….so say those participating in a conference on refugees in Windsor, Canada. When listing the five ‘C’s’ that affect Somalis’ lives, Ibrahim Absiye, a Somalian refugee, and executive director of CultureLink, a Toronto-based settlement agency, leaves out an important one—crime. But, it will all be o.k. if only all the extended families left in Somalia could come to Canada too!
Absiye believes family reunification is the number one issue affecting Somalian refugees. He said many Somali-Canadians still have loved ones in their native country, and occurrences such as the Dec. 3 suicide bombing in Mogadishu can have a profound impact on them.
“Almost everyone here has family members back home, and they would like to be reunited,” Absiye said. “When something happens back home, it affects the community here.”
There are other challenges as well, Absiye said.
“I talk about the five Cs… Communication — which is the language. The climate — it’s damn cold here! The colour of your skin. The cultural shock. And computers.”
And there are still other, more dire challenges. Here in Windsor, two of the city’s unsolved [unsolved because Somali community members don’t help authorities!] shooting deaths have involved young Somalis, both as suspected killer and as victim.
Mohamud Abukar Hagi, a Somali national, remains wanted by police as the prime suspect for the Dec. 22, 2007 shooting death of Luis Acosta-Escobar on downtown Pelissier Street. Hagi was 25 at the time of the crime.
In an unrelated incident this year, Somali-born Mohamed Mohamed Yusuf was shot dead on Sept. 27 — also on downtown Pelissier Street. Yusuf was 23. His killer has not been found.
Although dismayed to hear of such incidents, Absiye said these crimes are also evidence of the family reunification issue on Somali-Canadians. “The young people are integrating faster than the parents. There is a big gap in communication in every home.”
“In every house, we can see two languages… This gap creates inter-generational conflict,” Absiye continued. “This whole thing is another result of the overwhelming settlement process.”
How about all those drug and gang-related Somali murders in Edmonton we told readers about yesterday, here, lack of family reunification behind those too?
Or, how about those Canadian Somali youths going back to Somalia to join the Jihad—just hankering for family reunification too?
Canada Category! We should have done this long ago—make a category for posts on Canadian immigration issues. I’ve done so now, and will go back a bit and re-cateogorize posts on Canada.