Activating and Actualizing the Third Space in Syrian Diasporic Realities: An Autoethnographic Interpretation

This essay, part of a larger study, speaks to the Syrian Diaspora’s lived reality in Canada, a complex topic that delves into issues of dislocation, displacement, loss, exile, identity, resilience and a desire for belonging (Alatrash, 2019; 2020). The study seeks to better understand these issues and the lived experience and human condition of the Syrian Diaspora in Canada. I engage autoethnography as a research methodology and as a method as I think and write from my own personal experience as a Syrian immigrant so that I could better understand the Syrian refugee’s lived experience (Alatrash, 2019). My research participants were three Syrian refugee families in Calgary, in addition to myself as an autoethnographer. As I autoethnographically analyzed, presented, and interpreted the stories of the three families, I identified a number of themes (Alatrash, 2019; 2020); this essay addresses one of these themes: On creating new possibilities: Activating and actualizing the Third Space (Alatrash, 2019).

Behind Successful Refugee Parental Engagement: The Barriers and Challenges

This two-year study examined the barriers and challenges encountered by refugee parents as they negotiate their children’s successful transition into a new school system. The researchers sought to determine what can be learned from parent and educator experiences of these obstacles in order to optimize parent–teacher collaboration for refugee families. Contextualized within a LEAD (Literacy, English and Academic Development) program in an urban centre in Western Canada, the study triangulated data from focus groups comprising Syrian and Iraqi Arabic-speaking families, teachers, and settlement workers. The data were qualitatively analyzed by incorporating Epstein’s six types of parental involvement, a culturally responsive model accounting for parental engagement within the context of home-school-community collaboration (Epstein & Sheldon, 2006). From this model, the researchers make recommendations that include province-wide initiatives to support leadership and teacher training, mandated programming to support refugee and immigrant youth, and the establishment and expansion of board and in-school settlement best practices province-wide.

Unpacking the Suitcase: German-Jewish Refugees in New Zealand and the Afterlives of their Displaced Objects 1933-2015

<p>When German-Jewish refugees arrived in New Zealand in the 1930s fleeing Hitler’s Europe, they brought with them everything they could from their former homes: furniture, luggage, personal documents, musical instruments, artwork, books, silverware, linen, a typewriter. These humble and remarkable domestic objects survive today, a few in public heritage collections, but most in the private family homes of descendants. But while the Jewish refugee migration story is well known in public and academic circles, less so is the story of those objects. This thesis explores the relationship between refugee families, their descendants, and the material objects they have inherited. To what extent do refugee objects embody the memory of the prewar, European past? And how do the objects’ meanings change for refugees and their descendants, over time and in different custodial contexts? A major part of this thesis involved oral history interviews with refugee survivor families (mainly second-generation participants), and studying the interviews, letters, memoirs, and reminiscences of the first generation. Material culture objects were also analysed, and curated in an electronic archive (available for review). This thesis charts the slowly evolving significances of the objects throughout the various stages of the object migration journey. It examines themes of cultural identity, intergenerational memory, collection practices, and the private-public tensions inherent in the institutional custody of family objects. These themes are explored in three chapters, the first of which defines the German-Jewish refugee archive in New Zealand against the existing literature on displaced Jewish objects, by contextualising the New Zealand objects within the specific historical circumstances determining their owners’ migration journeys. The final two chapters analyse the usage and meanings of the objects in the ‘private archive’ of the family, and the ‘public archive’ of local and international collecting institutions. Drawing on insights from migration, material culture, Holocaust, and memory studies, this thesis is premised on the widely accepted argument that such mementoes function as mobile depositories of cultural identity and knowledge to ensure continuity between generations. Considering objects as nodes of memory for remembering a German-Jewish past (between Europe and New Zealand) characterised by the traumatic rupture of first generation silence, brings my research into conversation with the work of second-generation scholar Marianne Hirsch and Nina Fischer. But by addressing the role of collective memory and cultural identity in determining the future location and preservation of such artefacts, this thesis significantly extends the findings of Hirsch and Fischer beyond the private sphere to interrogate the perspectives of both families and collecting institutions. In doing so, it argues that New Zealand’s German-Jewish refugee objects bear multiple identities and meanings as a result of their dispersed, transnational history. In light of current international repatriation movements to return such artefacts to Germany, the provenance and significance of these objects is particularly pertinent today, as the first person authenticity of survivors rapidly fades, and the memorial sphere transforms to accommodate this change.</p>

Unpacking the Suitcase: German-Jewish Refugees in New Zealand and the Afterlives of their Displaced Objects 1933-2015

