Perceptions Of Refugees Research Articles

Re-imagining Dzaleka: The Tumaini Festival and Refugee Visibility

ABSTRACTIn this article, I explore the Tumaini Festival at Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi as an important site for the re-imagination of place and the refugee. I argue that through the institution of the festival, refugee artists challenge the perception of refugees as beings without agency. I also argue that the festival becomes a site for the performance of cohesion and social integration, transforming the refugee camp into a prototype for multiculturalism in Malawi. Several scholars have linked the absence of Dzaleka Refugee Camp in national and international discourses with the marginalization of voices emerging from refugees and asylum seekers at the camp. In this article, I consider the Tumaini Festival – a refugee-initiated festival – to be a direct intervention by the refugees in response to the marginalization of their voices and as a useful tool for the re-imagination of the refugee camp.

Ten trends shaping migration

Ten theses on migration trends describe a clear picture of the actual situation: motives, organization and future of the flow of refugees to Europe. Political conflicts and natural disasters are the push factors; the relatively stable economic, political and cultural situation in Europe the pull factors. Although the number of refugees coming to Europe has been decreasing lately, the xenophobic perception of refugees and migrants that is also exploited politically is still determining the increasingly restrictive national handling of the problem and strongly impedes European integration efforts.

‘Refugees welcome?’ The interplay between perceived threats and general concerns on the acceptance of refugees – a factorial survey approach in Germany

ABSTRACTThe on-going migration of refugees to Europe has fuelled debates about the indigence of refugees and the perceived legitimacy of individual claims for asylum in different receptive countries. With a substantial body of research that has investigated the antecedents of attitudes towards immigrants, evidence on whether those underlying assumptions hold true for refugees as well remains scarce. The paper applies the framework of Intergroup Threat Theory to arrive at competing hypotheses with regard to the acceptance levels of refugees. We use pooled data from two probabilistic samples drawn in the German city of Dresden and apply a confounded factorial survey design to extend previous research on attitudes towards refugees. We find that natives perceive political persecution and war as justified reasons for seeking asylum in Germany, while socio-demographic characteristics of respondents and refugees are of minor importance. Foremost, the individual level of respondent’s fear of crime represents a crucial moderator of the perception of refugees as threatening.

What’s in a Category? The Politics of Not Being a Refugee

How are refugees perceived and governed in contemporary politics? What sort of sovereign responses has been advanced to govern and discipline the movement of people in a globalizing world? The article discusses how the ‘figure of the refugee’ (Scheel and Squire, 2014) or the ‘refugee label’ (Zetter, 1991, 2007) has changed once the Cold War ended and growing numbers of asylum seekers from the global South began searching for protection in the North. It attributes the restrictive character of contemporary asylum politics both to a perception of refugees as abject masses from the South and to sovereign states’ responses to a globalizing reality. In this context, I argue that access to asylum has been restricted both through the mobilization of new sovereign borders that seek to contain the mobility of asylum seekers perceived as villains, and through the creation of new categories or legal limits, in the form of temporary protection statuses to those perceived as passive victims. By focusing on the latter strategy, I briefly explore how Haitian asylum seekers have been labelled as ‘humanitarian immigrants’ in Brazil, highlighting the productivity of this legal limit.

Positive effects of refugee presence on host community nutritional status in Turkana County, Kenya.

Refugee camps are often assumed to negatively impact local host communities through resource competition and conflict. We ask instead whether economic resources and trade networks associated with refugees have benefits for host community health and nutrition. To address this question we assess the impacts of Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwest Kenya, comparing anthropometric indicators of nutritional status between Turkana communities in the region. Participants were recruited at four sites in Turkana County (N = 586): Kakuma Town, adjacent to Kakuma Refugee Camp; Lorugum, an area with sustained economic development; Lokichoggio, formerly host to international NGOs, and now underdeveloped; and Lorengo, an undeveloped, rural community. We evaluated nutritional status using summed skinfold thickness and body mass index (BMI). Structured interviews provided contextual data. Age-controlled multiple regression models reveal two distinct skinfold thickness profiles for both sexes: comparatively elevated values in Kakuma and Lorugum, and significantly lower values in Lorengo and Lokichoggio. BMI did not vary significantly by location. Despite better nutritional status, a large proportion of Kakuma residents still report worries about basic needs, including hunger, health, and economic security. Kakuma Refugee Camp is associated with better host community energetic status indicators, compared to other relevant, regional sites varying in development and resources. Based on global nutritional standards, observed differences likely represent meaningful disparities in overall health. We suggest that access to cereals via refugee trade networks and employment might mediate this relationship. However, perceptions of refugees as illegitimate interlopers maintain a high psychological burden.

