1 - 13 of 13
Number of results to display per page
Search Results
2. Contexts of Diaspora Citizenship: Citizenship and Civic Integration of Somalis in Finland and the United States
- Author:
- Paivi Harinen, Ville-Samuli Haverinen, Marko Kananen, and Jussi Ronkainen
- Publication Date:
- 01-2013
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- With more than one million people scattered around the world, Somalis form a significant part of the world's diaspora population. Although Somalia has recently experienced a certain level of stability and encouraging developments, the diaspora community keeps growing. Due to security threats, drought, and famine, millions of Somalis still live in refugee camps. These problematic conditions imply that the Somali diaspora must remain the focus of transnational migration research generating new perspectives and insights. Furthermore, although return to Somalia might be an option for some of the Somalis living in diaspora, many of them will not return. That is why research should pay attention to their opportunities to live as equal citizens in their new home countries.
- Political Geography:
- United States and Somalia
3. Role of International Aid and Open Trade Policies in Rebuilding the Somali State
- Author:
- Hussein Warsame
- Publication Date:
- 01-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- Since its formation in 1960 from the union of British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland, the Somali Republic was always dependent on foreign aid to balance its operations and development budgets. In each of the three years after independence, the Republic financed 31 percent of its budget with grants from its former colonizers: Britain and Italy.General Mohamed Siad Barre's socialist military regime of 1969–1991 heavily depended on financial and technical support from the U.S.S.R. until disagreement about the 1977–78 war between Somalia and Ethiopia disrupted the relationship. Due to Somalia's strategic location and the Cold War, Siad Barre was able to replace the financial loss caused by the departure of the U.S.S.R. with aid from the United States, Saudi Arabia, and countries in Western Europe.
- Topic:
- Cold War
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia
4. Revival of the Civic Spirit: Contradictions in Somali-American Citizenship
- Author:
- Louise Dickson
- Publication Date:
- 01-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- Throughout history, the notion of citizenship has been full of contradictions. Both as a method of inclusion and exclusion, of privilege and second-class status, citizenship is a cornerstone of one's individual, national, and global identity. Some optimistic scholars have noted an entrance into a “post-national” phase of global citizenship; however, this vision cannot be realized while human rights are being violated. To be sure, citizenship has become a much more universal concept since its inception and has been facilitated by ideas of cosmopolitanism. Yet it has not transcended national boundaries into the global sphere. This claim can be supported by almost any national immigration case study. Whether in South Africa, Norway, or France, immigrant refugees fleeing persecution are rarely granted full human rights in terms of citizenship. The United States is in the midst of a third major wave of immigration: from 1990 to 2008 almost one million new arrivals landed here each year. Since the eruption of civil war in Somalia in 1991, many Somalis have sought refuge in the United States—a symbol of political, religious, and social freedom—and have followed chain migration patterns scattered across the country, with one of the largest populations settling in the Twin Cities area. However, the “Somali Capital of the United States” does not provide asylum or immunity from the international contradictions in citizenship and human rights, which will be an underlying theme throughout the essay.
- Topic:
- Human Rights
- Political Geography:
- United States, Norway, France, South Africa, and Somalia
5. E Pluribus Unum: 21st-Century Citizenship and the Somali-American Experience
- Author:
- Owen Truesdell
- Publication Date:
- 01-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- This moment in American history represents a confluence of major national and international events almost unparalleled in modern history. The United States faces two major wars, a massive and seemingly intractable recession that has robbed many of its citizens of their livelihoods and savings, and a sclerotic system of American government that seems to have lost its ability to take on and overcome big challenges for the good of the American people. Internationally, the “Arab Spring” in the Middle East has led to the toppling of feckless dictators and a move toward democracy in Egypt. However, it has also led to the deaths of thousands of civilians, further political repression in certain parts of the region, and a civil war in Libya, which also features military action by NATO and the United States and its Arab and Western allies. This chaotic and troubling time presents numerous challenges for the United States and the world.
