{"id":200,"date":"2017-04-18T11:57:46","date_gmt":"2017-04-18T10:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.projects.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk\/anthropology-of-aid\/?page_id=200"},"modified":"2019-06-07T10:35:01","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T09:35:01","slug":"beyond-the-label-of-refugees","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/anthropology-of-aid\/the-issues\/refugees-and-asylum-seekers\/beyond-the-label-of-refugees\/","title":{"rendered":"(2016-7) Beyond the label of \u2018refugees\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” fullwidth=”on” next_background_color=”#000000″ global_module=”322″][et_pb_fullwidth_menu global_parent=”322″ _builder_version=”3.0.106″ menu_id=”7″ submenu_direction=”downwards” fullwidth_menu=”off” background_layout=”dark” module_class=”main-navigation” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial” \/][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding=”0px||0px|” custom_css_main_element=”padding-top:0px” module_class=”header-image-section” prev_background_color=”#ffffff” next_background_color=”#ffffff”][et_pb_row allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” make_equal=”off” custom_margin=”||0px|” custom_padding=”||0px|” module_class=”header-image” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/anthropology-of-aid\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/95\/2018\/10\/content_banner_placeholder.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” align=”left” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” force_fullwidth=”off” custom_margin=”0px|||” animation_direction=”left” show_bottom_space=”off” border_color_all=”#ffffff” _builder_version=”3.0.106″ \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding=”||0px|” prev_background_color=”#ffffff” next_background_color=”#ffffff”][et_pb_row allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” make_equal=”off” custom_margin=”||0px|” custom_padding=”||0px|” module_class=”breadcrumbs-row” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Breadcrumbs (do not remove)” use_border_color=”off” module_class=”breadcrumbs” custom_css_main_element=”border-bottom: 1px solid #ececed;” module_alignment=”left” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial” _builder_version=”3.10.1″]<\/p>\nAnthropology of aid<\/a><\/span><\/span>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”off” specialty=”on” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”on” gutter_width=”2″ prev_background_color=”#ffffff” next_background_color=”#ffffff”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=”Left Nav Sidebar” area=”et_pb_widget_area_1″ module_id=”left-nav-menu” show_border=”off” _builder_version=”3.10.1″ \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ specialty_columns=”2″][et_pb_row_inner admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column_inner type=”4_4″ saved_specialty_column_type=”2_3″][et_pb_text background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” module_alignment=”left” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial” _builder_version=”3.17.6″]<\/p>\n

(2016-7) Beyond the label of \u2018refugees\u2019<\/h1>\n

By Hannah Adamson, Lucy Elizabeth Attwooll-Jones, Sarah Bretton, Harriet Donaldson, Anna Kerby, Sophie Robinson, Alicia R\u00e9mont Ospina, Tuana Selvi<\/p>\n

Anthropology is grounded in understanding social and cultural variations and similarities in the world (Eriksen, 2001: 1). By providing insight into refugees\u2019 own perceptions of the socio-political conditions they are subjected to upon arriving in a host country, anthropology can help us understand the various requirements refugees have to follow in different contexts across the globe. Through ethnography, issues of displacement can be understood from refugees\u2019 perspectives and based on the effects, sometimes unintended, of development and humanitarian work.\u00a0 By understanding both sides of aid, anthropologists can create a mutual understanding between the aid workers and refugees. This helps encourage equality rather than a top down approach where workers risk subjecting refugees to Western values that are not necessarily universally applicable.<\/p>\n

This is useful in today\u2019s political climate, where increasing numbers of refugees are arriving in places like Britain and France in search of asylum. Redfield\u2019s (2005) ethnography of Medicins Sans Frontiers<\/em> highlights the importance of anthropological analysis in understanding humanitarianism. Redfield\u2019s notion of \u2018minimalist biopolitics\u2019 looks at how, due to the nature of humanitarian work, refugee\u2019s individual voices are overlooked in favour of assessing their biological bodies (2005: 342). Similarly, Ticktin\u2019s (2011) ethnography analyses France\u2019s \u2018illness clause\u2019, granting residency permits to refugees who cannot receive treatment for their illness in their country of origin, thus making the right to settlement hinge on a sick body. These ethnographies help us understand humanitarianism by connecting the work of experts to fluctuating socio-political conditions in different nation-states. Further, these scholars show how important it is to understand different refugees\u2019 stories through ethnographic research. In a context where mass numbers of people are processed and cared for, refugees\u2019 individual narratives are often overlooked, causing their social and political identities to be stripped. The result is that the complex histories and contexts of each refugee can become masked, resulting in the view that refugees do not deserve the right to anything more than their biological body \u2013 or \u2018bare life\u2019. This risks reducing them to the Other, characterised through colonialism as \u2018backwards\u2019, \u2018primitive\u2019 and inferior to Western bodies.<\/p>\n

In light of this, we suggest that the Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit\u2019s (GMIAU) work can benefit from questions that anthropological perspectives raise. Working with large numbers of immigrants, from places such as the camps in Calais, we wonder if anthropological analyses are relevant for GMIAU. For example, do processes of settlement face the risk of governing refugees through their biological existence, overlooking their social and political identities? Anthropological analysis might help us find ways of ensuring that each refugee is helped efficiently, whilst not categorising them into the general \u2013 and often negative (cf. Rozakou, 2012) \u00a0\u2013 label of \u2018refugee\u2019. Further, when helping children coming from Calais integrate into new families in Manchester, anthropologists can help GMIAU understand how refugees view their new position in society. An ethnographic research would be beneficial in aiding aid organisations to see how best to avoid potential unintended effects and help refugees maintain their identity as autonomous social, political and economic agents.<\/p>\n

Bibliography:<\/p>\n

Eriksen, T.H., 2001.\u00a0Small Places, Large Issues-: An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology<\/em>. London: Pluto Press.<\/p>\n

Redfield, P., 2005. Doctors, borders, and life in crisis.\u00a0Cultural Anthropology<\/em>, 20<\/em>(3), pp.328-361.<\/p>\n

Rozakou, K., 2012. The biopolitics of hospitality in Greece: Humanitarianism and the management of refugees.\u00a0American Ethnologist<\/em>,\u00a039<\/em>(3), pp.562-577.<\/p>\n

Ticktin, M.I., 2011.\u00a0Casualties of care: Immigration and the politics of humanitarianism in France<\/em>. Berkeley: University of California Press.<\/p>\n

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