Our events
upcoming events
Der Mittelmeerraum als Drehscheibe für Flüchtlingsbewegungen:
ÖOG-ISA Vortragsreihe zur Fluchtforschung in Zusammenarbeit mit ROR-n 03-23. MÄRZ 2017 – 18.30 Uhr ÖOG KLUBSAAL DOMINIKANERBASTEI 6/6 1010 WIEN Der Mittelmeerraum, der seit der Antike als ein Raum des materiellen und ideellen Austausches gilt, hat mit all seinen Anrainerstaaten in den letzten Jahren enorme Transformationen erfahren. Über Jahrhunderte galt das Mittelmeer als etwas Verbindendes, nun erfährt es eine der größten humanitären Katastrophen. In dieser Vortragsreihe sollen die unterschiedlichen Flüchtlingsbewegungen, die Politiken der betreffenden Nationalstaaten, aber auch die Politik der Europäischen Union beleuchtet werden. Erzwungene Migrationen und Fluchtbewegungen sowie die Auswirkungen dieser auf die Gesellschaften der Anrainerstaaten werden dabei aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven diskutiert. Dabei wird auf die Herkunftsländer wie auch auf die besonderen Herausforderungen für die Transitländer im Mittelmeerraum Bezug genommen. Die Referent_innen werden auf Basis ihrer jüngsten Forschungen auf die Hintergründe der unterschiedlichen Fluchtbewegungen aus den Herkunftsländern und die Auswirkungen auf die Transit- und Zielländer eingehen und soziokulturelle Transformationen analysieren. Besonderer Fokus liegt auf der 'agency' der Menschen, die zur Flucht gezwungen sind. Programm
- Auf dem Weg ans Mittelmeer (On the Way to the Mediterranean) Dienstag,7.3.: "Flucht und Migration aus West- und Nordafrika. Die Sahara, ‘the second face of the Mediterranean’"- Ines Kohl Donnerstag, 9.3.:"Ägyptens komplexe Rolle in Flucht- und Migrationsbewegungen zwischen Nahost, Afrika Subsahara und Europa"- Sabine Bauer - Konditionen des Geflohenseins (Conditions of refugeeness) Dienstag,14.3.:"EzidInnen von Shingal. Flucht und anhaltende Unsicherheit nach den genozidalen Verfolgungen von Shingal (Irak)". - Maria Six-Hohenbalken Donnnerstag,16.3.:"The Middle Eastern Refugees and (im)mobility”- Leonardo Schiocchet - Europa Erreichen? Dienstag, 21.3.: "Flüchtlinge auf dem Mittelmeer im Spannungsfeld von Seenotrettung und Grenzkontrollen"-Silja Klepp Donnerstag 23.3.: "EU-politics in relation to the situation in Lesbos" - Evthymios Papataxiarchis |
CASCA/IUAES2017 Conference in Ottawa
Panel (MB-SSR02) - Ideas of movement, faith, and home in Muslim communities in the diaspora
May 2-7, 2017
Convenors
Marzia Balzani (New York University, Abu Dhabi) email
Leonardo Schiocchet (Austrian Academy of Sciences) email
Abstract:
Places left behind, whether as sites of exclusion and exile or because they can no longer offer viable futures for those who dwell there, often invoke ideas of home as refuge, of center and origin, even as one moves further away from them both geographically and across time. This panel considers how Muslims in the diaspora incorporate diverse and complex histories of travel, displacement and dislocation into practices that reestablish home and reinvent everyday life in new locations. In particular, we seek to understand how experiences of migration, both forced and otherwise, are understood in relation to faith and 'traveling theories' serving to order and shape experience, even when this is a fraught and contested process for those who are compelled to make a new home far from home. How do ideas of places of origin, however imagined or reinvented in new contexts, interact with the locations to which Muslims journey and in which they establish their lives, to create identities that may often be conceptualized as unchanging in spite of altered circumstances? What happens to notions of a place of origin not only to first but also to second or third generation Muslims born in the diaspora? What can 'going home' to somewhere conceptualized as a place of origin mean for one who has never been there before? How is faith mobilized and enacted across borders, and how might faith inform conceptualisations of time, space and movement beyond the mundane?
