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How the Challenges for Somali Muslim Men in the UK Affect their Identity Resilience?

Year 2024, Volume: 11 Issue: 21, 219 - 242, 15.06.2024
https://doi.org/10.30523/mutefekkir.1501614

Abstract

Somali men living in the UK mostly encounter difficulties related to racism, discrimination, Islamophobia, social position, and economic circumstances, which may be attributed to their relatively recent arrival in the UK. The current study explores how the intersecting identities of Somali Muslim men in the UK affect their lives, challenges and identity resilience. The objective of this research is not to generalize the difficulties encountered by Somali men in the UK. Instead, the purpose is to thoroughly investigate how the personal experiences of Somali men impact their identity resilience. The study adopts the qualitative research methodology, employing semi-structured individual in-depth interviews with Somali men in the UK, and applying Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The research findings revealed that the intersection of race and religion, being a first generation and the lack of a concrete role model among Somali men, low social class and socioeconomic standing, and finance and interest-related matters seem to create unique challenges for Somali men in the UK. Moreover, these challenges experienced by Somali men in the UK seem to impact their emotions. It appears that the challenges faced by Somali men also negatively affect the identity principles of “self-efficacy”, “self-esteem”, “distinctiveness”, and “continuity”, which are fundamental concepts in Identity Process Theory (IPT) and the recently developed “Identity Resilience Model”. Although the religious identities of Somali men in the UK usually create challenges that negatively impact or threaten their identity resilience, their religious beliefs and religiosity also strengthen their identity resilience by providing a strong coping mechanism for their challenges.

