Migration, Identity, Culture, and Trauma

Mustafa Şahin ÖZDENa , Can ÇALICIa

aİstanbul University-Cerrahpaşa Institute of Forensic Sciences and Legal Medicine, Department of Social Sciences, İstanbul, Türkiye

Özden MŞ, Çalıcı C. Migration, identity, culture, and trauma. In: Öztürk E, ed. Migration Psychology. 1st ed. Ankara: Türkiye Klinikleri; 2024. p.103-11.

ABSTRACT

Migration is quite widespread, especially in recent years, as a result of developments such as oppression, war, armed conflict and genocide around the world, and for reasons such as the desire to establish a better life in another city and/or another country within the country. Migration is a psychosocial phenomenon that profoundly affects identity, collective structure and cultural characteristics and inherently involves both traumatic experiences and individual and social opportunities. In addition to impacts on economic well-being, the migration of people from different cultural backgrounds has profound effects on people’s identities and psychological well-being. Migration should be considered as a phenomenon that involves developmental and positive transformational changes as well as traumatic reactions with profound effects on identity and culture. A change of city or country that enables the individual to get rid of the negative dynamics in which they have lived and to use their potential is considered as developmental migration because it serves the positive restructuring of the individual.

Keywords: Migration; identity; culture; trauma; dissociation

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