Refugee Wales: The Afterlife of Violence

背景暴力内战的经历对被迫离开家园并在截然不同的社会中建立新生活的难民有何影响？这样的经历如何改变人们对自己是谁、属于哪里的感觉？他们如何应对适应新环境并最终成为新国家公民的过程？这种经历如何成为代代相传的家庭记忆的一部分？这些是卡迪夫大学和威尔士国家博物馆的研究人员将通过与威尔士不同同化阶段的难民合作来探索的一些问题。我们首先假设，过去的记忆塑造了身份认同，并询问因战争和逃亡而受到创伤的难民和申请庇护的难民是如何受到这种经历的影响的。我们看看他们对自己的感觉是如何被新的现实、新的经历和新的地方改变的。我们将斯里兰卡泰米尔人的生活故事与最近的叙利亚难民进行比较，以了解他们面临的挑战和身份从难民到公民的转变。斯里兰卡泰米尔人自20世纪80年代以来作为难民来到斯里兰卡，现在包括第二代和第三代人。我们使用深入的生活故事访谈和参与性讲习班，分析威尔士战争、逃亡、寻求庇护和定居的记忆，看看这些记忆中的经历如何影响融合。我们借鉴创伤、记忆、难民和散居海外的研究，并使用口述历史、文本分析和创造性的参与式研讨会作为主要研究工具。我们探索口述历史如何与创伤和记忆方法交叉，以使遭受创伤的受访者发展一种代理感。我们探讨了起源于欧美的创伤和记忆研究在用于非欧洲受试者时需要如何进行细微差别。我们与难民合作开展创造性的项目，借鉴生活故事，让更广泛的公众了解问题，包括学校、政府机构和第三部门组织目标和目标我们的目标是制作和传播与4个群体相关的知识：项目参与者、难民社区、教育机构、博物馆公众以及政府、政策和第三部门组织。该项目将涉及：1.难民如何记住和重塑他们的身份和机构意识，这些身份和机构意识以前是由他们的原籍国在他们的新国家的经历形成的。2.如何通过家庭和社区纪念活动将经验代代相传。关于难民主体性的知识如何能够使难民更受收容社会的重视，而这反过来又可能影响难民的自我认同和应对战略。4.如何使用创造性的研究性活动来扰乱研究人员与受试者之间的权力关系，并为后者赋权。该项目如何使难民、机构和更广泛的收容社会从难民遭受创伤和记忆的经历中吸取教训，以及如何更好地相互了解难民与收容社会的关系和融合。从难民经历中学习如何帮助威尔士国家博物馆(AC-NMW)和其他类似机构对难民历史更加了解和敏感，并提高其公共规划和收藏的包容性和多样性？潜在的应用和益处该项目将有助于国家博物馆的口述历史收藏，帮助记录威尔士作为一个多元化国家的生活。我们将制作关于难民主观经历的数据档案，供研究人员、教师、第三部门工人和政策制定者使用；一系列学术书籍和文章；所研究社区的永久口述历史档案。

ContextHow does the experience of violent civil war affect refugees who are forced to leave their homes and to establish a new life in very different society? How does such experience change people's sense of who they are and where they belong? How do they cope with the processes of adapting to a new environment and eventually becoming citizens of their new country? How does this experience become part of family memory across generations? These are some of the questions that researchers from Cardiff University and the National Museum of Wales will explore by working with refugees at different stages of assimilation in Wales. We begin with the hypothesis that memories of the past shape identity and ask how refugees, traumatised by war and flight and who apply for asylum are affected by this experience. We look at how their sense of who they are is changed by new realities, new experiences, and new places. We compare and contrast the life stories of Sri Lankan Tamils, who arrived as refugees since the 1980s and now include second and third generations, with recent Syrian refugees in order to understand the challenges that they face and the transformations of identities from refugee to citizen. Using in-depth life story interviews and participatory workshops, we analyse memories of war, flight, asylum-seeking and settlement in Wales, looking at how these remembered experiences affect integration. We draw on trauma, memory, refugee and diaspora studies and use oral history, textual analysis, and creative participatory workshops as our main research tools. We explore how oral history might intersect with trauma and memory methodologies to enable traumatised interviewees to develop a sense of agency. We explore how trauma and memory studies, which are Euro-American in origin, need to be nuanced when used with non-European subjects. We work collaboratively with refugees on creative projects that draw on the life stories and make issues accessible to a wider public including schools, government agencies and third sector organisationsAims and ObjectivesWe aim to produce and disseminate knowledge relevant to 4 groups: the project participants, refugee communities, educational institutions, museum publics, and government, policy and third sector organisations. The project will address:1. How refugees remember and remake their identities and sense of agency, previously formed by the experience of their countries of origin, in their new country. 2. How experiences are passed on across generations via family and community memories.3. How knowledge of refugee subjectivity might enable refugees to be better valued by the host society which, in turn, might impact on refugee self-identities and coping strategies. 4. How creative research-based activities can be used to disturb the power relationships between researchers and subjects and empower the latter.5. How the project might enable refugees, institutions and the broader host society, to learn from refugee experiences of trauma and memory and how to reach a better mutual understanding of refugee-host society relationships and integration.6. How learning from refugee experiences can help Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales (AC-NMW) and other similar institutions become more aware of and sensitive to refugee histories and improve the inclusivity and diversity of their public programming and collecting? Potential Application and Benefits The project will contribute to the National Museum's oral history collection, helping to document life in Wales as a diverse country. We will produce an archive of data on the subjective experience of refugees for use by researchers, teachers, third-sector workers, and policy makers; a range of scholarly books and articles; a permanent oral history archive of the communities studied.