Paper short abstract:

This article examines the different ways in which local civil society has responded to the 2015 "refugee crisis" in Wales. Adopting a relational perspective on place, the paper argues that these responses can be understood not only as acts of solidarity but also as practices of locality production.

Paper long abstract:

While the 2015 "refugee crisis" has generated a considerable amount of scholarly attention, including empirical accounts that look into local community responses to refugees and asylum seekers, the current research has tended to overlook the significance of place and the varied impact of the recent "crisis" across localities in the UK and Europe; this paper attends to this gap in the existing research. It draws on findings from qualitative research carried out between 2017 and 2018 with refugee-supporting organisations based in three different locations in Wales. Taking a comparative look at these organisations, the article sheds light on the intensity and variation of civil society responses in each of these localities, showing how these are closely interwoven with processes of place-making and place-framing, contributing to the reshaping of civil society networks and population profiles in these local areas. Drawing on geographical (Massey 1991) and anthropological (Appaduari 1996) perspectives on place, the article argues that humanitarian responses to the 2015 "refugee crisis" can be understood not only as instances of hospitality and solidarity but also as practices of locality production.

Paper short abstract:

Drawing on ethnographic material collected with common citizens hosting refugees in their homes in Italy, this paper addresses contemporary reconfigurations of patterns of moral compassion, as well as the possibility of tracing the emergence of new forms of - deeply intimate - political action.

Paper long abstract:

While acts of solidarity towards migrants are certainly not a new phenomenon, following the EU "refugee crisis" several European countries witnessed an unprecedented involvement of citizens in a multiplicity of support initiatives to asylum seekers. Among them "refugees' domestic hospitality", namely common citizens hosting refugees in their homes, stands out as particularly meaningful - if not numerically, at least for its compelling symbolic import. Indeed homesharing experiences, by placing immigrants' dwellings at the hearth of natives' homes, question contemporary reconfigurations of patterns of social engagement and moral compassion. Drawing on ethnographic material collected in the North-East of Italy, this paper explores experiences, motives and perceptions of "hosts" and "guests" involved in refugees' hospitality. Whilst hospitality practices are certainly embedded in asymmetric dynamics of dependence and power, it is undeniable that by letting the "Other" cross the intimate threshold of the domestic, many families and individuals express their will of standing up against the xenophobic attitudes that are (re)gaining momentum in contemporary Italy and Europe. Ultimately, by exploring the complexities of those subjective engagements, this paper addresses the possibility of tracing the emergence of new forms of - deeply intimate - political action.

Paper short abstract:

This contribution focuses on the coordination among aspiring refugee support initiatives as well as their position vis-à-vis procured NGOs in the field, municipal funding schemes and policy frameworks. It shows how the ambiguous merging of solidarity and humanitarianism fuels distrust and hostility.

Paper long abstract:

In the Netherlands, from 2015 onwards, the spectacle of people arriving to seek refuge was channeled by media attention and political debate. A vast response of support initiatives emerged to assist these newcomers. Based on a 12-month ethnographic fieldwork period in the Dutch city of Rotterdam in 2018, this paper highlights the divisions that cut through the landscape of refugee support initiatives.

In Rotterdam, aspiring refugee support initiatives generally reach out to the municipality for collaboration and/or funding. By doing so, they feel faced with competitive funding schemes and policy frameworks. Moreover, refugee support initiatives experience pressure to compromise their vision and goals; in order to be seen as a legitimate player, they adapt to municipal jargon, target groups and administrative focus. Intertwined with these practices of cooptation, the municipality advices refugee support initiatives to collaborate with procured NGOs. Refugee support initiatives are thereby indirectly made subject to the regulations that these procured NGOs are bound to.

Aspiring refugee support initiatives however feel taken advantage of by these procured NGOs. At the same time, support initiatives slander fellow initiatives that they consider 'too entrepreneurial' and critique the independent and non-hierarchal solidarity movement for being 'ineffective and clientelist'. As such, distrust and hostility abound.

This contribution engages with literatures on humanitarianism and solidarity (Cabot 2016, 2018; Fassin 2012; Karakayali 2017; Rozakou 2017; Theodossopoulos 2016) and infrastructures of refugee reception and integration (Boersma et al. 2017; Long 2015; Rozakou 2016; Nettelbladt and Boano 2019; Rast et al. 2019).

