Far from Home and Forging New Patterns of Resilience through Trauma: The Diaspora of Tongan Students during COVID
Abstract
The COVID crisis since January 2020 caused students from all over the Pacific Rim to be separated from their home, family, and culture, and they are still grappling with the continued disruption to their lives and education. This is particularly true for those students from Tonga, who have endured layers of trauma during from 2020- 2022. The students had already been stranded away from Tonga for two years because of COVID restrictions when in January 2022, they watched helplessly as their island endured a tsunami. Because communications were down for weeks, they were not able to talk to their families to discover their status until long after the event. Additionally, for many who attend Pacific Island colleges abroad, there is an expectation to become educated and to return home to improve their own countries; however, they were prevented from achieving this goal by COVID restrictions at home in Tonga, who maintain some of the strictest border requirements in the Pacific Rim region. For some of these students, their homecoming was delayed for almost three years. Returning home for those who experience diaspora comes with its own challenges and adjustments to the perspective of their culture (Hall, 1996). How has this disruption impacted their academic performance, emotional growth, and sense of identity?
Presentation Description
.
Location
Room 107
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Kimble, Julie, "Far from Home and Forging New Patterns of Resilience through Trauma: The Diaspora of Tongan Students during
COVID" (2022). Curriculum Studies Summer Collaborative. 32.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cssc/2022/2022/32
Far from Home and Forging New Patterns of Resilience through Trauma: The Diaspora of Tongan Students during COVID
Room 107
The COVID crisis since January 2020 caused students from all over the Pacific Rim to be separated from their home, family, and culture, and they are still grappling with the continued disruption to their lives and education. This is particularly true for those students from Tonga, who have endured layers of trauma during from 2020- 2022. The students had already been stranded away from Tonga for two years because of COVID restrictions when in January 2022, they watched helplessly as their island endured a tsunami. Because communications were down for weeks, they were not able to talk to their families to discover their status until long after the event. Additionally, for many who attend Pacific Island colleges abroad, there is an expectation to become educated and to return home to improve their own countries; however, they were prevented from achieving this goal by COVID restrictions at home in Tonga, who maintain some of the strictest border requirements in the Pacific Rim region. For some of these students, their homecoming was delayed for almost three years. Returning home for those who experience diaspora comes with its own challenges and adjustments to the perspective of their culture (Hall, 1996). How has this disruption impacted their academic performance, emotional growth, and sense of identity?
