Doctoral Dissertation Research: Legal Status and Civic Engagement Among Refugees

南卫理公会大学（Southern Methodist University）的博士生谢伊·甘尼迪（Shay kennedy）将在卡罗琳·布雷特尔（Caroline Brettell）博士的指导下，进行人种学研究，研究政治庇护的减少和随之而来的“部分合法身份”程度如何影响移民的公民参与。具体来说，在检查来自刚果民主共和国谁居住在爱尔兰的寻求庇护者和难民的样本，她将探讨移民如何声称存在和合法性，尽管他们的法律和社会排斥的社会。该项目探讨移民如何以公民身份融入新环境，以及他们的归属如何受到法律地位、社会经济因素和移民前经历的影响。研究人员将进行12个月的实地研究，并综合运用解释性和探索性两种要素的社会科学方法，其中包括：通过问卷调查产生关于人口统计和公民参与总体趋势的基线数据；深入访谈，捕捉公民和归属感的观念，对公民参与和种族认同的态度；参与观察各种社区活动，如自愿协会会议、民族节日、宗教仪式和政治抗议；并对相关媒体和移民立法政策进行内容分析，了解移民在公共话语和移民法中是如何建构的。这项研究的结果将有助于社会科学地理解，在一个加强移民控制的时代，难民是如何通过实践而不是法律，以自己的方式声称合法存在的。它关注这一过程的社会经济层面，以及它如何与法律地位相交，将更深入地了解移民如何进入公共领域，以实施对理论家和政策制定者都至关重要的社会变革。资助这项研究也有助于研究生的教育。

Southern Methodist University doctoral student Shay Cannedy, under the guidance of Dr. Caroline Brettell, will undertake ethnographic research on how the retrenchment of political asylum and concomitant degrees of "partial legal membership" impact civic engagement among migrants. Specifically, in examining a sample of asylum seekers and refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who reside in Ireland, she will explore how migrants claim presence and legitimacy in society despite their legal and social exclusion. The project asks how migrants civically engage with their new surroundings and how bids for belonging are impacted by legal status, socioeconomic factors, and pre-migration experiences. The researcher will undertake 12 months of field research, and utilize a combination of social scientific methods that employ both explanatory and exploratory elements, which include: questionnaires to generate baseline data on demographics and overall trends in civic engagement; in-depth interviews to capture perceptions of citizenship and belonging, attitudes toward civic engagement, and ethnic identity; participant observation at a variety of community events such as voluntary association meetings, ethnic festivals, religious ceremonies, and political protests; and a content analysis of relevant media and immigration legislation and policy to understand how migrants are constructed in public discourse and immigration law.Findings from this research will contribute to social scientific understanding of how, in an era of heightened immigration control, refugees are claiming legitimate presence on their own terms through practice rather than law. Its focus on the socioeconomic dimensions of this process and how it intersects with legal status will yield greater insight into how migrants enter the public sphere to enact social change which is critical for theorists and policy makers alike. Funding this research also contributes to the education of a graduate student.