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“If One Does Not Fulfil His Duties, He Must Not Be a Man”: Masculinity, Mental Health and Resilience Amongst Sri Lankan Tamil Refugee Men in Canada

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Abstract

Refugee men face unique mental health stressors in the pre- and post-migratory periods. However, there has been little in-depth research on the mental health of refugee men in Canada. Given this situation, the overall aim of this study is to explore the psycho-social experience of Sri Lankan Tamil refugee men in Canada. Particular objectives include better understanding any inter-relationship between war-trauma, migration, concepts of masculinity and mental health. The study employed a two-phase participatory action research design based on the grounded theory approach. Phase 1 involved an 8-month ethnography conducted in Sri Lanka. Phase 2 consisted of qualitative interviews with 33 Sri Lankan Tamil refugee men living in Canada. Consistent with grounded theory, analysis was conducted inductively and iteratively. Four specific themes emerged from the data (i) gendered helplessness of war: participants commonly reported ongoing negative rumination regarding experiences where they were unable to adequately protect loved ones from physical suffering or death; (ii) reduced capacity: participants frequently felt unable to fulfill culturally sanctioned duties, such as supporting their family, due to ongoing pre- and post-migratory stress; (iii) redundancy: many participants felt that they were useless in Canada, as they could not fulfill typical masculine social roles (e.g. provider) due to factors such as unemployment and underemployment; (iv) intimate criticism: some participants reported that their spouses would often attempt to ‘shame’ them into greater achievement by constantly reminding them of their ‘failures’. Many found this distressing. These various failures culminated in a state that we label “depleted masculinity”, which participants linked to emotional and behavioural problems. Participants reported that they actively tried to rebuild their masculine identity, for example by adopting leadership roles in community organizations, which fostered resiliency. Results suggest a need to review and rebuild masculine identity to support the mental health of refugee men.

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Funding

This study received funding from the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) Frederick Banting and Charles Best Doctoral Research Award #766578.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, McGill University, 6875 Boulevard Lasalle, Montréal, QC, H4H 1R3, Canada

    William Affleck & Rob Whitley

  2. Vavuniya General Hospital, Vavuniya, Sri Lanka

    Umaharan Thamotharampillai

  3. Batticaloa Teaching Hospital, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka

    Judy Jeyakumar

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  1. William Affleck
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  2. Umaharan Thamotharampillai
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  3. Judy Jeyakumar
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  4. Rob Whitley
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Correspondence to William Affleck.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Affleck, W., Thamotharampillai, U., Jeyakumar, J. et al. “If One Does Not Fulfil His Duties, He Must Not Be a Man”: Masculinity, Mental Health and Resilience Amongst Sri Lankan Tamil Refugee Men in Canada. Cult Med Psychiatry 42, 840–861 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-018-9592-9

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