Panel (MB-SSR02) - Ideas of movement, faith, and home in Muslim communities in the diaspora
May 2-7, 2017
Convenors
Marzia Balzani (New York University, Abu Dhabi) email
Leonardo Schiocchet (Austrian Academy of Sciences) email
Abstract:
Places left behind, whether as sites of exclusion and exile or because they can no longer offer viable futures for those who dwell there, often invoke ideas of home as refuge, of center and origin, even as one moves further away from them both geographically and across time. This panel considers how Muslims in the diaspora incorporate diverse and complex histories of travel, displacement and dislocation into practices that reestablish home and reinvent everyday life in new locations. In particular, we seek to understand how experiences of migration, both forced and otherwise, are understood in relation to faith and 'traveling theories' serving to order and shape experience, even when this is a fraught and contested process for those who are compelled to make a new home far from home. How do ideas of places of origin, however imagined or reinvented in new contexts, interact with the locations to which Muslims journey and in which they establish their lives, to create identities that may often be conceptualized as unchanging in spite of altered circumstances? What happens to notions of a place of origin not only to first but also to second or third generation Muslims born in the diaspora? What can 'going home' to somewhere conceptualized as a place of origin mean for one who has never been there before? How is faith mobilized and enacted across borders, and how might faith inform conceptualisations of time, space and movement beyond the mundane?
SYRIAN IDENTITIES ACCORDING TO AUSTRIAN AID WORKERS: DEBATING IDENTITY/ALTERITY
PIA JOLLIFFE
Researcher Scholar, Las Casas Institute, Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford Research Fellow, Oxford Institute of Population Ageing & ROR-n
Friday, 27th of January 2017, 4pm
Institute for Social Anthropology (ISA)
Seminar room, 1020 Vienna, Hollandstrasse 11-13
PIA JOLLIFFE
Researcher Scholar, Las Casas Institute, Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford Research Fellow, Oxford Institute of Population Ageing & ROR-n
Friday, 27th of January 2017, 4pm
Institute for Social Anthropology (ISA)
Seminar room, 1020 Vienna, Hollandstrasse 11-13
PODIUMSDISKUSSION „Was bedeutet Integration?“
Do. 20 Oktober 2016, 18.30 s.t. bis 20 Uhr
Institut für Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie Universitätsstraße 7, 4.Stock (NIG), HS A
Am Podium
Mari Steindl – Kultur- und Sozialanthropologin, Universität Wien
Birgit Prochazka – Steuerung Integration Caritas (Absolventin KSA, AnthropologInnen beraten Gemeinden)
Murat Düzel – Leitung Integrationsservice der N.Ö. Landesakademie
Murtaza Tahiri – afghanischer Geflüchteter (Vorstudienlehrgang Uni Wien und Praktikant der Profil-Redaktion im Juli 2016)
Moderation: Odile Kommer (Anthropologin, ROR-N)
Do. 20 Oktober 2016, 18.30 s.t. bis 20 Uhr
Institut für Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie Universitätsstraße 7, 4.Stock (NIG), HS A
Am Podium
Mari Steindl – Kultur- und Sozialanthropologin, Universität Wien
Birgit Prochazka – Steuerung Integration Caritas (Absolventin KSA, AnthropologInnen beraten Gemeinden)
Murat Düzel – Leitung Integrationsservice der N.Ö. Landesakademie
Murtaza Tahiri – afghanischer Geflüchteter (Vorstudienlehrgang Uni Wien und Praktikant der Profil-Redaktion im Juli 2016)
Moderation: Odile Kommer (Anthropologin, ROR-N)
Geflüchtet. Angekommen. Und jetzt? Anthropologische Perspektiven, regionale Einblicke und alltagserleichtende Ausblicke in der Arbeit mit Flüchtlingen
Freitag, 16. September 2016
Institut für Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie - Universität Wien
Neues Institutsgebäude, Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien
Freitag, 16. September 2016
Institut für Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie - Universität Wien
Neues Institutsgebäude, Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien
past events
Turkish Migration Conference 2016, Friday. July 15th 2016, 13.40 to 15.20
Session Movers from Turkey to Austria –II
Room SR 4, University of Vienna, Währingerstraße 29, 1090 Vienna
Presentation:
From Turkey to Austria: Case Studies of Asylum Seekers from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq in Austria:
Josef Kohlbacher, Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek and Maria-Anna Six-Hohenbalken
This paper will present preliminary results of a current pilot study undertaken by members of the newly established ROR-Net (Refugee Outreach and Research Network, Vienna). Based on narrative interviews the life experiences of refugees in their home country, the reasons for leaving, the obstacles witnessed during their flight including short term refuge in Turkey - and their first experiences in Austria will be highlighted. In addition, the paper will offer insights into their expectations and perceptions of their living circumstances.
