Psychological Intervention With Refugees And Migrants

On December 13, the VI Conference of Excellence and Innovation in Psychology took place at the Cardenal Cisneros University of Madrid. In this context, a round table was held to discuss the most important aspects of psychological intervention with refugees and migrants. Distinguished professionals such as Cristina Larroy, Manuel García Ramírez and Inmaculada Hernández Navas participated in the event.

This article seeks to convey the conclusions on the most important lines of the debate. The influence of wars was highlighted, in this case the war in Syria was analyzed in a special way, in the most important historical migratory movements.

This has happened, however, especially in Europe, which has not fully responded to a resolute and effective welcome to a people that has lost more than four hundred and seventy thousand people.

The loss of the cultural system

Cristina Larroy speaks of the clash of cultural systems of the migrant. The cultural system not only implies values, but also a new language, new customs and even totally different everyday contexts. Larroy therefore speaks of the 7 duels of the migrant or refugee.

Due to their experiences and the situation in which they live, surely the migrant has already started a process of mourning for the loss of a loved one, partner, child or friend.

However, Larroy warns that the migrant not only faces mourning for the loss of a human life, he also has to face the loss of his own life.

The 7 duels of the migrant

In this way, the refugee, migrant or asylum seeker can have 7 more griefs. These duels are for:

• The family : although no member of the family has died, many are left behind, in the country of origin; or many families are forcibly divided along the way.
• Ethnic group : the migrant loses his ethnic group; to the people who are part of their culture. For this reason, there is often a sense of loss of identity within a group.
• Language : when the language of the migrant differs greatly from the language of the host country, the person loses the capacity for expression and nuances. Knowing basic words of a language is one thing, and knowing how to use it to express discomfort, happiness, make jokes, seek help or transmit needs, is another.

• Separation from culture : the very uses and habits that were seen as customs within the culture of origin are now lost. There is no contact with the literature, politics or art of the place of origin, and there is not only separation from home or family, but from a much larger system.
• Land : outside the country understood as culture, the person loses contact with the daily context to which he was accustomed. His neighbors, the bakery that he always went to on Tuesdays, the libraries or the parks, are part of the land of origin and of everything that is lost.
• Status : due to the situation, many people who had a status within their community lose it when they arrive in the country to which they are migrating. Migrants with high levels of professionalization, such as dentists or doctors, find themselves in the position of having to learn another trade in order to survive, sometimes nothing related to their previous profession.

• Physical risks : in turn, there is also a clash with the physical situation in which the person is: faster aging process due to stress, injuries, weight loss.

What is worked with the migrant or refugee person?

There are some very relevant aspects of psychological intervention with refugees and migrants. Larroy finds it especially important to work with:

• Adaptation : the adaptation of the migrant is marked by uncertainty. There are catastrophic thoughts, hyperactive responses, anxiety, somatizations expressed in headaches, restlessness, inability to make decisions, and violent situations.
• Grief : the 7 griefs have to be worked out and the griefs due to the death of couples, children … In grief, visual hallucinations may appear, lack of appetite, isolation, anger, guilt for knowing that they are survivors when others have not …

• Traumatic reactions : re-experimentation, nightmares, avoidance behaviors in the face of stimuli that can stimulate memories of the previous life …

Recognize the migrant as influential

Manuel García Ramírez puts the focus of attention on social justice with respect to the migrant. Much more important in an intervention with refugees and migrants, the focus must be placed on the person not only as their current status as displaced, but also as people.

Social justice speaks of not only giving assistance to refugees, because assistance is not enough. The oppression that people feel as migrants is the intersection of many oppressions. The migrant is not only a migrant, but is also a child, a woman, an orphan.

On the other hand, García Ramírez insists on the importance of the person making the decisions. In a situation where you seem to have no control; and that major life changes are subject to third-party decisions, it is vitally important that an empowerment process takes place, that feelings of self-efficacy increase and that migrants feel not only assisted, but influential and recognized.

Waiting asylum

Regarding the psychological intervention with refugees and migrants, Inmaculada Hernández Navas speaks of the traumatic process of waiting for asylum.

Hernández Navas focuses on the emotions that arise at each moment of the asylum request process, and how these have to be sustained and worked on in the therapeutic intervention. Some of those emotions are:

• Confusion : upon arrival in the country there is enormous confusion about the future, not only of one, but also of relatives in that new land.
• Relaxation : when the asylum waiting process begins, the migrant can feel calm because it is already in the process of being processed. However, this period of relaxation is dangerous, because nursing home is neither safe nor fast.

• False stability : Hernández Navas reports that, if after six months of requesting asylum there has still been no response, the migrant is granted a special work permit. He begins to rebuild his life, to work, to be able to fend for himself without the help of resources. The downside is that, with this temporary permit, years can go by.
• Confusion : once they have already begun to integrate their new life, to rebuild everything that was broken and to enjoy a not so new country, migrants may find a positive or negative response. In the negative, people have already made their lives, and knowing that they cannot stay is a process that must be taken care of in psychological intervention with refugees and migrants.

Psychological intervention with refugees and migrants presents different challenges than the usual psychological intervention. In part, this is so because the migrant population is especially prone to experiencing traumatic events.

Therefore, the objective is not only to assist, but also to promote post-traumatic growth so that they can rebuild a routine in which they feel that they control a good part of what happens to them.