Cultural Belonging and Political Mobilization in Refugee Families

Abstract

Having faced multiple traumatic events and severe losses linked to situations of organized violence in their home countries, refugees might experience a loss of connection due to the destruction of important social bonds and a fragmentation of cultural structures. Studies provide growing evidence that cultural belonging and political mobilization may play an important role in reconstructing meaning and connection in the wake of collective violence, loss, and exile. In this chapter, we explore the role of these collective identifications in post-trauma reconstruction through the case of Kurdish refugee families. Thematic analysis of family and parent interviews indicates how the intra-familial transmission of collective identifications may operate as a source of dealing with cultural bereavement and loss, commemorating trauma, and reversing versus reiterating trauma. The findings support an explorative understanding of collective identifications as meaningful resources in refugee families’ post-trauma reconstruction. Our analysis also identifies a paradox between reparative and potentially perilous aspects of collective identifications.