Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Lived Experiences of Asylum Seekers in the Urban Midwest

博士论文改进补助金：中西部城市寻求庇护者的生活经历

• 批准号: 0921535
• 负责人: Janis Jenkins
• 金额: $ 1.49万
• 依托单位: University of California-San Diego
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-08-15 至 2010-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0921535&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Grant; Lived

This project focuses on African migrants seeking political asylum in the urban Midwest as they navigate the complex politico-legal landscape of contemporary U.S. migration policies. Specifically, the research investigates how the process of seeking asylum contributes to the shaping of migrants? subjectivities by examining: a) the various discourses and resources that institutional bodies (immigration officials or non-governmental organization workers) draw upon to render the asylum seeker a knowable and manageable object, and b) the ways in which asylum seekers negotiate these institutionally-produced forms of subjectivity, at turns adopting, resisting, or transforming them. The tension between the discourses of human rights (and, increasingly, of trauma), on the one hand, and the discourses of national security, on the other, is especially palpable in a post-9/11 U.S., as recent legal and political measures have made asylum seeking an increasingly onerous process. Data collection includes semi-structured and unstructured interviews, and participant observation, and will occur both in institutional settings (among immigration officials, NGO workers) and within the everyday social worlds of asylum seekers. Data collected among institutional bodies will elicit information on how asylum seekers are constructed as ?deserving? (or not) of legal status, and how transnational discourses of human rights, trauma, and national security are negotiated by those who enact migration law. Data collected among asylum seekers will provide insight into how migrants agentively respond to the social and political categories imposed on them via legal and institutional bodies, as well as how asylum seekers both shape and are shaped by the legal processes in which they are embedded. This project contends that the current historical moment provides a unique opportunity to examine the lived consequences (both intended and unintended) of immigration laws and practices. The study also aims to elucidate how different actors, within the same context, make law meaningful in disparate ways. Finally, the research seeks to address the paucity of ethnographic work within refugee studies more broadly.

该项目的重点是在中西部城市中寻求政治庇护的非洲移民在当代美国移民政策的复杂政治政治景观中驾驶。具体而言，该研究调查了寻求庇护的过程如何促进移民的塑造？通过检查主观性：a）机构机构（移民官员或非政府组织工人）的各种话语和资源借鉴使寻求庇护者成为可知和可管理的对象，b）寻求庇护者寻求庇护者的方式，以使这些制度性形式产生的主观形式，在旋转或改变他们或转换。一方面，人权（以及越来越多的创伤）与国家安全的话语之间的紧张关系在美国9/11之后的美国尤其明显，因为最近的法律和政治措施使庇护所寻求越来越繁重的过程。数据收集包括半结构化和非结构化访谈以及参与者的观察，并将发生在机构环境（移民官员，非政府组织工人）和寻求庇护者的日常社会世界中。在机构机构之间收集的数据将获取有关寻求庇护者的构建方式的信息？ （是否）法律地位，以及颁布移民法的人谈判人权，创伤和国家安全的跨国话语。寻求庇护者之间收集的数据将提供有关移民如何通过法律和机构机构对对他们施加的社会和政治类别的反应，以及寻求庇护者如何形成和受嵌入法律程序的影响。该项目认为，当前的历史时刻提供了一个独特的机会，可以检查移民法律和实践的生命后果（均和意外）。该研究还旨在阐明在相同背景下不同的参与者如何使法律以不同的方式有意义。最后，该研究旨在更广泛地解决难民研究中民族志工作的匮乏。