scholarly journals Anonymity and representation

2019 ◽  
pp. 175-182
Author(s):  
Isobel Blomfield ◽  
Caroline Lenette
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Collaborative Editing ◽  
Precarious Situation ◽  
Positive Light

The five-minute film Mouth of a Shark (Isobel Blomfield, 2018) conveys a young woman’s experiences and precarious situation while she awaits an outcome on her refugee status determination in Australia. Aasiya (pseudonym) lives in community detention. Her interest in creating the film stemmed from her own acknowledgement that she had a platform as a young, literate asylum seeker woman with a “strong” story, and was therefore in a position to portray asylum seekers in a positive light. However, she cannot be identified in the film, even though it depicts her story, due to concerns over safety and her claim for asylum. We use this example to illustrate issues of anonymity and representation, and suggest strategies in line with our commitment to avoid depersonalising tropes in filmmaking. While we are committed to ensuring that people from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds exercise agency in filmmaking, protecting Aasiya’s identity had to prevail. We wanted to avoid depersonalising tropes, and instead devised filming strategies that were more respectful of the protagonist and, within the constraint of anonymity, ensured that Aasiya could still represent her story in meaningful ways. We argue for an ethical model that reconciles the need for both anonymity and representation in filmmaking, especially through collaborative editing.

The European Union’s Plan to Amend the ‘First Country of Asylum’ and ‘Safe Third Country’ Concepts

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 580-596
Author(s):  
Reinhard Marx
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
State Responsibility ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Refugee Convention ◽  
The Common ◽  
Destination State

Abstract This article examines the European Commission’s 2016 proposals relating to asylum procedures and the Dublin mechanism. In particular, it analyses what State responsibility for protection means in the context of the ‘first country of asylum’ and ‘safe third country’ concepts, which are addressed in the Commission’s Asylum Procedures Proposal. What effect does the common responsibility of all parties to the Refugee Convention have on a particular State’s individual obligations when it examines a refugee’s application for protection? Can a State simply transfer asylum seekers to another State without seeking assurances from that ‘safe third country’ that they will be granted access to refugee status determination procedures? Does a State’s responsibility end after it removes an asylum seeker or is it obliged to cooperate with the destination State? Does merely transiting through a country mean that it is a ‘safe third country’ to which an asylum seeker can be returned? Can an asylum seeker be sent to a State that is safe in one or two regions, but is otherwise unstable? The article considers these and other questions, taking a sceptical approach to the European Commission’s proposal relating to the ‘safe third country’ concept.

scholarly journals “Do you understand (me)?” negotiating mutual understanding by using gaze and environmentally coupled gestures between two deaf signing participants

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Sivunen ◽  
Elina Tapio
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
The State ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Multimodal Analysis ◽  
Semiotic Resources ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Language Competencies ◽  
Unrealistic Expectations ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractIn this paper we explore the use of multimodal and multilingual semiotic resources in interactions between two deaf signing participants, a researcher and an asylum seeker. The focus is on the use of gaze and environmentally coupled gestures. Drawing on multimodal analysis and linguistic ethnography, we demonstrate how gaze and environmentally coupled gestures are effective semiotic resources for reaching mutual understanding. The study provides insight into the challenges and opportunities (deaf) asylum seekers, researchers, and employees of reception centres or the state may encounter because of the asymmetrical language competencies. Our concern is that such asymmetrical situations may be created and maintained by ignoring visual and embodied resources in interaction and, in the case of deaf asylum seekers, by unrealistic expectations towards conventionalized forms of international sign.

scholarly journals Exploring the Use of Hip Hop-Based Music Therapy to Address Trauma in Asylum Seeker and Unaccompanied Minor Migrant Youth

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Salih Gulbay
Keyword(s):  
Music Therapy ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Therapeutic Interventions ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Intervention Models ◽  
Migrant Youth ◽  
Trauma Informed