The study itself – once completed – will also provide recommendations for integration initiatives for NGO´s and political decision-makers. Some of these goals will also be briefly focused at in the presentation
Session Movers from Turkey to Austria –II
Room SR 4, University of Vienna, Währingerstraße 29, 1090 Vienna
Presentation:
From Turkey to Austria: Case Studies of Asylum Seekers from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq in Austria:
Josef Kohlbacher, Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek and Maria-Anna Six-Hohenbalken
This paper will present preliminary results of a current pilot study undertaken by members of the newly established ROR-Net (Refugee Outreach and Research Network, Vienna). Based on narrative interviews the life experiences of refugees in their home country, the reasons for leaving, the obstacles witnessed during their flight including short term refuge in Turkey - and their first experiences in Austria will be highlighted. In addition, the paper will offer insights into their expectations and perceptions of their living circumstances.
The study itself – once completed – will also provide recommendations for integration initiatives for NGO´s and political decision-makers. Some of these goals will also be briefly focused at in the presentation
14th EASA Biennial Conference: Anthropological legacies and human futures
20-23 July 2016, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
Anthropologists between the Middle East and Europe: war, crises, refugees, migration and Islamophobia [AMCE]
Convenors:
Pedram Khosronejad (Oklahoma State University)
Leonardo Schiocchet (Austrian Academy of Sciences & ROR-N)
Abstract
D. Chatty recently stated that while the 20th century has been called the 'century of the refugee', the 21st century looks set to become known as the 'century of displacement and dispossession'. Postcolonial heritage fuelling conflicts in the global South tints much of this displacement and dispossession. However, much of it has also been caused by new wars in the global South involving the global North. Recent ongoing wars in Yemen, Libya, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and increasing political, religious, and ethnic clashes and refugee catastrophes from the Middle East to Europe, signal radical geopolitical change. How should anthropologists and their professional associations relate to such changes? Should we remain "aloof from" or actively engage in the "great issues of our times" (Fried, Harris, and Murphy 1967:ix)? As regional specialists and social theorists, anthropologists have both moral and professional concerns for the effects of war. Anthropology then, with its emphasis on lived experience, is currently facing a dilemma: on the one hand we must collect and interpret critical data, while on the other hand ethnographic research is both difficult and sensitive. Bold yet comprehensive positioning is thus critical, given our ethical responsibility to contribute to the understanding and resolution of such complex problems. In this panel, we aim at engaging in constructive new thinking by understanding how such anthropological investigations may impact and spark debate within the European public sphere, inspiring policy makers, faith communities, and media representatives.
