570131

research-article2015

QHRXXX10.1177/1049732315570131Qualitative Health ResearchShamai and Amir

Article

Not the Promised Land: African Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Israel

Qualitative Health Research 1­–14 © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1049732315570131 qhr.sagepub.com

Michal Shamai1 and Yair Amir2

Abstract The phenomenon of African asylum seekers in Israel is relatively new. The purpose of the study was twofold: (a) to investigate how the asylum seekers construct their life stories and (b) to discover which aspects of the constructed life stories can be taken into consideration by various mental health professionals when providing help to asylum seekers. In this study, we interviewed 16 asylum seekers residing in Israel using the narrative method. Based on holistic analysis, we collected three groups of stories: “Then see what course life takes in the future,” “I’m not yet free,” and “Open prison.” In the discussion of the findings, we focus on the similarities and differences among the groups of stories, with reference to the role of the sociopolitical context and to the private and social self as part of the participants’ wellbeing. We make implementation suggestions for mental health interventions. Keywords refugees; life stories; mental health; trauma In the past decade, 45,500 African forced migrants, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, have arrived in Israel by illegally crossing the border after fleeing political persecution and economic crisis in their home countries. The State of Israel has not opened its gates to these migrants, and as in many other countries around the globe, they have had to ask for recognition and to prove their refugee status (Nathan, 2011). Thus, Israel has joined many Western countries that have had to deal, in recent decades, with the phenomenon of forced migration. The migrants arrive in Israel hoping to benefit from protection under the International Refugee Law and to improve their personal safety and economic situation, at least until the situation in their country changes. Migration in general and forced migration in particular is accompanied by severe adjustment problems, and requires the individuals to draw on many coping resources. The purposes of this study were as follows: (a) to investigate how the asylum seekers arriving in Israel construct their life stories in the context of a state that is ethnocentric in character, and (b) to discover which aspects of the constructed life stories can be taken into consideration by various mental health professionals when providing psychosocial help to asylum seekers.

disasters (war, revolution, persecution, etc.) and move to another country that hosts them and offers them a better chance to survive (Ben-Sira, 1997). Likewise, displacement can also occur within a country, when people are forced to leave their homes but remain within the state’s borders (www.forcedmigration.org). Either way, the process of forced migration is an experience that involves high levels of stress and distress. Since the end of World War II, displacement has become one of the most difficult problems in the world, and industrialized countries have responded to migration with increasingly rigid laws designed to prevent the arrival and settling of migrants in the host countries (Ingleby, 2005). According to the figures provided by the United Nations (UN) Refugee Agency (UNHCR), at the end of 2009, the number of forced migrants of various kinds stood at approximately 43 million. Of these, approximately 15 million were external refugees, who had been forced to leave their countries of origin, and about 27 million internal refugees, who had been forced to leave their homes but remained within their national borders (UN Refugee Agency, www.unhcr.org). According to the same data, most of the refugees reside in developing countries

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University of Haifa, Israel Tikon Olam, Nitzana, Israel

Theoretical Review

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Forced Migration Forced migration or displacement occurs when people leave their homes during natural or human-induced

Corresponding Author: Michal Shamai, University of Haifa, 199 Aba Khoushy Ave., Mount Carmel, Haifa 3498838, Israel. Email: [email protected]

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and not in developed, Western countries (Ellis, MacDonald, Lincoln, & Cabral, 2008). Four main categories of forced migrants can be distinguished: refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, and victims of trafficking and smuggling. The present article focuses on asylum seekers, people who have crossed international borders in search of protection under the Refugee Convention of 1951, but their request for recognition of refugee status has not yet been granted. The asylum application process is a complex one that might last several months and sometimes years. Requests for asylum are checked according to criteria established by international treaties, UN recommendations, and by internal laws legislated by each state. In recent decades, many doubts have arisen among Western nations about the trustworthiness of requests for asylum. As a result, many refugees have been labeled economic refugees or “fake” asylum seekers. In previous studies about the effect of mental health and the well-being of forced migrants, researchers showed an increase in the probability of developing various stress symptoms and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Drožðek & Wilson, 2007; Porter & Haslam, 2005. This is especially true if the process of migration does not end but lasts many years, leaving the asylum seekers in a state of uncertainty. This situation creates difficulties in three areas of adjustment: psychological, sociocultural, and economic (Swami, 2009; Ward, Bochner, & Furnham, 2001). In the present study, which was conducted in Israel, we focused on asylum seekers and refugees living under such uncertainty. Mental health professionals can consider the manner in which these people construct their life stories when developing interventions for the growing numbers of asylum seekers and refugees worldwide, particularly in Western countries.

Research Context: Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel Following the war and genocide that began in 2003 in the Darfur region of West Sudan, millions of people were displaced. Since 2004, a small number of asylum seekers began to arrive to Israel through the Sinai Desert, by illegally crossing the border between Egypt and Israel. The flow of refugees into Israel increased in 2006 after the suppression of a demonstration by African refugees in Mostafa Mahmoud Square in Cairo, in December 2005, in which more than 30 Sudanese refugees were killed (Afeef, 2009; Kraft, 2007). Following the influx of refugees from Sudan, asylum seekers of other nationalities, particularly from countries involved in civil wars, began using the smuggling routes established in Sinai (Kemp & Kritzman, 2008).

