By Suelle Micallef Marmara’ Bsc(hons) General Nursing Studies MA Transcultural Counselling University of Malta

 Adolescence is a time of change from childhood to adulthood. Erikson identifies it as the stage of psychosocial development, where a person is in search of personal identity, coping with moral issues, building, maintaining and ending social network and struggling with society’s norms (Erikson, 1968).  Migrating to a new country involves a number of transitions and adjustments. It brings about massive changes of habitual environment including language, social networks, environment and food together with psychological and emotional difficulties of adjustment to the new country.  Hence immigration has the potential to put more pressure on an adolescent to achieve a sense of identity.

 Explore and gain an understanding of the immigrant adolescent’s experience  Provide insight to counselors, psychologists, social workers, and teachers and to other professionals working with this population to better understand their needs and their behavior.

 An Interpretative Phenomenological Approach (IPA) was used.  Data were collected from 10 immigrant adolescents aged between 13 to 18 years by means of a semi structured interview.  Five of the participants migrated to Malta with the legal paper needed and five participants were forced to migrate due to war, famine of other social or political upheavals.

 Sample was divided evenly among males and females  The majority of the participants in this study have migrated from Somalia and Serbia other countries included were Eritrea, Albania and Scotland.  A Translator was used to access the non- English speaking population

 Leaving one’s country with the prospect of a better future was one of the central concerns of all the participants.

“I can’t live in Somalia because of war. I was born, lived and experienced war so I know how it is, so I want to live. But I miss my family but I want to think for my future because if I stay in Somalia I have two choices, either become a terrorist or you don’t live, because the terrorist there will tell you come with us and if you don’t go, they will shoot you and kill you” P6.

Superordinate Theme Who am I? Subordinate Theme 1 Stranger in a strange land Subordinate Theme 2 “Talking the talk” Subordinate Theme 3 Growing up “Maltese” Subordinate Theme 4 Going “home” again Subordinate Theme 5 School Days

 Immigration provides the possibility of living a different life to that one is used to and it presents various challenges that will shape one’s identity through both positive and negative feelings around the whole new experience.

 Some felt the need to change one’s identity to fit in.  They changed their way of being with others and their social life.  For some, immigration improved their psychological well-being in feeling more safe and serene.  The majority have a better perspective of who they can become.

Their sense of identity following immigration has changed as being in Malta has made them become a different person from the one they would have been/become in their country of origin. This effected the psychological well being of the participants leaving their country due to war. 16 year old Somali: “… but in Malta I am thinking about my future, I am not thinking what I will eat, I am not thinking when I will die” P6.

 Compare own culture with the new culture  Cultural adaptation impacted their sense of belonging within the new country.  Their perception of the Maltese have impacted their ability to find an equilibrium between own and new culture

Those having a positive perception of the new culture and the Maltese people were more open to adapt to the new culture and integrate both cultures within their cultural identity.

 Integration between the new culture and ethnic culture was strongly identified as providing a sense of belonging.  However., keeping close network with ethnic community was also found to serve as protective factor for psychosocial development

 Immigration gives a sense of “OTHERNESS”.  New comers who do not share same history, language, or culture are often viewed and treated as being different. Scottish 13 years: “I mean people don’t accept me as well as they would accept a fellow Maltese person because I am from a different mmm… locality, from a different country, and I’ve come over” P5

 A sense of not belonging was often the result of perceived acts of discrimination on the part of the participants.  Participants coming from African countries attributed acts of discrimination to the colour of their skin as it was stated by the majority of them that Maltese people, “don’t like black people”(P2, P4, P6)  Moreover P10 described injustice experienced both from the general public on a bus and also from a worker at the bank.

However discrimination was not only experienced due to different skin colour as other participants experienced discrimination as they were from another country. P5, P7 and P8 who are not from African countries experienced being made fun of by peers because of where they come from.

 Language was found as one of the main difficulties during their acculturation period.  It poses difficulty in building relationship  Pose emotional challenges as feeling stressed, inadequacy and hopelessness  Their experience of not fitting in was also related to language difficulties as all participants identified with the increase of social network once their English either was improved or will be improved.

 Participants experienced pressure by parents to preserve their culture of origin.  Clashing with parents due to different parenting styles then the Maltese.  Different acculturation stages between parents and adolescents.

 Family relationships help them to connect with their ethnic cultural identity.  Feeling different both within the host culture and within their culture of origin.  Developed a “foreigner identity”

14 year old Serbian “Yes I felt like a foreigner there, even when like… my cousin introduced me to her friends, she introduced me like hey… this is my cousin, she is from Malta and they looked at me like I was a foreigner so I felt like a foreigner, even though I spoke the same language but… a foreigner… a foreigner” “disappointed I think, because I am one of them and yet they treated me like a foreigner” P8.

 Social support by peers and teachers at school was found to provide a positive effect on the immigrant adolescent’s self-esteem, psychological well-being, their sense of belonging and improving his/her academic abilities.  Lack of social network, discrimination, language and communication difficulties were challenges that every participant has to face, deal and overcome at school.  All of these were found to be associated with predicting their adjustment within the school environment.

14 year old Serbian: “I had a few teachers that… like… because I was foreigner they would look at me in a different way… and then I would just… like quite the subjects… and didn’t like the teacher… then I hate the subject… as I … but now it changed” P7. “…but now it’s working… now … it getting… being really good in school” P7.

17 year old Eritrean “Even my teachers in class, they speak Maltese and then I don’t understand as I don’t speak Maltese”. P2

 From this research, there emerged the degree of how much diversity affects the individual from both a psychological and a sociological perspective.  Adolescents were found to be struggling to find their place within the new culture due to their differences, whereas if they were to be accepted with their differences, immigration might have a different effect on their psychosocial development.

 Every professional needs to become aware of the process and stress experienced by young people.  Through this awareness we can better understand them and strive to provide them with better support mechanisms.  Immigrant adolescents need to be provided with the best psychological care needed as it will counter play for a better integration within the new country.

Through embracing diversity one is able to understand the other, while also celebrating the richness of being different.