Tol, Xeer, and Somalinimo: Recognizing Somali and Mushunguli Refugees as Agents in the ...

306 Pages·2010·1.69 MB·English

Tol, Xeer, and Somalinimo: Recognizing Somali and Mushunguli Refugees as Agents in
the Integration Process

A DISSERTATION
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
BY

Vinodh Kutty

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

David M. Lipset

July 2010
© Vinodh Kutty 2010
Acknowledgements

A doctoral dissertation is never completed without the help of many individuals.
And to all of them, I owe a deep debt of gratitude. Funding for this project was provided
by two block grants from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota
and by two Children and Families Fellowship grants from the Annie E. Casey
Foundation. These grants allowed me to travel to the United Kingdom and Kenya to
conduct research and observe the trajectory of the refugee resettlement process from
refugee camp to processing for immigration and then to resettlement to host country.

The members of my dissertation committee, David Lipset, my advisor,
Timothy Dunnigan, Frank Miller, and Bruce Downing all provided invaluable support
and assistance. Indeed, I sometimes felt that my advisor, David Lipset, would not have
been able to write this dissertation without my assistance! Timothy Dunnigan challenged
me to honor the Somali community I worked with and for that I am grateful because that
made the dissertation so much better. Frank Miller asked very thoughtful questions and
always encouraged me and Bruce Downing provided me with detailed feedback to ensure
that my writing was clear, succinct and organized.

I also have others to thank. To my colleagues at the Office of Multicultural
Services at Hennepin County, I want to say “Thank You Very Much!” They all provided
me with the inspiration to look at the refugee resettlement process more critically and
dared me to suggest ways to improve it. Many of them were refugees and immigrants
themselves and provided me with ideas to test and questions to ask. I particularly want to
thank Joa Carlson for helping me organize my thoughts, the draft, and my presentation at
the defense. She also read countless versions of the prospectus and different chapters and
provided me with great feedback including organizing the final edition of the dissertation.
In the field, Abdoul and Mabruka were my two teachers that allowed me a window to the
Mushunguli culture and community and countless other Somali refugees who took the
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time to share with me their pain, their hopes, and their dreams. These refugees lived in
Kenya, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

I also want to thank the many service providers and the leaders of the various
organizations that I spent time with. I learned a tremendous amount from them. I also
realized that theirs was, in many ways, a thankless job and for many of them, the main
reward and reason to go back to work was the smile on a refugee’s face when an
insurmountable problem was resolved. They are the salt of the earth and I salute them for
what they do on a daily basis – happily, joyfully, and always without complaint. Some of
them work in Kenya and many others live and work in the Twin Cities and in Greater
Minnesota.

Above all, I want to thank my family – Indran Kutty, Krishnan Kutty, and
Rebecca Kutty. My debt to all of them goes far beyond what can be expressed here.
Their love and support nurtured me all the time while I read, planned, researched,
conducted fieldwork, and wrote. I could never have completed this endeavor without
their blessings. I also want to thank my mother-in-law, Charlene Lucken, who provided
me with editorial feedback on the draft of the dissertation.

Without them and many others who go unnamed in these pages, this dissertation
would not have been possible. Like I mentioned earlier, a dissertation is never a singular
effort. To all of you I say - Thank you all for helping and teaching me.

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Dedication

This dissertation is dedicated to my wife, Rebecca Kutty, and my sons, Indran and
Krishnan Kutty, who gave me their time, love, support, and blessings while I worked on
it and to the memory of my parents, Mr. and Mrs. A.N. Kutty, who instilled in me a
curiosity about others and the joy to learn.

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Abstract
The problem with how to approach the integration of refugees is both conceptual and
practical. Not only do researchers in the field define “integration” differently, but also
those who define and develop policies relating to integration tend to approach the issue in
different ways. In current anthropological literature, empirical studies about integration
have tended to adopt a “top-down” approach to the concept of integration and, therefore,
to focus on structural and organizational aspects of the integration system. There is little
research that focuses on the “voice” of refugees and even more of a dearth of research
that studies them as active participants in their own integration process.