Since 2009, the majority of asylum seekers arriving in this way at Israel have been Eritrean citizens escaping difficult, indefinite military conscription. The government of Eritrea regards citizens who seek shelter outside its borders as traitors. Therefore, if they return to Eritrea, they are expected to face arrest and torture (United States Department of State, 2011). Sudanese and Eritreans form the research population of this study. In the course of 2010 and throughout the first half of 2012, the rate of arrival of asylum seekers was in excess of 1,000 people per month (Nathan, 2010). Asylum seekers are generally captured by the Israel Defense Forces (IDFs) and transferred to detention facilities of the Israel Prison Service for having violated the Entry into Israel law. Although in 1954, Israel signed the 1951 Geneva Convention concerning refugees and ratified it in 1958, no local legislation has adopted the Convention within Israeli law. Only in 2001 did the Minister of Interior approve an internal procedure for regulating the handling of asylum seekers in Israel. Since 2002, in cooperation with UNHCR, Israel has begun to hear and rule on applications for asylum within its territory (Afeef, 2009; Kemp & Kritzman, 2008). Until the beginning of 2009, UNHCR handled the requests of asylum seekers. In 2009, an immigration authority was established as part of the Ministry of Interior, to handle this population (Afeef, 2009). Citizens of Sudan and Eritrea are categorized differently from asylum seekers from other countries. It is not possible to vouch for their safety, and therefore international law prohibits returning them to their country, and they enjoy the status of “group protection,” which means that applications for permanent shelter as refugees are not checked individually (Kritzman-Amir, 2009). Following a petition to the High Court of Justice by human rights organizations, it was decided in 2006 that the detention of refugees and asylum seekers is illegal, and that they must be set free within the framework of a custody solution. Initially, they were absorbed by kibbutzim and moshavim (cooperative farms), and after the custody arrangements ended, they began to settle in various places across the country. Asylum seekers, who proved to the immigration authorities that they originated from Sudan or Eritrea, were released and received residence permits from the state under conditions that include an obligation to cooperate with the authorities if asked to leave the country. The permits are renewed every few months and do not include a work permit. Exceptional within this group are 600 Sudanese from Darfur, who, in the first half of 2008, received recognized refugee status and temporary resident IDs, as a one-time gesture of the Israeli government (Avineri, Orgad, & Rubinstein, 2009), as well as some 2,600 Eritreans who arrived in Israel before 2007 and received resident visas that included work permits

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Shamai and Amir (Afeef, 2009). As of July 2012, the regulations changed again and asylum seekers who entered Israel illegally have been held for long periods in detention camps. Since 2008, the refugee issue began to appear on the public agenda in Israel, with many references in the media and in Knesset committee discussions. Until 2010, the status of asylum seekers in Israel was undefined. Paz (2011) called the government policy “ordered disorder,” in which the state deliberately failed to establish a policy on the issue. Although the state refused work permits to asylum seekers, no law on the matter was enforced, to avoid shouldering the economic burden of thousands of unemployable people residing in the country (Paz, 2011). Consequently, no government agency is responsible for the socioeconomic and health status of the asylum seekers, who are in the country on temporary visas (Nathan, 2010). Filling the vacuum are social and non-governmental associations, including voluntary physicians, nurses, social workers, psychologists, and social activists. Since the study was conducted, between February 2011 and January 2012, government policy toward refugees from Sudan and Eritrea has become stricter. Based on this sociopolitical context, the present study examined (a) how asylum seekers in Israel construct their life stories, taking into account that the majority of Israeli citizens are either forced migrants or second- and third-generation forced migrants, and (b) which aspects of the narratives can be used by mental health professionals when developing interventions with asylum seekers.

Method In this study, we examined the subjective story of asylum seekers in Israel, and hence chose the narrative approach as the method of investigation. This approach considers the way in which the story serves as an expression of the individuals’ experience, of their perception of the self and of the surrounding world, and of the meaning ascribed to it. The story by itself largely reflects the life of the individual storyteller and of society. In the process of constructing the story, the teller seeks to shape a place and time, and to create linkages among actions within different scenes. In so doing, the storyteller ascribes meaning to the self, to the social situations described, and to history (Riessman, 2001; Somers, 1994). In the last two decades, the use of the narrative approach in researching topics related to immigration, refugees, and asylum seekers has become increasingly prevalent (Mollica, 2001). This is mainly because it facilitates gaining insight into the study population, which is allowed to tell its own story using its own voice, metaphors, and style (Mollica, 2001). Based on the researchers’ acquaintance with the asylum seeker and refugee population from

Africa, this is especially true because they traditionally provide information through storytelling. It is important to note that even if data are collected as narratives, other qualitative research methods can be used for their analysis, such as thematic analysis as used in the grounded theory approach (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). Furthermore, in some narrative studies (Liblich, TuvalMashiach, & Zilber, 1998), it has been claimed that narratives could be analyzed through a different lens such as narrative content analysis, which has a lot in common with the thematic analysis as suggested by Corbin and Strauss (2008). In the present study, we chose to follow our participants and analyzed the data they provided in the narrative interview by means of narrative analysis. We found this method to be more congruent with our overall perception regarding the study of vulnerable asylum seekers and refugees, because of their culture of organizing and reporting their experience through storytelling.

Sample We selected the study population based on the principle of appropriateness, according to the following criteria: (a) the participant was a refugee or an asylum seeker and (b) the country of origin was Sudan or Eritrea. We also applied the principle of adequacy, that is, that the material collected was understandable and provided a comprehensive and rich description of the experience under study (Morse, 1994). To satisfy this principle, we made an effort to create maximum variation among participants and to ensure that they represent the widest range of the phenomenon under investigation. Maximum variation was achieved by taking into account the gender of the interviewees, their age, country of origin, marital status, number of years in Israel, and place of residence in Israel. Participants were recruited using snowball sampling. We started by contacting one of the volunteer organizations that works with asylum seekers and refugees and asked for assistance in locating people who would be willing to participate in the study. They were asked to give potential participants detailed information regarding the goal of the study and the way that the interview would be implemented. In addition, they were asked to emphasize that participation in the study would not involve compensation and that they were free to refuse. We received names and telephone numbers of eight people who were ready to participate in the study. In the end, only six of them participated. The rest of the sample was recruited through the first group of participants, who informed their friends about the study and gave us contact information for those who agreed. Based on these principles, the sample included eight participants from Sudan and eight from Eritrea: 12 men

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and 4 women. This difference reflects the significant majority of men in the total population of asylum seekers. The sample included nine singles and seven participants who had families. Nine participants lived in Tel Aviv, and two in Eilat—the two cities most heavily populated by the refugees—and the rest were from other parts of the country. Their term of stay in Israel ranged from 6 months to 5 years, with the exception of one woman who had been residing in Israel for 14 years. At the time of the interview, most participants had been in Israel for between 3 and 4 years. Most of the participants were employed in varied jobs, with one exception of a business owner. Sample size was determined based on the principle of data saturation, according to which the interviews continued until no new data were obtained.