Refugees, asylum seekers, and other immigrants

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide historical and legal definitions for categories of immigrants while helping educators use facts to address their students’ misperceptions about the terms “migrants,” “undocumented immigrants,” “refugees,” “asylum seekers,” and “internally displaced persons.” The 1951 Convention related to the status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol provided a clear definition for refugees, also used to create the 1980 Refugee Act. However, recent political and media rhetoric have increased public misunderstanding of immigration terms.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses over 30 news reports to demonstrate recent perceptions of refugees and other migrants. Other citations provide historical accounts, international documents, and legislation to explain ways in which the USA and other countries have defined refugees.FindingsFindings suggest ways in which leadership have ignored research by denouncing resettlement in spite of statistics indicating that refugees are not a threat to the American people.Research limitations/implicationsThe author’s perspective is as a researcher who has conducted research with resettled refugees for over 15 years. The author’s findings have created a pro-refugee stance.Practical implicationsThis paper suggests the importance of exploring multiple perspectives and not settling for the claims of popular media. It also provides information for teachers to provide educational materials about refugees and other immigrants.Social implicationsReaders are called to look beyond popular opinion to consider accurate information about refugees and immigrants. Refugees and asylum seekers flee from terrorism; they are not terrorists.Originality/valueThis paper confronts contentious popular media reporting on refugees and migration. This is especially valuable in the current time, as negative misconceptions about such people abound.

BANCA, SALUD Y ESTÍMULO DEL EMPLEO: SERVICIOS PÚBLICOS DESDE LA ÓPTICA DE LOS REFUGIADOS Y SOLICITANTES EN COSTA RICA

This article aims to highlight the results of a qualitative research on the perception of refugees and asylum applicant in Costa Rica about access to public services: banking, health and employment. The results point to the establishment of successes and mistakes from public institutions in the provision of services, which serves to understand more about this situation from the refugees perspective.

Positioning young refugees in Australia: media discourse and social exclusion

ABSTRACTThe aim of this article was to examine how media attention affects the social exclusion of young refugees negotiating their way towards settlement in Australia. Emerging stereotypes and prejudices against young male refugees require new ways of understanding the impact of global, national and local issues on their social exclusion. The article brings together the impact of (a) the global politicisation and backlash against refugees, (b) Australians negative perception of refugees and (c) the increased reporting of young African-Australian and Pasifika-Australians as the perpetrators of youth violence. The article recognises the overlapping dimensions of social exclusion for young refugees and considers their ‘spatial’, ‘relational’ and ‘socio-political’ exclusion. The examination of media reporting of a landmark legal case of discrimination and racial profiling reveals a discourse of media attention that has perpetuated the social exclusion of a group of young African-Australian refugees living on a Melbourne public housing estate. The sensationalist and prejudicial media connection of the landmark legal case, youth violence and young African-Australians living on the Flemington Estate demonstrates the challenges young male refugees face in negotiating their settlement in Australia. This article makes a contribution to understanding the multi-dimensional nature of youth exclusion in contemporary times.

You are Not Welcome Here Anymore: Restoring Support for Refugee Resettlement in the Age of Trump

You are Not Welcome Here Anymore: Restoring Support for Refugee Resettlement in the Age of Trump

You are Not Welcome Here Anymore: Restoring Support for Refugee Resettlement in the Age of Trump

After descending an escalator of his hotel at Central Park West on a June day in 2015, Donald Trump ascended a podium and proceeded to accuse Mexico of “sending people that have lots of problems, a...

‘Heavy Is the Responsibility for All the Lives That Might Have Been Saved in the Pre-war Years’: British Perceptions of Refugees 1933–1940

How welcoming Great Britain was to refugees in the 1930s and 1940s depended on many factors, including the age, gender, class and profession of an individual. Members of some of the British professions did all they could to rescue their persecuted brethren from the continent, while others did all they could to bar those who might potentially cause competition in the job market. This article considers how welcoming the professions and general public were to the internees in the years preceding the Second World War, how popular opinion changed after the fall of France and the Low Countries, and how Eleanor Rathbone and some of her peers campaigned to debunk the popular myths surrounding the refugees. Much of the rhetoric from this time period will seem familiar to those reading the newspapers and listening to news reports nowadays, showing how much still needs to be learned from this turbulent time in history.

Wedding Bellas – migrancy as a dispute to photographic traditions

Wedding Bellas is a digital photography and oral history project that explores a wish to belong to the European borderscape. The photographs are the stories of twelve women who found themselves at a time when they refused to leave. Many have been rejected – by partners, by landlords, by employers – and many have been refused leave to remain in the United Kingdom by the state. The women displayed resilience and resourcefulness in the face of these rejections, sometimes all happening at once, and the burden of those denials made them escape to fantasy. Some opted for equally stable, rooted and good-looking ‘Queen’s subjects’ – a lamp post, a tree, a traffic sign; London landmarks. The artwork presents the brides as physically connected to their rooted British fellows. The images show desperation and illusion as with a true wedding ceremony. The paradox of this loss of reality, due to the pressures of life circumstances, is portrayed in the photographs, questioning if the situation the women are in is imaginary – a concept shared by both the audience and the person in the picture. With the nexus of text and image, the project troubles the perception of refugees and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom today and the role that digital technology plays in that process. It deals with the question of mediation of migrancy through the historic visual representation and mnemonic depictions in photographs that are challenged by the interventions of the migrants themselves in that process.