References

  • Abduljaber, Malek - Kalin, Ilker. “Evaluating the Explanatory Power of Social Identity Theory, Inter-group Contact Hypothesis, and Integrated Threat Theory in Explaining Prejudice against Muslim Americans in the United States”. The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development 9/2 (2019), 89-106.
  • Abdullahi, Sahra Bashir - Wei, Li. “Living with diversity and change: intergenerational differences in language and identity in the Somali community in Britain”. International journal of the sociology of language 269 (2021), 15-45. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2020-0007
  • Alkhammash, Reem. “Islamophobia in The UK Print Media: An Intersectional Critical Discourse Analysis”. International Journal of English Language and Linguistics Research 8/2 (March 2020), 91-103. Baker, J. Paul - Levon, Erez. “’That’s what I call a man’: representations of ra-cialised and classed masculinities in the UK print media”. Gender and Lan-guage 10/1 (2016).
  • Breakwell, Glynis Marie et al. “The identity resilience index: Development and validation in two UK samples”. Identity 22/2 (September 2021), 166-182.
  • Breakwell, Glynis Marie - Jaspal, Rusi. “Coming out, distress and identity threat in gay men in the United Kingdom”. Sexuality Research & Social Policy (2021), 1166-1177. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-021-00608-4
  • Breakwell, Glynis Marie - Jaspal, Rusi. “Identity change, uncertainty and mis¬trust in relation to fear and risk of COVID-19”. Journal of Risk Research 24/3–4 (December 2020), 335–351.
  • Breakwell, Glynis Marie. Coping with threatened identities. London: Psychology Press, 1986.
  • Breakwell, Glynis Marie. “Social representations and social identity”. Papers on social representations 2 (1993), 198-217.
  • Breakwell, Glynis Marie. “Identity resilience: its origins in identity processes and its role in coping with threat”. Contemporary Social Science 16/5 (November 2021), 573-588.
  • Cinnirella, Marco. “The role of perceived threat and identity in Islamophobic prejudice. Identity Process Theory: Identity”. Social Action and Social Change (2014), 253.
  • Crenshaw, Kimberlé. “Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and an¬tiracist politics”. Feminist legal theories Routledge. ed. Karen Maschke. 23-51. New York: Routledge, First Edition, 2013.
  • dos Santos, Marcos Francisco - Pereira, Cicero Roberto. “The social psychology of a selective national inferiority complex: Reconciling positive distinc¬tiveness and system justification”. Journal of Experimental Social Psychol¬ogy 95 (2021), 104-118.
  • Dovidio, John et al. “Racial, ethnic, and cultural differences in responding to distinctiveness and discrimination on campus: Stigma and common group identity”. Journal of social Issues 57/1 (2001), 167-188.
  • Garden, Paul. How do Muslim men in the UK talk about their experiences of discrimination?. London: City University of London, Department of Psychology, Doctoral dissertation, 2019. https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/23848
  • Jaspal, Rusi - Cinnirella, Marco. “The construction of ethnic identity: Insights from identity process theory”. Ethnicities 12/5 (January 2012), 503-530.
  • Jaspal, Rusi - Breakwell, Glynis Marie. “Identity resilience, social support and internalised homonegativity in gay men”. Psychology & Sexuality 13/5 (January 2022), 1270-1287.
  • Harris, Hermione. The Somali community in the UK: What we know and how we know it. London: The Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK (ICAR), 2004.
  • Hopkins, Gail. “Somali Community Organizations in London and Toronto: Collaboration and Effectiveness”. Journal of Refugee Studies 19/3 (September 2006), 361–380, https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fel013
  • Markussen, Marith Kristin Gullbekk. “’Nobody comes to Baba for advice’: ne-gotiating ageing masculinities in the Somali diaspora”. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 46/7 (July 2020), 1442-1459.
  • Mills, Jesse. “I should get married early: Culturally appropriate comprehensive sex education and the racialization of Somali masculinity”. Spectrum: The Journal of Black Men 1/1 (2012), 5-30.
  • Mauleón, Emmanuel. “Black twice: Policing black Muslim identities”. UCLA L. Rev. 65 (2018), 1326.
  • Mohamoud, Aweys O. Growing up Somali in Britain: the experience of a group of young Somali men and women coming of age in London and their par¬ents. London: University of London, Institute of Education, Doctoral Dissertation, 2011.
  • Moustakas, Clark. Phenomenological research methods. Thousand Oaks: Sage publications, 1994.
  • ONS, Office for National Statistics. “Somali individuals in England, Wales and the UK”. (Accessed 30 December 2023).
  • https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/somaliindividualsinenglandwalesandtheuk#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20people%20that,population%20of%20England%20and%20Wales.
  • Phillips, Rita. “Teachers’ faith, identity processes and resilience: a qualitative approach”. British journal of religious education 43/3 (February 2021), 310-319.
  • Silveira, Ellen - Allebeck, Peter. “Migration, ageing and mental health: an eth-nographic study on perceptions of life satisfaction, anxiety and depres¬sion in older Somali men in east London”. International Journal of social welfare 10/4 (February 2003), 309-320.
  • Timotijevic, Lada - Breakwell, Glynis Marie. “Migration and threat to identity”. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology 10/5 (October 2000), 355-372.
  • UNDP, United Nations Development Programme. Cash and Compassion: The Somali Diaspora’s Role in Relief, Development and Peacebuilding. New York: UNDP, 2011.
  • van Heelsum, Anja. “Why Somalis move? An investigation into migratory pro-cesses among Somalis”. ECAS 4/4 (June 2011), 12.
  • van Liempt, Ilse. “’And then one day they all moved to Leicester’: the relocation of Somalis from the Netherlands to the UK explained”. Population, Space and Place 17/3 (April 2011), 254-266.
  • Vignoles, Vivian L. “Identity motives”. Handbook of identity theory and research. ed. S. J. Schwartz et al. 403–432. New York: Springer, 2011.
  • Vignoles, Vivian L. et al. “Evaluating models of identity motivation: Self-esteem is not the whole story”. Self and Identity 1/3 (January 2002), 201-218.
  • Vignoles, Vivian L. et al. “Beyond self-esteem: influence of multiple mo¬tives on identity construction”. Journal of personality and social psychol¬ogy 90/2 (2006), 308.
  • Ysseldyk, Renate. “Religiosity as Identity: Toward an Understanding of Reli¬gion From a Social Identity Perspective”. Personality and Social Psychol¬ogy Review 14/1 (January 2010), 60–71. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868309349693

İngiltere’deki Somalili Müslüman Erkeklerin Karşılaştığı Zorluklar Kimlik Dayanıklılıklarını Nasıl Etkiliyor?

Year 2024, Volume: 11 Issue: 21, 219 - 242, 15.06.2024
https://doi.org/10.30523/mutefekkir.1501614

