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- Convenors:
-
Alexandra Schwell
(University of Klagenfurt)
Ove Sutter (University of Bonn)
Marie Sandberg (University of Copenhagen)
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- Stream:
- Migration and Borders
- Location:
- Aula 12
- Sessions:
- Monday 15 April, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Madrid
Short Abstract:
Following the 2015 migratory movements, the European political landscapes have changed considerably. Institutionalized forms of political negotiation and decision-making appear to be contested by new and conflicting forms of civic mobilization, from Welcome Culture to right-wing populism.
Long Abstract:
In the aftermath of the migratory movements in 2015, various civic mobilizations have considerably changed European political landscapes. A plethora of responses by European citizens has mushroomed, either organized in cooperation with refugee organisations and NGOs or in the shape of informal initiatives. Within media and political discourse, such initiatives were labelled the new "Welcome Culture". At the same time, refugees and migrants are met with moral panics, violence, and discrimination throughout Europe. Right-wing populism is on the rise, strengthening anti-immigrant sentiments and stereotypes. Institutionalized forms of political negotiation and decision-making appear to be contested by new and conflicting forms of civic mobilization.
We invite contributions that address, but are not limited to, the following topics: How can ethnology and cultural anthropology contribute to an understanding of contentious dynamics of political mobilisation following the migratory movements of 2015? How do we as researchers navigate in a field of mobilizations that is characterized by great disparities? Which topoi do we, or can we explore, and which tropes can help in building new insights? Do we need new concepts and terminologies to understand these different mobilizations? To what extent can a transnational look beyond Europe help understand the contentious cultural and political dynamics of "Welcome Culture" and right-wing populism? In what way are the usual divisions between researchers and interlocutors, refugees and volunteers, guests and hosts, academic and humanitarian interventions, subject to change in the light of contentious civic mobilizations?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Monday 15 April, 2019, -Annika Lems (Australian National University)
Paper short abstract:
In this presentation I will argue that if we are to understand the current backlash against liberal and cosmopolitan ideas we need to pay attention to genealogies of exclusionary practices, or "cultures of unwelcome".
Paper long abstract:
In this paper I aim to engage with the panel's question of what role anthropologists might play in creating a more nuanced understanding of the contentious social and political mobilisations following the summer of displacements 2015 in Europe. I will suggest that due to its closeness to people's everyday processes of meaning-making, ethnographic research can play a crucial role in understanding the xenophobic, anti-cosmopolitan and illiberal sentiments that are currently sweeping through European societies. This, however, means that anthropologists need to overcome their traditional reluctance of studying groups they cannot sympathise with. By reflecting on my previous and on-going research I will show why, after a decade of studying refugees' struggles for emplacement in Western host societies, I decided to "change sides" and study the experiences of people who believe that the influx of refugees is a threat to their values and ways of life. I will argue that if we are to understand the current backlash against liberal and cosmopolitan ideas we need to pay attention to genealogies of exclusionary practices, or "cultures of unwelcome". For anthropologists this means that they can no longer ignore the potentially dark ideas of history and belonging to place circulating in European societies. While these ideas are often swept under the carpet or written off as "backward", it is crucial that we understand the social dynamics underlying their production, as they have the power to politically mobilise communities.
Marie Sandberg (University of Copenhagen)
Paper short abstract:
This paper discuss the implications of researching intentions of 'doing good' by considering volunteering practices as modes of mattering that blur the usual divisions between researchers and interlocutors, refugees and volunteers, guests and hosts, academic and humanitarian interventions.
Paper long abstract:
On the backdrop of the collaborative research network Helping Hands: Research Network on the on the Everyday Border work of European Citizens, which explores different modes of volunteer work in support of refugees coming to Europe, this paper discuss the implications of researching intentions and practices of 'doing good'. In much research on humanitarianism the act of helping is often problematized to an extent where doing good is almost equalized to doing bad. The relations between volunteers and those who are supposed 'to be helped' are questioned as euro-centric, selfish and ego-altruistic. The different shapes of volunteer work, I will argue, however entails a number of twist and turns of formal roles and power relations, which needs careful ethnographic attention. This scrutiny stimulates further questions such as where and how are borders working in practice, and for whom does the border work? And further, which methodological and analytical implications do these twists and turns have for ethnographic research? I will reflect on these questions by considering the everyday border work of volunteering as modes of mattering that blur the usual divisions between researchers and interlocutors, refugees and volunteers, guests and hosts, academic and humanitarian interventions, that are mobilised in the process.
Aida Jobarteh (Stockholm University)
Paper short abstract:
This project examines irregular sub-Saharan migration to Europe with a focus on the experience of arrival. Through a transnational lens, displacement and masculinity is explored illuminating a turbulent political landscape in the host country and controlling expectations from sending country.
Paper long abstract:
Sub Saharan asylum-seeking migrant men are often in conflict with dominant discourses and public expectations to their motives for migrating to Europe. This means they have to position themselves according to fixed terms such as genuine refugee vs. the opportunistic economic migrant as well as dealing with homeland expectations to his role as a man. With a point of departure in fieldwork among 'illegal' West-African (Gambian) migrants in Europe (Italy), this project explores masculinity, contemporary migration-experiences and its interplay with displacement. More specifically, it will trace the intersecting power relations in multifaceted locations within their migratory experience and how it influences and challenge the presentation and perceptions of their masculinities. With a transnational approach, I study migration desires embedded in masculine social expectations that are more complex than classical push-pull theories.
Through life story interviews, the narration of masculinity is interpreted and focus is on how it plays a part in their (re)positioning and decision making while waiting for an asylum in Europe. Their migration narratives are analyzed in retrospect to their hazardous journeys over the Mediterranean however, while still in a state of precarity on the threshold between arrival and desired approved entrance in Europe. With masculinity as a key theoretical framework, I aim to give new insights to contemporary migration to Europe in a time where the movement of young men from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe has increased despite their "global immobility". Understanding gender as a critical dimension to migration research will build new insight to migration motives.
Benjamin Opratko (University of Vienna) Manuel Liebig (University of Vienna)
Paper short abstract:
The paper presents a research project investigating the socio-cultural conditions of the current surge of the political right in Europe. We investigate 'cultures of rejection' - processes of social polarization, radicalization and transformation of everyday life in Germany and Austria.
Paper long abstract:
Recent successes of right-wing political parties and nationalist mobilizations across Europe call for a deeper understanding of the social and cultural dynamics in which such political projects are able to thrive. They cannot be adequately grasped as either 'protest votes', nor as 'reactions' to migration and refugee movements. We suggest that this emerges from experiences of change and crisis articulated as 'cultures of rejection'. They are based on values, norms and affects which reject immigration, domestic political elites, institutions of civil society and the media, shifting gender relations, and European integration. We focus on the challenges of an ethnographic investigation in a highly contested field, its conceptual framework and analytical strategies. The goal is to carefully reconstruct the systems of knowledge, perception and affect which constitute and reproduce cultures of rejection, along with the conditions under which they develop into a "system of acceptability" (Foucault 1992, 34). Therefore we have to think about theoretical concepts to analyze the current conjuncture; about ethical and moral questions in research practice with people we "don't necessarily like" (Bangstad 2017); about reflective methodologies; about paradigmatic fields where we can examine cultures of rejection on the ground and in their daily articulation in living environments without focussing only on right-wing extremism, political parties or ideological groups; and about possibilities of transnational comparability under specific local conditions.
Simon Zeitler
Paper short abstract:
Recently Germany has witnessed the emergence of new configurations of political actors brought together based on hearsay, half-knowledge or even lies. My aim is to understand how and why these phenomena can be successful in mobilizing people and why counterstrategies of falsifying seem to fail.
Paper long abstract:
The arrival of thousands of migrants in autumn 2015 marks a decisive turning point for the right wing backlash that Germany witnessed in the last years. Ever since one can witness a discoursive explosion of refugee-related topics, many of them are highly emotionalized. This forms the background for a growing phenomenon of racist rumors about refugees and migrants. Whether it is the story of shoplifting migrants causing small businesses to go bankrupt, alleged acts of physical violence or even accusations of refugees poaching animals in petting zoos: stories like these may be found in disjunct places, but many share strong similarities in their narrative patterns. Often enough these narrations are being transitioned into politically relevant events and it is surprising to observe how strategies of falsification seem to have almost no impact on the proponents of certain rumors. As many of these narrations are being distributed online, a widespread explanation sees their success mainly rooted in social media's algorithms, filterbubbles or echo chambers. An overemphasis of these technological aspects bears the risk of falling to short social and cultural dimensions are neglected. In this paper I will demonstrate how a narratological analysis of the patters of these rumors will contribute to a deeper understanding of how and why subjects believe even in the most dubious of tales.