Sarah-Jane Bennison. Aberdeenshire EAL Service from IOM UN Migration presentation 20.01.20

The Experiences of Refugees from Syria (Jan 2020)

Contents:

1. History

2. Refugees

3. Resettlement

4. What is Culture Shock

1. History

After five decades of the same ruling party people were seeing their freedoms gradually eroded. The “Arab Spring” in 2011 led to protests in Syria in March 2011. The Syrian government responded with a crackdown and violence, which lead to conflict. Since the conflict began 6.3 million people have been internally displaced (45 of the population). 5 million have fled the country and half a million have died.

The remaining population suffer from decreased water availability, reduced electricity coverage, damaged housing (20 destroyed or damaged), reduced access to hospitals (40 of hospitals are not functioning and doctors have been forcefully moved or arrested), half a million children uneducated (25% of schools have been destroyed, damaged or repurposed), high unemployment and increased poverty and further outbreaks of violence leading to trauma. Trauma leads to anger, domestic violence and mental health issues.

Syria used to be self-sufficient in electricity and the standard of living was equal to that of Western countries in the cities. Now there are many deaths from preventable diseases; polio is coming back after having been eliminated. 80% of the population are living in poverty, there is 68% unemployment and a regression of skills in the work force.

From 1970 to 2009 there had been considerable improvements in health indicators although overall investment was still relatively low (3% GDP compared to 9% in UK) and quality uneven. Rural areas were neglected.

In cities there was public and private health care. The private health care was very affordable. Syrians were used to having appointments on the same day they called and they had direct access to specialists and pharmacists, not needing to go through a GP. 90% of medications were produced locally.

However it was not common to have early childcare as in the UK and there was limited mental health care. Mental health issues and disability were taboo subjects. There were only two hospitals in Syria that dealt with mental health and they were only for most serious cases. Depression was disregarded or unrecognised. People found solutions in religion or traditional medicine. The language Syrians use to describe depression describes physical pain and is therefore easy to misinterpret.

2. Refugees

There are 2,715,789 Syrian refugees in Turkey, 1,067,785 in Lebanon, 639,740 in Jordan, a large number in Iraq and smaller numbers in Egypt and Libya. Many other refugees have travelled to other European countries illegally.

Conditions in neighbouring countries

The refugees in the countries surrounding Syria (around 50 million) are housed in UN refugee camps or in the towns and cities in any accommodation they can find, even building shanty towns on the outskirts of some cities.

The majority of refugees are living in unofficial accommodation and are not registered as refugees. This puts enormous pressure on the communities they are living in. In Lebanon in order to work the refuges need a visa and a Lebanese sponsor. In other countries they are forbidden to work. Over all the rate of employment of refugees is very low.

In Turkey if the children are able to get into school they will be educated in Turkish. In the other countries the education is in Arabic. The majority of children are not attending school.

The families are living in overcrowded accommodation with no privacy. Access to housing, health support, work and education are all at the discrimination of the local authorities. The families experience bullying or are made to pay more than the locals to access these services.

Vulnerability of women

Girls and women are often victims of sexual violence in. The refugee community has adapted to protect them by becoming more conservative. Girls and women always have a family escort when they go out, they do not go out at night and they dress more conservatively. Often girls are pressed into early marriage to protect them.

Specific needs

2014 figures from HelpAge International and Handicap International show that there are hidden victims among the refugees. Of the refugees surveyed around 11% have physical impairments, 7% suffer from chronic conditions and 1% from injuries sustained from the fighting, individual attack or accident. There is a crossover between these groups so that, for instance, 1 % of these suffer from all three and 7% of these have a physical impairment and suffer from chronic conditions. Overall people over 50 are more affected by these issues than younger people.

On top of this the challenges and experiences of the refugees have taken a toll on mental health. The following figures show the percentage of refugees surveyed who suffer from psychological distress: 29% have cognitive difficulties (of these 10% have no other conditions), 27% have behavioural difficulties (of these 17% have no other conditions), 28% have relationship difficulties (of these 20% have no other conditions) and 52% have emotional difficulties (of these 31% have no other conditions).

Refugee Camps and other accomodation

Jordan has one of the world’s largest refugee camps. Where there were originally tents there are now buildings, streets and electricity. There has been proper planning with infrastructure, shops schools and health centres. In these camps 50% of the population are children.

In Lebanon there are no refugee camps. Shanty towns have been built with no planning. The Refugees have to rent land to build a shelter on. These shelters are built of anything that can be found; plastic sheeting, bits of wood, corrugated iron, cardboard. There are no services such as electricity and water. 20% of the population of Lebanon are refugees.

Those refuges who live in urban settlements often have only one room for an extended family. The room may be a room in a house, a garage, a cellar or a shed. These will be rented and all services have to be paid for.

3. Resettlement

The UNHCR (United Nations Refugee Agency) registers all refugees and gives aid and support wherever they are.

· Assists repatriation when the situation allows. This is always voluntary.

· Assists local integration

· Organises resettlement for the most vulnerable families (this is not a right).

