Doctoral Dissertation Research: Alternative Models of Care for Refugees Seeking Political Asylum

该项目探讨难民和照料者如何在紧急情况下与行政管理严重紧张的机构谈判。非洲和中东移民抵达欧洲的人数破纪录，这表明难民危机严重影响了政治庇护制度。许多接收难民的国家经常依靠非国家行为体的人道主义努力，为这些社区提供照顾和援助。宗教机构越来越多地发挥这样的作用，向寻求庇护者提供医疗和其他形式的援助。这些机构在一定程度上减轻了国家设施的压力，但随着寻求庇护者在国家和非国家照料系统之间流动，它们给庇护申请的治理和行政管理带来了新的挑战。这个项目训练一名研究生进行基于经验的科学研究的方法，调查寻求庇护者如何在这两种护理机构之间导航，并从他们的经验中思考照顾寻求庇护者的其他模式。杜克大学博士生Carla Hung将在何英生教授的指导下，进行为期12个月的民族志实地研究，调查政教谈判对在意大利罗马寻求政治庇护的难民生活的影响。意大利是欧洲主要的接收国之一，意大利政府通过让天主教慈善机构帮助庇护和难民护理程序来处理这一紧急情况。将天主教慈善机构纳入意大利的政治庇护体系，需要教会和国家行为体就各自不同的护理做法进行协商，并使意大利政教分离的局面变得更加混乱。洪将在罗马的两个地点重点介绍寻求庇护者和护理提供者的经验：1)圣加利卡诺医院（San Gallicano Hospital），一家国营医疗诊所（INMP）和一个天主教援助组织（圣埃基德社区）合作照顾寻求庇护者；2)萨拉姆宫（Salaam Palace），一个独立的移民住房，天主教慈善工作者在这里帮助新的寻求庇护者。研究方法将包括对政治庇护护理实践的参与观察，辅以对政策和活动人士材料的内容分析；并对圣加利卡诺医院的医务和社会工作人员、圣埃吉迪奥社区的神职人员和志愿者以及在这些地点居住或寻求服务的寻求庇护者进行了广泛访谈。对这些信息的分析将寻求回答以下研究问题：1)获得天主教援助如何影响移民是否决定在意大利寻求庇护？2)教会和国家行为体如何协商确定寻求庇护者可获得的照顾种类，他们如何确定谁负责提供这种照顾？3)研究寻求庇护者在这两家机构的护理实践中所采取的方式，对寻求庇护者如何体验和概念化护理、庇护、创伤和慈善有什么启示？这个项目将揭示天主教援助对意大利政治庇护制度的影响，正如今天在意大利寻求庇护者所经历的那样。这项研究的结果可能有助于对欧洲寻求庇护者的其他照顾模式的政策考虑。

The project explores how refugees and caregivers negotiate institutions that are severely strained administratively during emergency contexts. As the arrival of a record-breaking number of African and Middle Eastern migrants in Europe demonstrates, refugee crises seriously strain political asylum systems. Many nations that receive refugees frequently rely on the humanitarian efforts of non-state actors that provide care and assistance to these communities. Religious institutions have increasingly played such a role, provisioning medical and other forms of assistance to asylum seekers. Such institutions relieve some of the strain on state facilities, but create new challenges for the governance and administrative management of asylum claims as asylum seekers move between state and non-state systems of care. This project, which trains a graduate student in the methods of conducting empirically-grounded scientific research, investigates how asylum seekers navigate between these two institutions of care and draws from their experience to think about alternative models of care for asylum seekers. Duke University doctoral student Carla Hung, supervised by Prof. Engseng Ho, will undertake 12 months of ethnographic field research to investigate the impact of church-state negotiations on the lives of refugees seeking political asylum in Rome, Italy. Italy is one of the main receiving countries in Europe and the Italian state deals with this emergency situation by letting Catholic charities help with the asylum and refugee care process. The inclusion of Catholic charities into Italy's political asylum system requires church and state actors to negotiate their different care practices and muddies the separation between church and state in Italy. Hung will focus on the experience of asylum seekers and care providers at two sites in Rome: 1) the San Gallicano Hospital - where both a state-run medical clinic (INMP) and a Catholic aid organization (Community of Sant'Egidio) collaborate to care for asylum seekers and 2) Salaam Palace - an autonomous migrant housing occupation where Catholic charity workers assist new asylum seekers. Research methods will include participant observation of political asylum care practices, supplemented with content analyses of policy and activist materials; and extensive interviewing of the medical and social work staff at the San Gallicano Hospital, the clergy and volunteers of the Community of Sant'Egidio, and asylum seekers who live or seek services at these sites. Analysis of this information will seek to answer the following research questions: 1) How does access to Catholic aid affect whether migrants decide to seek asylum in Italy? 2) How do church and state actors negotiate to define the kinds of care available to asylum seekers and how do they determine who is responsible to provide that care? 3) What does studying the way that asylum seekers navigate the care practices of these two institutions reveal about how asylum seekers experience and conceptualize care, asylum, trauma, and charity? This project will shed light on the impact of Catholic aid in Italy's political asylum system as experienced by asylum seekers in Italy today. The findings from this research could contribute to policy considerations on alternative models of care for asylum seekers in Europe.