Paper short abstract:

This paper presents attempts by migrants, refugees and Indigenous Australians to decolonise the refugee movement in Australia. I argue that decolonisation is an active yet contested process and practice within refugee movements, that requires ongoing and sustained ethnographic attention.

Paper long abstract:

The Australian refugee movement is a heterogeneous space made up of NGOs, lobby and activist groups, community organisations, religious groups, migrant and refugee organisations, and Indigenous groups, among others. They are united in their opposition to Operation Sovereign Borders, the Australian state's hostile deterrence policy that criminalises people seeking asylum attempting to reach Australia by boat. However, tensions exist within the movement about the best ways to practice solidarity and achieve their goals. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Melbourne in 2015-16, in this paper I delve into racialised dynamics within the refugee movement by examining attempts to decolonise movement spaces and practices. Decolonisation, as an ongoing process of decentring dominant (mostly white, western) actors and epistemologies, takes on specific dimensions in settler contexts (e.g. Land 2015). In Australia, decolonisation is pursued by various groups including Indigenous Australians as traditional custodians of the land, (predominantly second-generation) migrants of colour, refugees, and people seeking asylum. I present two examples of decolonising the refugee movement. One is a social media campaign run by people of colour designed to "call out" the lack of diversity in the composition of speakers for a refugee rally, advocating for speakers with "lived experience" of seeking asylum. The second example is an Indigenous-refugee solidarity event, denying the authority of the Australian state through the staging of a traditional Indigenous welcome ceremony. These examples suggest that decolonisation is an active yet contested process and practice within refugee movements, that requires ongoing and sustained ethnographic attention.

Paper short abstract:

Focusing on the particular case of Belgium, this paper documents how its Federal government has increasingly tried to 'police' migrants into the European refugee regime, while migrants and citizens have continued to resist these efforts through a series of 'political' actions.

Paper long abstract:

While European governments have pursued illegalised migrants for decades, the techniques through which they do so have taken a more radical turn since 2015. Focusing on the particular case of Belgium, this paper documents how its Federal government has increasingly tried to 'police' migrants into the European refugee regime, while migrants and citizens have continued to resist these efforts through a series of 'political' actions. Drawing on ethnographic work with the Brussels-based Citizen Platform for the Support of Refugees, I pursue two aims. First, I demonstrate how Belgian state actors have partially produced a humanitarian crisis as part of a broader "politics of exhaustion". Second, I explore the specific forms and types of humanitarian action that emerge from citizens' response to these policies. I do so by describing three moments in which these opposing logics of policing and politicisation conjure.

Paper short abstract:

The paper contributes to conversations about the criminalization of solidarity between activists and migrants in border zones. Understanding relationships amongst agaish, a Tigrinya word translatable as both guest and relative, can offer ethical insights on the politics of hospitality.

Paper long abstract:

In the Processo Agaish trial, Italian prosecutors accused Eritrean refugees of human trafficking and exploiting their client's desires to move further North. Pointing out the mistranslation of the Tigrinya word agaish is part of the defense's strategy to show that the purported victims in this case were not clients, but guests, agaish, often family members or church mates of those accused who hosted them, not for money but for hospitality. I argue that as Italy increases the security of its borders to address the rise of populist movements and the strain of refugee integration on social welfare programs, hospitable care practices among Eritreans become criminalized.

This paper investigates how humanitarian regimes come to criminalize networks of indebtedness employed by Eritrean refugees to facilitate movement towards asylum granting countries. Humanitarian institutions that valorize a philanthropic relationship to money are inadequate to understand forms of exchange and support that ground transnational kinships (Bornstein & Redfield 2011; Guyer 2004; Povinelli 2011). Through ethnographic attention to networks of indebtedness in Eritrean society that enable care over great distance through debt transfer practices such as hawala (Ballard 2014) or collective investment like equb (Tesfagiorgis 2010), this paper brings new perspectives on the interchange between mobility, money, and care. It thinks through the political projects of Eritrean asylum seekers relying on these indebted community networks to move. This requires a turn toward feminist scholarship that thinks beyond a neat binary between kinship and politics, toward a reconceptualization of refugee solidarity (Butler 2000; Muehlebach 2012; Lonzi 1996).