Abstract

İngiltere’de yaşayan Somalili erkekler çoğunlukla ırkçılık, ayrımcılık, İs-lamofobi, sosyal konum ve ekonomik koşullarla ilgili zorluklarla karşı-laşmaktadırlar ve bu durum, ülkeye diğer Müslüman gruplara göre daha sonraki dönemlerde göç etmiş olmalarına bağlanabilir. Bu çalışma, İngil-tere’deki Somalili Müslüman erkeklerin kesişen kimliklerinin hayatlarını, yaşadıkları zorluklarını ve kimlik dayanıklılıklarını nasıl etkilediğini araş-tırmaktadır. Bu araştırmanın amacı Somalili erkeklerin Birleşik Krallık’ta karşılaştığı zorluklara ilişkin genellemeler yapmak değildir. Bunun yerine amaç, Somalili erkeklerin kişisel deneyimlerinin kimlik dayanıklılıklarını nasıl etkilediğini kapsamlı bir şekilde araştırmaktır. Nitel araştırma dese-nini benimseyen, İngiltere’de yaşayan Somalili erkeklerle yarı yapılandı-rılmış derinlemesine bireysel görüşmeler yapılan ve Yorumlayıcı Feno-menolojik Analiz (IPA) yaklaşımını uygulanan bu araştırmanın sonuçları-na göre; ırk ve dini kimliklerinin kesişmesi, ülkede birinci nesil Somalili göçmen olmaları ve somut rol modellerinin olmayışı, düşük sosyal sınıf ve sosyoekonomik durumları, finans ve faiz ile ilgili konular İngiltere’deki Somalili erkekler için daha farklı sorunlara yol açıyor gözükmektedir. İngiltere’deki Somalili erkeklerin yaşadığı bu zorluklar ayrıca onları duy-gusal anlamda da etkiliyor gözükmektedir. Somalili erkeklerin yaşadıkları zorlukların aynı zamanda Kimlik Süreç Teorisi (IPT) ve yakın zamanda geliştirilen “Kimlik Dayanıklılığı Modeli”nin temel kavramları olan “öz-yeterlik”, “özsaygı”, “ayırt edicilik” ve “süreklilik” kimlik ilkelerini de olumsuz yönde etkilediği görülmektedir. Her ne kadar dini kimlikleri İn-giltere’deki Somalili erkekler için genellikle kimlik dayanıklılıklarını olumsuz yönde etkileyen veya tehdit eden zorluklar ve problemler yarat-sa da dini inançları ve dindarlıkları aynı zamanda karşılaştıkları zorlukla-ra karşı güçlü bir başa çıkma mekanizması sağlayarak kimlik dayanıklılık-larını güçlendiriyor gözükmektedir.

