Seeing Ourselves
Legacies of Jewish Migration from the Islamic World
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Emily Gottreich
Jewish heritage has become the object of increasing attention in the twenty-first century Islamic world. From Morocco to Indonesia, Jewish-themed exhibits and museums are opening, ancient synagogues and cemeteries are being restored, and Jewish ethnic tourism is booming. Not unlike in Krakow itself, Jewish heritage in the Islamic world is being revived and celebrated mostly in the absence of embodied Jews, who migrated from these regions in the middle of the last century. This paper investigates what happens when the long and complex Jewish historical experience under Islam is recast to suit the requirements and values of today’s globalizing world. This vast and somewhat paradoxical trend by tracing how the Jewish past is being instrumentalized in the Islamic world today, and asking what specific kind of meaning accrues to Jewish sites in one setting vs. another.
Framing Success in the Vietnamese Diaspora
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Hung Thai
Focusing on social interactions in the homeland among Vietnamese diasporic subjects, this study examines the complex interpretations of success and worthiness within Vietnamese transnational repertoires. As a country undergoing dramatic economic transformation for more than three decades, Vietnam is a site of new hierarchies with the increasing return of overseas migrants who encounter a growing new monied class. I examine the formation of these hierarchies in situations where individuals seek to establish themselves as “social betters” in determining criteria of worthiness. I am concerned with the cultural repertories and structural resources underlying how and why individuals create or draw lines to define themselves against each other, and how such lines are rooted in social comparisons that lead to contests over meanings about success and parity. I argue that the homeland is a site of cross-class interactions in which great confusions exist over meanings of taste, success, and achievements, all of which produce blurry measurements of worth. The analysis is based on more than 90 in-depth interviews and intensive participant observations over a seven year period with a cross section of the overseas migrant and local populations in Ho Chi Minh City.
Assailing Asylum: Affirmative and Defensive Asylum Grant Rates in the United States, 1980-2023 View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Bryan Sykes, Vicente Mata
The primary objective of asylum policy is to offer a “safe haven” for individuals whose lives are in danger in their home countries (through persecution and/or torture), and individuals from countries where human rights violations are prevalent should have an increased likelihood of having their asylum requests approved. Yet, to date, little research has examined, systematically, historical and contemporary asylum approval rates and their distribution over time, across countries, and between asylum claims. In this paper, we leverage data from multiple administrative sources to examine how changing states of exception and exclusionary categories embedded in U.S. asylum policy have affected affirmative and defensive asylum grant rates between 1980-2023. Since the passage of the Refugee Act in 1980, we find that over 6.2 million asylum petitions have been submitted for adjudication; however, only 1-in-7 petitions for asylum have been granted in the last four decades, despite claims of well-founded fear of persecution or torture. Our findings draw attention to administrative decision-making about asylum claims within the context of polarized public opinion and political discourses about immigration.
The Role of Municipalities in Integration of Asylum Seekers In Poland: The Case of Krakow
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Suleyman Cihan
The relationship between a successful integration policy and municipal work is important in understanding the impact of municipalities on integration policies. In cases where the central government is insufficient in the integration efforts of asylum seekers, municipalities that have closer relations with the public are thought to be important actors in integration. The war and ongoing conflict environment in Ukraine has led to the influx of millions of asylum seekers especially to Poland. In the study, where qualitative analysis method was used, in-depth interviews were conducted with experts who worked or are working with refugees in Krakow Municipality in Poland. During the interviews, it was pointed out that municipalities in Turkey do not have sufficient legal authority regarding asylum seeker integration, and it was stated that studies were carried out with limited powers in Poland. As a result of the analysis of the interviews, experts stated that a healthy and successful integration policy should be expanded, the legal legislation should be clearly determined, and especially the authorities and budgets of the municipalities should be increased. It is claimed that the integration will be successful in the long term with the mechanism by involving the central government, NGOs and the municipality, where effective integration is possible and the municipalities are included in the process.