The Psychological Survival of a Refugee in South Africa The Impact of War and the ongoing Challenge to Survive as a Refugee in South Africa on Mental Health and Resilience

The issue of migration of refuges and asylum seekers is one which is an internationally relevant phenomenon. South Africa is home to a large portion of Africa’s refugees, who have been exposed to torture and war trauma. In addition to trauma in their country of origin, refugees face daily contextual stressors which reflect society’s perceptions of refugees as well as the social, economic and political milieu of South Africa. These daily contextual stressors exacerbate the psychological effects of their past trauma. The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation is a non-governmental organization that provides psychological services to torture survivors, with the aim of promoting psychosocial rehabilitation and mental wellbeing. Using information gathered on the CSVR’s centralised M&E system as well as through clinical reflections on a case study, this paper explores the complexity of providing psychosocial services to survivors of torture in contexts of continuous traumatic stress and daily stressors. The implications for therapy in such situations are explored as well as the necessity for the clinician to possess a role outside of the traditional therapeutic space and the ways in which to build on and promote resilience. Conclusions drawn indicate that an empowerment approach has the best utility in fostering resilience in refugees. In addition to this, clinicians are required to partake in various roles such as therapist, case manager and advocate for their clients. Furthermore, the contextual reality of clients is of utmost importance in conceptualising their mental wellbeing as well as therapeutic goals.

Marginalized at the center: how public narratives of suffering perpetuate perceptions of refugees’ helplessness and dependency.

This paper critiques the common practice of people from refugee backgrounds giving presentations and testimonials on their displacement experiences, in college, university, and similar institutional settings. While such speaking events may be framed as opportunities to center refugee voices, this paper argues that the totality of the presentation environments, especially their focus on narratives of suffering, do in fact reinforce the marginal and powerless position with which refugees are associated. To counteract the marginalizing effects of such presentations, the paper suggests alternative ways of presentations that more meaningfully involve refugees in framing and directing such speaking events.

Religious and ethnic politics in refugee hosting: Somalis in Nairobi, Kenya

Perception of refugees in Nairobi goes beyond the generic and homogenizing term ‘refugees’ and the legal instruments guiding the hosting of refugees. Legal instruments such as the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1969 African Union Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa take the position that refugee hosting is humanitarian and apolitical. Based on the experiences and circumstances of Somali refugees in Nairobi, this paper takes a contrary view and argues that refugee hosting is political and shaped by interpretation of the conflict that the refugees fled and their perceived political implications for the host country. The paper locates accentuation and criminalization of Somali religious affiliation in the localization of global conflicts and globalization of local conflicts in which the predominantly Muslim Somali refugees become the local and regional epitome of contemporary global terrorism as the conflict in Somalia has global ramifications due to its association with global terrorism. Having demonstrated the role of regional and global politics in the hosting of Somalis in Kenya, the paper also argues that Somalis are not helpless victims of circumstances as they create counter-narratives that seek to de-legitimize politicization and criminalization of their religious and ethnic affiliations.

The Resilience Complex

The Resilience Complex

Refugee Perceptions of the Port Elizabeth Refugee Reception Centre

This article presents findings from an empirical survey conducted at the Nelson Mandela University Refugee Rights Centre based at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, to establish the perceptions and experiences of refugees/asylum seekers of the Refugee Reception Centre in Port Elizabeth in terms of Batho Pele principles. First, an overview of violence in South Africa against refugees/asylum seekers, primarily of African descent, is presented, followed by an outline of the obligations of hostgovernments to such people as described in the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees. As South Africa subscribes to this Convention, an overview is important to contextualise legislation dealing with refugees. After an outline of the method, sample and data analysis techniques, a presentation of the findings follows.

I know there is no justice: Palestinian perceptions of higher education in Jordan

This qualitative study utilizes critical ethnography methods to illustrate Palestinian refugee perceptions of higher education in Jordan. Participants addressed their assimilation to the Jordanian national identity as a means of obtaining education. Content and access to education were more important than assimilation, maintenance of ethnic identity, and a homogeneous national identity. The more immediate need for academic access and social or professional capital thwarted their desire to infuse their ethnic identity in academia.

A Participatory Approach to Assessing Refugee Perceptions of Health Services

The necessity and value of beneficiary input is widely recognized by the humanitarian community. Nevertheless, limited beneficiary involvement occurs due to various barriers. This study explores the effectiveness of an innovative, participatory approach to assessing beneficiary perceptions in resource-limited settings. A unique hybrid of qualitative and quantitative methodologies assessed perceptions of health programs within five refugee camps in Kenya and Tanzania. A database of perceptions and opinions was established through key-informant interviews, focus group discussions and free-response questionnaires among refugees, community leaders and healthcare providers. Each participant subsequently force-ranked the collected views into quasi-normal distribution according to level of agreement. Responses were analyzed using by-person factor analysis software. Eighty-one individuals (96%) successfully completed the participatory exercise. The methodologies identified detailed levels of consensus, rank-ordered priorities and unique sub-population opinions. The authors illustrate benefits and feasibility of qualitative quantitative participatory methodology in assessing beneficiary perceptions of refugee services.

Justice Administration in Meheba Refugee Settlement: Refugee Perceptions, Preferences, and Strategic Decisions

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