"Resignation Syndrome": An Illness Affecting Child Migrants In Sweden, Making Them Catatonic

"Resignation syndrome" is a mystery illness that makes migrant children fall unconscious, and remain so, for months on end. It is not lethal, but only because the children are fed artificially. It happens when their parents are rejected by the country's immigration authorities. The children can recover when their families are granted residence.

The most strange thing about it is that it only affects children in Sweden. Mostly they come from families from former USSR and, for the last couple of years, Yazidi and Syrians. Nobody knows why this happens, why it is exclusive to Sweden, and what is the best way to cure it. The best guess, expressed by doctors who've treated dozens of such children, is that the children are, in a way, reflecting the feeling of limbo and the extreme anxiety of their families, and it can be only cured with the feeling of security.

But why does it only affect children in Sweden? It is possible that this has something to with the local culture, certain cultural patterns that are internalized. For that to happen, they don't need to know about other cases.

This report raises more questions than it answers. How can a child's mental health be affected by her immigration status? Why does it only happen in Sweden, and only to children from specific countries? This story, like very few others, shows just how hard it is to separate a person's social role, status, physical, and mental health.