Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Refugee children’s sandplay narratives in immigration detention in Canada

  • Original Contribution
  • Published:
European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Asylum seeking children arriving in Canada regularly face incarceration in medium-security-style immigration detention centres. Research demonstrates the human cost of detaining migrant children and families and the psychiatric burden linked with such imprisonment. This study aims to understand the lived experiences of children aged 3–13 held in detention. Informed by a qualitative methodology of narrative inquiry, child participants created worlds in the sand and generated stories to express their subjective experience. Results suggest that children’s sandplay confirms the traumatic nature of immigration detention while also revealing children’s sometimes conflicting understanding of the meaning of detention and their own migration. The results are contextualized by a description of detention conditions and the psychiatric symptoms associated with immigration incarceration. The study highlights the need for more research examining the impact of immigration detention on children’s mental health, while also underlining how refugee children’s voices provide important direction for policy change.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Mares S (2015) Fifteen years of detaining children who seek asylum in Australia–evidence and consequences. Australas Psychiatry. doi:10.1177/1039856215620029

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Lorek A, Ehntholt K, Nesbitt A, Wey E, Githinji C, Rossor E, Wickramasinghe R (2009) The mental and physical health difficulties of children held within a British immigration detention center: a pilot study. Child Abuse Negl 33(9):573–585

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Gros H, Song Y (2016) No life for a child: a roadmap to end immigration detention of children and family separation. International Human Rights Program, University of Toronto Faculty of Law [PDF File] Retrieved from http://ihrp.law.utoronto.ca/utfl_file/count/PUBLICATIONS/Report-NoLifeForAChild.pdf

  4. Kronick R, Rousseau C, Cleveland J (2015) Asylum-seeking children’s experiences of detention in Canada: a qualitative study. Am J Orthopsychiat 85(3):287–294

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Silverman SJ, Molnar P (2016) Everyday injustices: barriers to access to justice for immigration detainees in Canada. Refugee Sur Q 35(1):109–127

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Robjant K, Hassan R, Katona C (2009) Mental health implications of detaining asylum seekers: systematic review. Br J Psychiatry 194(4):306–312

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Mares S (2016) The mental health of children and parents detained on Christmas Island: secondary analysis of an Australian human rights commission data set. Health Hum Rights 18(2):219–232

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Gros H (2017) Invisible Citizens: Canadian children in immigration detention. International Human Rights Program, University of Toronto Faculty of Law [PDF File] Retrieved from http://ihrp.law.utoronto.ca/sites/ihrp.law.utoronto.ca/files/PUBLICATIONS/Report-InvisibleCitizens.pdf

  9. Canada Border Services Agency (2015) Minors in detention—by legislative grounds obtained by access to information request by International Human Rights Program [IHRP] A-2015-15845/MZM

  10. Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, Canada. supra note 121, s 60

  11. Kronick R, Rousseau C, Cleveland J (2016) “They cut your wings over here… you can not do nothing”: voices of children and parents held in immigration detention in Canada. In: Furman R, Epps D, Lamphear G (eds) Detaining the immigrant other: global and transnational issues. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 195–207

    Google Scholar 

  12. Cleveland J (2015) Not so short and sweet. In: Nethery A, Silverman SJ (eds) Immigration Detention. The migration of a policy and its human impact, Routlege, New York

    Google Scholar 

  13. Nethery A, Silverman SJ (2015) Immigration detention: the migration of a policy and its human impact. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  14. Bosworth M (2016) The impact of immigration detention on mental health: A literature review. Criminal Justice, Borders and Citizenship: Research Paper No 2732892

  15. Bhui HS (2013) The changing approach to child detention and its implication for immigration detention in the UK. Prison Serv J 205:23–28

    Google Scholar 

  16. European Migration Network (2014) The use of detention and alternatives to detention in the context of immigration policies [PDF File] Retrieved from http://www.emn.fi/files/1062/EMN_Detention_of_ENG_FIN_final_04112014.pdf

  17. Korioth T (2017) Brewing humanitarian crisis: AAP leaders, members visit Texas border to assess needs of immigrant children. AAP News. http://www.aappublications.org/news/2017/01/06/Border010617 Accessed 31 March 2017

  18. Kulish N, Yee V, Dickerson C, Robbins L, Santos F, Medinca J (2017) Trump’s immigration policies explained. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/21/us/trump-immigration-policies-deportation.html?_r=0 Accessed 31 March 2017

  19. Silverman SJ (2015) Detaining asylum seekers would not solve the refugee crisis. Huffington Post Canada. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/centre-for-international-policy-studies/detention-asylum-seekers_b_8312124.html

  20. Kirmayer LJ, Rousseau C, Crepeau F (2004) Research ethics and the plight of refugees in detention. Monash Bioeth Rev 23(4):85–92

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Scheeringa MS (2011) PTSD in children younger than the age of 13: toward developmentally sensitive assessment and management. J Child Adolesc Trauma 4(3):181–197

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Scheeringa MS, Zeanah CH, Myers L, Putnam FW (2003) New findings on alternative criteria for PTSD in preschool children. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 42(5):561–570

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Thompson RA, Goodvin R (2005) The individual child: temperament, emotion, self, and personality. In: Bornstein MH, Lamb M (eds) Developmental Science, 5th edn. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New Jersey

    Google Scholar 

  24. Reeves S, Kuper A, Hodges BD (2008) Qualitative research methodologies: ethnography. Br Med J 337:512–514

    Google Scholar 

  25. Measham T, Rousseau C (2010) Family disclosure of war trauma to children. Traumatology 16(2):14–25

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Terr LC (2013) Treating childhood trauma. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clinics North Am 22(1):51–66. doi:10.1016/j.chc.2012.08.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Homeyer LE, Sweeney DS (2005) Sandtray therapy. In: Malchiodi CA (ed) Expressive therapies. The Guilford Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  28. Mitchell RR, Friedman HS (1994) Sandplay: past, present and future. Routlege, London

