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Fall 2020 PhD workshop

The Fall 2020 PhD workshop will hear presentations from two ICSRU PhD students.

Info about event

Time

Friday 27 November 2020,  at 14:15 - 16:00

Location

Zoom

Organizer

ICSRU

As usual, we will start with presentations and news. Then:

1. Line Grüner (Anthropology): "New lines of solidarity: Everyday encounters between Syrian refugee families in Denmark and their shifting neighbors."

This PhD project explores the question of how solidarity emerges in the encounter between Syrians who have come to Denmark as war refugees and other people living in their surrounding community and how the in- and exclusivity of these emerging solidarities influence senses of belonging, feelings of uncertainty, everyday family life and the processes of rooting among the Syrian families as newcomers. In the shadows of the Covid-19 pandemic, these questions about refugees and solidarity have only become more relevant. The word samfundssind (public spirit) is on everyone’s lips, and between discussions of borders and boundaries, source and spread of infection, inequality, economic crisis and rising unemployment new lines of solidarity are emerging in the Danish population and social landscape is undergoing change. In this presentation, I will elaborate on the scope of my project and share with you how the Covid-19 disruption has left me to find new creative ways of being in the field and conduct fieldwork.

2. Sarah-Louise Japhetson Mortensen (Anthropology): "The ‘return turn’ in Danish politics, everyday life of Somali and Syrian refugees under temporary protection"

Since the so-called ‘refugee crisis’ in 2015, Danish governments have emphasised “temporary protection” and “return” of asylum seekers and refugees residing in Denmark. Syrian and Somali refugees currently constitute the nationalities that are most exposed to revocation of residence permit or rejection of extension. Through ethnographic field work, this PhD project seeks to explore how Syrian and Somali families cope with the increased temporariness of protection in their daily life in Denmark, how they orientate themselves inside and outside Denmark and how temporal uncertainties influence their social relations and understandings of good parenting and child behaviour. As part of the larger international and interdisciplinary project “Temporary protection as a durable solution? The ‘return turn’ in asylum policies in Europe” (TemPro), the PhD project contributes to the creation of knowledge about the legal implications and the lived experiences of temporary protection in Northern Europe. In this presentation, I will present the post-2015 turn towards “return” of refugees in Danish legislation and politics, and illustrate the conflicting demands of integration and deportation that Syrian and Somali refugees face. Throughout the presentation, I will unfold some of the questions I have upon the beginning of my PhD project.