Integration impacts upon both the refugees and the host community and requires the
willingness of both groups to adjust. This does not mean an abandonment of roots and
native cultures; rather it is a process of building bridges and reshaping identities to
accommodate the transnational realities of the modern world. As a host community,
Luckenville is experiencing what other host communities first experienced when a huge
influx of refugees suddenly came and ended up as neighbors, community members, and
colleagues at work. Government institutions and local community agencies have not
been prepared and have experienced many challenges when dealing with service
provision to the Mushungulis and other Somali refugees. Lacking an infrastructure that is
able to provide cultural and linguistically appropriate services to the new Americans who
do not speak English as a first language, the host community of Luckenville has struggled
to ensure that the Mushungulis and other Somali refugees have the tools necessary to help
them integrate as community members and as citizens.

By understanding tol, xeer, qabils, and Somalinimo, I propose how the Mushungulis and
other Somali refugees can draw upon their culture, identity, kinship (tol), the social
contract (xeer) between the qabils (commonly translated as “clans”) and their
“Somaliness” (Somalinimo) to help them cope with the integration process as active
agents and social actors as opposed to victims as they are often portrayed. This building
of social capital needs to be done not only between qabils in the Somali community but
between the Mushungulis and the larger Somali community as well. Together with
conducting interviews with a cross-section of service providers and members of the host
community of Luckenville and the Twin Cities, my research demonstrates how host
communities can perceive and participate in the integration process by redefining new
meanings of community and building intra-ethnic communal social capital.

By building on previous research, this dissertation adds to the anthropological literature
and addresses gaps in theory and practice that have not viewed refugees as agents in their
own resettlement process and which have rarely paid attention to the impact of refugee
resettlement upon members of host communities. It also proposes new recommendations
that can help the integration and resettlement process so that refugees and host
communities can build mutual understanding and create trust upon which full acceptance
and belonging in the community depend on.
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Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDMENTS i

DEDICATION iii

ABSTRACT iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

LIST OF FIGURES xii

CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION: WELCOMING THE
MUSHUNGULIS TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1

Theoretical Frameworks, Concepts, and Studying Refugee
Resettlement and Integration 5

The Scope and Organization of My Research 19

Research context 20

A Multi-Dimensional and Relational Model of Refugee
Integration in Resettlement 21

Methods 26

Context Specific 28

Emic Perspectives 29

Iterative Nature 29

Power Relations 29

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Chapter Summaries 34

CHAPTER TWO – THE FALL OF SOMALIA AND THE FLIGHT
OF THE MUSHUNGULIS 37

Somalia and Its Collapse 38

From Cold War to Civil War 1988-1991 39

State Collapse, Qabil War, and Famine 1991-1992 39

Humanitarian Intervention 40

Governance without Government 42

Building Blocks and Regional Initiatives 43

The Return of Government - Arta Process 45

The IGAD Initiative 46

The Islamic Courts Union 47

Djibouti Talks 48

Situating the Mushungulis or “Somali Bantus” 50

Terms of Identity 51

The “Bantus” or Mushungulis in Somalia 54

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Slavery and the Slave Trade 55

Maroonage and the Gosha: A Separate Geographical Space 57

Settlement of the Gosha 59

Civil War in the Jubba Valley 68

“Somali Bantu” Identity Formation in Kenya 70

Conclusion 73

CHAPTER THREE – LIFE IN THE REFUGEE CAMPS AND
CULTURAL ORIENTATION FOR IMMIGRATION 75

Refugee Cultural Orientation Training in Nairobi, Kenya 78

Life in the Refugee Camps 80

The Refugee Cultural Orientation Session in Brief 92

Conclusion 97

CHAPTER FOUR – RESETTLEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA 101

The Influence of Social Welfare Ideology 103

Background on the Resettlement Program in the United States of America 105

Fieldwork in Luckenville and the Twin Cities 106
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Succeeding in the United States of America 108

Culture and Integration Issues 108

Language 112

Living in the United States of America, “The Somali Way” 116

Integration Challenges by Age 118

Being Muslim in the United States of America 119

Cultural Integration 123

Employment and Education Issues 124

Social Support 128

The Somali Family 129

The Wider Somali Community 130

Church Sponsorship 132

Citizenship and Advocacy 136

The Resettlement Program and the Local Voluntary Resettlement Agency 139

Conclusion 142
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