For more information or to submit a paper, please go to:
http://nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2016/panels.php5?PanelID=4146
20-23 July 2016, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
Anthropologists between the Middle East and Europe: war, crises, refugees, migration and Islamophobia [AMCE]
Convenors:
Pedram Khosronejad (Oklahoma State University)
Leonardo Schiocchet (Austrian Academy of Sciences & ROR-N)
Abstract
D. Chatty recently stated that while the 20th century has been called the 'century of the refugee', the 21st century looks set to become known as the 'century of displacement and dispossession'. Postcolonial heritage fuelling conflicts in the global South tints much of this displacement and dispossession. However, much of it has also been caused by new wars in the global South involving the global North. Recent ongoing wars in Yemen, Libya, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and increasing political, religious, and ethnic clashes and refugee catastrophes from the Middle East to Europe, signal radical geopolitical change. How should anthropologists and their professional associations relate to such changes? Should we remain "aloof from" or actively engage in the "great issues of our times" (Fried, Harris, and Murphy 1967:ix)? As regional specialists and social theorists, anthropologists have both moral and professional concerns for the effects of war. Anthropology then, with its emphasis on lived experience, is currently facing a dilemma: on the one hand we must collect and interpret critical data, while on the other hand ethnographic research is both difficult and sensitive. Bold yet comprehensive positioning is thus critical, given our ethical responsibility to contribute to the understanding and resolution of such complex problems. In this panel, we aim at engaging in constructive new thinking by understanding how such anthropological investigations may impact and spark debate within the European public sphere, inspiring policy makers, faith communities, and media representatives.
For more information or to submit a paper, please go to:
http://nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2016/panels.php5?PanelID=4146
Wednesday Seminar - 15.06.2016Gebhard Fartacek
Institut für Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie (IKSA), Universität Wien; HS C; 17:00 Uhr
Neues Feindbild Alawiten? - Reflexionen zu ethnisch-religiösen Segmentierungen und gegenwärtigen Entwicklungen im Syrienkrieg.
Im Mittelpunkt dieses Wednesday-Seminars stehen ethnisch-religiöse Segmentierungen im Großraum Syrien, die sowohl in ihrer historischen Genese als auch in ihren rezenten nationalstaatlichen Eingliederungen, Ideologien (Panarabismus, Panislamismus) und vor dem Hintergrund autoritärer Herrschaftsformen beleuchtet werden.
Im Zuge des sogenannten Arabischen Frühlings kam es u.a. zur Revitalisierung „alter Fragen“ nach Wahrem Islam & Häresie; in den geopolitischen Spannungen taten sich neue sunnitische/schiitische Bruchlinien auf. Rasch rückte die Religionsgemeinschaft der syrischen Alawiten (Nuṣayrier) ins Zentrum der Auseinandersetzungen: Vom Asad-Regime instrumentalisiert und von den sunnitischen Regimegegnern als Häretiker gebrandmarkt blieb für die Alawiten wenig Spielraum für differenzierte Positionierungen. Längst hat die Hetze gegen (vermeintlich) spezifisch-alawitische Rituale und Glaubensvorstellungen – unter maßgeblicher Beteiligung sunnitisch-doktrinärer Satelliten-TV-Stationen aus der Golfregion und einschlägiger Internetportale – transnationale Dimensionen angenommen.
Auch unter den syrischen Flüchtlingen in Österreich sind die Alawiten – im Gegensatz zu anderen nahöstlichen Minoritäten – mit Ressentiments und offenen Aggressionen konfrontiert. Der (panarabische) Glaube an einen multireligiösen syrischen Nationalstaat scheint in den letzten Kriegsjahren endgültig verloren gegangen zu sein.
Gebhard Fartacek, Institut für audio-visuelle Forschung und Dokumentation | Phonogrammarchiv der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, Österreich
Institut für Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie (IKSA), Universität Wien; HS C; 17:00 Uhr
Neues Feindbild Alawiten? - Reflexionen zu ethnisch-religiösen Segmentierungen und gegenwärtigen Entwicklungen im Syrienkrieg.
Im Mittelpunkt dieses Wednesday-Seminars stehen ethnisch-religiöse Segmentierungen im Großraum Syrien, die sowohl in ihrer historischen Genese als auch in ihren rezenten nationalstaatlichen Eingliederungen, Ideologien (Panarabismus, Panislamismus) und vor dem Hintergrund autoritärer Herrschaftsformen beleuchtet werden.
