scholarly journals Guessing games with target groups : Securing a livelihood by supporting refugees in a hostile environment

Intersections ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-48
Author(s):  
Lieke van der Veer
Keyword(s):  
Forced Migration ◽  
Immigrant Integration ◽  
Grassroots Organizations ◽  
Hostile Environment ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Target Groups ◽  
Affective Labor ◽  
Seeking Safety ◽  
Safety And Stability ◽  
Guessing Games

In the wake of mass-migrations of refugees seeking safety and stability in Europe, this contribution studies emerging grassroots organizations that support refugee status holders in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The municipality expects these organizations to adhere to the European trend to incorporate immigrant integration priorities in interventions that apply to all residents. The article discusses the paradox of how bureaucratic classifications regarding preferred target groups cast certain grassroots responses as fringe-activities that are less legible bureaucratically. Based on a year of ethnographic fieldwork, this article shows how this lessened legibility translates into profound insecurities for grassroots organizers. The article discusses how these insecurities, in combination with the uncertainty grassroots organizers feel regarding their employability, motivate them to play guessing games and to give in to municipal preferences to boost their eligibility for funding. It argues that this process of giving in to municipal preferences should be understood as an attempt to render their endeavors legible, reduce precariousness, secure a livelihood, and turn affective labor into a life-sustaining practice. In so doing, this contribution evokes the story of a particular grassroots organizer—a woman of color with a forced migration background.

scholarly journals Inconsistencies in repeated refugee status decisions

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Pärnamets ◽  
Alexander Tagesson ◽  
Annika Wallin
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Civil Servant ◽  
Affective Responses ◽  
Significant Decline ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Seeking Safety ◽  
Active Regulation ◽  
Governmental Intervention ◽  
Emotional Demands ◽  
Over Time

Consistency in civil servant decisions is paramount to upholding judicial equality for citizens and individuals seeking safety through governmental intervention. We investigated refugee status decisions made by a sample of civil servants at the Swedish Migration Agency. We hypothesized, based on the emotional demands such decisions bring with them, that participants would exhibit a compassion fade effect such that refugee status was less likely to be granted over time. To test this, we administered a questionnaire containing brief presentations of asylum seekers and asked participants to judge how likely they would be to give refugee status to the person. Crucially the first, middle and final case presented were matched on decision relevant characteristics. Consistent with our hypothesis we saw a significant decline in ratings. These effects were accentuated by the amount of time a participant had worked at the agency, consistent with depletion of affective resources, and attenuated in workers with greater responsibility and additional training. We conclude that active regulation of empathic and affective responses to asylum seekers may play a role in determining the outcome in refugee status decisions.

The digital gift and aspirational mobility

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 754-769 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saskia Witteborn
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Media Analysis ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
Migrant Groups

This article discusses aspirational mobility and the digital gift in the context of forced migration in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It illustrates how gifting a mobile device and data enhances the aspirational mobility of forced migrants and intervenes into political codes, which promote social and technological isolation. Through the example of fieldwork with forced migrants and social media analysis, the article shows how participation, self-presentation, and social control were encouraged through the object and data gift. The migrants amplified their aspirational mobility by participating in urban life, presenting themselves in digital space, and maintaining romantic sociality with members of other marginalized migrant groups. The article elaborates on previous notions of technology as expanding social worlds for forced migrants while also highlighting the potential of technology for social control between migrant groups. The article also points to the potential dangers of social media use by asylum seekers for refugee status determination.

scholarly journals Introduction to Migration and Refugee Flows: New Insights

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 114-117
Author(s):  
Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
International Migration ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Migrant Population ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
Migration Flows ◽  
And Migration

Population movements between countries and continents are not recent phenomena. What is new today is that migration flows are increasingly linked to the globalization process and to environmental degradation. Most of the migrants leave their homes for economic reasons, but also due to the higher frequency of natural disasters. Of the total migrant population, those who escape from conflicts or persecution still represent a smaller fraction and are entitled to obtain refugee status. This thematic issue includes eight articles that analyse migration flows and migration governance from different analytical perspectives. Five of the eight contributions examine the role that several factors play in explaining international migration flows and its effects, namely cultural diversity, information technology tools, governance, terrorism, and attitudes towards immigration. The remaining three articles are country studies that analyse the socio-economic causes/effects of migration flows to Portugal, Spain, and Germany, devoting special attention to forced migration and refugees.

