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

该项目探讨了难民和照顾者如何与在紧急情况下行政管理严重紧张的机构进行谈判。正如创纪录数量的非洲和中东移民抵达欧洲所表明的那样，难民危机给政治庇护体系带来了严重的压力。许多接收难民的国家经常依赖向这些社区提供关怀和援助的非国家行为者的人道主义努力。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。这些机构缓解了国家设施的部分压力，但随着寻求庇护者在国家和非国家照料系统之间流动，为庇护申请的治理和行政管理带来了新的挑战。这个项目对研究生进行基于经验的科学研究方法进行培训，调查寻求庇护者如何在这两个照料机构之间穿梭，并利用他们的经验来思考为寻求庇护者提供替代照料的模式。杜克大学博士生Carla Hung在何恩森教授的指导下，将进行为期12个月的人种学实地研究，以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。意大利是欧洲的主要接收国之一，意大利政府通过让天主教慈善机构帮助庇护和难民护理过程来应对这一紧急情况。将天主教慈善机构纳入意大利的政治庇护体系，要求教会和国家行为者就他们不同的照顾做法进行谈判，从而搅乱意大利教会和国家之间的分离。Hung将在罗马的两个地点重点介绍寻求庇护者和护理人员的经历：1)圣加里卡诺医院--在那里，一家国营医疗诊所(INMP)和一个天主教援助组织(Community of Sant‘Egidio)都在合作照顾寻求庇护者；2)萨拉姆宫--一个自治的移民住房居住地，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做法的参与者观察，辅之以对政策和活动材料的内容分析；以及对圣加里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生活或寻求服务的寻求庇护者进行广泛访谈。对这些信息的分析将试图回答以下研究问题：1)获得天主教援助的机会如何影响移民是否决定在意大利寻求庇护？2)教会和国家行为者如何谈判，以定义寻求庇护者可以获得的护理类型，以及他们如何确定谁负责提供这种护理？3)研究寻求庇护者如何驾驭这两个机构的护理做法，揭示了寻求庇护者如何体验和概念化护理、庇护、创伤和慈善？这个项目将揭示天主教援助在意大利政治庇护制度中的影响，就像今天在意大利的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替代照料模式的政策考虑。

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.