Im Zuge des sogenannten Arabischen Frühlings kam es u.a. zur Revitalisierung „alter Fragen“ nach Wahrem Islam & Häresie; in den geopolitischen Spannungen taten sich neue sunnitische/schiitische Bruchlinien auf. Rasch rückte die Religionsgemeinschaft der syrischen Alawiten (Nuṣayrier) ins Zentrum der Auseinandersetzungen: Vom Asad-Regime instrumentalisiert und von den sunnitischen Regimegegnern als Häretiker gebrandmarkt blieb für die Alawiten wenig Spielraum für differenzierte Positionierungen. Längst hat die Hetze gegen (vermeintlich) spezifisch-alawitische Rituale und Glaubensvorstellungen – unter maßgeblicher Beteiligung sunnitisch-doktrinärer Satelliten-TV-Stationen aus der Golfregion und einschlägiger Internetportale – transnationale Dimensionen angenommen.
Auch unter den syrischen Flüchtlingen in Österreich sind die Alawiten – im Gegensatz zu anderen nahöstlichen Minoritäten – mit Ressentiments und offenen Aggressionen konfrontiert. Der (panarabische) Glaube an einen multireligiösen syrischen Nationalstaat scheint in den letzten Kriegsjahren endgültig verloren gegangen zu sein.
Gebhard Fartacek, Institut für audio-visuelle Forschung und Dokumentation | Phonogrammarchiv der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, Österreich
ROR-N Lectures
YEARS OF FLIGHT, DISPLACEMENT AND RESETTLEMENT:
CASE STUDY FROM AFGHANISTAN
Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek (University of Vienna & ROR-n)
Friday, 20th of May 2016, 4pm
Institute for Social Anthropology (ISA)
Seminar room 2, 1030 Vienna, Apostelgasse 23
This presentation will offer an overview of more than three decades of flight, displacement and resettlement and their impact on the people of Afghanistan. Millions of Afghans have been exposed to experiences as refugees and internally displaced persons - often several times within their lifetime. This had major consequences for the individual Afghan as well as for society at large leading amongst other things to the breakup of former social support networks, alterations of people’s worldviews, and the creation of new social and political relations. Other noteworthy effects are the rapid urbanization processes, the high level of politicization, in particular of the younger generation, and the creation of transnational networks and the use of modern means of communication.
Mag.Dr.Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek, holds an MA in sociology and political sciences (1979) and a Ph.D. in Anthropology, Turkology and Islamic Studies (1984), awarded from the University of Vienna/ Austria. Since 1985 she is working at the Anthropology Department of that university. She has also been lecturing at a number of other academic institutions. In 1999/2000 she has been a post-doc fellow at the Program in Agrarian Studies, Yale University and in the fall term 2012 a visiting professor at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. She has done extensive fieldwork in rural Turkey as well as among Afghan Refugees in Pakistan and Turkey. Dr. Rasuly-Paleczek has published a number of articles and books dealing with rural Turkey as well as with local politics and identity issues in Afghanistan. Her latest work - co-edited with Robert L. Canfield – is “Ethnicity, Authority, and Power in Central Asia: New Games Great and Small” (Routledge 2011)
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ROR-N presentation
Lange Nacht der Forschung
Das Auge des Ethnographen und die Welt der Sozialanthropologie
22.04.2016, 17:00-23:00
Heldenplatz, 1010 Wien
Inauguration of ROR-N blog and webpage!
http://www.langenachtderforschung.at/index.php?option=com_jumi&fileid=21&Itemid=161&group_id=7019&page=stationen&filter=none
Lange Nacht der Forschung
Das Auge des Ethnographen und die Welt der Sozialanthropologie
22.04.2016, 17:00-23:00
Heldenplatz, 1010 Wien
Inauguration of ROR-N blog and webpage!
