Imaginary Controversists: Abraham Gómez Silveyra and the Theologians of the Huguenot Exile

In the Huguenot refugee community in The Netherlands, known as a hotbed of the early Enlightenment, literary interest in Judaism was ubiquitous, yet actual Dutch Jews were relegated to a marginal position in the exchange of ideas. It is this paradoxical experience of cultural participation and social exclusion that a major unpublished source allows to depict. The ex-converso Abraham Gómez Silveyra (1651–1741), a merchant endowed with rabbinic education and proficiency in French, composed eight manuscript volumes of theological reflections in Spanish literary prose and poetry. This huge clandestine series, which survives in three copies, shows the author’s insatiable curiosity for Christian thought. While rebutting Isaac Jacquelot’s missionary activity, he fraternizes with Pierre Jurieu’s millenarianism, Jacques Basnage’s historiography, and Pierre Bayle’s plea for religious freedom. Gómez Silveyra, however, being painfully aware of his voicelessness in the public sphere, enacts Bayle’s utopian project as a closed performance for a Jewish audience.

Navigating Digital Borderscapes: A Case Study from Rohingya Refugee Settlements in Bangladesh

Based on a case study of the lived experiences of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh between 2017 and 2019, this article focuses on displaced people’s digital needs and innovative efforts to navigate the challenges in their situation. The article first discusses the major barriers faced by Rohingya refugees in using various digital devices and platforms and how these obstacles adversely affect them in obtaining necessary information and humanitarian services. Our findings from the field highlight the uniquely important role that mobile repair shops in the camps play in providing online-offline hybrid solutions to circumvent restrictions imposed on the refugee community by the host government. The findings also show that different types of community leaders have emerged and that Rohingya women use digital means to push back against double discrimination. The article concludes with policy considerations related to the geopolitically transcendent issues of displacement, democracy, and digital rights.

Rainwater's Well-come: Resettling former refugees into New Zealand

<p>There are now an unprecedented number of refugees world-wide. The global impact of this is felt in New Zealand, with the refugee quota set to increase in 2018. The refugee crisis is an important design problem that architects must engage with as refugees are a particularly vulnerable group of people. Typically refugees have been assimilated into New Zealand society, however it is known that this process can cause psychological harm. This thesis seeks to investigate how architecture can thoughtfully and compassionately engage with refugee communities through a design-led investigation which will explore how a dwelling can meet specific cultural and spatial needs while providing opportunities for self-employment, and how a space which is specifically designed for refugee needs can embrace diversity and create opportunities for intercultural dialogue in the wider community. To investigate this, a sociological framework is used as a lens to examine methods of integration which provide potential ways for architecture to be manifested. Refugees often arrive with few economic resources and can be more reliant on the state and their surrounding communities. The biggest issue felt over long-term resettlement for refugees is a lack of employment which has a direct impact as they don’t have enough money to meet their everyday needs. This can also contribute to a negative public opinion about refugees. To address this issue, this thesis seeks to investigate how a hybrid building type, the shop-house, could be explored to provide refugees a dwelling that could meet their specific cultural and spatial needs and create potential opportunities for self-employment, self-determination and intercultural contact. The shop-house is a fundamental feature of a city, and can provide an economic foothold for people of all economic means. However, this thesis discovers its limitations and explores an alternative option to allow a refugee community to put down roots and make a new life in a new country which also enriches the host community.</p>