Data Collection Data were collected through in-depth narrative interviews. The interviews were conducted following a phone call in which the nature of the study was explained to respondents. If they agreed to participate, a meeting was scheduled for an interview. Before the interview, we (the interviewers) rechecked with the participants that no one had forced them to take part in the study. We briefed the participants about the study again, at length, and about the manner in which the interview would take place. We made it clear to the participants that they could refuse to talk about issues that they preferred to avoid, for any reason, and that they could withdraw from the interview at any point without explanation and without penalty. After clarifying these issues, they signed an informed consent form. The interview was conducted in the language selected by the interviewee (Arabic, English, or Hebrew). All the interviews were recorded and transcribed. Arabic transcriptions were translated into Hebrew. Only the excerpts of interview used for this article were translated into English. At the beginning of the interview, the participants were asked to tell their life story. This was followed by focusing on the key points related to such issues as the conditions in their countries of origin, reasons for having fled, the journey to Israel, the way in which they made the decision to come to Israel, arriving in Israel, life during their first few days in Israel, and in the following days and months, coping resources, relations with other asylum seekers and refugees, relations with family and friends who had remained in their countries of origin, and relations with Israelis. In the last stage of the interview, participants were asked to give a title to their story, which, according to Kacen (2002), represents the storyline. One of the advantages of using interviews in this format is the flexibility in developing and transitioning between issues (Chirban, 1996).

Data Analysis Data were analyzed according to the narrative approach. Narrative analysis can be conducted in two ways (Liblich, Tuval-Mashiach, & Zilber, 1998): holistic (analysis of the full story) and categorical (analysis of segments). Here, we present the findings of the holistic analysis, where the life story is referenced comprehensively, with segments of the text interpreted in light of this story. We performed the first stage of the holistic analysis with reference to the titles that participants gave their stories (Kacen, 2002). Based on these titles, we grouped the stories into three tentative categories. In the second stage, the holistic analysis focused on the content, primarily on two dimensions: the visible dimension (what happened, when, and why) and the concealed layer (understanding the storyteller’s motivations and the meaning of the story). In the third stage, we compared the two holistic analyses and categorized the stories into three groups of narratives. The study was approved by the ethics committee of the University of Haifa (No. 385 095/11, Folder 385).

Findings Based on the analysis of the interviewees’ stories, we divided the respondents into three main groups: (a) “Then see what course life takes in the future,” (b) “I’m not yet free,” and (c) “Open prison.” The names of the groups were derived from the interviewees’ stories, and they characterize the main idea of each group. In the present article, we analyze the story of one interviewee in each group, using selected excerpts from the interviews. “Then see what course life takes in the future.”  This group of respondents regards Israel as a place where they can advance themselves and realize at least a portion of the aspirations they had during their escape from their country of origin. They all found an occupation or vocation in which they are active and can express their desires. Most of them regard Israel as their final destination, except perhaps the possibility of returning to their country someday. One of the interviewees has opened a successful restaurant; a second has qualified as an English teacher, from which he makes a living; a third is investing in education and hopes to use his acquired knowledge on return to his country of origin; and a woman interviewee wants to find an Israeli husband and to stay in the country permanently. This group consists mainly of Sudanese men, aged 20 to 39. All except one live in Israel without a family. We present Rashid’s story as an illustration. Rashid calls his story “My present in Israel” and does not wish to include in it references to the past. He is among the first Darfurians who arrived in Israel, and now holds a temporary resident card (a5), considered to be the

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Shamai and Amir best certificate that a Sudanese refugee can obtain in Israel. Rashid was born in Darfur. After finishing high school in his native region, he went to university in Khartoum. Having completed his studies, he moved to Egypt, where he spent several more years and submitted a request to the UN to be recognized as a refugee. He did not provide any information about the situation in Darfur and about what had happened during the period of his studies in Khartoum, except to say that he came from a failing rural area, and that he suffered from a lack of food and water and from harassment by the authorities. The main motivating factor to reach Israel was that he had taken an active part in the events of Mostafa Mahmoud Square (Afeef, 2009). His decision to come to Israel involved great trepidation but also a perception of Israel as a place of last hope. Having undergone the routine course of entry into Israel, incarceration for several months, and release, he worked in agriculture and later at odd jobs. For a long time, he worked in a textile factory. Following this, he opened a restaurant with a Sudanese partner in an area populated by veteran Israelis. Besides certain essential details, Rashid chose to focus on the positive points of his stay in Israel as well as of the rest of the refugees: We came to the UN and told them we had walked away from the authorities because of one, two, three. We stated our problems, but then the events of Mostafa Mahmoud happened . . . so if there [in Cairo] it is possible to die and maybe here [in Israel] it is possible to die . . . we thought of going forward, we decided to come to Israel and see. If there is death here, then we die. Here, there are two options: to die or to succeed. In Egypt, there was only one option: to die. For this reason, despite the difficult information we received about Israel that it is a Jewish state . . . we decided to come . . . Whatever happens to us happens . . . So we made the decision, and thank God I came here, and I consider myself an Israeli citizen.

