Transient Identities Forcibly Displaced Youth and the Global Refugee Crisis


With over three million people displaced worldwide, the global refugee crisis has become one of the most insidious, debilitating, and “silent” disasters facing the world. The crisis is particularly destructive for children and youth, who make up roughly half of the world’s displaced people, and in large numbers are coming of age without a permanent home or identity. In her contribution to “The State of the World’s Youth”, Muzhgan Wahaj argues that governments and international organizations need to act or face an entire generation of young people lacking not only in a sense of identity, but the basic necessities that they need during their most crucial developmental years.


by Muzhgan Wahaj T


he global refugee crisis is reaching an unprecedented and alarming height. The displacement of a staggering thirty-some


million refugees and internally displaced persons (IDP’s) worldwide threatens to create of forced statelessness; a permanent identity[i]


.


Young refugees are of particular concern in this crisis. The care of children forcibly displaced requires special attention to the lasting psychological effects of involuntary migration and its often brutal nature. There is a necessary urgency in such care of children that


46% 54% 47% 56%


of refugees of stateless persons of Internally Displaced Persons of refugees living in camps are children All statistics from UNHCR’s 2011 Global Trends Report 10 iAM Youth as... Global Citizens


is unmet in global humanitarian aid and refugee aid measures. Unattended youth in refugee camps and those internally displaced in hostile territories are becoming indoctrinated with a culture of statelessness, one that is characterized by deep psychological traumas and intense resentment for the systems of authority that have either directly caused their displacement or have denied in any way the recovery of their national identities.


Where nearly half of internationally displaced persons are children, the necessary standard of care for these children sits at an impossible threshold for individual relief agencies to meet. The needs of forcibly displaced youth are substantial in that their developmental needs are especially particularized and require long-term strategies in mental healthcare and education[ii]


. In


the areas most heavily saturated with forcibly displaced youth — namely refugee camps, disaster relief shelters, and armed conflict zones worldwide — implementation of such long-term strategies would require the establishment of stable institutions that realistically cannot operate in such transient environments. Relief agencies cannot address the particularized needs of youth facing psychological and psychosomatic issues as they simply do not have the adequate resources to do so; the needs of these youth are outweighed by the more tangible need to provide bulk survival essentials to growing communities of refugees. Without the invested efforts of the international community in providing adequate aid, relief agencies are operating on a fraction of the funds and supplies necessary to provide access to even basic nutrition, medicine and clean water[iii]


. International efforts at


lending aid to refugees and displaced persons are mediocre at best, with geopolitical interests routinely taking precedence over the retention of human rights standards and international obligations in protecting children.


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