    Google Scholar 

  29. Lacroix L, Rousseau C, Gauthier M-F, Singh A, GiguËre N, Lemzoudi Y (2007) Immigrant and refugee preschoolers’ sandplay representations of the tsunami. Arts Psychother 34(2):99–113

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Rousseau C, Benoit M, Lacroix L, Gauthier MF (2008) Evaluation of a sandplay program for preschoolers in a multiethnic neighborhood. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 50(6):743–750. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2008.02003.x

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Butler-Kisber L (2010) Narrative inquiry. Qualitative inquiry: thematic, narrative and arts-informed perspectives. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, pp 62–81

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  32. Tsai M-L (2007) Understanding young children’s personal narratives: what I have learned from young children’s sharing time narratives in a taiwanese kindergarten classroom. In: Clandinin DJ (ed) Handbook of narrative inquiry: mapping a methodology. SAGE Publications, Inc., Thousand Oaks, California, pp 461-488. doi: 10.4135/9781452226552

  33. Huber J, Clandinin DJ (2002) Ethical dilemmas in relational narrative inquiry with children. Qual Inq 8(6):785–803. doi:10.1177/1077800402238079

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Rousseau C, Lacroix L, Bagilishya D, Heusch N (2003) Working with myths: creative expression workshops for immigrant and refugee children in a school setting. Art Therapy 20(1):3–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Rousseau C (1993) The place of the unexpressed: ethics and methodology for research with refugee children. Canada’s Mental Health (Winter) 41(4):12–16

    Google Scholar 

  36. Kronick R, Rousseau C, Cleveland J (2017) Do you want to help or do you want to go to war: the precarity of research in Canadian immigration detention centres. Manuscript in preparation

  37. Schwandt TA (2007) The sage dictionary of qualitative inquiry, 3rd edn. Sage, Thousand Oaks

    Book  Google Scholar 

  38. Kronick R, Rousseau C, Cleveland J (2011) Mandatory detention of refugee children: a public health issue? Paediatr Child Health 16(8):65–67

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Mekki-Berrada A, Rousseau C, Bertot J (2001) Research on refugees: means of transmitting suffering and forming social bonds. Int J Ment Health 30(2):41–57

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. The harmful effects of detention and family separation on asylum seekers’ mental health in the context of Bill C-31 (2012) [PDF File] Retrieved from http://www.csssdelamontagne.qc.ca/fileadmin/csss_dlm/Publications/Publications_CRF/brief_c31_final.pdf

  41. Keilson H, Sarphatie HR, Bearne YT, Coleman HT, Winter DT (1992) Sequential traumatization in children: a clinical and statistical follow-up study on the fate of the Jewish war orphans in the Netherlands. Magnes Press, Jerusalem

    Google Scholar 

  42. Laban CJ, Gernaat HB, Komproe IH, Schreuders BA, De Jong JT (2004) Impact of a long asylum procedure on the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in Iraqi asylum seekers in The Netherlands. J Nerv Ment Dis 192 (12): 843–851. doi:10.1097/01.nmd.0000146739.26187.15

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  43. Fazel M, Reed R, Panter-Brick C, Stein A (2012) Mental health of displaced and refugee children resettled in high-income countries: risk and protective factors. Lancet 379:266–282

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Fegert JM, Stötzel M (2016) Child protection: a universal concern and a permanent challenge in the field of child and adolescent mental health. Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health 10(1):18

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  45. Bronstein I, Montgomery P (2011) Psychological distress in refugee children: a systematic review. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 14(1):44–56

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Robjant K, Fazel M (2010) The emerging evidence for narrative exposure therapy: a review. Clinic Psychol Rev 30(8):1030–1039. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2010.07.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Elischberger HB, Roebers CM (2001) Improving young children’s free narratives about an observed event: the effects of nonspecific verbal prompts. Int J Behav Dev 25(2):160–166. doi:10.1080/01650250042000203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Convention on the Rights of the Child Committee General Comment 14. supra note 162 at para 77–78

  49. UNHCR (2015) Options for governments on care arrangements and alternatives to detention for children and families. Global strategy: beyond detention 2014–2019 [PDF File] Retrieved from http://www.unhcr.org/53aa929f6.pdf

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors thank all the children and parents who participated in the reseach, as well as the organizations who helped facilitate participation, Action Réfugiés Montréal and the Toronto Refugee Affairs Council (TRAC). We would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers of the manuscript for their insight and guidance.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, McGill University, Montréal, Canada

    Rachel Kronick, Cécile Rousseau & Janet Cleveland

  2. Centre for Child Development and Mental Health, Jewish General Hospital, Montréal, Canada

    Rachel Kronick

  3. CIUSSS du Centre-Ouest-de-l’île-de-Montréal, Montréal, Canada

    Rachel Kronick, Cécile Rousseau & Janet Cleveland

  4. Sherpa Research Centre, Montréal, Canada

    Rachel Kronick, Cécile Rousseau & Janet Cleveland

  5. 4335 Chemin de la Côte Ste-Catherine, Montréal, QC, H3T 1E4, Canada

    Rachel Kronick

Authors
  1. Rachel Kronick
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Cécile Rousseau
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Janet Cleveland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rachel Kronick.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

This article is part of the focused issue `Mental health issues in refugees'.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kronick, R., Rousseau, C. & Cleveland, J. Refugee children’s sandplay narratives in immigration detention in Canada. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 27, 423–437 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-017-1012-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-017-1012-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation