Program

11.30: Lunch for the invited guests

12.30: Mikkel Rytter, Welcome + round of presentations

12.45 - 14.45:

• Halvar Kjærre Andreassen
  Moral migrants: Articulations of morality among Afghan migrants in Europe
• Aisha Munir
  The emotional and physical consequences of age assessment - minors perspective
• Sarah-Louise Japhetson Mortensen
  ‘Taking Chance’ – Creating provisional stability in an uncertain situation

14.45 - 15.00: Coffee, tea, cake

15.00 - 17.00:

• Esra S. Kaytaz
  Why are the protection claims of Afghans in Europe not met? Rethinking belonging and return in protracted displacement
• Narges Ghandchi
  Security and hope for the future: Representations of insecurity among newly arrived Afghans in Denmark
• Karen Waltorp
  Social mobility and filmmaking among women with Afghan background

17.00 - 17.30: General discussion and wrap up 

18.30: Speakers are invited to dinner in town

Invited speakers

Halvar Kjærre Andreassen, Bergen University

Esra S. Kaytaz, Coventry University

Narges Ghandchi, Aarhus University

Sarah-Louise Japhetson Mortensen, Aarhus University

Aisha Munir, Oslo University

Karen Waltorp, Aarhus University

Mikkel Rytter, Aarhus University

Abstracts:

Aisha Munir

The emotional and physical consequences of age assessment - minors perspective

The widely discussed and criticized process of age assessment of under aged Afghan refugee children in Norway, have had a lot of (media) attention.  However, the voices of the individuals who must undergo this process, has been lacking in this debate. In my research I discovered how the process of age assessment not only effects the children individually but the children as a whole group living under one roof in the temporarily refugee camps. The different dynamics and the relationship these children develop to each other and themselves, as a result of the age test, has been the focus of my research. 

Halvar Kjærre Andreassen

Moral migrants: Articulations of morality among Afghan migrants in Europe

People relate to migrants in moral ways, but migrants are often depicted as immoral subjects. They are typically viewed, either as passive victims of an inhuman system and innocent subjects exempt from moral judgements, or as criminal perpetrators and immoral violators. While the victim-perspective deprives migrants of moral responsibility, the criminalizing perspectives attach highly immoral qualities to migrants. In either perspective, what is not recognized is how migrants are also moral actors who articulate their own moral judgements upon their own actions and moral careers.

Many scholars have analyzed the narratives and discourses that are used to describe migrants. Ethnographic research focusing on migrants’ lives, however, easily confirms the dichotomies in popular narratives. On the other hand, and perhaps in order to counter de-moralizing perspectives, researchers have described migrants as “perfect citizens” and what could be depicted as super-moral subjects. Such perspectives introduce a new pole that equally essentialize migrants and loose out on migrants’ perspectives: how migrants find themselves to be located between several conflicting moral systems, or how they may experience to act in ways that are contradictory to their own moral standards.

Based upon mobile ethnographic research among rejected asylum seekers from Afghanistan in Europe, this paper investigates how migrants evaluate and articulate their actions in moral terms, how they express moral concerns. I argue that migrants constantly assess and reflect upon their own actions according to moral standards and stress the importance of viewing migrants as moral subjects, both anthropologically and politically. Finally, I argue that mobile ethnographic method gives added value to the study of migrant moral careers.

Esra S. Kaytaz

Why are the protection claims of Afghans in Europe not met? Rethinking belonging and return in protracted displacement

Afghanistan is the source of one of the longest crises of protracted displacement. In this presentation, I will argue that Afghans in Europe face particular sets of challenges that are not accommodated by the existing migration and protection regimes. This is for two reasons: complex migration historiesthat result from protracted displacement out of Afghanistan and the causes of individual fears of return to Afghanistan. After a brief overview a brief overview of relevant trends in Afghan displacement, I will first discuss the implications of these migration patterns for ‘belonging’ both from subjective perspectives of Afghans and for their protection claims in the context of the ‘national order of things’ (Malkki 1992). The fact that the moral claims of membership Afghans may have in countries such as Iran and Turkey are not legally recognized leaves some sources of persecution and other harms unaddressed. I will then discuss the challenges of articulating the reasons for displacement under protections regimes. In particular, I will use the notion of ‘dushman’ (enemy in Dari) to explain the complexity of displacement and depoliticisation of Afghan displacement. I will conclude with some reflections on the significance of these protection gaps for forced and assisted ’returns’ to Afghanistan. I will draw on ethnographic field research in Turkey, desk-based research on Afghans in Iran and the preliminary findings of the ongoing project ‘(En)gendering Migration, Development and Belonging: the experiences of recently arrived Afghans in Europe’. 

Sarah-Louise Japhetson Mortensen

‘Taking Chance’ – Creating provisional stability in an uncertain situation

How to create stability in a place that is anything but stable? It became the central question during my three months fieldwork in the makeshift camp: “The Jungle” in Calais, Northern France. The Jungle was characterised by regular fights between the inhabitants, violent police assaults, harsh living conditions and an uncertain time perspective for the camp’s existence. Still, in September 2016 more than 10,000 refugees resided in the camp. Most of them had arrived in the hope of going to England and repeatedly, they risked their lives trying to jump onto vehicles, lorries and trains driving towards Dover. The refugees described this action as “taking chance”. Paradoxically, ”taking chance” which etymologically means to behave in a way that leaves one vulnerable to danger or failure (Oxford English Dictionary, 1) seemed to be the main source of stability in the Jungle. The paper examines this contradiction by unfolding how “taking chance” created a daily rhythm and anchored a hope in the insecure circumstances of the camp. Could it be that stability in this context became mobility and the ability to adapt to the always-changing environment? While emphasising on this paradox, the paper will also address the conflicts that the act of “taking chance” brought into the camp, it will exemplify these by focusing especially on disputes among young men from Sudan and Afghanistan.

Narges Ghandchi

Security and hope for the future: Representations of insecurity among newly arrived Afghans in Denmark

This qualitative study is part of the larger project Engendering migration, development and belonging: The experience of recently arrived Afghans in Europe, funded by the Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS), and based at the University of Neuchâtel. The proposed presentation deals with reflections on hopes for the future in relation to insecurity and life conditions among newly arrived Afghans in Denmark (since 2011). Drawing on qualitative methods, the study discusses what the issue of insecurity is associated with in the narratives of the informants. Data for the study emerge from 10 semi-qualitative interviews with Afghans who have been living in Denmark on the basis of temporary residency permit of 1 to 4 years with the possibility for extension only if they fulfil the integration program’s required conditions. Informants in this study contextualize their observations and reflections of insecurity in relation to Afghanistan’s national policy of security, insecurity intertwined with the geopolitic and historical status of Afghanistan, insecurity in everyday activities in Afghanistan, insecurity impacted by the lack of democracy fundaments among Afghans, and finally the insecure life condition caused by austerities and refugee politics of Denmark. The study suggests that the informants’ visions and hopes for future closely intersect the sense of security ‘here’ versus the sense of security ‘there’.

Karen Waltorp

Social mobility and filmmaking among women with Afghan background