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their own land: having been left without political attachments, they would
supposedly not be able to share interests with the non-displaced community
in their new environment (Malkki, 1992, 1995).
A second look at this concept of “displacement” might enlarge its definition
to cover other phenomena, instances which are less visibly violent
than a massive exodus, for example, but which are no less distressing to
the individuals and groups involved. Amongst these “hidden”, unrecognized
displacements, we might consider the surge of migrations from the
countryside to the cities after the war. We might even consider the changing
of status from refugee to local staff as a contributing factor to the formation
of unstable identities, since even this type of change can generate
other forms of suffering and stress, while also generating new hopes for
the individual. In another scenario, displacement might not even be seen
as an imposed experience at all, but as a coveted state; the desire to escape
political, economic and social contingencies might also be considered
“displacement suffering”, if leaving is not possible.
In this paper, some of these different forms of displacement occurring in
the case of the Kosovar Albanians will be explored. I will propose the
hypothesis that displacement, as a suffering-generating experience to both
the individual and the community, is somehow reified, and made a powerful
tool in the creation of a collective identity in the Kosovar Albanian
society.
Suffering
Psychosocial Notebook, Volume 2, October 2001
Whether it occurs as a consequence of widespread violence (as in the
destruction of homes, expulsion, murder, threat of genocide and ethnic
cleansing, etc.), or as a cause of new forms of violence, the suffering
experienced in the case of Kosovo is in some way related to displacement.
This displacement suffering might even be caused by the frustrated desire
to move out of political and economic contingencies when it is not possible,
so that even when it fails to materialize, the concept of displacement
can became yet another cause of hardship.
On one level, suffering might occur as a result of loss, or even from the
fear of loss (of family, friends, land, home, life, mind, etc.), related to the
context of war and exile. At another level, however, suffering might arise
from different events: an impossibility or an insurmountable obstacle, a
disappointment, and/or the imposition of a new and unexpected living
environment which cannot be adjusted to, and which challenges the praxis
and discourses of society, community, family or individual.
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