<p>When German-Jewish refugees arrived in New Zealand in the 1930s fleeing Hitler’s Europe, they brought with them everything they could from their former homes: furniture, luggage, personal documents, musical instruments, artwork, books, silverware, linen, a typewriter. These humble and remarkable domestic objects survive today, a few in public heritage collections, but most in the private family homes of descendants. But while the Jewish refugee migration story is well known in public and academic circles, less so is the story of those objects. This thesis explores the relationship between refugee families, their descendants, and the material objects they have inherited. To what extent do refugee objects embody the memory of the prewar, European past? And how do the objects’ meanings change for refugees and their descendants, over time and in different custodial contexts? A major part of this thesis involved oral history interviews with refugee survivor families (mainly second-generation participants), and studying the interviews, letters, memoirs, and reminiscences of the first generation. Material culture objects were also analysed, and curated in an electronic archive (available for review). This thesis charts the slowly evolving significances of the objects throughout the various stages of the object migration journey. It examines themes of cultural identity, intergenerational memory, collection practices, and the private-public tensions inherent in the institutional custody of family objects. These themes are explored in three chapters, the first of which defines the German-Jewish refugee archive in New Zealand against the existing literature on displaced Jewish objects, by contextualising the New Zealand objects within the specific historical circumstances determining their owners’ migration journeys. The final two chapters analyse the usage and meanings of the objects in the ‘private archive’ of the family, and the ‘public archive’ of local and international collecting institutions. Drawing on insights from migration, material culture, Holocaust, and memory studies, this thesis is premised on the widely accepted argument that such mementoes function as mobile depositories of cultural identity and knowledge to ensure continuity between generations. Considering objects as nodes of memory for remembering a German-Jewish past (between Europe and New Zealand) characterised by the traumatic rupture of first generation silence, brings my research into conversation with the work of second-generation scholar Marianne Hirsch and Nina Fischer. But by addressing the role of collective memory and cultural identity in determining the future location and preservation of such artefacts, this thesis significantly extends the findings of Hirsch and Fischer beyond the private sphere to interrogate the perspectives of both families and collecting institutions. In doing so, it argues that New Zealand’s German-Jewish refugee objects bear multiple identities and meanings as a result of their dispersed, transnational history. In light of current international repatriation movements to return such artefacts to Germany, the provenance and significance of these objects is particularly pertinent today, as the first person authenticity of survivors rapidly fades, and the memorial sphere transforms to accommodate this change.</p>

Effects of an Early Childhood Training Program on Vulnerable Children’s Outcomes: An Exploratory Study

This exploratory study assessed the effect of an innovative early childhood training approach on the development of children attending an early childhood education and care drop-in centre called Halte-garderie du Coeur offered by a general and vocational college. The direct beneficiaries of the services were children aged four months to five years, who had either experienced maltreatment or were from recently immigrated refugee families. This article presents a mixed methods exploratory and comparative evaluation study based on multiple data sources, including standardized developmental scales measuring child development, data from structured questionnaires with parents and program staff, and interviews with parents and staff. Participants included two cohorts of children and their parents, involving a total of 25 children, 16 parents, and four professionals. The results show that a significant proportion of children attending Halte-garderie du Coeur made gains in their emotional, affective, and social development between the start and end of each of two 12-week sessions. The effects seen in children were consistent with those set out in the program theory. To explain these results, we hypothesize that the training program helped students to develop specific skills that allowed them to positively influence children’s development particularly for children from vulnerable families.

Empowering refugee families in transit: the development of a culturally competent and compassionate training and support package

Background Refugee parents who fled conflicts suffered violence and traumas and face huge challenges in supporting the health and welfare of their children while in transit. Aims To describe the development of a culturally competent and compassionate training and support package (TSP) for nurses, social and health care workers and volunteers, with a focus on parenting needs among unsettled refugees fleeing conflict. Methods The multi-method approach included: a scoping review covering parenting needs of refugees fleeing conflict zones; collection of stories from refugee parents, healthcare workers and volunteers via a mobile application; discussions between team members; a piloted and evaluated curriculum. Results High levels of family distress and deterioration of parental identity were identified. Informed by these results, the curriculum is articulated along 20 bite-sized learning units, covering four age stages of childhood as well as targeting adults’ well-being. Pilot training was evaluated positively, confirming feasibility and usefulness of the TSP. Conclusions Unsettled refugee parents fleeing conflicts face psycho-social and practical difficulties negatively affecting their parenting skills. The care workforce should be trained in order to provide culturally competent and compassionate support to help these families. Open access digital platforms are promising as autodidactic and self-help tools among hard-to-reach populations.