EAST LANSING, Mich. — Adolescent age is tough enough, right? Well, ask the Sudanese refugees, known as the “Lost Boys of Sudan.”
Tom Luster, a Michigan State University professor, was at the Lansing airport when the young civil war refugees arrived in 2001, and he has documented their lives ever since. He leads a team of researchers whose study will form a chapter in a soon-to-be published book, “Strengths and Challenges of New Immigrant Families.”
Their experiences have long become commonplace: As boys (and girls), they were torn from their families by war and went through riveting hardships in the wilderness and in refugee camps before arriving in the United States.
Today they are mostly adults brimming with unimaginable experiences. A few of the refugees have gone to college; some have returned to Sudan to marry and have children.
“Our study began in 2001, when they were resettled in the United States and a partnership was formed between MSU and two Lansing-area resettlement agencies,” said Luster, a professor of family and child ecology. “Lutheran Social Services of Michigan was responsible for the care of the unaccompanied minors, and Refugee Services of St. Vincent Catholic Charities took care of the young adults who were in their late teens or early 20s.”
Seventy Sudanese refugees were selected for the study from about 135 who had resettled in the Lansing area. About 10 percent of them were females, who were minors, including five who participated in the study. Nationally, about 3,800 Sudanese refugees were resettled.
A notable quality among the refugees is their extraordinary ability to cope with chronic adversity and trauma even though some suffer from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
“As researchers, they are helping us understand factors that contributed to their resilience,” Luster said. “We are examining protective factors in four categories: personal characteristics, relationships, community opportunities and resources, and cultural factors.”
The study also described the refugees’ markedly different resettlement experiences based on whether they were minors or adults. Minors had to adjust (and some who are still minors continue to adjust) to American schools and living in American foster families, having lived mostly in peer groups prior to resettlement.
Adults struggled to become economically independent, working long hours at low-paying jobs and struggling to find time and money to go to school.
Still, the refugees send as much money to Africa as possible to help those who were left behind. They follow news events in Sudan very closely, and they are concerned about current conditions in Darfur.
Luster and his wife Carol have served as mentors to one of the refugees, a young man named Sisimayo, for the past six years.
“He is like one of our adult children,” he said. “Both of his parents are deceased, and we try to fill in as best we can as his American parents.
“In the beginning his needs were great – health issues, learning to take care of basic needs, learning to drive a car, etc. Now, he has become very independent. We have shared his sadness such as when his mother died in 2003. And, we have shared his happiness such as when he talked on the telephone to a member of his family for the first time in 14 years.”
Philip, a recent high school graduate, is another example. He is the last of six male siblings from the same parents – each family member is still unsettled.
“I lost touch with my mother since we left Sudan but I hear she may be living somewhere,” he said. “I spoke with my father about 1 1/2 years ago. It’s hard to get him because he always drifts in and out between Sudan and the neighboring countries.”
Now 18, Philip was 11 when he arrived in the United States along with two brothers who are now in college. The remaining three are split between Bo and Juba (provinces in Sudan) and a refugee camp in Kenya. However, he is resolute to return to Sudan after getting his degree.
The MSU study noted that refugee camp experiences had significant positive and negative influences on the refugees’ adjustment in the United States. For instance, having suffered through hardship, they recognized the special opportunity they had coming to the United States to pursue an education and employment, according to Luster.
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