The production of categorical vulnerabilities in resettled refugees
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Keywords: Refugee resettlement, vulnerability
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Authors:
Sameera Ibrahim, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Abstract
The differing mobilizations of state resources for displaced Ukrainians and Afghans laid bare the uneven experiences resettled refugees face upon arriving to the U.S. In 2021, Afghans face years of uncertainty in receiving permanent legal status, suspicion as potential security threats, and targets of Islamophobic violence. The displacement of Ukrainians months later resulted in unconditional granting of protection, immediate eligibility for resettlement, and sympathetic portrayals positioning them as deserving of protection because they are “civilized” and “look like us,” in comparison to racialized displaced others.
Such differing accounts provide more evidence of a ‘hierarchy’ of deservingness operating within the U.S. refugee regime. In sketching out the discursive and material effects of these uneven experiences, this paper goes beyond pointing out the contradictions and hypocrisies embedded within resettlement. Drawing on feminist geographic thought, this paper places this current moment of Ukrainian and Afghan displacement in the longer historical context of resettlement across key geopolitical moments in U.S. immigration policy to show how state priorities shape who is and is not considered ‘vulnerable,’ and therefore worthy of resettlement at the exclusion of others. This paper’s brief analyses open up broader questions concerning resettlement geographies. How does the formation of categorical vulnerability help us understand certain resettlement experiences and which do they obscure? What do we gain from analyzing the experiences of resettled groups relationally across time and space, rather than exceptionalize them? In offering initial thoughts on these questions, this paper offers insights into the past and present trajectories of U.S. resettlement.
The production of categorical vulnerabilities in resettled refugees
Category
Virtual Paper Abstract