We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
This set of articles is the result of a panel held at the 78th annual meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology from April 3-7, 2018, in Philadelphia, United States of America. The title of the panel, during which the four authors presented papers, was “Forced Migration as Liminal Experience: Policy and Agency.” The articles highlight forced migration to the United States, illustrated by Hispanic women without legal immigration status near Chicago, Illinois; resettled Syrian refugees in Austin, Texas; resettled Cambodian refugees living near Mobile, Alabama; Karen refugees resettled near Atlanta, Georgia; and Karenni refugees who were resettled in Omaha, Nebraska. These articles reveal lives of both refugees with legal status and forced migrants without legal documentation. This set of articles also represents national and ethnic groups from Latin America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, regions with large numbers of forced migrants. The articles focus on the intersection of three concepts with complex and varying definitions: migration, resilience, and wellbeing. These concepts highlight differing social and cultural contexts but also shared experiences and struggles. We briefly describe our understanding of these concepts and then highlight how these are useful conceptual frameworks to see commonalities and differences among the four different case studies.
More...
Caught between abusive partners and restrictive immigration law, many undocumented Latina women are vulnerable to domestic violence in the United States. This article analyzes the U-Visa application process experienced by undocumented immigrant victims of domestic violence and their legal advisors in a suburb of Chicago, United States. Drawing on theoretical concepts of structural violence and biological citizenship, the article highlights the strategic use of psychological suffering related to domestic violence by applicants for such visas. It also investigates the complex intersection between immigration law and a humanitarian clause that creates a path towards legal status and eventual citizenship.
More...
Using the anthropological concept of liminality, this paper describes an ethnographic study examining the wellbeing of Syrian refugees as they recount narratives of forced displacement and resettlement. The author observed 37 Syrian participants who had been relocated to Austin, Texas, United States, and interviewed 15 Syrian participants about their migration experiences. Through observation, interviews, and field notes, the author examines the refugees’ ideas of wellbeing during periods of peace, war and displacement, and resettlement. Throughout the displacement journey, Syrian refugees implemented resilience tactics to escape instances of waiting in order to reach their desired destination—resettlement.
More...
Traumatic experiences before and during flight and resettlement shape the lives and needs of refugee families. Yet, the agency of the refugees themselves —that is, their will and ability to make decisions regarding their present and future—is often ignored by caseworkers, policy-makers, and members of their resettlement communities. A better understanding of how refugees frame, respond to, and recover from stressors associated with their journeys will help illuminate their needs and personal agency. We focus on the power and resiliency refugees possess as they navigate the terrain of flight and settlement. We argue that when we, and others such as humanitarian service agencies and policy makers, clearly hear and respect refugees’ voices, we can begin to co-create responses to refugees’ needs in collaboration with the refugees who, themselves, exhibit resiliency and hold valuable everyday forms of wisdom surrounding what they need to live successfully in a host nation.
More...
This article argues, based on the author’s research and years of engagement with resettled Karenni refugees in Omaha (U.S.) and illustrated by a characteristic case of a health emergency, that refugees’ religious beliefs and networks can increase access to resources needed to boost their resilience, improve their health, and advance their sense of wellbeing, and subsequently encourages agencies working with refugees and other migrants to pay attention to refugees’ religious beliefs and networks and closely collaborate with religious organizations. The author conceptualizes religious values and networks as social capital and calls for qualitative studies to explore the role of religion in improving resilience, health, and wellbeing of refugees and migrants.
More...
After the outbreak of the civil war in Syria, Turkey undertook a prominent role by becoming the leading host country for Syrian refugees. The volume of the flow and the urgency of the refugees’ situation have necessitated the involvement of several actors apart from the state. This study reveals and discusses the role of non-state actors in managing refugees through a field study on Syrians in the Turkish city of Mersin. The role of non-state actors in this process is analysed by discussing and presenting (i) their profiles, (ii) the major types of activities and services that they provide for refugees and; (iii) their contribution to integrating Syrians in Turkey.
More...
The conflict between refugees’ human right to be admitted to a safe country and the right of states to exercise sovereign control of their borders, including the right to deny refugees entry, can be understood in terms of a normative conflict between two ethical systems, namely those of ethical universalism and ethical particularism. Here it is suggested that this conflict can be resolved by combining a universalist comparable cost argument with a particularist fair share argument. The comparable cost argument affirms that a state receiving refugees should allow at least the most basic rights of refugees to override less important rights of its own citizens. The fair share argument modifies the comparable cost argument by affirming that no state is morally obligated to sacrifice any of its citizens’ rights for the sake of protecting a larger share of refugees than what is fair, given its resources.
More...
Migrants and organizational collectives, such as hometown associations (HTAs), have sent remittances to their countries of origin in an attempt to alleviate unmet health care needs. Additionally, migrants will use collective funds to rehabilitating roads; improving sewage systems and water quality; constructing recreational facilities; and refurbishing community buildings. All of these projects contribute to public health. The question explored in this paper is how remittances from abroad potentially contributes to the health of hometown communities. This focus on health and related issues allows for exploring HTA cross-border work as particularly informative in understanding state/society relations. In effect, we bring light to how a migrant transnational social movement can attempt to address health needs in its hometown. The Comparative Immigrant Organization Project (CIOP) is used to answer this question. For this paper, the level of analysis for the CIOP is organizational.
More...
How does the relationship between parents whose children attend the Saturday Russian schools in Scotland influence their social networks? How are complementary Russian schools involved in this social networking, and how does this social networking support the schools’ development? This article explores these questions using qualitative research in four Russian schools in Scotland. It contributes to the discussion about the dynamic nature of migrant social networks which depends on the relationships between actors (Ryan, 2011, Dedeoglu, 2014) and the organisational landscape (Vasey, 2016). Expanding on the existing literature in this area, my research investigates social networking in the Russian schools as a two-way process influencing both the socialising Russian-speaking parents and the Russian schools’ development based on parents’ social networks.