http://www.langenachtderforschung.at/index.php?option=com_jumi&fileid=21&Itemid=161&group_id=7019&page=stationen&filter=none
Ringvorlesung Sommersemester 2016
Facetten von Flucht aus dem Nahen und Mittleren Osten
Block 1: Fr, 18.3.2016, 9.45 -13.00 Uhr
Einblicke in Herkunftsregionen: Großraum Syrien und Afghanistan
Referent/innen: Gebhard Fartacek, Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek
Block 2: Fr, 8.4.2016, 9.45 -13.00 Uhr
Rechtliche Aspekte und sozialanthropologische Ansätze in der Flüchtlingsforschung
Referent/innen: Petra Limberger, Susanne Binder
Block 3: Fr, 22.4.2016, 9.45 -13.00 Uhr
Flüchtlingslager, Flüchtlingsrouten, Netzwerke und Community-Building
Referent/innen: Leonardo Schiocchet, Jelena Tosic, Philipp Bruckmayr
Block 4: Fr, 13.5.2016, 9.45 -13.00 Uhr
„Flüchtlingsarbeit“ –Eindrücke aus der aktuellen Situation in Österreich
Organisationen und Referent/innen u.a.: Willkommen in Österreich (Birgit Fallman); Willkommen Mensch in Kilb (Sigrid Wagner-Waser); Diakonie NÖ West Mobile Beratung (Sandra Schweiger); Diakonie Wohn-beratung NÖ (Hilmar Zschiedrich); Asylzentrum der Caritas (Irene Kucera); asylkoordinationösterreich(Herbert Langthaler)
Block 5: Fr, 3.6.2016, 9.45 -13.00 Uhr
(Weiter)Leben im Fluchtkontext –psychologische und gesundheitliche Aspekte
Referent/innen: Yvonne Schaffler, Nora Ramirez Castillo, Elena Jirovsky
Block 6: Fr, 17.6.2016, 9.45 -13.00 Uhr
Was die Kultur-und Sozialanthropologie beitragen kann ...
Referent/innen: Susanne Binder, Gebhard Fartacek, Safwan Alshoufi
Facetten von Flucht aus dem Nahen und Mittleren Osten
Block 1: Fr, 18.3.2016, 9.45 -13.00 Uhr
Einblicke in Herkunftsregionen: Großraum Syrien und Afghanistan
Referent/innen: Gebhard Fartacek, Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek
Block 2: Fr, 8.4.2016, 9.45 -13.00 Uhr
Rechtliche Aspekte und sozialanthropologische Ansätze in der Flüchtlingsforschung
Referent/innen: Petra Limberger, Susanne Binder
Block 3: Fr, 22.4.2016, 9.45 -13.00 Uhr
Flüchtlingslager, Flüchtlingsrouten, Netzwerke und Community-Building
Referent/innen: Leonardo Schiocchet, Jelena Tosic, Philipp Bruckmayr
Block 4: Fr, 13.5.2016, 9.45 -13.00 Uhr
„Flüchtlingsarbeit“ –Eindrücke aus der aktuellen Situation in Österreich
Organisationen und Referent/innen u.a.: Willkommen in Österreich (Birgit Fallman); Willkommen Mensch in Kilb (Sigrid Wagner-Waser); Diakonie NÖ West Mobile Beratung (Sandra Schweiger); Diakonie Wohn-beratung NÖ (Hilmar Zschiedrich); Asylzentrum der Caritas (Irene Kucera); asylkoordinationösterreich(Herbert Langthaler)
Block 5: Fr, 3.6.2016, 9.45 -13.00 Uhr
(Weiter)Leben im Fluchtkontext –psychologische und gesundheitliche Aspekte
Referent/innen: Yvonne Schaffler, Nora Ramirez Castillo, Elena Jirovsky
Block 6: Fr, 17.6.2016, 9.45 -13.00 Uhr
Was die Kultur-und Sozialanthropologie beitragen kann ...
