Refugee Advocacy Training

 

LIVE! Check out Refuge’s Refugee Advocacy Training in partnership with Central Ohio Solidarity with Refugees & Immigrants!! Livestreamed on Facebook and Recorded Live by Zakria Farah on Saturday, March 4, 2017

On Saturday, March 4, Central Ohio Solidarity with Refugees & Immigrants and REFUGE Livestreamed a talk about the vetting and resettlement process in Columbus and how people can help local refugees.

 

Visualizing Two Centuries of Immigration in the United States

Metrocosm, started by Max Galka, is a collection of maps and other data visualization projects — trying to make sense of the world through numbers.  Last year, they made a map visualizing two centuries of immigration to the United States.

“From 1820 to 2013, 79 million people obtained lawful permanent resident status in the United States. The interactive map below visualizes all of them based on their prior country of residence. The brightness of a country corresponds to its total migration to the U.S. at the given time.”

Learn more about the data behind this map on the Metrocosm website or click here

 

But pattens are nothing without context.  In this video, The Daily Conversation provides some context behind these immigration patterns.

Questions of Refugee Deservedness

This article, written by one of our Grad Student Affiliates, was originally published in Anthropology News.  

by Kelly A. Yotebieng
Society for Urban, National, and Transnational/Global Anthropology

The Anthropologist as an Ally

As anthropologists of forced migration, we are used to being kept on our toes as the nature, causes, consequences, and policies that enshroud forced migration are constantly fluctuating. When I returned to Cameroon for ethnographic fieldwork after over a decade living in the region as a humanitarian professional, I came with the intention of working with a large and growing population of Central African refugees. When I had last left Cameroon a year earlier in 2015, this population was growing rapidly, and garnering the attention of the world, or at least those of us who pay attention to forced migration in Africa. However, in the midst of my research over the summer of 2016, I found a Rwandan community silently struggling with the invocation of a Cessation Clause, built into the 1951 Geneva Convention, for all Rwandan refugees who arrived in asylum countries prior to 1998 and who had not been resettled. They feared this clause would cause the majority to lose their refugee status at the end of 2017. As many had hedged their bets on resettlement, they were at a loss of what to do next, after decades of waiting, and what now felt like rejection of the very foundation of their fears of returning home. Intrigued, I shifted my focus.

Continue reading…

Syrian refugees ‘detrimental’ to Americans? The numbers tell a different story

A new article from Global Mobility Project team member, Jeffrey Cohen.

President Donald Trump wants to close the door on Syrian refugees, barring them indefinitely from settling in the U.S.

In an executive order signed on Jan. 27, the president wrote:

“I hereby proclaim that the entry of nationals of Syria as refugees is detrimental to the interests of the United States and thus suspend any such entry until such time as I have determined that sufficient changes have been made to the USRAP to ensure that admission of Syrian refugees is consistent with the national interest.”

USRAP stands for United States Refugee Admissions Program.

In light of the president’s executive order and the continued debate over the status of refugees in the U.S., I’d like to reexamine two questions: What are the chances that a Syrian refugee might live in your community? And what is the risk that he or she would be a terrorist?

Continue reading here

No Dancing in the Streets

This lecture by Global Mobility Project affiliate member Danielle V. Schoon might be of interest for those who are interested in dance, performance, migration, or the Romani.

Description of the lecture:

This talk presents research that examines Romani (“Gypsy”) identity in Turkey in light of conflicting claims to belonging in the city, the nation, the European Union, and the “global village.” While Turkey’s Roma are being actively integrated into minority politics, they are also facing the dissolution of their communities, traditional occupations, and cultural life as privatization and land reforms dislocate the urban poor to state housing units in the name of improvement and ‘renewal.’ At the same time, international rights organizations are supporting counter-hegemonic state narratives via minority and human rights discourses that both enable and limit the boundaries of Romani identity. The talk will compare three cases that locate the intersection of urban space, state-led reforms, and Romani belonging in dance practice: 1) competing Hidrellez events that strategically place dance on the street or on the stage; 2) dance classes for dislocated Romani children that codify and stage social dance as a folk dance; and 3) Romani performers who travel the global belly dance circuit.

