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It is the disturbing experiences of asylum seekers in Australian immigration detention centres that have inspired my Personal Interest Project...particularly...the implications that such a regime had for adolescent asylum seekers. How did the detention environment affect their socialisation, and by implication, their sense of identity?
...Adolescent detainees...internalised a sense of blame or guilt for the hardships endured by their family. Nahid’s experiences in detention convey how detrimental a burden of blame was for the adolescent asylum seeker...she wrestled with self rejection, that “if I wasn’t a girl, if I was a boy, or if I wasn’t in this family, then they (my family) could have stayed” in Afghanistan.
...This sense of responsibility was exacerbated when adolescents supported new or increased roles and responsibilities...surrendered by their parents because of their poor mental and/or physical health...and whilst adolescence is typically a life stage when the child begins to individuate away from the family...concerns over their parents’ welfare often eclipsed their enthusiasm to socialise with peers.
...This resulted in the redistribution of familial roles, and inadvertently, of power and authority. Hence, some adolescents experienced power and responsibilities that lay outside the scope dictated by their life stage.
The role reversal that transpired meant that “instead of parents going out into the world and bringing information back to the family” it was adolescents who attended local schools, who fulfilled this role... the first real contact with their new society was in the environment of the local school.
...Scrutinised and shamed by the media and public...the federal government allowed increasing numbers of detainee children to attend local schools from mid 2002.
...Conflict with Australian peers led to feelings of rejection. In some cases, children from local schools did not address detainees by their names...“they’d call us ‘refugee’ – for example, “refugee, do this”’. This ‘othering’ was an alienating experience...adolescent detainees were reduced to and internalised this refugee status – their personal identity was very much circumscribed by their collective identity. This is of particular concern, because adolescence is key period for identity formation, when you begin to individuate – yet at times, this process was retarded by their collectively victimised refugee status.
...The ramifications of Australia’s policy of mandatory detention have yet to be fully realised. I recognise that my silence is collusion, a very a part of the problem itself, and so, for me, this PIP represents my initiation into the sphere of social and cultural literacy.
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