Experiencing death and grief at the border: a sociocultural psychological analysis of activists’ struggles at the European and Central-American border
Dramatic consequences related to borders, such as migrants' deaths, disappearances and human rights violations, have increased since the 1990s. Several migration policies contribute to border violence, leading to traumatic mental health effects on migrants, their families and activists. The lit...
| Subtitles: | Grief, Religion and Ritual |
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| Authors: | ; ; ; |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2024
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| In: |
Mental health, religion & culture
Year: 2024, Volume: 27, Issue: 8, Pages: 803-821 |
| Further subjects: | B
Border-related deaths
B spirituality and activism B psychosocial trauma B Transnational Solidarity B human rights violation B psychosocial support |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Dramatic consequences related to borders, such as migrants' deaths, disappearances and human rights violations, have increased since the 1990s. Several migration policies contribute to border violence, leading to traumatic mental health effects on migrants, their families and activists. The literature has overlooked the psychological, cultural and religious/spiritual experience of activists sharing the burden of migrants and their families' grief and struggles. To explore the experiences of activists while in the act, the research adopted a sociocultural approach and conducted twenty-five semi-structured interviews with border activists. The qualitative thematic analysis revealed five themes, encompassing how activists dynamically make sense of their experiences: rehumanising vocation; endless feelings; empathic-epistemic experiential ambivalence; personal coping strategies and liberation transformative actions. These themes offer a transitional model, progressing from acknowledging States' responsibilities to developing transnational, cross-cultural and inter-faith forms of human solidarity. Finally, this model fuels ethically inspired community struggles towards social equality, justice and transformation. |
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| ISSN: | 1469-9737 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Mental health, religion & culture
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/13674676.2024.2352000 |