Anish Kapoor Wins Genesis Prize, Gives $1m to Help Refugees

The artist is currently featured, together with others, at the Pizzuti Collection, one of our community partners!

British artist Sir Anish Kapoor is donating his $1 million award for being named the 2017 Genesis Prize Laureate to help alleviate the Syrian refugee crisis and expand the engagement of the Jewish Community in the global effort to support refugees. His pledge continues the tradition of Genesis Prize Laureates directing the $1 million award to meaningful causes.

Known as the “Jewish Nobel,” the annual Genesis Prize was established in 2012 to recognize individuals who have “attained excellence and international renown in their chosen professional fields, and who inspire others through their engagement and dedication to the Jewish community and the State of Israel.”

Read More

Upcoming talk about Migration Policy in the Russian Federation

This talk may be of interest to those who study migration and mobility.

Regulating Flows of People Across Eurasia: Migration Policy in the Russian Federation

A Talk by Professor Sergei Abashin
European University at St. Petersburg
Tuesday, March 28, 3:00 – 4:30pm
Enarson Classroom Building 100

Join the Center for Slavic and East European Studies for a bilingual discussion about current migration policy within the Russian Federation. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has seen 25 years of migration flows as populations have adjusted to new state boundaries in the region, the aftermath of forced resettlement of populations during the Soviet Union, and the economic migration of populations from neighboring countries to work in Russia. With increased attention on migrants and immigration in countries across the world, this talk will focus on the flows of people within the Russian Federation, their causes and effects, and government and policy responses. Sergei Abashin, a professor of anthropology at the European University at St. Petersburg, is a specialist in migration studies and Central Asian nationality building who has done extensive field work in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. The talk will be delivered in Russian, with simultaneous English translation. Students of Russian, as well as faculty and the general public who are interested in the topic but do not know Russian are encouraged to attend.

Click the image to view the flyer for the event

Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) and “Practices of Reception”

by Eleanor Paynter, PhD Student, Department of Comparative Studies

An audience of OSU students, faculty, staff, and community members gathered at the Wexner on Tuesday, Jan. 24, for a viewing and discussion of the award-winning and Oscar-nominated Italian documentary Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea), directed by Gianfranco Rosi and released in 2016. Set on the island of Lampedusa, south of mainland Sicily, Fuocoammare follows two main narratives: the daily life of Samuele, an inquisitive Lampedusan boy who plays in the island’s rugged landscape; and the regular rescue of asylum seekers as the crowded boats in which they cross the Mediterranean approach Italian territory.

After the viewing, three panelists discussed the powerful juxtaposition of these two narratives: Vera Brunner-Sung, filmmaker and Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre at OSU, and member of the Global Mobility team; Peter Gatrell, historian at the University of Manchester and expert on displacement in the modern world; and Jonathan Mullins, an Italian Cultural Studies scholar and Visiting Assistant Professor of Italian at OSU. Their conversation covered issues ranging from the representation of what has become known as Europe’s refugee crisis, to the treatment for Samuele’s lazy eye, to an emphasis on the technology of what Mullins called “the practices of reception.” Rescue scenes are usually preceded, for example, by shots of the large equipment used to intercept SOS calls and visualize the location of arriving ships.

In connecting the two primary narratives, the panel raised the question of the documentary’s essential focus; Gatrell commented that Fuocoammare seemed, in the end, to be not about migration, but about the island itself. As Brunner-Sung discussed, the film uses long shots and slow camera movements to allow the viewer to engage with the physical space of Lampedusa; these techniques, said Mullins, also play with notions of near and far. How close is a boat? How distant is the crisis?

Yet, panelists agreed, the film is also troubling and prompts viewers to consider the representation of asylum seekers and refugees and the film’s seeming insistence on keeping Samuele’s story separate from that of the rescue narrative: this is not about an encounter. One of the challenges for any writer or filmmaker dealing with precarious subjects is the issue of representation: Does the depiction essentialize? Does it, at another extreme, anonymize? Gatrell noted that, other than rescue, the circumstances shaping the “crisis” occur, for the most part, off-screen.

