Resettlement problems of forced migrants are confounded
when groups nove
to regions where.cultural
and language are different from their own.
resettlement areas
are preselected by
group that initiates the movement.
the
exaditions,
customs,
In most cases,
activating agent,
the
Underlying rationale for
the choice in somewhat suspect and often reflects the interests
of the activating agent rather than the migrant group.
Migrants
are often: told that relocation to a culturally different region
will facilitate their assimilation into a dominant group and
hence improve their quality of
life.
Actually,
activating agents
tend to resort to the assimilationist argument when they want to
obfuscate their responsibilities and commitments to the migrant
group,
as was the case with American Indians during the 1950's
(Alfred,
1970;
Ablon,
1971).
Studies have demonstrated that individual migrants have shown
a high rate of psychiatric disorder.”
Odegaard
(1932)
found a
high degree of morbidity among Norwegian migrants in Minnesota.
Similarly,
Malzberg
(1964),
in replicating Odegaard's work,
found
high rates of psychiatric disorders among migrants in New York.
More recently, Wintrob
by migrants who
(1967)
returned
home
identified stresses experienced
after a sojourn in the
United
States.
Different ethnic groups appear to react differently to the
relocation process.
Psychosis rates were found to be unusually
high amonq Polish and Irish migrants and low among'the Trish
and Swedes ‘(Malzberg,
1964).
High rates of alcoholism and
.
,
,;
,
2 Joseph Westermeyer of the University
of Minnesota provided
me with much of
|
an
the
information discussed in this brief
9011095
section.