Home Binds: Naturalization Among Somalian Refugees in Minneapolis and St. Paul

本项目研究性别如何影响明尼苏达州明尼阿波利斯和圣保罗的索马里难民入籍过程。该项目提出了两套命题，这两套命题取决于男性和女性入籍的比例是否更高。一方面，如果公民身份的概念在历史上是男性的，那么美国公民身份可能会提高索马里男性在家庭中的地位，男性可能会提供家庭与“公共”领域的联系。与这些想法一致的是，进一步考虑到妨碍公民身份的官僚主义和歧视性障碍可能对索马里妇女造成不成比例的影响。另一方面，索马里妇女寻求美国公民身份的比例可能比男性高，因为她们通过与福利和教育机构的互动，更多地接触到西方的理想，而且她们从伴随公民身份概念的权利修辞中获益更多。除了探讨性别的影响外，该项目还将考虑教育和家庭结构对男性和女性入籍选择的影响。为了探讨这些问题，将对双子城的140名索马里难民进行访谈。在这些访谈中，该项目将评估地方、国家和国际力量，这些力量鼓励某些个人寻求公民身份，而明确或暗示地阻止其他人。这是一项重要的工作，因为该项目将通过查明阻碍男女难民努力参与社区的正式和非正式障碍，促进他们融入美国的新环境。这个项目还将对理解“世界政治”产生更广泛的影响，因为美国公民身份可以使个人成为“全球”原则——人权、环境保护、民主进程——对其本国的大使。

This project examines how gender affects the naturalization process among Somalian refugees in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. The project develops two sets of propositions that hinge on whether men or women become naturalized at proportionately higher rates. On the one hand, if the idea of citizenship is historically male, American citizenship may increase Somalian men's status within the household and men may provide the family liaison to the "public" sphere. Consistent with these ideas is the further consideration that bureaucratic and discriminatory barriers to citizenship may disproportionately affect Somalian women. On the other hand, Somalian women may seek American citizenship at higher rates than men because they have greater exposure to Western ideals through their interaction with welfare and educational institutions, and they have more to gain from the rights rhetoric that accompanies the notion of citizenship. In addition to exploring the effect of gender, the project will consider the effect of education and family structure on men and women's naturalization choices. To explore these questions, interviews will be conducted with a total of 140 Somalian refugees in the Twin Cities. In these interviews, the project will assess the local, national, and international forces that encourage certain individuals to seek citizenship while explicitly or implicitly discouraging others. This is a significant undertaking as the project will facilitate the incorporation of men and women refugees into their new environment in the United States by identifying formal and informal barriers that inhibit their efforts to participate in the community. This project will also have broader implications for understanding "world polity" as American citizenship can privilege individuals as ambassadors of "global" principles-human rights, environmental protection, democratic process-to their native countries.