Agency from an adult refugee's perspective (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Multilingualism
In this paper, I analyse the narrative positioning in two semistructured interviews with volunteer interpreters in a counselling centre for refugees run by an NGO in Vienna, complemented by ethnographic descriptions of volunteer work in the counselling centre drawn from long-term participant observation. As a substantial part of the volunteers working at the counselling centre consists of (current and former) clients of the NGO, asylum seekers themselves, 'work' and 'citizenship' are deeply entangled in their positioning. The analyses of how past and future trajectories are co-constructed in the interviews, and of how the participants position themselves in and through the interview narratives, show that linguistic volunteer work becomes a site of investment and speculation on citizenship (conceived both as a moral and a legal 'object'). As the paper demonstrates, volunteer work promises to yield symbolic and social capitalincluding languagerequired for success in the 'markets' of citizenship (e.g. in the asylum procedure) and, contingently, later on, in the national labour market.
Suspended lives: Institutional challenges towards refugees' self-determination
Proceedings of the VIII ICSSW 2019, 2020
Four years have passed since asylum applications in Europe reached their peak. From that moment onwards, there's been a consistent remission of the influx. In 2018 requests dropped to nearly half of those in 2015. While numbers might contribute to political rhetorics claiming that the so-called European refugee crisis has come to an end, the critical scenarios are far from being over. On one hand, it has revealed the frailty of the EU's humanitarian and democratic values. Specially in those countries where populist nationalism is on the rise, promoting xenophobic attitudes. On the other, asylum seekers and refugees are still facing big challenges related to integration and participation in social life. The inefficiency of organizations in providing support, has showed the limitations of highly bureaucratized systems in responding to the demands of increasingly complex and pluralistic societies. In other words, the forces of social acceleration (Rosa, 2010) and rapid social change are overrunning institutional responsiveness, while creating conditions for alienation. Drawing from the results of 14 semi-structured interviews to asylum seekers and refugees, and one focus group with 12 stakeholders, this paper will focus on experiences of integration and participation in Portuguese society, highlighting the (missing) nexus, between agency and structural factors, that determine the subjects' autonomy. This study is part of a greater body of research within the framework of the PandPAS project, backed by the EU's AMIF, which objective is to develop improved processes of welcoming and first integration.
Mapping Discourse and Agency in a Refugee Context: An Interview With Reem Doukmak
Reem Doukmak was born in Syria and studied English literature at al-Baath University. In 2007 she completed her Master's degree at the University of Warwick. With the help of cara she continued her studies at Warwick where she is now starting her academic career. Her work investigates how the right pedagogic interventions can help children in refugee camps. The use of drama plays a key role in her research and feeds into broader questions surrounding self-representation and agency. These are among the vital issues The Journal of Interrupted Studies has also sought to explore. We were lucky to engage Reem on her research and its implications for addressing the problematic discourses that surround refugees and yet neglect to include their voice. 1 tjis: Can you give us an overview of your PhD project on refugee agency and the discourses surrounding refugees? Reem Doukmak: My PhD project examines the educational needs and experiences of Syrian teachers and students in a refugee border context. The study is illustrated with a case study framework combining ethnography and action research. I introduce drama as an innovative teaching method to the English classroom and looked at how refugee teachers engaged with research inter
Immigrant and Refugee Agency/Self-motivation in the Process of Everyday Social Integration
socialpolicy.gr, 2019
The question of refugee and migrant social inclusion has, in recent times, become a major social and political issue. This is especially true in the context of the recent flows of refugees and migrants to Greece and European countries. This article, based partly on the writer’s own experiences, identifies and discusses some of the difficulties that asylum seekers/refugees/immigrants face and examines the everyday challenges that arise from the process of their social integration. Through a comparative perspective, the article argues that social integration is an incremental, everyday process in which refugees and immigrants play an essential role and that further, integration is not something that can be directed from above. Keywords: Refugees, Immigrants, social inclusion, agency.
How migration influences the processes of identity development has been under longstanding scrutiny in the social sciences. Usually, stage models have been suggested, and different strategies for acculturation (e.g., integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalization) have been considered as ways to make sense of the psychological transformations of migrants as a group. On an individual level, however, identity development is a more complex endeavor: Identity does not just develop by itself, but is constructed as an ongoing process. To capture these processes, we will look at different aspects of migration and asylum seeking; for example, the cultural-specific values and expectations of the hosting (European) countries (e.g., as identifier), but also of the arriving individuals/groups (e.g., identified as refugees). Since the two may contradict each other, negotiations between identities claims and identity assignments become necessary. Ways to solve these contradictions are discussed, with a special focus on the experienced (and often missing) agency in different settings upon arrival in a new country. In addition, it will be shown how sudden events (e.g., 9/11, the Charlie Hebdo attack) may challenge identity processes in different ways. It is certainly true that [we] know of no people without names, no languages or cultures in which some manner of distinctions between self and other, we and they are not made.
