Ethnicity's Shadows: Race,Religion, and Nationality as Alternative Identities among Recent United States Arrivals

This article reviews the creation of Somali Bantu ethnicity as an object of humanitarian intervention during Somalia's civil war. A variety of local, regional and international actors combined to create the ethnonym Somali Bantu for a group of refugees identified as a persecuted minority by the UNHCR and the US government and selected for resettlement in the United States. I track the emergence of the name and its affective dimensions for those who embrace Somali Bantu identity and assess criticisms of its authenticity and legitimacy. The creation of Somali Bantu identity reveals critical dimensions of how race is translated across time and space. Since a fundamental dimension of Somali Bantu identity is based on presumptions of racial difference, the article traces the salience of constructed difference for social hierarchies within Somalia, colonial projects in Somalia, refugee camp life in Kenya, US resettlement policy and diaspora politics in the United States.     

In liberty's shadow: the discourse of refugees and asylum seekers in critical race theory and immigration law/politics

This article addresses the potential that a kind of engaged research can have in current battles for social justice and in the transformation of college curricula as a way to recover the original critical spirit of ethnic studies. Building on critical race theory, I discuss the work of NGOs such as Human Rights First and Americans for Immigrant Justice on behalf of Haitian refugees and the role of literature in inspiring human rights actions that might redefine practices of citizenship and belonging. At a time when the United States recognises the rights of refugees but criminalises the search for asylum, coalition building between ethnic studies discourse, the legal academy and the community is vital to affirm and protect the internationally recognised rights of refugees. Crucial in this process is the role played by stories as a way to humanise the often impersonal topic of the immigration debate.     

Searching for belonging and confronting exclusion: a person-centred approach to immigrant settlement experiences in Canada

ABSTRACT

Drawing on an analysis of three immigrant narratives, this paper employs a person-centred approach to immigrant integration in Canada. It examines how immigrants interpret the inclusions/exclusions that mark their integration experience and the consequences these experiences have on their social identities and sense of belonging. Analysis demonstrates that for immigrants a sense of belonging does not grow in a linear fashion; rather, it grows, stalls, dissipates and/or flourishes in relation to the ties and identifications that immigrants are enabled to forge. Broader structural and historical forces prefigure immigrant inclusion and exclusion in Canada in ways that reflect a hierarchy of migration and belonging. We argue that a recognition of Canada’s ‘hierarchies of belonging’ and the multidimensional nature of social inclusion/exclusion complicate integration metaphors that flatten the uneven social terrain of immigrant belonging.     

Deconstructing borders: Mobility strategies of South Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda

Taking the current presence of South Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda as a case-study, this paper explores how different forms of mobility enable them to better cope with the harsh conditions caused by their displacement. Based on extensive field research, the results of this article show how for South Sudanese refugees, crossing borders can be empowering, although these complex strategies do not fit within the mutually exclusive ‘durable solutions’ proposed by the international refugee regime. Looking through a transnational lens, it is illustrated how different forms of movement enable the refugees to hold on to certain aspects of ‘normal life’, such as being employed, enacting customs and visiting loved ones, blurring the distinction between voluntary and forced migration. This results in a deepening of transnational networks as the generally large South Sudanese families find their members dispersed across Ugandan and South Sudanese town centres, villages, refugee settlements and third countries in Africa and elsewhere.     

近代东北流民与农业开发

清末民初,伴随着清朝封禁东北政策的破产,关内流民大批涌向东北。流民的到来,传播了先进的农耕技术,带来了优良的农作物品种,加速了东北的土地开发与农业发展,耕地面积剧增,粮食产量迅速提高,东北商品粮基地初步形成。这一切,与广大流民含辛茹苦、披荆斩棘的创业精神是不可分的,流民堪称发展东北农业经济的主力军。     

巴勒斯坦最终地位问题前景探析

巴勒斯坦最终地位问题已逐渐被提上巴以和谈的议事日程,巴勒斯坦和以色列在领土问题、定居点问题、耶路撒冷问题、难民问题等方面的立场分歧使双方很难达成共识,而这些问题不断复杂的现状进一步增大了解决的难度,最终地位问题谈判将会异常棘手。唯有消除仇恨产生的土壤、实现内心的和解才能解决最终地位问题,实现巴以之间的和平。     

The unknown refugee crisis: expulsion of the ethnic Lhotsampa from Bhutan

Bhutan has been strained by ethnic conflict. The Lhotsampa, one of the three largest ethnic groups, have sought a system of equality under which they would be allocated what they need as an equitable share of Bhutan's polity and economy. The ruling Drukpa elites perceived the Lhotsampa as a threat to their dominance and initiated policies to oppress or force out the Lhotsampa and others through ethnic cleansing. Bhutan's ethnic conflict and the refugee crisis it has produced are the outcome of ethnonationalism clothed in the slogan of ‘One Nation, One People’, and the contrived mechanisation of the ruling elites. The policies of these elites have effectively disenfranchised people who were born in Bhutan and have lived there for generations as citizens, for no other reason than their ethnicity. This is an issue not just for the Lhotsampa of Bhutan but also for any groups at the receiving end of an ethnically repressive order. The Lhotsampa case illustrates some characteristics of human‐rights violations in situations of ethnic strife.     

Migrating rituals: negotiations of belonging and otherness among Tamils in Norway

ABSTRACT

By examining a funeral ritual devised by Tamil refugees living north of the Arctic Circle in Norway, I argue that the study of migrant rituals offers new insights into migrants’ senses of belonging, identity and wellbeing. Within a context of the exclusion and inclusion of cultural minorities, I describe the process of creating a funeral ritual that involves encounters between local Norwegians and Tamil refugees. The funeral followed the sudden death of a Tamil worker at the local fish plant as a result of a freak accident. The article focuses on how the Tamils’ work of devising and performing the funeral speaks to local migrant experiences of living on the boundaries between the Tamil and Norwegian life-worlds. A centrepiece of the case study involves a young widow, thus the analysis includes social and cultural dimensions of widow- and womanhood, while also highlighting issues of migration and the shared human condition. In conclusion, I underscore the way in which the migrant ritual, embodiment and (Othering) discourse cohere together to form a temporal phenomenon that responds to the present-ism of human life.     

Dual/duel identities: Jordanian perceptions of academic equity

This study aimed to address how the sociopolitical climate in Jordan facilitates, perpetuates, and/or alleviates negative or positive views of Palestinians from the perspective of Jordanian university graduates. The qualitative study looked specifically at how education and the ‘hidden curriculum’ addresses coexistence.