Only a small number of refugees are resettled. Families are selected according to their vulnerability. Their background is carefully checked to make sure there are no potential security issues for the receiving country. The family can choose not to be resettled but they can’t necessarily choose the country they are resettled in. However reunification is possible as the officials try to reunite families where members have previously been resettled especially if this will support the refugees. In the UK the Home Office has the final say on each case.

The IOM (International Organisation for Migration) is the agency that organises the resettlement once a family has been selected.

The refugees receive three main types of pre-departure services:

· Health assessments

· Movement services: documentation, flight booking etc

· Pre-departure (cultural) orientation.

Medical Health Assessments

These happen at screening locations in the Middle East and North Africa.

Medical processing includes:

· Pre-examination

· Diagnostics

· Medical history

· Physical examination

· Electronic data sharing

Most refugees have no medical paperwork with them. Each person’s Health Assessment is sent to the Home Office.

Movement Services

· Visas

· Travel documents

· IOM bags (essential equipment and information)

· Arrangement of all travel-related services

· Escorts (for the UK these are mandatory; they travel with the refugees from entering the airport to their destination)

· Handover to local authorities

Cultural Orientation

Pre departure the IOM deliver a 10 hour course, over three days, to help the refugees build a foundation for integration.

The content of the course is set by the Home Office and covers:

· an introduction to the UK including politics, gender roles, geography and the weather

· pre departure and travel briefing

· Employment; how to find employment, organisations that can help

· Housing; different types of housing

· Benefits

· Education; parental involvement and what to expect

· The law

· The National Health Service

· Cultural adaption; cultural norms (like queuing)

· What to expect in the first weeks after arrival

The course is delivered by IOM by trainers who are Syrian and have been refugees themselves. These are men and women. They teach through discussing real situations. People are free to ask questions. The questions are usually about education, finding work and family reunification.

They talk about myths of Western culture and what they see in the media.

Information the refugees are given:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/welcome-a-guide-for-new-refugees

Published in Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Kurdish Sorani, Farsi, Pushto, Punjabi, Tigrinua, Urdu, Vietnamese, Chinese

(https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/strategy-plan/2018/01/new-scots-refugee-integration-strategy-2018-2022/documents/00530097-pdf/00530097-pdf/govscot%3Adocument/00530097.pdf)

Arriving in the UK

On arrival into the designated UK airport, IOM officially hand over responsibility and documentation to Local Authority Refugee Resettlement Teams.  Resettlement support is normally provided by councils but is funded by the Home Office.  The focus for teams is to ensure that refugee families have a functioning level of self sufficiency within 12 months of arrival.

4. What is Culture Shock?

“A state of bewilderment and distress experienced by an individual who is suddenly exposed to a new, strange or foreign social and cultural environment.” (dictionary.com)

Culture shock causes stress in all areas of life. This is limiting. The tools for survival that have been learnt during a person’s life may not work in a new environment.

Symptoms of culture shock:

· anger

· irritability

· intense homesickness

· loss of motivation

· withdrawal

· excessive amounts of time spent on insular activities such as sleeping or watching TV

· feeling helpless or hopeless

· suicidal

· bored

· anxious

· having panic attacks

· loss of self confidence

· compulsive behaviour

As noted earlier mental health issues are hard for Syrians to talk about or even recognise so this needs to be dealt with very sensitively. It is better to find a fellow Syrian, who has had a good experience of mental health support, to talk to about depression to a new arrival.

Stages of cultural adjustment:

There are 3 phases:

· In the first phase everything is new, exciting and different.

· In the next phase people begin to be frustrated that they cannot carry on their lives as they used to. They become annoyed with the everyday differences and then gradually adjust to these more trivial problems. Whilst adjusting to everyday life, more fundamental problems need confronting such as cultural and personal issues.

· Finally a person learns to live in a different way and find different solutions to their difficulties.

This journey of ups and downs runs alongside the normal ups and downs of life everybody experiences but will tend to exaggerate them. The period of adjustment takes a different length of time for each individual but will take at least a year. Children tend to adapt more quickly.

The length of time it takes for this adjustment is affected by how the new arrival is treated by the individuals they meet. If they have positive experiences then the adjustment is likely to be easier.

Most Syrian families adapt very quickly to new customs and cultures, so we should always take time to find out what works best each individual family, and not make homogenous cultural assumptions.

Further reading:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/17/world/americas/syrian-refugees-canada.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/25/world/canada/syrian-refugees.html

Ager and Strang Framework for Integration (commissioned by the Home Office) www.migrationscotland.org.uk/ager-and-strang-2008-understanding-integration-conceptual-framework#

http://www.migrationscotland.org.uk/

https://www.scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk/

https://www.local.gov.uk/syrian-refugee-resettlement-guide-local-authorities

https://local.gov.uk/resettling-refugees-support-after-first-year-guide-local-authorities

The original presentation was by Ahmad al-Rashid aalrashid@iom.int and Huda Abu Kassem habukassem@iom.int from IOM