Their initial hopes and dreams of escaping to a safe “haven” are transformed into nightmares of humiliation and fear (Varvin, 2017). Refugees suffer rejection, endure dehumanization and shame in addition to feelings of helplessness, loss of dignity, frustration, and anger since nobody wants them. They do not have time to mourn their losses, there is no time for pleasantries or “ideal migration” where destination countries can choose who they will take in. They leave in a rush to save their lives and their families due to political and religious fear, death threats and/or persecution, rape of women, or forced labor. With the ongoing mass migrations in the world, refugees pay smugglers to take them to safety but there is no safe place to go since nobody wants them. The exile’s and asylum seeker’s migration, unlike the immigrant’s, is usually precipitated by sociopolitical traumatic events. If migration is by force, as is the case with exiles and particularly of asylum seekers, they leave against their will and often in haste to avoid threat. It is important to distinguish immigrants who leave by choice, from exiles and refugees who have no alternative but to leave their native land immediately without preparation. Migration embodies three stages: pre-migration, migration, and post-migration. The physical leaving of one’s homeland is accompanied by thoughts and ideas migrating to other lands. In this paper I will focus on the connection between trauma, mourning and nostalgia and the use of “linking objects” (Volkan, 1999, p.173). It can be a process of new possibilities and of a hopeful future. However, once past that initial reaction, the immigration experience can also build character and resilience. It may qualify as a traumatic separation because by definition a trauma is something that overwhelms an organism with its unexpected suddenness. Culture shock profoundly tests the over-all adequacy of personality functioning, is accompanied by mourning for the abandoned culture, and severely threatens the newcomer's identity (Garza-Guerrero, 1974, p. The initial experience of “culture shock” in immigration is a reactive process stemming from the impact of a new culture upon those who attempt to merge with it as a newcomer. As a result of continuous contact with a new culture, the migration experience unchains a process that leads to the transformation of internal structures and internalized object relations (Lijtmaer, 2001). This feeling of homelessness is an emotional self-state. Whatever the circumstances, these changes entail periods of disorganization, pain, and frustration, and may produce a catastrophic sense of loss. At times, psychic depletion may occur, among other things, when a person arrives in a new country as an immigrant or an exile. Some of the overall characteristics of migration are complex psychosocial processes involving profound losses with long standing effects on the individual. To deal with these painful experiences, the person resorts to linking objects or linking phenomena that help them continue having contact with the past, while adjusting to their new environment. In this case, the individual enters a depressed state with accompanying feelings of self-pity, resentment, envy, and guilt, which prevents the mourning process from developing. At other times, nostalgia cannot evolve, particularly in forced migration or exile. The complex components of nostalgia come from positive ones such as joy and gratitude connected with sadness about the associated loss of security, familiarity, and historical continuity. The feeling of nostalgia can also be used to protect the ego from inadequacy. The process of mourning is a necessary step to connect with “going on being.” Another psychic experience in migration is nostalgia it helps the immigrant defend against the aggression resulting from current frustrations. The individual is deprived of a holding, secure environment in which to continue their life. Immigration and exile can qualify as social traumas.
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