Living on the Margins: Trauma, Violence and Gang Activities Among Somali Refugee Youth in Displacement

Background and Purpose: Refugee children and youth are exposed to prolonged trauma and chronic violence. The accession of the challenges and adversities during migration forces vulnerable refugee youth to replicate the various forms violence they have been exposed to in order to survive. In spite of a striking link between trauma, gang activities, and violence, few studies have been conducted with Somali refugee youth in low-resource urban settings. This study was developed to understand how prolonged trauma shapes ecological conditions of refugee life that induce vulnerable youth to forge support systems through gang membership and violence.

Methods: The authors conducted semi-structured interviews to explore lived experiences of gang-affiliated Somali refugee youth in urban Kenya. A chain referral sampling strategy was adopted to identify and recruit 20 gang-involved Somali refugee youth in Nairobi. A hybrid thematic analysis was adopted to develop multiple in-vivo codes, while applying a theoretical framework, a socio-ecological systems theory, to guide thematization process. Multiple themes of complex needs and adversities emerged from the codes and finalized themes were consolidated, categorized and re-categorized in each ecological system level: individual, family/interpersonal, community, and societal levels.

Results: The findings from the thematic analysis unveiled cumulative traumas and polyvictimization of gang-involved Somali refugee youth. Youth reported experiencing multiple traumatic events which place them at a high risk for various issues including health and mental health problems. The lack of access to basic needs and social support was pervasive daily concerns. Due to chronic adversities, youth had no choice but to reach out to gangs and/or criminal activity to achieve stability and support. Even though gang involvement places the youth at risk for additional dangers it was seen as the only way to obtain physical protection from community violence. The lack of support systems and distorted sense of self-identity due to prolonged trauma provoked youth to redefine themselves by forging new identities that highlight the opposite of vulnerability and victimhood. The cycle of violence was further perpetuated by the youth’s desire for revenge for the deaths of family, and unprocessed traumas and violence that lead the youth to find alternate paths of healing. Gang involvement was what the vulnerable youth found as the vehicle to reformulate their identities away from self-defeat caused by refugee hardships.

Conclusions and Implications: This study demonstrates how prolonged trauma shapes ecological conditions of refugee life that induce vulnerable youth to build support systems through gang membership and violence. The myriad of challenges faced by these youth, including trauma, oppression and discrimination, not only force them to replicate violence in many forms, but spur them to seek out the support, protection and restoration of control provided by gang membership. Lack of community support and experience of discrimination led youth to seek gang membership for contrived solidarity, unity, purpose in life and hope. The systems perspective of this study expands our understanding of refugee trauma and violence, implying a need for social work interventions and services that consider structural conditions of refugee experiences.