There are numerous young asylum seekers and unaccompanied migrant minors around the globe. A comprehensive literature review revealed that post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the most common disorder that affects the asylum seeker youth and migrant minor populations. Many of these individuals struggle with PTSD and show resilience in their daily lives while also learning, discovering, and surviving. Accordingly, therapeutic interventions directed to them must be trauma-informed, phased, engaging, empowering, and impactful to support the needs of these young people. A seven-month-long music therapy intervention experience that was applied to young asylum seekers in Spain, and found that the most effective intervention tools were Hip Hop Therapy-related interventions. This study resulted in a new intervention model, The Integral Hip Hop Methodology. This paper highlights the importance that intervention models be engaging and considerate to the necessities and preferences of the addressed population and presents The Integral Hip Hop Methodology as an example.

scholarly journals Inconsistencies in repeated refugee status decisions

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Pärnamets ◽  
Alexander Tagesson ◽  
Annika Wallin
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Civil Servant ◽  
Affective Responses ◽  
Significant Decline ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Seeking Safety ◽  
Active Regulation ◽  
Governmental Intervention ◽  
Emotional Demands ◽  
Over Time

Consistency in civil servant decisions is paramount to upholding judicial equality for citizens and individuals seeking safety through governmental intervention. We investigated refugee status decisions made by a sample of civil servants at the Swedish Migration Agency. We hypothesized, based on the emotional demands such decisions bring with them, that participants would exhibit a compassion fade effect such that refugee status was less likely to be granted over time. To test this, we administered a questionnaire containing brief presentations of asylum seekers and asked participants to judge how likely they would be to give refugee status to the person. Crucially the first, middle and final case presented were matched on decision relevant characteristics. Consistent with our hypothesis we saw a significant decline in ratings. These effects were accentuated by the amount of time a participant had worked at the agency, consistent with depletion of affective resources, and attenuated in workers with greater responsibility and additional training. We conclude that active regulation of empathic and affective responses to asylum seekers may play a role in determining the outcome in refugee status decisions.

scholarly journals Body Politics: Positioning the Pregnant Researcher Amongst Asylum Seekers

2021 ◽  
pp. 29-38
Author(s):  
Ailbhe Kenny
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Body Politics ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
Trust Relationships ◽  
The People ◽  
High Level

AbstractResearcher positionality has gained increased attention in recent years, and music education is following suit. Carrying out research that addresses diversity in music education demands a high level of reflexivity and a problematising of one’s own position as researcher. This chapter offers critical insights into the complexity of such a positioning and how research practices might reflect, confirm and/or disrupt the existing ‘body politic’ that our bodies signify. Researcher positionality is here examined in terms of pregnancy within a research project based at an asylum seeker accommodation centre. Applying a Butlerian lens to the examination, the chapter uncovers how the researcher’s pregnant body was ‘performed’ and became the main focus of ‘recognition’ amongst the people encountered at the centre. These processes of ‘performing’ and being ‘recognised’ as a ‘pregnant researcher’ manifested in various ways such as gaining access, credibility, trust, relationships, ethical considerations and power. Thus, the chapter opens a space to reflect critically on researcher positionality and specifically its influence on the research process in sites that seek to understand diversity in music education.

scholarly journals The Psycho-Social Conditions of Asylum-Seekers from Darfur in Israel

Refuge ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vered Slonim-Nevo ◽  
Shirley Regev ◽  
Yiftach Millo
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Functioning ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Standardized Measures ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Migration Trauma ◽  
Dsm Iv ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers ◽  
State Of Israel

ObjectiveThe study appraises the prevalence of pre-migration trauma exposure, the ability to secure basic living needs, and psychological functioning among Darfuri asylumseekers and refugees living in Israel. MethodThe sample included 340 adults from Darfur. Standardized measures assessing socio-psychological functioning were utilized. Results The participants demonstrated high rates of pre-migration exposure to traumatic experiences. Thirty per cent of the participants met DSM–IV criteria PTSD, with a higher proportion for women than for men. Post-migration stressors were mentioned by the majority of the participants. ConclusionsThe State of Israel should recognize past atrocities and traumas of Darfuris who arrived in Israel. Such recognition should be offered as acceptance of their rightful access to refugee status determination. Moreover, the State of Israel needs to modify government policies and legalization facilities so that Darfuri refugees and asylum-seekers will have access to basic human needs and support services.

