Abstract
This chapter discusses theory and research on forgiving as an emotion and attitude, reconciliatory behavior, and their relationships in war refugees. Issues at individual, group, and international levels, and the possibility of dialogue between people on opposing sides of violent conflicts are addressed. We propose that the notion that forgiveness must precede reconciliation is not effective. Reconciling behaviorally may be more effective in promoting peace, and depending on other factors forgiveness may result. Forgiving is increased when people get beyond the evolved and culturally taught tendency toward in-group bias, as integrative identities and cultures develop along with personal identification with all humanity as one group. These issues were explored in refugees who suffered multiple extreme traumas as victims of the war in Syria that started in 2011, and who lived in Turkey from 0 to 6 years. Their attributions of responsibility for the conflict, intent to transition to their new host culture and keep their home culture, and inclination toward, perceived capability of, and requirements for reconciling or forgiving versus favoring revenge toward the perpetrators are assessed for refugees who acculturated to their new environment by integrating, assimilating, separating, or marginalizing. Syrian war refugee data suggest that assimilating into a new culture promotes near-term peace, but integrating their original and new cultures facilitates long-term peace.
The authors thank Patrick Luyten for comments on earlier stages of this manuscript.
A presentation of the research reported in this chapter was given at the Conference on Psychology & Peace, Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence, March 2018, University of Notre Dame, Indiana USA.
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Notes
- 1.
As illustrated by the data reported below, refugee victims are hard pressed to be able to feel forgiving or want forgiveness attitudes or reconciliatory behavior with, let alone without, the perpetrators acknowledging their hostile acts and, ideally, being brought to justice for them.
- 2.
Although 1 participant is from Yemen, this article will typically make reference to Syrian refugees, or refugees from the war in Syria, for the sake of smoothness of the language. All participants are included in our use of such wording. It should be understood that his data are comparable with those of his Syrian co-refugees, and that conclusions or interpretations of the findings are not unique to particular participants.
- 3.
In a context very familiar to the senior author, there has been a parallel continuing discussion in the USA about whether people who migrate to the USA from foreign countries should assimilate (i.e., “become American”) or integrate (i.e., combine the features of their former culture with their new American culture). Fierce arguments have been expressed on both accounts; and it remains a continuing issue on which people disagree. At the bottom is the ideological concern with whether America is “one” or “many.”
- 4.
Including with researcher help if needed.
- 5.
An alternative notion, based on clinical psychological reasoning, might be that such a response is due to a dissociative reaction of emotional detachment from extreme trauma, so that imagination, if not actual perception, of interpersonal warmth, care, and contact help satisfy needs for safety and companionship. We make no attempt at attributing clinical diagnostic to a participant. Such issues require further research.
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Paloutzian, R.F., Sagir, Z. (2019). Forgiving, Reconciling, and Peace-Building in Refugee Contexts: Theory, Research, and Data from the War in Syria. In: Njoku, M.G.C., Jason, L.A., Johnson, R.B. (eds) The Psychology of Peace Promotion. Peace Psychology Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14943-7_12
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