Table Of ContentA Depth Psychology Model
of Immigration and Adaptation
A Depth Psychology Study of Immigration and Adaptation: The Migrant’s
Journey brings current academic research from a range of disciplines into
a 12-stage model of human migration. Based on Joseph Campbell’s hero’s
journey, this depth psychology model addresses pre-migration reasons for
leaving, the ordeals of the journey and challenges of post-migration adap-
tation. One-third of migrants return to homelands while those who remain
in newlands face the triple challenges of building a new life, a new identity
and sense of belonging. While arrivées carry homelands within, their chil-
dren, the second generation, born and raised in the newland usually have
access to both cultures which enables them to make unique contributions
to society. Vital to successful newland adaptation is the acceptance and
support of immigrants by host countries. A Depth Psychology Study of
Immigration and Adaptation will be an important resource for academics
and students in the social sciences, clinical psychologists, health care and
social welfare workers, therapists of all backgrounds, policy makers and
immigrants themselves seeking an understanding of the inner experiences
of migration.
Phyllis Marie Jensen, PhD, is a Jungian psychoanalyst (ISAPZürich) and
sandplay therapist in Vancouver, Canada. Also a social and behavioural
science evidence-based researcher, she is an associate clinical professor in
Family Medicine, University of Alberta. A second-generation Canadian,
Jensen has experienced migration first-hand in England and Switzerland
and three Canadian provinces. She is the author of Artist Emily Carr and
the Spirit of the Land: A Jungian Portrait (Routledge, 2016).
A Depth Psychology Model
of Immigration and
Adaptation
’
The Migrant s Journey
Phyllis Marie Jensen
First published 2020
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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©2020PhyllisMarieJensen
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ISBN: 978-1-138-33242-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-33246-1 (pbk)
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Dedicated to my migrating parents
Ella Katherine and Svend Aage Jensen
Contents
Preface viii
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
1 Phase1:pre-migration 9
2 Phase2:thejourney 54
3 Phase3:post-migrationarrival 66
4 Phase4:post-migration—homeagain 82
5 Identityandbelonging 110
6 Generationaldifferences 150
7 Hostcountry 187
8 Summaryandconclusions 229
Bibliography 235
Index 288
Preface
Five factors inspired this book:
1) Awareness of artist Emily Carr’s migration complex. Often called
“Canada’s Van Gogh” and the “Mother of Modern Art in Canada,”
Emily Carr1 had a classical art education in San Francisco, London
and France. She deemed Aboriginal (First Nation) art as important as
the ancient arts of other lands, and because it was believed to be dis-
appearing, she vowed to document it. She made six camping trips
along the Pacific Northwest coast by ferry, canoe and horseback with
only her dog as companion. A hundred years later, her “wilderness”
trips are seen as an “apprenticeship” in First Nation art and culture,
that opened her eyes to a “fresh-seeing” of the land and its spirit ener-
gies and inspired her modernist paintings of the spirit of the land,
forest, sea and sky. At the same time, in her writings is an underlying
theme of the migration complex of self, family and community.
2) The art of the Canadian Group of Seven. Led by Lawren Harris
(1885–1970) and J.E.H. Macdonald (1873–1932), these seven male
artists known as the Group of Seven, asked: Who am I? Where
am I? Where is here? Like Carr, they painted the outdoors fully
determined to capture the spirit of the land.
3) American psychiatrist/psychoanalyst, Salman Akhtar, who migrated
from India to New York and wrote extensively on migration. He noted
“the reluctance of depth psychology to look at the social, historical
and cultural factors of migration has forced us to fill the gaps with
research from other disciplines.”2 Being a social and behavioural evi-
dence-based researcher as well as a Jungian analyst, I took up the
challenge. Thus, this book is an attempt to integrate the research lit-
erature of sister disciplines—anthropology, clinical and social psych-
ology, economics, history, human geography, jurisprudence, linguistics,
political science and sociology—into a depth psychology model of
migration.
Preface ix
4) The heroic model appeared to me in a dream image. The research lit-
erature is segmented by discipline and I was seeking an inclusive
model for depth psychology’s clinical and research work. I had
a dream of an ancient scroll on which was written: “Migration is
a heroic act.” This led to my use of the hero archetype as the organiz-
ing principle for this integrative work.
5) JosephCampbell(1904–1987),aprofessorofmythologyfoundarepeating
theme in world literature, the Hero Archetype, the “will and capacity to
undergo repeated transformations.”3 In The Hero with a Thousand Faces,4
hedescribestheheroasleavingaknownordertoenterajourneyofchaos
beforeaneworderemerges.5Thetwelvestagesoftheheroicarchetypeare
organized in thisdepth psychology model ofmigration:pre-migration,the
journeyandpost-migrationarrivalandadaptation.
Awareness of Emily Carr’s migration complex led me to explore my own
migration experiences as a “2.5-generation” Canadian who has lived in sev-
eral provinces, travelled extensively and been a sojourner student in two
countries. This is not unusual in Canada. In fact, it’s actually rare to meet
a “stayer,” born and living in the same place. One in five Canadians is
a naturalized citizen (born outside the country), a figure predicted to rise
to one in three persons in 20 years.6 Toronto, the most multicultural city in
the world, reports over half of its population was born outside the
country.7 Internal migrations within the country are a constant feature.
“Modernity implies mobility,”8 says Duyvendak. “The motif of modern
culture … is being rootless, displacement between worlds, living between
a lost past and fluid present [and] a metaphor for the journeying modern
consciousness.”9 Because worldwide, one in 30 people is a migrant,10 it’s
important to have aworkable depth psychology model of migration.
In C.G. Jung’s Collected Works, there are eleven references to migration.
Transcribed below, the most relevant passages relating to human migration
are italicized.
Jung on European Migration
Because we still can and will wander, we imagine that we can live more
or less anywhere. Not yet convinced that we ought to be able to get
along with one another in closely packed families, we feel that we can
afford to quarrel, for there is still good open country “out West” if
things come to the worst. At least it seems so. But it is no longer quite
true. Even the Englishman is not settled in India; he is really con-
demned to serve his term there and to make the best of it. Hence all
these hopeful, jolly, eager, energetic, powered voices issue from people
who are thinking and dreaming of spring in Sussex.11