Byron’s Ambivalent Modernity: Touring and Forced Migration in Don Juan

2019 ◽  
pp. 17-50
Author(s):  
Betsy Bolton
Keyword(s):  
Forced Migration ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Don Juan ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Political Agents ◽  
The Voice

The first chapter argues that Byron’s Don Juan (1819-1824) anticipates current conversations of refugee status and migration. Byron’s revision of the epic form suggests that modern epic must operate in a world ruled by what Cindi Katz calls “vagabond capitalism,’ a world in which human beings are disabled as moral and political agents. Byron’s epic satire presents migration through a split lens, juxtaposing the aristocratic narrator’s witty sophistication with Juan’s hapless, erotic physicality. The forced migration of the poem’s hero, Juan, is presented through the voice of Byron’s aristocratically urbane narrator—a voice that appears to eschew the vulnerability of the slave or refugee. Over the course of the epic, their differences dissolve, as both figures suffer from precarity. Ultimately, Byron’s satire undermines distinctions between tourists and vagabonds, and unravels the imagined independence of the nation-state along with the aristocrat’s imagined freedom from exile and forced migration.

Acculturation Experiences of Syrian Muslim Refugee Women in the United States: Intersectionality of Nationality, Religion, Gender, and Refugee Status

2020 ◽  
pp. 104515952096285
Author(s):  
Merih Ugurel Kamisli
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Adult Educators ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Refugee Women ◽  
Qualitative Research Methodology

Honoring the voices needing to be heard, the research investigated the lived experiences of six Syrian Muslim refugee women who resettled in the United States after the 2011 Syrian War. Data analysis was informed by qualitative research methodology and narrative inquiry. The stories of Syrian women in this study highlight the complexities of forced migration and intersecting subordinations that refugee women experience. By adding to our understanding of refugee experiences, the study contributes to one of the major populations that adult educators serve.

Dislocations, dis-possessions: more movements of the people

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 217-227
Author(s):  
Carole Boyce-Davies
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Additional Material ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Global Trends ◽  
The People ◽  
Good Research ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to engage theoretical displacement with the actual identifications of human displacement caused by dire circumstances of war and economic oppression and environmental degradation as indicated in UNHCR Global Trends documents. Design/methodology/approach The approach includes a comparative analysis of the theoretics of dislocation through close reading, cultural and textual analysis. Findings Earlier forms of forced migration due to enslavement replay themselves in the current forms. Research limitations/implications This study provides the means for subsequent scholars to do the kinds of analyses which move from the theoretical to the practical. Practical implications The study can be a good research tool for practitioners in international relations. Social implications Scholars and activists of displacement, deportation, refugee status have additional material for their projects. Originality/value This study is the only one of its kind as it links the issues of African diaspora to the Mediterranean.

scholarly journals MIGRATION MANAGEMENT WITHIN FAMILY REUNIFICATION

2019 ◽  
pp. 47-64
Author(s):  
Sina Fontana
Keyword(s):  
Forced Migration ◽  
Family Reunification ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Residence Permit ◽  
Marriage And Family ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
Basic Law ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
One Year