- Topic:
- NATO
- Political Geography:
- United States, America, Middle East, Libya, Arabia, Egypt, and Somalia
6. Charter Schools: Choice of Somali-American Parents?
- Author:
- Farhan Hussein
- Publication Date:
- 01-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- Most of the Somali community in the United Stated came here after civil war broke out in Somalia in 1991. During the war, hundreds of thousands of people fled to neighboring countries where many received resettlement aid from yet other countries, including the United States. The largest Somali community in the United States lives in Minnesota, mainly in the Minneapolis area.
- Topic:
- War
- Political Geography:
- United States, America, and Somalia
7. Obliged to Give: Remittances and the Maintenance of Transnational Networks Between Somalis at Home and Abroad
- Author:
- Laura Hammond
- Publication Date:
- 12-2010
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- One day, while drinking tea with Suad and her children in their small apartment in Lewiston, Maine, I asked her whether she felt pressure from her relatives in Somalia to send money. She chuckled sadly and said, “People say that there is a pill called ga'alqois, which means [literally] that which distances one from their relatives and close friends. Before you leave, you promise your friends and relatives that you will not take the pill and will not forget to send them money. Then when you arrive in the United States you see how hard life is here and you don't send any money. People say that you must have taken the ga'alqois pill.”
- Political Geography:
- United States and Somalia
8. Sheikh Ali Hussein
- Author:
- Joe Darwin Palmer
- Publication Date:
- 12-2010
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- East Africa: In 1966, the U.S. Agency for International Development built a residential school for the training of teachers in Somalia near the city of Afgoi on the Shabelle River, a dozen miles inland from the capital city, Mogadishu. The construction contract was given to a company in Nairobi, Kenya. There were no construction companies in Somalia or paved roads between Kenya and neighboring Somalia. Besides, anything of value would have already been stolen at gunpoint by bandits (shifta) so the necessary equipment—trucks, a bulldozer, a pavement roller, transmission wires, concrete poles, generators, stationary diesel engines, asphalt, toilets, plumbing, and so on—were sent by sea from Mombasa. There were no stores in Somalia: no grocery, no hardware, no McDonald's.
- Political Geography:
- Kenya, United States, Somalia, and East Africa
9. Staying off the Bottom of the Melting Pot: Somali Refugees Respond to a Changing U.S. Immigration Climate
- Author:
- Ihotu Ali
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- As a nation of immigrants, the United States has also been a nation of nativists...We have welcomed immigrants in periods of expansion and optimism, reviled them in periods of stagnation and cynicism...In short, American nativism has had less to do with 'them' than us...Fear and loathing of foreigners reach such levels when the nation's problems become so intractable that some people seek scapegoats. Typically, these periods feature a political or economic crisis, combined with a loss of faith in American institutions and a sense that the national community is gravely fractured. Nativists' targets have reflected America's basic divisions: class, race, religion, and, to a lesser extent, language and culture.
- Political Geography:
- United States, America, and Somalia
10. Integration Experiences and Youth Perspectives: An Exploratory Study of School-Going Somali Youth in Melbourne, Australia and Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Author:
- Yusuf Sheikh Omar
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- This brief study explores Somali youth experiences and perceptions of integration experiences in the school context, comparing the differences and similarities of those who live in Melbourne and Minneapolis. Additionally, the study touches on parents' experiences with their children's attitudes in the new environment. Based on interviews with Somali youth from the cities of Melbourne, Australia, and Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States, they are generally aspirants to, and positive about, the current and future educational opportunities they have in Australia and the United States. Those from Minneapolis tend to articulate these opportunities more clearly. Youth and parents agree that Somali girls perform better at school compared to boys. Students' preferences for post-secondary programs are varied but the most popular reason is to help Somali people who are in difficult situations because of the protracted civil war. Both student groups from Melbourne and Minneapolis mentioned several educational challenges. Girls believe that parents pushing their daughters to marry early is the biggest obstacle that may prevent them from continuing further studies and future professional work. Whether they are in or out of school, most Somali students who participated in this study are friends primarily with other Somali youth because of cultural and religious affinities, with the added benefit of pleasing their parents. Finally, with the exception of two girls, Somali youth in this study feel they have been fairly treated by their teachers.
- Political Geography:
- United States, Australia, Somalia, Melbourne, Minneapolis, and Minnesota
11. Beginning Again: From Refugee to Citizen
- Author:
- Ahmed I Samatar
- Publication Date:
- 07-2004
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- A key feature of this phase of globalization is a speedy catalyzation of a heretofore unseen degree of human mobility and cultural interpenetration. Unlike the earlier epochs in the making of the modern world (16th through the early 20th-century), when Europeans were the main groups leaving their homelands to find better lives in other parts of the word, the contemporary era is witness to a dramatic reversal movement. Many in Africa, Central and South America, and Asia have come or are earnestly planning to lift their heels for the “old” West (even to Southern and Eastern Europe) and “neo-Europe” (e.g., the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand). The phenomenal arrival of tens of thousands of Somalis in the United States within the last two decades (first as a trickle and then in larger numbers since the 1990s) is to a great extent part of this trend. It is a happening that is, in one sense, part of an old story, as President Roosevelt correctly asserted, and a continuous aspect in the quintessential making of these United States, marked by the settlement of people from almost every region of the world. As a matter of fact, since the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965 and the Refugee Act of 1980, more than twenty million legal immigrants have entered the U.S. A dramatic demographic consequence of these flows of people, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, is this: At present, those Americans who are foreign-born and their children compose around one-fifth of the American population. If the Somali presence in America is one slice of the latest iteration, the potential for a decent, let alone notable success—in both material and mental terms—depends on how, individually and collectively, they assess the complexities of the new environment and, subsequently, snatch any legitimate turns of chance. To state this point is not to under estimate how difficult circumstances have been, are, or could be. The life histories of others who came before Somalis, including some of European ancestry (e.g., the Irish and southerners from around the Mediterranean),testify to the cruel treatment that might await and the bogushindrances that one must struggle against during the transition.
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand
12. Local Lives, Transnational Ties, and the Meaning of Citizenship: Somali Histories and Herstories from Small Town America
- Author:
- Helga Leitner
- Publication Date:
- 07-2004
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- United States immigration policy is based on the assumption that every legal immigrant to this country is on the road to becoming a U.S. citizen. In order to become a citizen, immigrants are explicitly or tacitly expected to assimilate into the U.S. sociocultural and economic system, to shed their attachment and allegiance to their home country, and to devote their loyalty to just one country, the United States. The first line of the citizenship oath makes this clear: “I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign…state…of…which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen.” Viewing loyalty in such zero-sum terms has blinded American policymakers to migrants' transnational practices, ties, and multiple allegiances.
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
13. Somali Mental Health
- Author:
- David McGraw Schuchman and Colleen McDonald
- Publication Date:
- 07-2004
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- Over the past seven years, there has been a vast influx of Somali refugees and immigrants making their new home in Minnesota, with the overwhelming majority residing in the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. While official estimates indicate that less than 20,000 Somalis are in Minnesota, it is well accepted that there are actually 50,000–75,000. It is difficult to pinpoint the exact number due to limitations in census data collection and the continual growth resulting from such factors as secondary migration. Since Minnesota has welcomed African immigrants, family members who live in other states within the U.S. and Canada continue to join many newly arrived families. The prospect of Somali immigrants and refugees returning to their homelands is unlikely. Continuing war, civil strife, and economic crises make the outlook for return bleak. Therefore, it is important that Minnesota continue to embrace and welcome Somalis into the community and assist in their acculturation process.
- Political Geography:
- Africa, United States, and Canada