Source: Radio New Zealand
Khawat, a sisterhood for ethnic women, hosting a run club. SUPPLIED
From watching homelands burn on social media to being stuck between cultures, there is one migrant community facing some of the worst mental health.
Middle Eastern, Latin American and African (MELAA) young people are an ethnic minority reporting unique challenges.
Having to navigate trauma, mixed identities and many other potential obstacles, some young people are also saying there is a gap in culturally sensitive mental health support.
In December 2024 the Ministry of Ethnic Communities released its ethnic evidence summary. As part of its findings, it stated that while most ethnic communities faced mental health challenges, MELAA people were reporting lower overall wellbeing with more than one third of the youth having seriously considered attempting suicide.
As heartbreaking as the statistic was, it had not come as a shock to some in the community.
Carrying the trauma
Fatima Sanussi is a refugee and the founder of ‘Do You Still Dream?’, a creative platform for migrants and refugees.
She said she was not surprised that MELAA youth were reporting such low mental health.
“During this time where you can see what’s happening in Palestine, you can see what’s happening in Congo, you see what’s happening in Sudan, we have communities here that are impacted … that carry these narratives.”
Community advocate Fatima Sanussi SUPPLIED
Originally from Sudan and Ethiopia, Sanussi was a year and a half when she resettled to South Auckland with her family.
She said a significant portion of the MELAA community were in Aotearoa due to forced displacement, and they did not always receive enough support.
Many of the youth Sanussi had grown up with in Otahuhu had left a brutal conflict.
“That type of trauma was not addressed, the trauma that they carried from the conflict.”
Community advocate Fatima Sanussi SUPPLIED
Her own mental health had suffered because of the war in Sudan, especially with the exposure on social media.
“I watched my homeland be destroyed, a tremendous amount of death, displacement as well as the loss of my own and the worry of my family being in a war zone.”
At 28, Sanussi was still navigating her own mental health journey, recalling the first time she went to therapy following the passing of her father.
“It was hard to speak to the therapist, I remember I was about 14 or 15 and I felt like she couldn’t understand me,” Sanussi said.
She felt there was no cultural awareness in the process with little understanding for her struggles as a young ethnic person and the experience discouraged her from seeking help until recently.
It was only last year, more than a decade later, that Sanussi decided to give it another go after feeling the impact of the war in Sudan.
Stuck in the ‘in-between’
Eman Ghandour, an AUT career advisor and founder of Khawat, a network for ethnic women, said the poor mental health for MELAA youth was due to many layered factors.
Originally from Jordan, Ghandour said she had struggled with depression for many years and one of the main reasons was a flickering sense of belonging.
She identified as a 1.5 generation migrant, a term for migrants who moved from their country of origin during their childhoods.
Lost between the culture they were born with and the culture they were trying to adopt, she said young migrants could struggle with their identity.
“I always say to my parents you’ve never doubted that you were Arab right, you’ve never doubted that you’re a Muslim… but for us we’ve always tapped in and out of that.
“One of the biggest barriers for mental health is actually that in-between feeling.”
Khawat, a sisterhood for ethnic women, hosting a run club. SUPPLIED
Although most migrants can experience this feeling, MELAA youth are considered a minority within a minority, making up only 3 percent of the population.
The ethnic summaries report had also stated that MELAA people could face employment barriers “on a similar scale as Māori and Pacific peoples”, although the types of barriers were not necessarily the same.
Ghandour pressed the point that mental health was holistic and was linked to things like employment and education for young people.
As a career consultant, Ghandour said there was a high expectation for second generation immigrants to achieve employment and get into industries with the same ease as non-migrants.
However, this was often not the case, even with the many migrants who graduated with top grades.
“They don’t have an in, they don’t understand the recruitment process they don’t see themselves like they belong to a certain workplace so there’s massive barriers of even getting through the door.”
Some of the young women from Khawat, a community for ethnic wahine, at a gym session. SUPPLIED
What do the stats say and what’s next?
The ethnic summaries report was the first of its kind in identifying how ethnic communities were doing across a range of sectors including mental health.
It had also highlighted that being a female, having a sexual or gender minority status were also some of the factors associated with higher suicidal and self-harming behaviour amongst MELAA youth.
Ministry of Ethnic Communities deputy chief executive Pratima Namasivayam said the statistics for MELAA youth mental health were concerning and the group was now one of the ministry’s priorities.
“It was the first time when we brought together Ethnic Evidence, we went, ‘Oh my God look at this particular finding for MELAA youth’.”
The Ministry of Ethnic Communities deputy chief executive Pratima Namasivayam. SUPPLIED
While young migrants contributed strongly to their communities’, factors like racism in schools, biases in workplaces, non-recognition of overseas qualification and trauma were still contributing to low mental health.
The report stated that for Asian and MELAA young people in particular, racial discrimination at school and low family support were “risk factors for self-harm”, however, high cultural self-esteem was a “protective factor”.
In 2023, the ministry worked with the Education Review Office to release a report which showed racism and ethnicity-based bullying in schools remain prevalent.
Namasivayam said nearly one in five MELAA learners had reported feeling that they did not belong and one in three reported loneliness, this was just one of the factors explaining the poor mental health statistics.
“We’re now doing a deep dive into it because we want to really understand what’s happening.”
Namasivayam said MELAA youth were now a top priority when it came to improving mental health for ethnic communities.
She said some positive movements had resulted from the findings of the report such as the Auckland, Kuwaiti community hosting a wellbeing event for young women.
Having spoken to the Ministry of Health, a search into MELAA youth mental health was now part of the New Zealand Suicide Prevention Action Plan.
However, there was still work to be done and Namasivayam said the ministry was now focused on communicating with existing youth groups and service providers to further its knowledge of an underrepresented group.
“We’re thinking that what would be really good is we go and talk to existing youth groups, to talk about mental health, rather than doing a wide general community consultation.”
Ghandour said there was a need for a more holistic approach, that looked at improving physical and mental health while empowering communities and giving them shared spaces.
“If you have a really good sense of identity and understanding your whakapapa, who you are, your migration story … you have a better career outcome, you have better confidence”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand