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Abstract
One way to interpret the organisation of refugee welcome in Europe is by thinking about the tension between the official response and the grassroots response to the events. This tension has evolved in different ways in different countries, but in general it is possible to distinguish between a bureaucratic tendency to abstract welcome into a specific problem or policy domain, and a different, often opposite, tendency to welcome in spontaneous, solidaristic and autonomous ways. Starting from the premise that welcome necessarily entails more than simply permitting entry and is inherently emotional and relational, this lecture explores a series of questions. How can genuine, spontaneous welcome be preserved under the pressure of statist and nationalistic logics and demands? How can we hold onto welcome as something meaningful when it seems to be under attack from not only right-wing nationalists and factions that draw spurious connections between refugees and security threats, but also the very architecture of bureaucracy? What relationship does welcome share with legalistic logics and practices? To what extent can welcomers and welcoming initiatives be supported by international cooperation, global organisational and communication systems, and resource-gathering mechanisms? And what role can research play in improving our understanding of welcome? By raising these questions the lecture aims to initiate a discussion about the nature, practicalities and possible futures of welcome in geography and the social sciences more broadly.
Highlights
On the occasion of Finland’s 100th anniversary of independence the Annual Meeting of Finnish Geographer’s conference 2017 chose the theme of ‘Welcome to Finland’
Faced with the inertia of national governments and driven by strong discourses of compassion and solidarity, a range of grassroots organisations acted autonomously in Europe during 2014, 2015 and 2016, including delivering supplies, finding accommodation, offering medical, legal and educational support, and raising public awareness. They were galvanised by high levels of social media support, notably around the Twitter hashtag #RefugeesWelcome, which rose to prominence following the publication of pictures of the drowned toddler Alan Kurdi, rapidly spread through other social media platforms, gained ‘trending’ status, filtered through into mainstream news media and ensured that ‘Refugees Welcome’ became a politically potent slogan (Barisione et al 2017)
Its sheer prominence meant that the ‘refugee’ question took centre stage in the collective consciousness of ordinary Europeans, shifting the matter of borders, in part at least, from a geopolitical issue framed by elite politicians and policy makers and approached via top-down interventions, to a geosocial issue (Mitchell & Kallio 2017) framed by social media discourse and impacted by the collective agency of individuals
Summary
Faced with the inertia of national governments and driven by strong discourses of compassion and solidarity, a range of grassroots organisations acted autonomously in Europe during 2014, 2015 and 2016, including delivering supplies, finding accommodation, offering medical, legal and educational support, and raising public awareness They were galvanised by high levels of social media support, notably around the Twitter hashtag #RefugeesWelcome, which rose to prominence following the publication of pictures of the drowned toddler Alan Kurdi, rapidly spread through other social media platforms, gained ‘trending’ status, filtered through into mainstream news media and ensured that ‘Refugees Welcome’ became a politically potent slogan (Barisione et al 2017). The Charity City of Sanctuary, for example, a grassroots organisation committed to welcoming refugees, saw its British group membership double and its financial donations increase exponentially between early 2015 and 20175
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