Daily Life Experiences of Asylum Seekers in the Context of Disaffiliation and Social Contacts 1
River Flowing North Migration Generating Geographies and International Irregular Migrations, 2020
In this chapter within the framework of discussions on disaffiliation, it is attempted to shed light on the asylum seekers’ contact and interaction with the local people in the everyday lives and on the power relations reproduced during these everyday life experiences.In short, as the product of state-centric understanding, the notions of asylumseeker and refugee normalize the state. In this context, citizenship is presented as the only way for existence in a geographically bound nation-state which deepens the distinction of “we” and “the other,” “normal” and “abnormal,” namely “citizen” and “non-citizen” in the society. In this way, states can reproduce the dominant nation-state ideology by accepting the individual either as a citizen or as an “abnormal” in need of protection. Therefore, official refugee definitions and asylum practices actually aim to prevent the threat posed by non-citizen foreign individuals against the homogeneity of member citizens. Within this theoretical framework, it can be inferred from the narratives of asylum seekers coming from Iran, Afghanistan and sub-Saharan African countries and waiting in Eskişehir to be settled in third countries, that the distinction of being citizen/ foreigner is decisive in the participants’ everyday life experiences, in their social conditions and in their contacts with local people. This decisiveness indicates a sort of power relation based on state affiliation that is built upon citizenship In general, the main areas that the participants problematize in times of interaction with the locals are being subject to questions posed by strangers, the way they perceive the questionings and the exclusionist reactions that the participants say they face during these contacts. Even though these moments of individual experiences of social exclusion are referred to as exceptional cases by some of the participants, it can be suggested that these moments constitute a significant place in the worlds of meaning of the participants and also influential in the lack of sense of belonging to the society they are currently living in. Another important point that emerges in the narratives of the participants is the continuous state of liminality as reflected in their discourses. Participants have expressed their state of liminality in various forms during the interviews such as being in-between the future and the past, trauma and nostalgia, uncertainty and hope, and to leave and to stay. The way the participants narrate the past by praising what they have left behind followed by the narratives of experiences of oppression and threat, the way they complain about uncertainty right after they share their plans for the future can be evaluated as a manifestation of liminality.
Everyday Rituals of Migration: Constructing Relatedness and Agency among Young Refugees in Denmark
Ethnos, 2019
This article examines how young unaccompanied refugees living together within the confines of an asylum centre in Denmark construct different kinds of social relations and the meanings attached to these relationships. By investigating their routinised practices of everyday life as 'rituals', I analyse how young refugees negotiate different kinds of relatedness that enable them to exert agency. The ethnography points to the progression and expansion of different modes of relatedness to include friendships as well as consociate relationships, both with peers with whom they create a sense of community, and with adults who help them navigate the asylum landscape. The study underscores the deeply social nature of the young refugees' agency. I argue that in the intensity of living together they transform weak ties into strong ties, described through idioms of friendship and kinship, that express the profound meaning of these relationships in the context of the uncertainty they face.
" We " the Refugees: Reflections on Refugee Labels and Identities
Refuge, 2018
In this article the authors present an auto-ethnographical analysis, describing their personal experiences with forced migration. Using narrative passages, the authors problema-tize the way in which refugee identities are entwined with socially constructed labels. The authors explore the points at which self-identification negotiates with labelling in order to create new spaces wherein individual and collective refugee experiences mutually shape and transform each other. These new spaces emerge from an inclusive participa-tory socio-cultural and political process where the idea of " us " and " them " merges into a " we. " This article represents the culmination of the authors' sustained interactions (in conversation, in storytelling, in shared analyses, in writing) and serves as an example of putting a new space into action.
Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 2017
How migration influences the processes of identity development has been under longstanding scrutiny in the social sciences. Usually, stage models have been suggested, and different strategies for acculturation (e.g., integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalization) have been considered as ways to make sense of the psychological transformations of migrants as a group. On an individual level, however, identity development is a more complex endeavor: Identity does not just develop by itself, but is constructed as an ongoing process. To capture these processes, we will look at different aspects of migration and asylum seeking; for example, the cultural-specific values and expectations of the hosting (European) countries (e.g., as identifier), but also of the arriving individuals/groups (e.g., identified as refugees). Since the two may contradict each other, negotiations between identities claims and identity assignments become necessary. Ways to solve these contradictions are discussed, with a special focus on the experienced (and often missing) agency in different settings upon arrival in a new country. In addition, it will be shown how sudden events (e.g., 9/11, the Charlie Hebdo attack) may challenge identity processes in different ways.