I weigh in here as someone focused on contemporary migration to Italy in my own work, and as a viewer who found herself quite moved by the film’s oscillation between narratives about Samuele and about the arrival of asylum seekers. In this juxtaposition, I see Lampedusa itself emerging as a place of reckoning: Samuele tries to come to terms with his physical relationship to the island (a fisherman shouldn’t get seasick); border patrol agents and rescue workers transport hundreds of asylum seekers from sinking boats to coast guard vessels, to identification/detention centers known as CIE (Centri di identificazione e espulsione). For arriving asylum seekers, the island represents rescue and extreme precarity and, as such, appears as a space of trauma. Finally seated on a coast guard ship, many seem in shock; one asylum seeker pours water over her head.

Since Gatrell’s lecture on historicizing refugees and displacement and the public viewing of Fuocoammare, U.S. immigration and asylum policy has entered a global spotlight. In light of President Trump’s recent executive orders on border security and immigration, I find it difficult to reflect on this film without asking about its reception by a U.S. audience, and its relevance for a U.S. viewership. Is Lampedusa too far away for U.S. viewers to connect the urgency of Mediterranean migration with questions being asked about U.S. borders? The film’s Oscar nomination, in the documentary category, and its celebration by critics, makes it likely to reach a wide international audience in the coming months, including U.S. cinema-goers. How might a film such as this affect public responses to forced displacement and immigration policy? Can a film that emphasizes the mechanized routine of migrant reception at Italian shores provoke compassion in audiences outside Europe for the 65 million forcibly displaced people around the world, and for those in other countries who want to come to the U.S. for study, for work, for family, or for their own safety?

 

Migration Studies Working Group Discussion Dates

The Migration Studies Working Group at Ohio State University is comprised of students and faculty who are interested in discussing issues related to migration, immigration, and mobility.  Please RSVP to migrationstudiesworkinggroup@gmail.com by Thursday 2/2 if you are planning to attend the February discussion.  Friday’s discussion will feature guest speaker Professor Peter Shane of Moritz College of Law.

You can pick up printed copies of the readings in the Ohio Union at the Keith B. Key Center for Student Leadership and Service Resource Center (2nd floor).

The Institute for Population Research at OSU Presents

 

For those interested in migration and migration theory, The Institute for Population Research at OSU is offering a seminar that may pique your interest.

A Re-appraisal of Thinking on and the Empirical Evaluation of Migration Theories
Dr. Fernando Riosmena
Associate Professor of Geography
Faculty, Population Program, Institute of Behavioral Science
University of Colorado, at Boulder

Tuesday, January 10, 2017
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
038 Townshend Hall
1885 Neil Ave.

Graduate students are welcome to attend the graduate student roundtable Tuesday morning, 11:30-12:15 in 038 Townshend Hall

Abstract: In some subfields of migration studies and social demography, there has been considerable effort to systematize knowledge on the drivers of population mobility around theories that explain the initiation or continuation of (international labor) migration flows. Despite attempts aimed at providing a general way to map macro-structural forces into everyday practices and actions (e.g., Morawska’s structuration theory), there has been little guidance on how the different theories’ overlapping scales of influence interrelate more specifically. I contribute to these efforts by critically analyzing the way in which the aforementioned migration studies subfields have deployed and tested theories, paying particular attention to the possible linkages between frameworks as root causes and catalyzers/triggers of the spatiality and timing of the initiation of flows. In addition, I provide a critique of the manner in which the relative validity of these theories has been tested (mostly quantitatively), suggesting some refinements on the empirical validation of theories and, more broadly, their use in guiding empirical analysis going forward.

Professor Riosmena’s research looks at how demographic processes are associated with the spatial and social mobility, well-being, and development in Latin American societies and immigrant communities from said region in the United States. His main research areas are immigrant health throughout different stages of the migration process and the role of U.S. immigration policy and social, economic, and environmental conditions in sending communities on the migration dynamics between Latin America and the United States.

Pizza and soft drinks will be provided

http://ipr.osu.edu/events/ipr-seminar-dr.-fernando-riosmena-university-colorado-boulder