scholarly journals Mohajer (camp-e-forsat)

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (02) ◽  
pp. e2697
Author(s):  
Anna Knappe ◽  
Amir Jan ◽  
Laura Böök
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Remote Areas ◽  
Detention Centers ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
Loan Word ◽  
Umbilical Cords ◽  
Asylum Seekers And Refugees

Mohajer (camp-e-forsat) was filmed in Forssa asylum seeker reception center in Finland, together with a recently arrived group of Hazara asylum seekers from Afghanistan. In Mohajer (camp-e-forsat) the people who are labeled as asylum seekers and refugees, redefine themselves with the word mohajer. Mohajer is a loan word from Arabic, and in Persian it means anyone or anything migrating from one place to another.  A camp is a place where mohajers live in a state of waiting. Mohajers are asylum seekers, refugees, and other migrants in precarious situations and their camps are reception centers, detention centers, and temporary shelters. Camps are often located in remote areas, effectively isolating the individuals living in them. They are facilities for storing humans, full of invisible walls, and windows to remind people that the world they can see through them is out of their reach. Cobra: “When someone asks me where I’m from, I say I’m from Afghanistan, but I’ve never been there. Mohajer means not belonging anywhere, not where you are and not where you’re from or your parents are from. My husband says that we’re born mohajers. There is no other name for us. When they ask your name, you should say your name is mohajer. Our umbilical cords are cut with the word mohajer. Even in hospitals, when a new Afghan child is born, they say a new mohajer was born. They don’t say this woman’s child was born, they say one Afghan mohajer was born. Those two words, Afghan and mohajer, are attached together, it’s always Afghan mohajer. Then many who have migrated, try to detach themselves from the word mohajer. But in a new country, you’re still a mohajer.”

Protecting Vulnerable Refugees: Procedural Fairness in the Australian Fast Track Regime

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily McDonald ◽  
Maria O'Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Fast Track ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Procedural Fairness ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Efficiency Measures ◽  
Application Procedure ◽  
Visa Application ◽  
High Standards

Refugee Status Determination is a powerful example of the way in which vulnerability and the law interact. This article examines this interaction by analysing a case study: the special protection visa application procedure in place for certain asylum seekers in Australia (the ‘Fast Track Assessment’ process) and the implications of this for procedural fairness. We conclude that the current legislative framework for the Fast Track Assessment process operates to exacerbate the circumstances of vulnerability of asylum seekers. Efficiency measures are an important way of avoiding delays in decision-making. However it also increases the propensity of such measures to lead to serious legal errors. Considering the serious consequences of an improperly made decision in this context, we argue that high standards of procedural fairness and an oral hearing are required. The article also demonstrates that a central purpose of due process should be to mitigate (rather than exacerbate) circumstances of vulnerability or marginalisation.

Canadian Exclusion Jurisprudence post-Febles

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly Joeck
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Status ◽  
International Refugee Law

Abstract This article examines the state of Canadian refugee law since the decision of the Supreme Court in Febles v Canada (Citizenship and Immigration) [2014] 3 SCR 431. Drawing upon an analysis of a set of decisions of the Immigration and Refugee Board, the administrative tribunal tasked with refugee status determination in Canada, the article seeks to determine whether administrative decision makers are heeding the guidance of Febles when excluding asylum seekers from refugee protection on the basis of serious criminality pursuant to article 1F(b) of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. In doing so, it examines the controversy around article 1F(b) since its inception across various jurisdictions and amongst academic commentators, situating Febles within that controversy in order to demonstrate that the Supreme Court’s reluctance to clearly set out the purpose underlying article 1F(b) is in step with a longstanding tendency to understand the provision as serving a gatekeeping function, that prevents criminalized non-citizens from obtaining membership in our society. It argues that by omitting to set out a clear and principled standard by which asylum seekers can be excluded from refugee protection pursuant to article 1F(b), the Supreme Court failed to live up to a thick understanding of the rule of law. It concludes by calling for a reassertion of the rule of law into exclusion decision making, both nationally and internationally, in order to ensure that the legitimacy of the international refugee law regime is maintained.

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