Unpacking conflict: “We don’t import conflict. But we do import trauma.”

Roma Berns-McGown, author of a Mosaic Institute on imported conflicts:

“What happens over time is that people come to re-understand the conflict. They re-frame it. People start to see that what they experienced was a function of an interest group or an ideology,” says Berns-McGown.

“It’s a revolutionary difference.”

It depends on how the conflict affected each person, says Berns-McGown. One interview subject said the conflict ‘was my childhood,’ she says. Others said they could see it still it being played out by their parents.

Berns-McGown then asked how they felt now. It opened the door to think about how they had changed.

“The most powerful thing was inclusion. If they really felt included, and they had a future and they belonged, that helped them to reframe the conflict,” she says. “The sense that they belong here, which they might not have felt at home. The more inclusion, the better.”

Berns-McGown’s own parents came to Canada from South Africa in the early 1960s because they opposed apartheid. In Canada, they did not associate with other South Africans. The major difference between her family story and the Syrian refugees, she says, was that her parents could choose to come to Canada on their own terms.

“This war in Syria is particularly complicated. You have a bunch of factions, all competing for power. We can view some of them as worse than others, but its not like there are good guys and bad guys. Everyone who is not an aggressor is a victim of that power struggle. Everyone is a victim. ”

Everyone who has come from Syria has experienced some form of trauma, she says.

“Moving to a place where there is no trauma doesn’t make it go away. We see it with military veterans and first responders,” she says.

“We don’t import conflict. We do import trauma.”

People have different ways of coping. Some choose to disassociate themselves. Others find solace in forming tight communities. Some find support in other people who have experienced similar trauma in a different context.

For young people in Toronto with roots in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia, for example, the problem they perceive isn’t other black youths, it’s systemic racism, says Berns-McGown.

“They don’t see each other as the problem. One of the enormous advantages of Canada is that it helps them meet people from different parts of the world who have experienced similar conflict. It means they’re not alone.”

Source: Unpacking conflict: “We don’t import conflict. But we do import trauma.” | Ottawa Citizen