Rainwater's Well-come: Resettling former refugees into New Zealand

<p>There are now an unprecedented number of refugees world-wide. The global impact of this is felt in New Zealand, with the refugee quota set to increase in 2018. The refugee crisis is an important design problem that architects must engage with as refugees are a particularly vulnerable group of people. Typically refugees have been assimilated into New Zealand society, however it is known that this process can cause psychological harm. This thesis seeks to investigate how architecture can thoughtfully and compassionately engage with refugee communities through a design-led investigation which will explore how a dwelling can meet specific cultural and spatial needs while providing opportunities for self-employment, and how a space which is specifically designed for refugee needs can embrace diversity and create opportunities for intercultural dialogue in the wider community. To investigate this, a sociological framework is used as a lens to examine methods of integration which provide potential ways for architecture to be manifested. Refugees often arrive with few economic resources and can be more reliant on the state and their surrounding communities. The biggest issue felt over long-term resettlement for refugees is a lack of employment which has a direct impact as they don’t have enough money to meet their everyday needs. This can also contribute to a negative public opinion about refugees. To address this issue, this thesis seeks to investigate how a hybrid building type, the shop-house, could be explored to provide refugees a dwelling that could meet their specific cultural and spatial needs and create potential opportunities for self-employment, self-determination and intercultural contact. The shop-house is a fundamental feature of a city, and can provide an economic foothold for people of all economic means. However, this thesis discovers its limitations and explores an alternative option to allow a refugee community to put down roots and make a new life in a new country which also enriches the host community.</p>

Transcending Borders: The Evolution of the Refugee Diaspora in ‘Bounded’ and ‘Moebius ’ Space

<p>The emergence of ‘transnational refugee theory’ and the rubric of the ‘refugee diaspora’ have reignited refugee studies, and elicited an exciting theoretical vantage-point from which to explore refugee communities. This paper seeks to disentangle the core precepts of transnational refugee theory and, drawing upon compelling empirical evidence strengthen our understanding of the dynamic interaction between the refugee diaspora and the environment within which it evolves – in particular how the entrenched international refugee regime ontology impacts directly the effective functioning of the refugee community. Echoing Giddens’ Structuration Theory, what is proposed is that the refugee community exists within a ‘middle space’ – a synthesis of endogenous and exogenous factors that together establish the ‘boundaries’ that shape the diaspora space, and ultimately support or undermine the activities of those communities located within it. Accordingly, a refugee ‘middle space model’ is outlined, which defines a core set of economic, political and socio-cultural activities, and the endogenous and exogenous factors that shape their realisation in situ. This theoretical construct is applied to two case studies. Firstly, the ‘bounded’ space of Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps in Kenya is shown to not only disregard but also actively undermine the transnational character of refugee displacement. Moreover, while the refugee community remains active in circumventing these boundaries, there remains an inherent ambiguity in this transnational activism, giving rise to a perversion or ‘transmutation’ of the bounded refugee space. In stark contrast, the Free Movement Protocols of the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) are establishing a fluid ‘moebius’ space that both acknowledges and facilitates the transnational foundations of the refugee diaspora – as both a ‘bottom-up’ (endogenous) and ‘top-down’ (exogenous) process. However, the nascent UNHCR-ECOWAS partnership remains mired in an incoherent demarcation of responsibilities and a dearth of cohesive regional processes. Notwithstanding these limitations, the moebius middle space clearly offers an invigorating alternative to the prevailing UNHCR containment model – providing a truly ‘durable solution’ for those transnational communities dispersed across the refugee diaspora.</p>

Transcending Borders: The Evolution of the Refugee Diaspora in ‘Bounded’ and ‘Moebius ’ Space

