Paper long abstract:

While young people are thought to be particularly vulnerable in situations of conflict and forced migration, it has been increasingly recognized in recent years that they can show remarkable resilience and ability to overcome adversity. Indeed, young people may be better able than elders to adapt to the demands of new situations, and make the best of them, particularly when it comes to taking up new livelihood opportunities. However, this can be threatening for elders, and can lead to the reconfiguration of inter-generational relations.

This paper reports on changes in inter-generational relations, and their consequences for coping and resilience, among long-term Liberian refugees in the Buduburam settlement camp in Ghana. In Buduburam, generational categories have become re-shaped and blurred as a result of the refugee experience. There is a strong ambivalence about the transition to adulthood in the camp, which permeates and complicates inter-generational relations. Because of the inability of elders to provide material support for their children, young people are forced to take on economic responsibilities, and to support their parents, at an early age. However, their inability to provide adequately for a household delays the transition to full adult status indefinitely, leaving young people in a prolonged liminal state of being neither child nor adult. This has led to other ambivalences and ambiguities in inter-generational relations. On the one hand, there is a general consensus within the camp that there has been a breakdown of authority and respect for elders by younger people. In particular, older people criticize youth for abandoning traditional values, and for buying wholesale into black American youth culture. On the other hand, the increasing value placed on youth, and concomitant devaluation of old age and experience, means that some older people, women in particular, have been forced to adopt aspects of youth culture and dress, and to renege on their social responsibilities as elders.

These tensions and ambiguities are important, because they underpin many social relations within the camp, with implications for the ability of everyone, both young and old, to cope with the rigours of refugee life. Although adequate material support is often not forthcoming, young people recognize the emotional support that they get from elders, particularly in helping them to make sense of their lives, within a wider cultural framework.