Referent/innen: Susanne Binder, Gebhard Fartacek, Safwan Alshoufi
Lecture
Afghanistan: Mehr als 3 Jahrzehnte Krieg, Flucht, Vertreibung und Rückkehr
Mag.a Dr.in Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek Ass.-Prof.in
Thursdsay, 14th of April 2016, 19.00h
Diplomatische Akademie, Favoritenstraße 15a, 1040 Wien
Anmeldung erbeten unter regina.kamauf@orient-gesellschaft.at
Afghanistan: Mehr als 3 Jahrzehnte Krieg, Flucht, Vertreibung und Rückkehr
Mag.a Dr.in Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek Ass.-Prof.in
Thursdsay, 14th of April 2016, 19.00h
Diplomatische Akademie, Favoritenstraße 15a, 1040 Wien
Anmeldung erbeten unter regina.kamauf@orient-gesellschaft.at
ROR-N Lectures
On the brink of a state of exception? Austria, Europe and the Refugee crisis
Leonardo Schiocchet
Friday, 1st of April 2016, 4pm
Institute for Social Anthropology, Seminar room 1, 1030, Vienna, Apostelgasse 23
In 2015, Europe recorded 1.190.835 first-time asylum requests. As large groups of asylum seekers moved toward Europe in the second half of the year, the media, the European Union and many European governments quickly proclaimed a “European refugee crisis”. This talk questions if the refugee camp is a space of exception, in Michel Agier’s sense, which in turn is based on Giorgio Agamben’s concept of "state of exception". My main argument is that Agamben’s concept is better suited for a critique of the modern nation-state – as he intended – while Agier’s concept is better suited to understanding how refugee camps fit in the (frequently urban) landscapes surrounding the camps or the camp’s own urbanity, as opposed to understanding the camps specificities. Then, I present historical and demographic data pertaining the 2015 influx of asylum seekers into Europe, complementing it with ethnographic snippets from Austria. My aim is to analyse the fear, intrinsic to the “European refugee crisis” rhetoric, that the coming of refugees and immigrants would represent the suspension of the current European political order and way of life, frequently thought as a point of no return. By putting this rhetoric in perspective, this talk aims to investigate whether Europe is indeed facing a crisis and, if so, what the nature of it is. In other words, is Europe currently on the brink of a general state of exception?
Leonardo Schiocchet is a PhD in anthropology (Boston University) specialized in the anthropology of the Middle East, with emphasis on Palestinian refugees. He has done fieldwork among Palestinians in Lebanon, Brazil, Denmark, Austria and the West Bank. He is currently a researcher at ISA, and a member of ROR-N. His current Lise Meitner project (FWF) investigates the Austrian-Palestinian encounter, while at ROR-N he is developing research projects aimed at understanding processes relating to the current Middle Eastern and Central Asian migration waves into Europe. He has published widely on Palestinian social belonging processes, refugees, and the Middle East.
ROR-N Lectures
Migration Crisis, Conflict and Syrians
Ibrahim Sirkeci
Friday, 4th of March 2016, 2pm
Institute for Social Anthropology, Seminar room 1, 1030, Vienna, Apostelgasse 23
The current migration crisis we face in Europe is the biggest crisis since the last biggest crisis. Millions of Kosovans, Bosnians fleeing their homes. However, politics and media operating on short term parameters and hence public discourses lead to twisted perceptions. In this talk, Prof Sirkeci is discussing the drivers of migration based on facts and evidence from Syria and elsewhere. He argues that very few people are migrants among whom Syrian refugees represent a small segment. Drawing upon his conceptual work formulated in the Conflict Model of Migration, Sirkeci points out the trends and patterns of population movements. While maintaining a positive outlook about the current and future flows of Syrian migration, he portrays a rather pessimistic picture of conflict driven migrations unless there is genuine effort to settle the inequalities and injustices in Syria and elsewhere. There are three deficits leading the current migration crisis: Democratic deficit, Development deficit and Demographic deficit. These characterise environment of human insecurities and lead to outflow of populations. Once migration experience is established, cultures of migration emerge and ensure long term human mobility.
Ibrahim Sirkeci is Ria Professor of Transnational Studies and Director of the Regent's Centre for Transnational Studies (RCTS), Regent's University London. He holds a PhD from the University of Sheffield and a B.A. from Bilkent University, and his research covers migration, ethnicity, remittances, labour markets and integration. He is the chair of Turkish Migration Conferences, the 4th in the series being hosted at the University of Vienna (12-15 July 2016). Sirkeci serves as editor for several journals, including Migration Letters, Border Crossing, Kurdish Studies, and Remittances Review. His authored books on migration include: Cultures of Migration, the Global Nature of Contemporary Mobility (U. of Texas Press, 2011), Migration and Remittances during the Global Financial Crisis and Beyond (The World Bank, 2012), Turkish Migration, Identity and Integration (TPLondon, 2015), and Conflict, Insecurity and Mobility (TPLondon, 2016).