References

  • Abduljaber, Malek - Kalin, Ilker. “Evaluating the Explanatory Power of Social Identity Theory, Inter-group Contact Hypothesis, and Integrated Threat Theory in Explaining Prejudice against Muslim Americans in the United States”. The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development 9/2 (2019), 89-106.
  • Abdullahi, Sahra Bashir - Wei, Li. “Living with diversity and change: intergenerational differences in language and identity in the Somali community in Britain”. International journal of the sociology of language 269 (2021), 15-45. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2020-0007
  • Alkhammash, Reem. “Islamophobia in The UK Print Media: An Intersectional Critical Discourse Analysis”. International Journal of English Language and Linguistics Research 8/2 (March 2020), 91-103. Baker, J. Paul - Levon, Erez. “’That’s what I call a man’: representations of ra-cialised and classed masculinities in the UK print media”. Gender and Lan-guage 10/1 (2016).
  • Breakwell, Glynis Marie et al. “The identity resilience index: Development and validation in two UK samples”. Identity 22/2 (September 2021), 166-182.
  • Breakwell, Glynis Marie - Jaspal, Rusi. “Coming out, distress and identity threat in gay men in the United Kingdom”. Sexuality Research & Social Policy (2021), 1166-1177. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-021-00608-4
  • Breakwell, Glynis Marie - Jaspal, Rusi. “Identity change, uncertainty and mis¬trust in relation to fear and risk of COVID-19”. Journal of Risk Research 24/3–4 (December 2020), 335–351.
  • Breakwell, Glynis Marie. Coping with threatened identities. London: Psychology Press, 1986.
  • Breakwell, Glynis Marie. “Social representations and social identity”. Papers on social representations 2 (1993), 198-217.
  • Breakwell, Glynis Marie. “Identity resilience: its origins in identity processes and its role in coping with threat”. Contemporary Social Science 16/5 (November 2021), 573-588.
  • Cinnirella, Marco. “The role of perceived threat and identity in Islamophobic prejudice. Identity Process Theory: Identity”. Social Action and Social Change (2014), 253.
  • Crenshaw, Kimberlé. “Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and an¬tiracist politics”. Feminist legal theories Routledge. ed. Karen Maschke. 23-51. New York: Routledge, First Edition, 2013.
  • dos Santos, Marcos Francisco - Pereira, Cicero Roberto. “The social psychology of a selective national inferiority complex: Reconciling positive distinc¬tiveness and system justification”. Journal of Experimental Social Psychol¬ogy 95 (2021), 104-118.
  • Dovidio, John et al. “Racial, ethnic, and cultural differences in responding to distinctiveness and discrimination on campus: Stigma and common group identity”. Journal of social Issues 57/1 (2001), 167-188.
  • Garden, Paul. How do Muslim men in the UK talk about their experiences of discrimination?. London: City University of London, Department of Psychology, Doctoral dissertation, 2019. https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/23848
  • Jaspal, Rusi - Cinnirella, Marco. “The construction of ethnic identity: Insights from identity process theory”. Ethnicities 12/5 (January 2012), 503-530.
  • Jaspal, Rusi - Breakwell, Glynis Marie. “Identity resilience, social support and internalised homonegativity in gay men”. Psychology & Sexuality 13/5 (January 2022), 1270-1287.
  • Harris, Hermione. The Somali community in the UK: What we know and how we know it. London: The Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK (ICAR), 2004.
  • Hopkins, Gail. “Somali Community Organizations in London and Toronto: Collaboration and Effectiveness”. Journal of Refugee Studies 19/3 (September 2006), 361–380, https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fel013
  • Markussen, Marith Kristin Gullbekk. “’Nobody comes to Baba for advice’: ne-gotiating ageing masculinities in the Somali diaspora”. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 46/7 (July 2020), 1442-1459.
  • Mills, Jesse. “I should get married early: Culturally appropriate comprehensive sex education and the racialization of Somali masculinity”. Spectrum: The Journal of Black Men 1/1 (2012), 5-30.
  • Mauleón, Emmanuel. “Black twice: Policing black Muslim identities”. UCLA L. Rev. 65 (2018), 1326.
  • Mohamoud, Aweys O. Growing up Somali in Britain: the experience of a group of young Somali men and women coming of age in London and their par¬ents. London: University of London, Institute of Education, Doctoral Dissertation, 2011.
  • Moustakas, Clark. Phenomenological research methods. Thousand Oaks: Sage publications, 1994.
  • ONS, Office for National Statistics. “Somali individuals in England, Wales and the UK”. (Accessed 30 December 2023).
  • https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/somaliindividualsinenglandwalesandtheuk#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20people%20that,population%20of%20England%20and%20Wales.
  • Phillips, Rita. “Teachers’ faith, identity processes and resilience: a qualitative approach”. British journal of religious education 43/3 (February 2021), 310-319.
  • Silveira, Ellen - Allebeck, Peter. “Migration, ageing and mental health: an eth-nographic study on perceptions of life satisfaction, anxiety and depres¬sion in older Somali men in east London”. International Journal of social welfare 10/4 (February 2003), 309-320.
  • Timotijevic, Lada - Breakwell, Glynis Marie. “Migration and threat to identity”. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology 10/5 (October 2000), 355-372.
  • UNDP, United Nations Development Programme. Cash and Compassion: The Somali Diaspora’s Role in Relief, Development and Peacebuilding. New York: UNDP, 2011.
  • van Heelsum, Anja. “Why Somalis move? An investigation into migratory pro-cesses among Somalis”. ECAS 4/4 (June 2011), 12.
  • van Liempt, Ilse. “’And then one day they all moved to Leicester’: the relocation of Somalis from the Netherlands to the UK explained”. Population, Space and Place 17/3 (April 2011), 254-266.
  • Vignoles, Vivian L. “Identity motives”. Handbook of identity theory and research. ed. S. J. Schwartz et al. 403–432. New York: Springer, 2011.
  • Vignoles, Vivian L. et al. “Evaluating models of identity motivation: Self-esteem is not the whole story”. Self and Identity 1/3 (January 2002), 201-218.
  • Vignoles, Vivian L. et al. “Beyond self-esteem: influence of multiple mo¬tives on identity construction”. Journal of personality and social psychol¬ogy 90/2 (2006), 308.
  • Ysseldyk, Renate. “Religiosity as Identity: Toward an Understanding of Reli¬gion From a Social Identity Perspective”. Personality and Social Psychol¬ogy Review 14/1 (January 2010), 60–71. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868309349693
There are 35 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Sociology of Religion
Journal Section Makaleler
Authors

Durali Karacan 0000-0001-5840-7899

Publication Date June 15, 2024
Submission Date February 16, 2024
Acceptance Date June 5, 2024
Published in Issue Year 2024 Volume: 11 Issue: 21

Cite

ISNAD Karacan, Durali. “How the Challenges for Somali Muslim Men in the UK Affect Their Identity Resilience?”. Mütefekkir 11/21 (June 2024), 219-242. https://doi.org/10.30523/mutefekkir.1501614.

Aksaray Üniversitesi İslami İlimler Fakültesi dergisi Mütefekkir, her yılın 15 Haziran ve 15 Aralık tarihlerinde olmak üzere basılı ve online olarak yayınlanan, uluslararası akademik ve hakemli bir dergidir.