Originally Published: Community Talks Vol. 02 | No. 01 | January-June 2022
This article is based on 10 years of working experience from an institution in Oslo, Norway with youths under 18 years of age, many of them from Asian or African countries, or had parents from those countries. Many of them were drug users, and some of them had a heavy addiction. My duty as a counsellor in an institution, administered by the Child Custody Service, was to rehabilitate, guide and look after the residents. During the time they stayed there, I got to understand some of the reasons for their drug abuse and drug addiction. Many of them were raised in families who had supervision from Child Custody Service because of negligence, physical and mental abuse of the children and other causes. Most of these youths were born in Norway or came with their families at a very early age. Oslo is the city in Norway where most immigrants and refugees prefer to live.
The Combination of Drug Use and Criminal Offences
Although no statistics regarding the drug abuse of this group have recently been published, the criminal statistics from 2019 may give some indicators: 73 out of 84 youths under 18 years in Oslo, who were incarnated and charged with criminal offences, had a foreign background. Criminal offences and intoxication often go hand in hand: Violence, robbery, burglary, and sale of drugs were common offences. Some of these crimes were committed in order to support their drug addiction. Institutionalized Youths Open Department The institution I was employed, had an open and a closed department. The open department had some youths with some drug-related problems, but it was not the main problem: Physical abuse at home, unsolvable conflicts with parents, very strict rules, parents with mental disorders etc. were common reasons for the replacements. The admission to the institution was voluntary, in some cases done without the parent’s consensus. The youths had themselves contacted CCS and asked for help or concerned people had contacted CCS. The youths would be accompanied by CCS to the institution and participate in the interview during admission. The open department was more like a group home, and the youths were going to school and meeting their friends and family during the time they stayed there. Later on, some of them would return home, move to other institutions or be placed in foster homes.
Closed department
Here, the youths were accompanied by the police and representatives of CCS during the admission. The admissions were based on court orders. Many of these youths were addicted to heavy drugs, and some of them were heavily intoxicated upon arrival. They would arrive in handcuffs if they had been attacking the police or others, and the handcuffs were removed by the police upon arrival. The youths had to go through a body search in front of the same sex counsellor to ensure that they did not conceal weapons or drugs. Their mobiles were confiscated to avoid contact with gang members or other criminals. The closed unit was a locked unit, and the youths had to be accompanied by two or three counsellors if they were going outside the institution. This was in order to prevent them from committing crimes, selling and using drugs. Some of them would try to escape with the help of family or friends outside. Others were aggressive, and from time to time the counsellors were physically attacked and furniture smashed. If they rehabilitated well, they would be granted a transfer to the open department. In other cases, they were transferred to similar institutions. Very few of them returned home, as their families were afraid of them.
Why Do Some Youths of Foreign Origin Growing Up in The West Become Drug Abusers?
Family Situation Marginalization:
Most of those I talked with, came from marginalized family backgrounds. Their parents were uneducated, had low-income jobs or were unemployed and dependent on the social welfare system. In addition to that, many parents transferred money to their families in their home countries. The shame of coming from marginalized parents’ dependent on social welfare was a heavy burden for many youths and it made them feel inferior. That often meant not being able to afford participation in sports or other extra curriculum activities or buying fashionable clothes like their friends. Most of those families were living east of Oslo, where the rent is cheaper, living standards are lower, and crimes are more frequent.
Strict Upbringing—Being an Outsider:
Some of these families were very strict when it came to the upbringing of their children, especially families with a Muslim background. Girls told me that they had to come straight home from school every day, and were not allowed to go out afterwards. Birthday invitations were turned down, and they were not allowed to participate in activities with the opposite sex. Some of the parents disliked that they mixed with Norwegian youths, as they were afraid their children would be influenced and become too westernized. A few girls mentioned that they were afraid that they would be taken to their parent’s country and forced to marry somebody there. In other cases, youths made up stories about parents’ physical abuse in order to get admitted to the institution to get more freedom and to avoid strict rules and regulations at home.
Traumatic Experiences as Refugees:
Some of the youths were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder because of traumas related to the escape from their countries. The traumas were related to physical and sexual abuse, as well as witnessing people, sometimes family members, drown or die of exhaustion. Drugs were used as a kind of selfmedication to cope with flashbacks and nightmares.
Poor Performance in School:
Children of immigrants and refugees are often getting a better education than their parents in Norway. To make their parents proud, especially girls work hard to get good grades in school. Therefore, an increasing number of them are becoming doctors, dentists, lawyers and engineers. However, many children of foreign origin, are performing very poorly in school and drop out when they become teenagers. Although many of them were born and brought up in Norway, some of them spoke the Norwegian language with an accent, and their vocabulary was at a very low level.
Parents who have less education or are illiterate, cannot follow up on their children’s homework. Some of the youths told us that they had to help out in their parent’s small business from a very young age, and there was no time to do homework. The importance of education was not validated by parents. When the youths became involved in gangs, they started to skip school and made friends who influenced them to use drugs and steal from the stores.
Bullied in School:
Racism is still existing in Norway, and many youths told me that they had been bullied because of their ethnicity and religious background. Because of the negative focus on Islam in the media, Muslim youths were often the target of bullying. Girls who were using hijab would often be teased, and some of them stopped wearing hijab when they were admitted to the institution and parents could no longer control them.
Physical and Mental Abuse by Parents:
Although physical abuse of children is prohibited by law in Norway, the youths told me that they had been beaten since childhood as this was acceptable in the countries where their parents came from. Some of them had scars from the beating. Mental abuse at home such as belittlement, being told they were useless, stupid etc. was also common in some families. The result was often that the youths became rebellious, ignored the parent’s rules and started to hang out with youths who would steal and use drugs. In some cases, the parents disowned them afterwards, as they brought shame on them. The youths became drug users with no place to call home. Some of the girls would prostitute themselves in order to get drugs and a place to stay provided by older men.
Where Did the Youths Go After They Were Institutionalized?
Although the institutions I worked in had limited access to information regarding what happened to the youths after they left the institution, we received some information from different sources. Many of those who left in the open department, did well later on. The toxic environment was often their own home, and some parents were able to improve their performance in raising their children when they received supervised training. Other youths did well as soon as they were removed from the home environment and started to live independently or in foster homes. Unfortunately, some of the information we got regarding those who had left the closed department 39 | Page Community Talks Vol. 02| No. 01| January-June 2022 were through headlines in the newspapers regarding serious criminal behaviour. Although their name was not mentioned, some of their backgrounds were described in a way that we could recognize the person. We would also get information from other sources that indicated that many of them did not do well as they did not stop using drugs.
Conclusion
One of the differences between the open department and the closed department where I worked, was that the professional intervention at the open department started earlier than the intervention at the closed department. Although some of the residents at the open department used drugs from time to time, they had not become addicts. Through professional guidance and rehabilitation, many of them did better and quit using drugs. The intervention in the closed department was often done at a very late stage. The youths were often heavily addicted to drugs and were committing serious crimes as well as selling drugs. The reasons for drug abuse are many, but many parents of foreign origin do not like to involve in CCD, and some of them are having serious problems themselves. They do not have the capacity or resources to help their children in a meaningful way. The racism card is often used, and many parents blame Norwegian society for the problems of their youths. The Norwegian Government has for many years given priority to helping children and youths with foreign backgrounds, but they have a lot to learn. Many Norwegian professionals have a very limited understanding of foreign cultures, foreign families and their challenges. Their expectation when it comes to the integration of these families and their children into the Norwegian society, are often unreasonably high and is often more likely to cause a greater distance between the helpers and those who need help.