People in diaspora are faced by many complex problems on a daily basis. Even those who lead relatively stable existences and have managed to achieve the coveted goal of landing a good job and securing a comfortable place of residence are still faced with difficult and challenging predicaments. These predicaments include such things as structural barriers to employment (breaking the glass ceiling); grief, loss or trauma issues; systemic racism; cultural identity crisis and also the thorny matter of what the diasporas’ new economic and political responsibilities to the ancestral homeland should be. Those in diaspora feel enormous daily pressure to resolve these dilemmas, yet most feel powerless to do so. This is largely due to the fact that many of the individual migrant’s micro-level problems are largely due to macro-level issues—in other words, the immigrant’s problems stem from the host country’s existing social structure, and are therefore largely beyond the individual’s efforts to control. Of course we must talk about, “Breaking the silence”. We need to find out why people in the diaspora are so depressed, that they think life unfair. Is it pressure, loss of family/relatives and friends, loneliness or some other social ills . I believe the only way to find out is to talk and listen to each other with tolerance, love and acceptance.
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Although individuals in the diaspora may feel helpless when it comes to resolving the macro-level issues of their new society, these individuals can still practice certain micro-level solutions that will help to empower themselves and allow them to navigate their daily lives more successfully. These solutions are the focus of my book: “No Boundaries – Exploring strategies and solutions for life in Diaspora.” In general, the solutions can be seen to boil down to two processes: garnering knowledge plus implementing action. Knowledge plus action can be defined as follows:
· Knowledge:
o Educating one’s self about the economic, political, social and cultural (macro-level) forces impinging upon one’s life
· Action:
o Practicing psychological techniques and self-help strategies (micro-level practices) to cope with macro-level forces
o Taking part in group-activism to combat macro-level forces
Together, knowledge plus action can help to strengthen the individual, plus supply the cognitive and emotional equipment needed to deal with the macro-level forces affecting daily life in the diaspora. Not only will this produce healthier, happier and more productive individuals, but it could also generate a group who may one day author the macro-level solutions so greatly needed within their societies.
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