey full of travails, betrayals and conflict to marry Princess Sita. In Judaism, Moses travelled in the wilderness with the Hebrews for 40 years before discovering Canaan, the land of milk and honey.
20. ‘Psychoeducation,’ first coined in 1911, is used widely within individual and group mental health settings to educate and inform clients on psychological conditions, their causes and treatments. Its purpose is to empower the client by providing knowledge and an open space for discussion. It aims to destigmatise their distress, provide peer support and build coping strategies for managing trauma. See Anderson et al. (Citation1986) and her explanatory podcast at http://socialworkpodcast.blogspot.com/2007/10/family-psychoeducation-interview-with.html.