Migration, exile, and refuge: human rights and mental health

Teresa Morandi. Member of the FCCSM Board

The FCCSM Congresses, held every three/four years, are the creative result of participatory processes, reflection, and proposals from individuals across various disciplines. These congresses address topics related to mental health, extending beyond the healthcare aspect to encompass diverse situations experienced by the collective that affect people's subjectivity and social connections. Mental health is viewed as a way of living, of care, autonomous, solidarity-based, and tied to vital, historical, political, and social contexts.

From the Board, at the proposal of then-president Àngels Vives, we chose the theme for the 6th Congress. A very hard and difficult situation was unfolding, presenting us with a duty and a challenge: the different migratory processes that were now dramatically exploding in Europe, causing thousands of people – children, women, men – to arrive in search of refuge. They had lost their homes, forced to flee – risking everything, even their lives – due to multiple adversities caused by wars, climate change, famine, political persecution, etc., which left them destitute, subjected to all kinds of violence, and vulnerable.

As SM professionals, we are regularly faced with the metaphorical act of welcoming “shipwrecks, Beings who suffer, who feel, or who have lost their place in the world, often stigmatized, mistreated, and we seek to give them “asylum,” to house them, opening spaces where subjectivity and speech are present, that is, where subjects are recognized in their humanity and singularity.

Therefore, in the face of “those without shelter,” with the memory of our own exiles, and in the face of the political irresponsibility of states that violate human rights, it was vital for us as humans, professionals, and citizens not to look away or remain in a state of powerlessness. It is an ethical responsibility.

However, we understood that these situations call into question many of the values on which coexistence, respect for human rights, and even the solidarities of individuals and governments are based. Therefore, we had to consider how those who ”knock on the door; Did they know how to accept sharing, cohabiting with others who are seen as different, strange? To consider conflicts and how to face them?

Addressing this social catastrophe within Congress was an opportunity to tackle a complex issue; to confront it through open and supportive reflection, to invite denunciation and debate; to share among different disciplines, various associations, and institutions that were at the forefront of solidarity, and to hear the words, experiences, and creations of many affected individuals.

To consider the different perspectives, three groups worked, focusing their analysis and debates on:

• • The human rights of migrants: myths and realities.
  • The impact of violence on the subject and social bonding.
  • Comprehensive care from mental health.

In them, we dedicated time to see and understand, listening to contributions from those who experienced difficulties firsthand, young people, adults, women, and men, as well as from experts and volunteers. We came to learn about various forms of community help, support, and the opening of new tools. We concluded by building some proposals: strengthening levels of welcome and coexistence; alerting to and questioning racism and xenophobia linked to the fear of the other, encouraged by stories from some media outlets and social networks; preventing and reducing risks by caring for the subjective suffering of immigrants, avoiding diagnosing pain and grief as mental illness and medicalizing it.

A manifesto signed by many child rights advocacy groups was drafted.

In line with the themes of the Congress, we remembered the personality and career of two friends and colleagues from the Foundation, both pioneers and examples of good practice in public and community mental health: Josep Clusa, who will be president of the FCCSM, to whom the Memorial of this 6th edition was dedicated, and a tribute to Valentin Barenblit.