These remarks reveal Rashid’s journey from feeling foreign and anxious, on his arrival in Israel, to emotional identification and a sense of confidence in his own place in the country. The manner in which he describes his decision to come to Israel is an example of how his life story unfolds in his mind: Rashid pursued a certain goal, took risks to achieve it, and invested profound emotional resources in its accomplishment. Another example of the degree of his inner identification with his place in the country, and of his optimism, is the manner in which he regards the presence of the population of Sudanese in Israel. He considers this population as a possible bridge between Israel and the Arab and African countries, and believes that it is possible to conduct research based on his life in Israel, which would serve as an example and a starting point for a connection between Israel and Arab countries:

I think that all quarrels between nations can end . . . Now all the Arab states are rivals of Israel, this study can introduce life in Israel to people, and this study will explain about life in Israel and he who writes it will be someone from Darfur who is in Israel and will write these things . . . Then the whole world will believe and there will be peace, and trust without war, and security.

Rashid identifies with both Israel and the Arab countries. He wishes to settle the conflict inherent in this duality, and views the Sudanese forced migrants as a potential bridge between Israel and the Arab nations. Rashid believes that his success in Israel is rooted in his responsibility and strong will, together with determination to overcome every obstacle he encounters in his life: Here, too, we ran into some difficulties, but less severe, but the desire and power also made us overcome them, for example, the Prime Minister here has difficulties, but will solve them willingly . . . So, I ask for protection, and must overcome all the difficulties to obtain protection. If you think beyond the goal, it means that it is this desire that makes you think so, in other words, if you walk the path and found a snake, and you see the goal, and follow this path, then it is called the will. If I go and see a dead man on the way, what happened to him doesn’t have to happen to me, so I follow this path to reach the goal . . .

Through the allegory of the snake and of the dead man (examples that appear to express encounters with deep anxiety), Rashid describes his ability to overcome many of the dangers and obstacles he encountered. A genuine example of his way of confronting obstacles and of the security he feels in Israel can be found in the choice of location for his restaurant, in the heart of a Jewish area, unlike most refugees, who open a business that provides services to other refugees and asylum seekers. This is yet another way in which he declares his sense of belonging and optimism that go hand in hand with his perception of reality. He regards Israel as the last stop on his journey, and is not interested in moving to a Western country. For him, the only option for change is to return to Sudan: My future will be in Israel, Darfur is another world . . . But I expect, I hope that the future will be in Darfur . . . whatever will be, for me, Israel is now a temporary stopping place . . . The only place that will be is Darfur . . . that is my anticipation and the anticipation of all Darfurians.

Rashid lives in the present, as reflected in his statement that raises two options for the future: Israel and Darfur. Israel is perceived as the place of the future, perhaps the near future, but the hope is that the more distant future will be in the country of origin, although at the time of the interview, this was only a theoretical possibility.

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High level of hope

Low

Remote past

Past

Enter to Israel

Acclimaon period

Present

Future

Period Then to see what course life takes in the future I am not yet free Open prisonI

Figure 1.  Groups’ storylines.

With optimism as its main characteristic, Rashid’s account represents the story of all the respondents in this group (the group’s storyline is illustrated in Figure 1). Most of them choose not to focus on the past, which they describe as a point of difficulty in their lives, but on the present and the future. Only one member of the group emphasizes the experiences of the past and perceives these experiences as a source of power, which he succeeds in mobilizing to maintain his optimism and belief that he can overcome present and future obstacles. Although after the arrival in Israel, a short period of decline was registered in the physical and mental condition of the respondents, we can detect a process of adaptation and improvement in their situation. All respondents in this group have a clear target: running a business, going to school, or marrying an Israeli. Mentally, these people live in the present and in Israel. In their view, the future is a continuation of their lives as they are living them at the moment, and the primary direction is one of improvement. Another common characteristic of the respondents in this group is that they manage to make time to help the refugee community by volunteering in organizations or by providing individual help. Based on the stories of the participants in this group, it is possible to identify three of their personal characteristics that helped them adjust to the reality in Israel: optimism, mastery, and hardiness. These characteristics were not expressed by using the precise words: “I am an optimistic person” or “when I face difficulties, I find ways to overcome them,” but through stories and metaphors: “For example, the Prime Minister here has difficulties, but will solve them willingly . . . So, I ask for protection, and must overcome all the difficulties to obtain protection,” or “If I go and see a dead man on the way, what happened to him doesn’t have to happen to me.” Despite the difficulty

achieving Israeli citizenship, these participants express an optimistic view of the future. The stories told by the participants in this group reveal a high level of hardiness (Kobasa, Maddi, & Kahn, 1982), which is expressed by the perception of stressful and traumatic life events as a challenge with which they are committed to cope (Kobasa et al., 1982). Perceiving these as a challenge and the commitment to this challenge are two of the main variables that constructed a hardy personality (Kobasa et al., 1982). It was also possible to learn about their sense of mastery and control when facing difficulties in the present and the past. Personal traits, such as optimism, sense of mastery, and control, perceiving difficulties as a challenge and commitment, were found to predict the capacity to cope with stressful encounters and overcome obstacles (e.g., Ben-Zur, 2008; Hobfoll, Jackson, Hobfoll, Pierce, & Young, 2002; Kobasa et al., 1982; Moos & Schaefer, 1993; Scheier & Carver, 1992). In addition, some researchers perceived hardiness, optimism, and mastery as basic variables that construct the concept of resilience (Bonanno, 2008; Hjemdal, 2007; Johnson & Wiechelt, 2004). “I’m not yet free.”  This group comprises asylum seekers who have some hope for a better life, but they do not see how such improvement in their lives will occur in Israel. Most of them acknowledge the fact that life in Israel is better than in their homelands or in Egypt, but after residing in the country for several years, they want a better future, which does not seem possible for them here. Most of them hope that this will happen when they are able to move to one of the Western countries and be absorbed there as citizens with equal rights. We bring Yamane’s story as an example of this group.

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Shamai and Amir Yamane chose an unambiguous title for his story: “Unknown destiny.” Yamane was born, grew up, and educated in a small village in Eritrea. He later studied in a certificate program in agriculture at the university, and after graduation, was drafted for national service, where he served using the professional knowledge he had acquired. Realizing that his service would be extended, he decided to flee the country. He crossed the border into Ethiopia, where he lived in a refugee camp. After nearly 4 years in the camp, he moved to Sudan. From there, he considered moving to Europe through Libya, but the journey was too dangerous, and he therefore decided to enter Israel via Egypt. When he crossed the border into Israel, he was captured by IDF soldiers, who tried to hand him over to the police. The police refused to handle the case, and he was left on his own. After collecting money for transportation, he arrived at Tel Aviv, to a shelter operated by an aid organization. After residing in Tel Aviv for several months, Yamane moved to Eilat, where he lives to this day, working in hotels and living with a roommate. Yamane had no previous information about Israel. He inquired a little, and the information he received made him optimistic: They said that the people [in Israel] are employed, that you receive money, and that’s it. What about the way of life and the government, how does it relate to asylum seekers? I asked them, but they didn’t know enough. And you prefer, you think all the time you can get something better . . . So I came to Israel.

As is clear from Yamane’s narrative, he had limited expectations from Israel. He did not expect a bright future, but mainly wanted to improve on his situation in Eritrea and Sudan. His expectations from Israel can be compared only with his precarious refugee status in Sudan. Having arrived in Israel, especially in light of his limited expectations, he was not deterred by the difficulties and was able to say that his condition has indeed improved, as he had hoped: So in Israel, I started to live my life, and to work, but that was mostly it. It’s much better in Israel despite that it’s very . . . it’s a bit difficult for refugees, but it’s much better. If you are smart, you only need to work. They let us work and stay. I don’t know for how long, but for now, we’re fine. We work, get money, a place to sleep.

Yamane appreciates his situation in Israel, and sees some good in Israel, especially compared with his past experiences: Israel is much better for us than Eritrea and Sudan. At least you’re earning, you support yourself. I tell them, thank God, because some people even lost their lives, so . . . You know what? Here, what you’re going to do tomorrow, you don’t

always know, the situation of the government, the protests of the people, it drives you a little crazy, you know? Where do they want to send us? Maybe they’ll put us in jail? And what can we do if they put us in jail? I don’t know; all the people are worried about this temporary situation.

As long as Yamane compares the options available to him in Israel with his options in the past, he feels good. However, one can see in his words that he is doubtful, especially because of the feelings of transience that are present all through his stay in Israel. He talks about his fears of imprisonment, deportation, or insanity. Thus, the more he thinks about the future, doubts and uncertainty increasingly penetrate his story: The future? Your future depends on what you plan today. Today, I can’t plan much. The situation doesn’t make you decide or see your future clearly . . . You [addressing the interviewer] can know your future because you are in your homeland, you can receive money and things from your government . . . because you are here all the time, you can see your future and you can plan . . . but for us, just to stay until . . . the government decides.

The fact that he cannot plan his future causes tension and great concern for Yamane. The fact that decisions about his future are not under his control but under that of the government disturbs him. His inability to determine his future arouses feelings of helplessness and hopelessness: “We’re just working and staying with friends . . . I want to get married . . . I don’t see myself getting married here in Israel. I don’t know, maybe I can be alone.” These words show that Yamane reached an almost conscious decision to “freeze” his future. He prefers to remain single, which according to his conception, means not to advance in life: What is the purpose of life? Only to live, we are born so that the generation remains, just to continue the generation. What’s good for me is that I work, I make money, I support myself, and the only thing missing for me is that I’m not studying. That’s it.

Yamane considers the meaning of life to be giving birth to children, but is unwilling to fulfill himself in a state of transience and chooses to focus on life in the present. Nevertheless, his final words indicate that he is not content with the situation and wishes to study for selfadvancement. Throughout the story, it is apparent that Yamane is not prepared to give up, and despite the wretched life that appears in the title of his story, he is still hopeful: If you are constantly in trouble, have problems, are worried, you get into it, you make your situation a lot worse. But if you believe in yourself, that tomorrow will be the best day

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Qualitative Health Research  for me, today it is not good, but tomorrow it will be better, and after tomorrow it will be the best. If you believe this and if you just pray and ask God to help you, that’s all. I believe in God . . . Hope is power, so if you have hope that tomorrow I will do something, learn something, I’ll try to do something. This is hope and you’ll just do it. If you do not have a plan and hope, you’ll be left with nothing.

Yamane succeeds in experiencing both hope and despair (or anxiety about the future) simultaneously, but despite the uncertainty surrounding his future, he is not ready to renounce his plans. As long as he looks strictly at the present, Yamane feels that his life has improved and is full of hope. Nevertheless, it appears that uncertainty and transience do not allow him see how his situation would improve in the future. The stories of the respondents in this group can be described with the aid of the storyline shown in Figure 1, in which the distant past is marked as a high point relative to the period in which they have been forced to live away from their homeland. The decline marks the events in their country, and occasionally also in the first country of asylum. On the eve of their arrival in Israel, their hopes were raised again, marked by increased optimism. In the first period after arrival, their hopes again decreased. During the period of adjustment, they had increased expectations that they would be able to manage, but the present defies these hopes. Despite their current despair, they look optimistically to the future, because they have not relinquished the hope of leaving Israel for one of the Western countries or of a change in the political situation in their country of origin, which would enable them to return home. This group’s stories also express some sense of hardiness, mastery, and careful optimism. However, this optimism is different from that expressed by the participants in the first group. The main difference is focused on the perception of reality. As described in the introduction, the asylum seekers or refugees will not receive Israeli citizenship. Even the possibility of refugee status in Israel is very low. These participants’ stories show that their perception of reality has implications for lowering the sense of mastery and control. They know that they cannot change the Israeli government or prevent people protesting against them: “What you’re going to do tomorrow, you don’t always know, the situation of the government, the protests of the people, it drives you a little crazy.” However, their ability to live in the present, to function, and even to have some vague dream regarding the future proves that the sense of control over the situation still exists. It is possible to assume that the main difference between the two groups is rooted in the trait of selfenhancement, which is defined as a tendency toward

