Childhood, youth and family life in the shadow of statelessness
14.6.2018
Last summer, the Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace and the Center for the Study of Multiculturalism and Diversity made it possible for people from all over the country to come together to discuss a burning issue in recent years - asylum seeking children and families. The war in Syria, and the unprecedented number of individuals escaping their country – half of whom are underage – has made this a central political, journalistic and academic topic in Europe and beyond.
The growing number of migrants claiming asylum has in many cases – including Israel – led to hostile public and governmental attitudes. Political tensions related to migration typically revolve around the commonplace fear that applicants are not in genuine need of protection but are exploiting a loophole in the system to gain undue economic benefits at the expense of locals; it follows that the public must be safeguarded against such abuse.
Despite efforts by civil society to take upon itself the role of enforcing and regulating international laws, for instance by monitoring the observance of human rights, the state’s financial and institutional capacity to provide these rights remains insufficient. Public hostility towards migrants and increasingly nationalistic agendas have resulted in incoherent and often unregulated practices which further the marginalization of children of migrants – especially those that are status-less and stateless.
The majority of papers in this conference focused on Israel, which – apart from its geographical relevance – is important as it offers a uniquely complex case of the dynamics of transmigration, displacement, and resettlement. Without going into the full historical complexity here, we note that the historical dynamics came up in several of the talks. In broad terms, being founded on a dominant ethnocentric Jewish narrative, the national Zionist ethos exhorted Diasporic Jews to “reconstitute” themselves as a modern people in Palestine. In Zionist praxis, the arrival of Jews from around the world called for the transformation of immigrants of Jewish descent into native “Sabras” who would share a common language, culture and identity.
This particular narrative of migration was, and still is, reflected in the vocabulary used to describe (im)migration in Israel. Jewish immigrants were not seen as ‘migrants’ – outsiders coming to a hosting land – but rather as ‘Olim’, ascending to a higher state of being. This approach resulted in the dominance of the “melting pot” discourse that called for the blurring of differences between Jewish immigrants, and for excluding non-Jews from full membership in the name of collective Jewish selfhood.
Additionally, the last two decades have seen an intensification of nationalistic ideals in Israel’s core national curriculum that reflects the grave political and military conflicts in Israel today. This was the focus of several of the talks, which showed how such narratives constitute a further challenge in the acceptance and education of children who are not citizens, or not Jewish.
All of these broader trends have been further exacerbated with large wave of asylum-seeking children to Israel that began in 2006. Particularly the arrival of asylum seekers from Eritrea and Sudan – constructed as “enemy countries” in the public imaginaire – was perceived as a threat to social unity of the Jewish nation state, and has been met with general hostility and exclusionary practices. Nevertheless, the estimated 6,000 asylum-seeking children who have come to Israel since… – mostly from Africa – have been integrated into the education system free of charge and receive partial social services based on the national compulsory education law (1949) and the UNCRC (1989). Children are enrolled according to their area of residence, most of them in the Tel Aviv area, and attend regular secular public schools.
Nevertheless, as with other complex political issues in Israel, the education system has turned a blind eye on the myriad bureaucratic and sociopolitical challenges that their integration presents – resulting in a lack of clear policies, necessary funding, appropriate training or system-based supportive mechanisms (Eisikovits, 2012, p. 117). These have led to inconsistent responses and provisions for asylum-seeking pupils in different educational facilities across the country and little support for the families of these children.
While much academic attention has been given to the legal, political, public and cultural aspects of the challenges of asylum seekers, little consideration has been given to the familial aspect of the asylum community in Israel, specifically its underage population. The conference aimed to fill this lacuna by highlighting and discussing childhood and youth lived in the shadow of refugee-ness; refugee-ness in this context is seen as a social and emotional condition, specific to children and minors who came with, or were born to, refugee families, as well as unaccompanied minors who left one country for another.
As such, inquiries in this conference include diverse question such as: how does statelessness affect parenthood? How are children affected by their parents' situation and experiences? How do institutions and professionals such as schools and teachers, social workers, lawyers and courts interact and treat such families and children? What kind of future do parents, activists, educators, and the children and youth imagine for themselves?
Many of the speakers posed these and other questions from an activist perspective, examining examples of practices, communications, and services provided by both the authorities and professionals NGOs, while asking how these could be improved or better implemented. Some also discuss ways in which current refugee-related policies affect underage asylum seekers and their families, again recommending further "positive" policies that exist and could be improved, or which could be developed and put into practice.
The conference was held in June 2018, and was attended by over 100 participants, including academics, practitioners and members of the asylum seekers’ community. The conference brought together significant expertise from myriad perspectives, and facilitated mutual exchanges on what we consider crucial and urgent contemporary matters. This booklet provides a glimpse at these conversations, with the hope that it may serve as a platform to continue these conversations and support further networking and development of ideas, projects and understandings to help those fleeing conflict. For this purpose, the booklet contains the abstracts of the talks in the order that they were presented at the conference.
The first panel focused on early childhood and asylum, viewing challenges from the perspective of caregivers: Israeli kindergarten teachers integrating children of asylum seekers; differences in perceptions of early childhood between kindergarten teachers in Ghana and Ghana migrants in Israel; early childhood programs facilitated by refugee mothers within refugee camps in Greece; and the role of mothers in bringing up activist children who welcome refugees and are committed to a just society.
The second panel focused on the spaces in-between childhood and adulthood, borders and migration: the lived experiences of youth on the border of Zimbabwe and South Africa; children of labor migrants and asylum seekers in the Israeli Scout movement; and reflections of children who were illegal in the past but have now attained citizenship in Israel.
The third panel focused on the issues of policy, exclusion, and invisibility in Israel, specifically towards migrants and asylum seekers: the phenomenon of ‘invisible parents’ who are excluded from the schooling of their children; the relationship of Israeli teachers towards children of asylum seekers and their depoliticization and avoidance of them; the experiences of Eritrean and Sudanese fathers; and the exclusionary integration policies of children of asylum seekers in Israeli society.
Our guest speaker Jacqueline Bhabha, who joined us via Skype to give an international overview of the policies towards children of asylum seekers and refugees, thus putting the Israeli case study within the global context.
The fourth panel focused on the effects of Israeli policies on children of asylum seekers, giving the stage to different NGOs and civil society activists to tell us about their work and give their recommendations on how to promote the wellbeing of these children and their families. We had presenters from Assaf - Aid Association for refugees, Mesila, Levinsky library, Unitaf and other active community members.
Finally, we note that only part of the abstracts were translated into English as the conference was held in Hebrew and targets the local population; if you are interested in getting a translation - please contact the presenter personally.
We would like to thank again the Harry S. Truman Centre for the Advancement of Peace and the Center for the Study of Multiculturalism and Diversity for hosting this event, and to all the wonderful and dedicated speakers who came to the event, and to the participants and members of the asylum seeking and refugee communities in Israel. We hope to meet all of you again soon.
Best wishes,
Manya Kagan
Shai Avidan
Hadas Yaron Mesegna