Doctoral Dissertation Research: Forced Migrants Encountering the Refugee Regime

该项目将分析西方接收国的移民管理做法与叙利亚被迫移民寻求通过约旦逃离叙利亚持续内战的生活经历之间的关系。国家移民政策、难民法和国际协定合在一起构成了这里所说的“难民制度”--一套制度性做法，通过这些做法，西方和中东国家的移民政策日益相互关联。这项研究提请注意（1）国家机构、人道主义组织和非国家行为者在管理被迫移徙方面的跨国活动，以及（2）被迫移徙者沿着的经历。在这样做的过程中，本研究重新定位移民管理的政治从一个自上而下的无形的概念，一个由日常遭遇，叙述和被迫移民自己的斗争。这项研究将为政治地理学领域以及难民研究、安全和边界研究以及女权主义方法论等更广泛的跨学科辩论做出重要贡献。本研究进一步试图询问被迫移民作为被动的受害者或福利国家的负担的流行代表。这项研究的结果将通过一系列公共信息讲习班和政策简报，为关于叙利亚被迫移民的公共辩论提供信息。研究结果将传播到更广泛的社会，以促进更好地了解被迫移民的生活和移民面临的挑战。这项研究的结果也将为共同研究所关于国际移民，跨国主义和地理学的本科教学提供信息。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该项目将提供支持，使有前途的学生能够建立独立的研究生涯，该项目响应了关于研究跨国界移民管理如何运作以及移民如何在出发地和到达地之间经历和谈判其旅程的呼吁。它通过回答两个中心研究问题来做到这一点：1）难民制度是如何在跨国空间中构成的？2)叙利亚被迫移徙者在整个移徙过程中以及在抵达最终目的地后如何经历难民制度？为了回答这些问题，该项目包括档案研究，访谈和参与性绘图与叙利亚被迫移民，以及采访国家和非国家机构的工作人员。使用这些方法，本研究有助于新的发现，奖学金的证券化移民和不断变化的地理边界和移民管理。

This project will analyze the relationship between migration management practices of recipient states in the West and the lived experiences of Syrian forced migrants seeking to escape the ongoing civil war in Syria via Jordan. Taken together, state migration policies, refugee laws, and international agreements constitute what is here termed the "refugee regime" - a set of institutional practices through which the migration policies of countries in the West and the Middle East have become increasingly interconnected. This research draws attention to (1) the transnational activities of state agencies, humanitarian organizations, and non-state actors in managing forced migration, and (2) forced migrants' experiences along their journeys. In doing so, this research re-situates the politics of migration management from a top-down disembodied conception to one informed by the everyday encounters, narratives, and struggles of forced migrants themselves. This research will make important contributions to the field of political geography and broader interdisciplinary debates in refugee studies, security and border studies, and feminist methodology. This study further seeks to interrogate popular representations of forced migrants as passive victims or burdens on the welfare state. Findings from this research will inform public debates about Syrian forced migrants through a series of public information workshops and policy briefs. Research findings will be disseminated to wider society in order to foster a better understanding of forced migrants' lives and the challenges that migrants' face.Findings from this research will also inform the co-PI's undergraduate teaching on international migration, transnationalism, and geography. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Award, this project will provide support to enable a promising student to establish an independent research career.This project responds to calls for studies on how migration management works across national borders and how migrants experience and negotiate their journeys between places of departure and arrival. It does so by answering two central research questions: 1) How is the refugee regime constituted across transnational space? 2) How do Syrian forced migrants experience the refugee regime across their migration trajectory and once they arrive in their final destination? In order to answer these questions this project comprises archival research, interviews, and participatory mapping with Syrian forced migrants, as well as interviews with staff of state and non-state institutions. Using these methods, this research contributes new findings to scholarship on the securitization of migration and the changing geographies of borders and migration management.