overly positive or even an unrealistic view in favor of the self (Bonanno, Rennicke, & Dekel, 2005). Bonanno and colleagues based their assumptions on several studies, in which it was found that exaggerated positive bias is not necessarily a mental health deficiency, but an adaptive trait that tends to promote well-being and facilitate coping (Bonanno, Field, Kovacevic, & Kaltman, 2002; Taylor & Brown, 1988). Furthermore, Bonanno (2004) claimed that self-enhancement is a variable that can predict resilience. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that, despite the mastery presented by the members of this group in the daily balance of power between attachment to reality and optimism, the reality significantly overrides their optimism. “Open prison.” This group includes respondents who were deeply disappointed by their stay in Israel. They are characterized by feelings of hopelessness and by their difficulty in finding solutions to the perpetual plight that Israeli reality forces on them. The feelings that they describe are also present in the other groups, but in their case, these feelings are dominant, and it is difficult to detect any opening for hope in their stories. Each interviewee finds a different target as the focus of these feelings: One chooses to return to Sudan about a week after the interview with him, another regards Israel as a vast prison, a third spends all his free time in telephone conversations with the family whom he left behind in Eritrea and does not believe that he will be reunited with them in the near future, and a fourth, a single mother, cannot see anything on the horizon beyond the daily war of survival. As an illustration, we bring the account of Paul, who chooses to call his story “Azab,” and explains why: It means one who is tired of life. My life is bad. I’ve been alone for 10 years, I haven’t seen my mother, who was sick and died. To this day, every day I cry with my wife when she calls. My children are in school and she cries, my life is very bad. So they say in Arabic, “Azab.”

Paul is among the older interviewees. He has a wife and four children in Eritrea. After his father died, close to the end of his high school studies, his mother asked him to leave school and start a family of his own, and he made a good living as a driver. During the war with Ethiopia, he was drafted into the army. He fled Eritrea a decade ago, after a period in jail. Following his release, he received information that the authorities were going to imprison him again, and possibly kill him. He has never seen his youngest child, who was born after he left. In the past 10 years, he has lived in various Arab countries, working as a driver. He arrived in Israel in 2007, and was imprisoned for several months. On his release, he worked in the hotel industry in Eilat. About 3 years later, he moved to Tel

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Shamai and Amir Aviv, obtained a work permit, and works in a shoe store. At the beginning of his story, Paul appears to perceive his life in Israel positively. This, for example, is how he described his arrival in the country: In the Bible, when you read about Israel, it says something strange. They say that there are no Muslims. I thought that there were only Jews . . . I thought there are no Muslims in Israel . . . In Israel there is war . . . They told me, no, no, don’t go . . . I had nowhere to go, to Europe? I wanted to save my life, and I came here to ask for protection. For us, Christians, Jerusalem is something special . . . I thought that in Israel it would be good. What I found here was better than what I had thought.

Throughout the story, Paul stresses that he has no complaints about his material situation. He managed to establish itself, and barely mentions financial or legal problems. On the contrary, in this regard, he feels grateful. As the story progresses, however, one can sense the deep disappointment rooted in his personal situation, the change in his feelings described at the beginning, and the focus on disappointment and despair, stemming primarily from the distance from his family. After I arrived, they said that Israel is like Europe. I was told that they will let me see my children. I thought it was like in Europe, like in America, where they give you the papers and let you bring the children . . . I was happy because I thought it was like in Europe . . . After a year, you get a paper and you can bring your children.

There are two notable characteristics in this quote that are also characteristic of the story as a whole: First, he arrived in Israel full of hope and joy, and second, the sense of a lack of control. Some people “told him” about Israel, and he thought that some other people “will let him see” the children. Paul broadcasts a type of passivity. He is caught in a reality that he does not have the power to change. As time passes and the story progresses, the descriptions of disappointment, loneliness, and despair become more intense: One year, two years, this way, you think a lot. You cannot sleep. When I call my children, I cannot sleep after that for a week . . . When will I see them? One child calls you and says: “Ya Abba, when you come?” It’s impossible like this . . . I talk to my wife, I call her every night. At nine. I do not want to talk to anybody else . . . only with my wife. Now I’m almost five years here . . . I have a visa with a work permit. The work is fine. Now they gave me a visa for six months. But if there is no solution to the situation in Eritrea, I cannot see my children . . . I don’t want money. I want a life. I work like a slave . . . Am I going to die working? I want to laugh, I want to be happy with my kids . . . It’s impossible.

Paul describes a life of solitude and seclusion within himself. He learns a little Hebrew, and occasionally meets friends, but spends most of his free time in his apartment. At the end of the interview, talking about the future, his helplessness and inability to change anything are striking: Not every day in the shadow. Someday will arrive and there will be honey. That is . . . The law in Eritrea, as it is now, and the government, will change. That is, peace will come . . . It will change . . . Times will change, not every day will be like this . . . I do not see in my future anything that I can say is my future. In my book, the chapter about the future is closed.

Paul’s story is similar to that of the other respondents in this group, one of whom called the story “An open prison.” Figure 1 shows that this group’s storyline is characterized by high variability between hope and despair. The future is marked by a discontinuous line, which symbolizes pessimism, and hence the horizontal line with a downward inclination. The impression of the stories in this group is the pessimism and the daily struggle to survive. The participants succeeded in communicating their suffering, which sometimes can be accompanied by symptoms, such as high level of stress or sleeping problems. However, the main characteristics of the stories are the inability of the tellers to perceive the difficulties as a challenge and their minimal belief of having some control over the situation. The last part of the story describes some hope: “Not every day in the shadow. Someday will arrive and there will be honey” sounds as though it is taken from another story. Although it can imply latent optimism, the entire atmosphere of the story focuses on a situation in which the participants have no control over their lives. Their successive attempts to keep their jobs, to remain in contact with their families, even from a distance, are not recognized by these participants and seem meaningless to them.