<p>The emergence of ‘transnational refugee theory’ and the rubric of the ‘refugee diaspora’ have reignited refugee studies, and elicited an exciting theoretical vantage-point from which to explore refugee communities. This paper seeks to disentangle the core precepts of transnational refugee theory and, drawing upon compelling empirical evidence strengthen our understanding of the dynamic interaction between the refugee diaspora and the environment within which it evolves – in particular how the entrenched international refugee regime ontology impacts directly the effective functioning of the refugee community. Echoing Giddens’ Structuration Theory, what is proposed is that the refugee community exists within a ‘middle space’ – a synthesis of endogenous and exogenous factors that together establish the ‘boundaries’ that shape the diaspora space, and ultimately support or undermine the activities of those communities located within it. Accordingly, a refugee ‘middle space model’ is outlined, which defines a core set of economic, political and socio-cultural activities, and the endogenous and exogenous factors that shape their realisation in situ. This theoretical construct is applied to two case studies. Firstly, the ‘bounded’ space of Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps in Kenya is shown to not only disregard but also actively undermine the transnational character of refugee displacement. Moreover, while the refugee community remains active in circumventing these boundaries, there remains an inherent ambiguity in this transnational activism, giving rise to a perversion or ‘transmutation’ of the bounded refugee space. In stark contrast, the Free Movement Protocols of the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) are establishing a fluid ‘moebius’ space that both acknowledges and facilitates the transnational foundations of the refugee diaspora – as both a ‘bottom-up’ (endogenous) and ‘top-down’ (exogenous) process. However, the nascent UNHCR-ECOWAS partnership remains mired in an incoherent demarcation of responsibilities and a dearth of cohesive regional processes. Notwithstanding these limitations, the moebius middle space clearly offers an invigorating alternative to the prevailing UNHCR containment model – providing a truly ‘durable solution’ for those transnational communities dispersed across the refugee diaspora.</p>

Syrian Men’s Disability and Their Masculine Trajectories in the Context of Displacement in Jordan and Turkey

This article analyzes the relationship between men’s physical disability and the trajectories of negotiating masculinities in the context of Syrian refugee displacement in Jordan and Turkey. The article draws its analysis from the personal narratives of five displaced Syrian refugee men who sustained injuries during the war in Syria. It explores how Syrian refugee men with disabilities remake their masculine bodies and selves to create a new version of masculinity that responds to the changes in their socioeconomic circumstances and bodies. The article argues that the disabled Syrian refugee men went through multiple and contradictory masculine trajectories that intersect with multiple identities and different types of disability. Disabled Syrian refugee men’s emergent masculine embodiments created a version of masculinity that, although it adhered to the patriarchal family values of connectivity and intimacy, does not in its practice legitimate domination within the family and in the Syrian refugee community.

Prevalence of anti-Leptospira antibodies and associated risk factors in the Malaysian refugee communities

Background Refugees in Malaysia, who are afflicted by poverty, conflict and poor health, are vulnerable to a range of zoonotic infections in the deprived environmental and social conditions under which they live. Exposure to infections such as leptospirosis, for which rodents are primary hosts, is of particular concern. Methods A wellness program was conducted to determine the presence of antibodies against Leptospira (seroprevalence) in 11 refugee community schools and centers in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. A total of 433 samples were assessed for IgG and IgM antibodies against Leptospira, using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). Results Overall Leptospira seroprevalence was 24.7%, with 3.0% being seropositive for anti-Leptospira IgG and 21.7% for anti-Leptospira IgM. Factors significantly associated with overall Leptospira seroprevalence included: age, ethnicity, pet ownership, knowledge of disease and awareness of disease fatality. For IgM seroprevalence, significant risk factors included sex, ethnicity, eating habits with hands, pet ownership, the presence of rats, walking in bare feet and water recreation visits. Conclusions These findings highlight the need for improvements in health and well-being among the refugee community through disease awareness programs and provision of healthy behavior programs, particularly in hygiene and sanitation through community engagement activities.

Gendered aspects of distress migration:

A qualitative study conducted among Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh provides empirical confirmation of two types of adverse consequence that frequently occur following distress migration: harsh and exclusionary host state policies, and exacerbation of power inequities (and related abuse) within the refugee community. This article describes research that explored the circumstances of female Rohingya refugees living in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps in Bangladesh after fleeing genocidal violence in Myanmar. The refugees describe harsh gendered aspects of their forced displacement, including limited access to needed protection and services as well as intra-community hardships exacerbated by the impact of displacement and segregation. Both sets of outcomes constitute preventable human rights violations that require redress.