Family reunification is one of the purposes of stay within the Residence Act. The granting of the residence permit is fundamentally designed as a claim and must be granted if the requirements are met. In the course of ongoing forced migration, family reunification has become the focus of debates for ways to limit refugee migration. Since Article 6, Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the German Basic Law on the protection of marriage and family do not give rise to a right to entry, although its scope of protection must be taken into account when designing regulations on family reunification, the legislative scope for action is limited. The German legislature has decided that family reunification should be limited for persons with subsidiary protection status. Subsidiary protection is an element of protection that is shaped by EU law, which occurs alongside national asylum law and refugee protection, which is also shaped by EU law. Different requirements apply to these protective elements. Upon recognition, a humanitarian residence permit is issued, which differs in length depending on the protection status. While in the case of recognition as a person entitled to asylum or refugee status, the residence permit is initially issued for a period of one year, the duration in the case of subsidiary protection is only one year. In all cases there is the possibility of an extension. This different length of stay and the lower prospect of staying are the starting point for the restriction of family reunification for persons entitled to subsidiary protection in Section 36a of the Residence Act. As specified in the regulation as an example, family members of a person with subsidiary protection status can be granted a residence permit for the humanitarian reasons. The family reunification is now made dependent on the existence of further prerequisites in addition to family ties and is also designed not as a right but as a discretionary clause. In addition, the number of visas is limited to 1000 per month. Concerns about this restriction of family reunification were raised, in terms of possible violation of Article 6 Paragraphs 1 and 2 and Article 3 Paragraph 1 (Equality before the law) of the German Basic Law. Based on this, the following article carries out a constitutional analysis.

scholarly journals What explains differences in countries’ migration policies?

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-65
Author(s):  
Yasin Kerem Gumus
Keyword(s):  
Immigrant Integration ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Common Elements ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Target Groups ◽  
Migration Policies ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Programmes ◽  
Institutional Actors

The aim of this paper is to analyse the reasons for differences in national migration policies. European societies are struggling with the problem of how to best include the immigrants in their social structures.  Although national migration policies in Europe have developed some common elements in recent years the contents and structure of national programmes vary widely in terms of their scope, goals, target groups and the institutional actors involved. The main question of the paper is “What explains the different migration policies of countries?” To answer the question, after mentioning the current differences within the European Union in terms of their migration policies, the paper will take Germany and France as examples which demonstrate sharply different cases of immigrant integration policies in the public course.

scholarly journals Forced Migration, Unwanted Acceptance, Uncertain Future of Syrian Refugees: The Struggle for Legal Status

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 156
Author(s):  
Şevket Ökten
Keyword(s):  
Legal Status ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Uncertainty Relations ◽  
Hostile Environment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Threshold Position ◽  
Social Encounters ◽  
Extended Duration ◽  
Uncertain Future

In this study, the current situation of Syrian immigrants coming to Şanlıurfa through forced migration is discussed. Also, the study deals with the level of their adaptation by means of their reflection on the locals. The study mainly focus on the interaction between Syrian immigrants and locals in terms of social encounter, labor relations and the perceptions on immigrants’ position in the society and potential conflicts based on these perceptions. It reveals that the social encounters between the Syrian immigrants and the locals of Şanlıurfa have created an increasingly hostile environment within the social and cultural uncertainty relations because of the extended duration of the residence of the Syrians who are evaluated as "temporary guests". The situation of immigrants, whose legal status can be defined as uncertainty, is precisely a "threshold" position. The immigrants who have to leave their country cannot be a part of society. However, they live in the society. So, this situation leads to outwardness, inattention and uncertainty. In addition, immigrants are increasingly facing problems such as social exclusion, discrimination, marginalization, illegal work, and poverty.This is a descriptive study based on the literature review and the data of applied field research. In this study, it is aimed to understand the intentions and values behind the superficial, numerical part of the data.

scholarly journals Re-Imagining the Concept of Forced Migration in the Face of Climate Change

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-98
Author(s):  
Allan M Mukuki
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Law ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
The Face ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

This article analyses the impacts of climate change which are no longer only within the scientific realm. This analysis reveals the effects of climate change and the challenges that it poses to the current refugee definition and the existing regime of refugee protection in international law. An all-inclusive refugee definition under international law, to include climate change as a Convention ground for people to seek refugee status is argued for herein. Judicial expansion of the definition and the development of soft law principles to cater for climate migrants is also discussed. Nevertheless, it is also noted that there exist numerous challenges in the re-imagination of the concept of forced migration in the face of climate change. Political considerations as well as a lack of State will and consensus on the existence of climate migrants have been the most visible challenges yet.

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