Discussion In considering the differences between the stories of the three groups, we find one common line (Figure 1): All the respondents came to Israel after their previous lives fell apart. In their stories, the arrival in Israel is a point at which they all see a way out (at some level) from the existential crisis they experienced in the past. Furthermore, they all go through a difficult adjustment period. Large differences in the storyline occur shortly after arrival. Some manage to maintain a moderate but continuous upward trend, whereas others see a significant deterioration as the duration of their stay lengthens.

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It is evident that in each group, personal hopes are raised by the cordial and surprising welcome, diametrically opposed to past experiences and expectations. The initial encounter with IDF soldiers is a fundamental change from what they have encountered elsewhere. They arrive in a foreign country by breaking its laws and encounter the local army, which, instead of punishing them, offers a humane experience, which they did not anticipate and have not experienced before. For the storytellers, this event creates a situation similar to an Aristotelian dramatic conflict, in the course of which the circumstances change significantly compared with the initial premises of the characters (Halperin, 1978). Therefore, they expect the story to continue according to their initial experience in Israel, but as time goes on, the story does not fully resolve, and the conflict continues. Some of the seeds of their ongoing disappointment are rooted in this conflict and in the reversal of the world order that they experience during their first contact with Israel. Among most participants, it is possible to identify narratives ranging along the axis extending between stasis and regression in relation to their hopes and dreams on arriving in Israel. In general, however, in the course of their stay, their sense of hope is found to decrease significantly and continuously. Indeed, none of the interviewees can draw a clear line for themselves regarding the future, and most of them live with a sense of uncertainty. It is possible to see that the concern for their future in Israel is central for interviewees in all three groups. Most of them cannot see their future in Israel, and for many, this affects their present experience. The highest level of uncertainty is in the “Open prison” group stories. Pessimism is the most distinct element, and the respondents sense their situation worsening. They fail to see how their situation might improve in Israel or abroad. The “I’m not yet free” group stories illustrate belief in one’s own power. The relatively good present is separated from the future, which depends on whether and when they can leave the country for a better place. The “Then see what course life takes in the future” group is different from the others in that the interviewees in this group present the most positive outlook. The stories in this group are characterized by a focus on life in the present, with no regard for its implications for their future. The similarities and differences between the characteristics of the stories can be explained on two levels: (a) the contextual level, which can explain the sociopolitical reasons that create a situation in which the refugees cannot see their future in Israel, and (b) the individual level, which can explain the differences between groups that exist in a similar sociopolitical reality. The explanation at the contextual level is consistent with Paz (2011), who defined Israeli policy with regard to the refugees as “ordered disorder.” According to Paz, the

Israeli policy stems from tension in the Israeli discourse, which contains two somewhat different aspects. The first is the result of the security situation and of the fact that Israel is an ethnic-national state, and the second stems from the experience of Jews as refugees throughout their history. The security situation of the State of Israel, which is under constant threat, is not merely a social construction discourse, but a political reality with a sociological and psychological effect on the population of Israel. The security aspect is also related to the fact that Israel is an ethnic-national state, established as a home for the Jewish people. There is a consensus among most political parties and Jewish citizens of Israel on the need for a Jewish state with a large and stable Jewish majority, and in parallel, there is deep and lasting anxiety about damage to this majority, which results in xenophobia. As in other Western countries that are open to immigration, the fear of strangers is often exploited by politicians as an excuse for avoiding implementation of the UN Convention on Refugees (Gibney & Hensen, 2003). Prime Minister Netanyahu’s statement that “the refugees pose a threat to the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state” is a clear example of increasing xenophobia (Paz, 2011). In opposition to these elements of the political–social discourse stands the history of the Jewish people, especially the Holocaust, where the subject of political refugees is a significant component of the Jewish–Israeli narrative. This narrative emphasizes the State of Israel’s commitment to seekers of political asylum. Indeed, apart from signing the UN Convention on Refugees in 1954, Israel has acted under the Convention in several instances, for example, by granting asylum at the end of the 1970s to several hundred people who fled South Vietnam, to a group of Muslims from Bosnia in the 1990s, and a group of about 500 refugees from Darfur in the early 2000s (Ben-Dor & Adut, 2003; Paz, 2011). It appears, however, that with the increase in the number of refugees arriving in Israel, the security and ethnicnational elements in the discourse and in politics have been strengthened, and the historical commitment to political asylum seekers has almost disappeared. Moreover, several actions have been taken that are contrary to the UN Convention and that endangered the lives of some of the refugees, such as the “voluntary return of refugees” to Eritrea. The many difficulties facing the refugees both in the present and in the future are built into the social and political context in which they live: They feel unwanted by both the Israeli authorities and a large portion of the Israeli population. Therefore, they cannot develop a sense of belonging, either to the country in which they reside— Israel—or to their homeland. As has been shown, a sense of belonging is part of the individual’s social self, which

