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‘Lost Boys’ of Sudan: Where are they now?

By Ike Iyioke

Photo by Carol Luster inset: Courtesy photo Sisimayo, a Sudanese refugee, becomes a U.S. citizen at a naturalization ceremony in November 2006. Pictured are Tom Luster, Sisimayo and the federal judge who conducted the ceremony.

Adolescent age is tough enough, right? Well, ask the Sudanese refugees, known in the media as the “Lost Boys.”

Their storied experiences have long become commonplace: As boys (and girls), they were torn from their families by war and experienced riveting hardships in the wilderness and in refugee camps before arriving in the United States.

Today they are mostly adults brimming with unimaginable experiences. A few of the refugees have gone to college; others have returned to Sudan to marry and have children.

Tom Luster, and MSU professor of family and child ecology, was at the airport when the refugees arrived in 2001 and has documented their lives ever since. He leads a team of researchers whose study will form a chapter in a soon-to-be-published book, Strengths and Challenges of New Immigrant Families.

“Our study began in 2001, when they were resettled in the United States and a partnership was formed between MSU and two Lansing-area resettlement agencies,” Luster said. “Lutheran Social Services of Michigan was responsible for the care of the unaccompanied minors and Refugee Services of St. Vincent Catholic Charities took care of the young adults who were in their late teens or early 20s.”

Seventy Sudanese refugees were selected for the study from about 135 who were resettled in the Lansing area. About 10 percent of them were females who were minors, including five who participated in this study. Nationally, about 3,800 Sudanese refugees were resettled.

A notable quality among the refugees’ is their extraordinary ability to cope with chronic adversity and trauma.

“As researchers, they are helping us understand factors that contributed to their resilience,” Luster said. “We are examining protective factors in four categories: personal characteristics, relationships, community opportunities and resources and cultural factors.”

The study also described the refugees’ markedly different resettlement experiences based on whether they were minors or adults. Minors had to adjust (and some who are still minors continue to adjust) to American schools and living in American foster families, having lived mostly in peer groups in Africa.

Adults had to become economically independent in four months, working long hours at low-paying jobs and struggling to find time and money to go to school.

Still, the refugees send as much money to Africa as possible to help those who were left behind. They follow news events in Sudan very closely and are concerned about current conditions in Darfur.

Luster and his wife Carol have served as mentors to one of the refugees, a young man named Sisimayo, for the past six years.
“He is like one of our adult children,” Luster said. “Both of his parents are deceased, and we try to fill in as best we can as his American parents.

“In the beginning his needs were great – health issues, learning to take care of basic needs, learning to drive a car, etc. Now, he has become very independent. We have shared his sadness, such as when his mother died in 2003. And, we have shared his happiness, such as when he talked on the phone to a member of his family for the first time in 14 years.”

The study noted that refugee camp experiences had significant positive and negative influences on the refugees’ adjustment in the United States. For instance, having suffered through hardship, they recognized the special opportunity they had coming to the United States to pursue an education and employment.

But because of their war experiences, some of the refugees suffer from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

“The youths have reported that sometimes when they are trying to concentrate in school, they were interrupted by thoughts of their village being attacked, or children drowning or being shot at when the refugees were violently expelled from Ethiopia,” Luster noted.

Some of the refugees have medical problems that date back to health issues in the refugee camp.

“The girls have some added disadvantages because of their experiences in the refugee camp and their roles,” Luster said.

“Girls were expected to focus on household chores such as gathering firewood, cooking and taking care of younger children and were less likely to attend school. 

“So when the girls came to the United States, they were farther behind in terms of education and their English skills lagged behind those of the boys.”