Somali-Canadian Women: Historical Past of Survival and Facing Everyday Challenges of Resettlement?

Using a qualitative life history methodology, this study explores the migration and integration experiences of Somali-Canadian women/mothers who resettled in Toronto and Ottawa. This study focuses on womens narratives at each stage of migration and resettlement. It explores the internal and external barriers that are now contributing to the Somalis prolonged poverty and a life of toxic stress in Canada. In addition, this study identifies external barriers such as geopolitically based economic/social exclusions as well as internal barriers such as fear and isolation that are silent, systemic and are currently working against Somali-Canadians and other Black ethnic groups. Since 1978 reports from the Horn of Africa depicted a bleak picture of a region in crisis mainly from the areas inhabited by Somali ethnic groups. The contributors of this ongoing crisis have been the long absence of formal governance in that region, the longstanding tribal conflicts in other regions, reports of famine, political Islam, piracy, kidnapping, and mass displacement. According to recent UNHCR reports (2009, 2011, 2012 & 2015), there are now approximately 1.4 million internally displaced Somalis within what was known before 1991 as the Somali Republic and nearly one million Somali refugees who have fled to neighbouring countries. Because of these longstanding regional issues, many Somali refugees resettled in Canada in the late 1990s and early 2000. Upon arrival searching for social support, the overwhelming majority of Somalis began to resettle in Toronto and other major cities including Ottawa. In this study, the narratives of survival in these womens stories were analyzed using a multidisciplinary approach including knowledge from social neuroscience. The findings indicate that more than two decades after their initial arrival the majority of Somali-Canadians still live under stressful, poverty ridden and toxic environments with the possibility of transference of trauma to the next generation. Finally, this study concludes with a recommendation as to how to create an indigenous social work intervention that is acceptable, effective, and meaningful for this ethnic group.