More...
Research is scant on the everyday sense of belonging of refugees in South Africa. This paper addresses this gap by exploring the everyday discourses of belonging of Eritrean refugees in South Africa. Purposive sampling technique was used to recruit participants, and qualitative data was gathered from 11 participants in the City of Tshwane, South Africa, through open-ended interviews and focus group discussions. Analysis of data resulted in three dominant discourses: 1) ‘we feel like outsiders’; 2) ‘we are neither here nor there’; and 3) ‘South Africa is home’. Drawing on the participants’ discourses, I argue that in the South African context, refugees’ sense of belonging tends to be varied mirroring multifaceted lived experiences. Participants’ construction of South Africa as their home also counters previous research that portrayed foreign nationals in South Africa as ‘excluded’.
More...
Since the beginning of the Syrian uprising in March 2011, Turkey has been the leading host country for the displaced. As of December 2017, 3.3 million Syrians reside in Turkey under a temporary protection regime and there is an expanding discussion on the future of these people. Despite sporadic reports of individual or family groups returning, measures have evolved around themes of their more or less permanent integration in Turkey. Issues of property rights have barely featured in these discussions. Based on findings from previous research, the article argues that whether Syrians in Turkey return or not, it is in the interest of the displaced as well as the host country to work towards a scheme where their property rights in Syria are restored, or in cases where they did not exist prior to the conflict, granted.
More...
A wide range of professions demands mobility as a requisite for “excellence”, success and “good performance”. At the same time, more precarious and flexible conditions, ranging from unemployment, to temporary, free-lance and self-employed occupations, now characterize the mobile trajectories of a large number of professionals and their partners. What is the emotional cost of these conditions in mobility? How do mobile professionals’ partners feel and deal with feeling rules regarding unemployment and job search when moving? The article examines the case of Switzerland, by exploring the experience of mobile professionals’ partners.
More...
The objective of the paper is to revisit the role of remittances for labour-supply responses. Previous studies documented conflicting results, while the key methodological concern – remittances’ endogeneity about labour supply – has not been resolved convincingly. We construct behavioural tax and benefit microsimulation model and simulate labour-market responses of singles and couples had remittances not existed in their households. This is a novel methodological approach avoiding the usual trap of utilisation of inappropriate instruments to remittances. Our results suggest that remittances are prevalently associated with lower labour-market activity, especially for women. However, the labour-supply response is found quite feeble and only in single families. Hence, while previous findings are not entirely rebutted, they may have been overstated and are highly dependent on the construct of the receiving household.
More...
This article is based on semi-structured interviews with young high-school and sophomore students who came back from the United States to Guanajuato intending to analyse the life trajectory of young migrants based on the notion of multiple belongings and composite identities proposed by Amín Maalouf. Based on it we want to advance the idea that the perspectives that emphasize assimilation or transnationalism do not help explain the process of coming back, on a generation of young people who grew up irregularly in the United States and were forced to return to Mexico. We propose that a compound identity is emerging in the North American region, one that allows migrants and their children to develop multiple belongings to cultures, territories and jobs that facilitate the resilience of these young people in their life trajectories on different social spaces.
More...
This article analyses the relationship between migrant entrepreneurship, marginalisation and social innovation. It does so, by looking how their ‘otherness’ is used on the one hand to reproduce their marginalised situation in society and on the other to develop new living and working arrangements promoting social innovation in society. The paper is based on a qualitative study, which was carried out from March 2014- 2016. In this period, twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with migrant entrepreneurs and experts. As the results show, migrant entrepreneurs are characterised by a false dichotomy of “native weakness” in economic self-organisation against the “classical strength” of majority entrepreneurs. It is shown that new possibilities of acting in the context of migrant entrepreneurship are mostly organised in close relation to the lifeworlds and specific needs deriving from this sphere. Social innovation processes initiated by migrant entrepreneurs through their economic activities thus develop on a micro level and are hence less apparent. Supportive networks are missing on a structural level, so it becomes difficult for single innovative initiatives to be long-lasting.
More...
The rural to urban migration in China represents one of the greatest internal migrations of people in history as rural populations have moved to cities in response to growing labour demand. One major cause of the increased labour demand was the “Reform and Open Market Policy” initiated at the end of the 1970s. The policy amplified the rural to urban divide by promoting a more thoroughly market-based economy with a corresponding reduction in the importance of agricultural production and a greater emphasis on nonagricultural market sectors. As a result, a series of economic reforms have drastically changed the cultural and social aspects of the rural area over the past three decades. Many social problems have been created due to rural to urban migration. These problems include institutional discrimination because of the restrictive household registration policies; social stigmatisation and discrimination in state-owned employment sectors and among urban residents; psychological distress and feelings of alienation.
More...
This article analyses the Finnish political response to the refugee influx connected with the Syrian war and violent conflicts in its neighbouring states. In July 2016, a law amendment on the Finnish Aliens Act about a secured income prerequisite for family reunification applications came into force. Using argumentation schemes as outlined by Fairclough & Fairclough (2012), this article analyses the discursive framing of the law amendment in Parliament. The paper benefits from the social ontology of John Searle (1995; 2010) and utilises his concept of institutional facts. The analysis shows that, as normative sources for action, the institutional context of the EU, as well as the Human Rights, possess different degrees of deontic modality which in turn shapes the representation of social reality in the context of the refugee crisis and its global and local impact.
More...