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Shamai and Amir is relevant to the processes of coping and adjustment (Brewer, 1991; Shamai, 2010). The question remains, however, as to which key elements enable a small group from among the interviewees to be more optimistic than others, despite living in a similar sociopolitical context. The explanation at the individual level focuses on the differences between the stories. In the summary of the stories of each of the groups, we focused on the resilience of the participants. Resilience is defined as the ability to maintain relatively stable and healthy levels of psychological and physical functioning following exposure to events involving loss or varying degrees of threat to life. Resilient people might experience transient emotional or functional difficulties that will last for only a few weeks (Bonanno, 2004). It is possible to argue superficially that some of the study participants are more resilient than others (Bonanno, 2008). However, considering their exposure to past experiences, their ability to make and carry through the decision to escape from danger and to survive under impossible conditions indicates resilience in all three groups. To strengthen this conclusion, it is important to refer to the context in which resilience was explored in many other studies (Bonanno, 2004, 2008; Bonanno et al., 2002; Bonanno et al., 2005; Ron & Shamai, 2011, 2014; Shamai, Kimhi, & Enosh, 2007). Whereas most addressed resilience among populations exposed to distinct potential traumatic event(s), our participants’ narratives reveal that, in addition to their past exposure to many traumatic events, they are still in danger of reexperiencing them. Based on the Israeli policy regarding asylum seekers, they might be put in jail or be sent back to their home countries, where they might be in danger. Thus, the situation under study can be defined as having a consistent potential for exposure to traumatic events, in which resiliency creates special challenges. This notwithstanding, almost all the participants maintain a good level of physical functioning and many of them also have healthy levels of psychological functioning. This might shape our previous argument regarding the difference in resiliency levels between the groups, and instead ask whether the difference between the groups is in the nature of this resilience. This question is based on Bonanno’s (2004, 2008) studies, which found multiple pathways to resilience, including self-enhancement, often manifested by optimism and mastery, and hardiness. Bonanno’s results are consistent with some previous theories related to concepts, which were somewhat similar to Bonanno’s definition of resilience, and appear relevant when explaining the findings of the present study. These include Antonovsky’s (1987) theory regarding a sense of coherence and Kobasa’s (1979) theory regarding hardiness,

which was defined by Bonanno as one of the elements of resilience. Both Antonovsky and Kobasa argued that sense of coherence and hardiness are composed of several variables. Therefore, people with a sense of coherence or a hardy personality will (a) face stressors with motivation to cope (meaningfulness according to Antonovsky, commitment according to Kobasa), (b) believe that they have the resources and the ability to cope (manageability according to Antonovsky, control according to Kobasa). The difference between the two concepts stems from Antonovsky and Kobasa’s differing views regarding the perception of stability and change as part of resilience. Whereas Antonovsky stresses people’s ability to create and predict stability as a sign of resilience, Kobasa argues that resilience depends also on the ability to accept change as a challenge. The “Then see what course life takes in the future” group of stories appears to represent people who have the resources affecting all three components of the sense of coherence or hardiness, whereas the “Open prison” group of stories represents people who believe that they do not have sufficient resources at their disposal to form a hardy personality with a sense of coherence. As noted, however, they do possess these features to an extent that allows them to cope. The stories of the second group, “I’m not yet free,” were located between these groups. Other components of resilience were mentioned by Bonanno (2004, 2008), such as self-enhancement, which might be manifested by optimism and was mainly expressed by the first group, “Then see what course life takes in the future,” and was scarcely mentioned by the other groups. Another aspect of resilience that seems relevant in cases of asylum seekers is the experience of time. Based on the narratives presented above, it seems that those who can focus on the present and the near future cope better than those who focus mainly on the past or the future. Such time orientation does not mean that they give up future hope and expectation to live in a place where they can feel part of society. It means that because of the political situation, they cannot fulfill an important need of belonging to the country in which they live (Shamai, 2010) and temporarily need to limit their sense of belonging to their immediate community and workplace. We suggest that adjusting to a present time orientation and narrowing the social aspect of the self to the proximate community might result in higher resilience and better coping among refugees. The holistic analysis of the stories leads us to conclude that, besides the multiple pathways to resilience, the interactions between the different pathways make the most significant contribution to determining the nature of resilience and the way in which the story is composed. For example, self-enhancement might affect the level of

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optimism, which might affect the experience of time and associate with challenge and commitment (hardiness), which might lead to different levels of mastery and control, and of course, result in different types of narratives.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

Limitations

Funding

The findings of this study must be interpreted with caution because it included only 16 participants who were interviewed at one point in time. The limited number of participants makes it impossible to distinguish accurately between the resilience structures of each group. This matter deserves further study with more participants, preferably using a quantitative methodology. However, the present study is among the first to be conducted with this population in Israel, and can therefore give an initial description of the experience and meaning as constructed by asylum seekers in Israel.

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Practical Implications A discussion of the stories from social and individual perspectives of the self (Brewer, 1991) can be a basis for understanding the individual differences in experiencing difficulties and coping processes of asylum seekers and refugees in all Western countries. This is also true for the development of suitable mental health intervention within official state systems or local authorities. In the course of individual or group interventions, it would be helpful to raise issues related to both the private and social self, to find out which of these aspects was damaged by the forced migration and to use it as a basis for intervention. Moreover, it is important to help asylum seekers to develop a sense of belonging based on the given local situation. Encouraging asylum seekers to be involved in activities within the asylum seeker or refugee communities can strengthen their sense of belonging, and as we found in the stories of the first group, also increase the participants’ self-esteem. Based on this study, it appears that asylum seekers and refugees should not try to work through past experiences, which are often characterized by traumatic events. It is reasonable to assume that if the asylum seeker does not suffer from PTSD that prevents coping, it makes more sense to focus on the present difficulties and postpone work on the traumatic event until a permanent status has been achieved. At the macro-level, mental health workers should follow their professional code of ethics, which calls for protecting human rights, and fight for instituting policies that give asylum seekers a sense of hope and belonging. This is true for all mental health workers in Western countries, and especially in a country such as Israel, where the majority have a collective story similar to many of the African asylum seekers.

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Author Biographies Michal Shamai, PhD, is an associate professor at the School of Social Work, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel. Yair Amir, MA, is a director of Tikon Olam—Boarding School of Nitzana for unaccompanied asylum seeker minors from Eritrea.

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