Migration and growth: separation-individuation processes in immigrant students in Israel

The central experiences of immigrant students in Israel are described and analyzed. It is suggested that immigration entails a process of separation from homeland as well as from internal representations of objects and of the self which are linked to homeland. This process is conceptualized in terms of Margaret Mahler's separation-individuation model. In the case of immigrant students, this process occurs concurrently and in interaction with individuation processes typical of adolescence. While motivated by adolescents' desire to avoid or delay psychological separation from their parents, immigration and absorption also revive adolescent conflicts and ambivalences. When the working through of these conflicts occurs in conjunction with the absorption process, immigration may become a growth experience that facilitates the developmental task of adolescence.