Event Title
Richmond and Refugees: The Value of Narratives in the Refugee Resettlement Exchange
Location
University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia
Document Type
Poster
Description
Humanitarian conceptualizations of refugees tend to portray refugees as apolitical, ahistorical, mute subjects who passively receive aid. This view assumes a one-directional flow of value from humanitarian workers to the refugees they work with. However, this research seeks to problematize this conceptualization and instead re-theorizes this humanitarian encounter between refugees and resettlement organizations as the “refugee resettlement exchange,” a complex web of relationships in which goods, services, and intangible placeholders of value (i.e. narratives) travel in multiple directions between refugees and the people involved with their resettlement. Drawing on my personal experiences during my ten-week internship-cum-fieldwork period and the interviews I conducted with resettlement workers, I locate my work within a discussion of narratives, value, and the biopolitical and capitalist underpinnings of conversations around refugees. Ultimately, I argue that the reception and redeployment of refugee narratives by resettlement workers reveals the moral, motivational, and political value of these narratives as part of the refugee resettlement exchange.
Richmond and Refugees (Prezi Presentation)
Richmond and Refugees: The Value of Narratives in the Refugee Resettlement Exchange
University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia
Humanitarian conceptualizations of refugees tend to portray refugees as apolitical, ahistorical, mute subjects who passively receive aid. This view assumes a one-directional flow of value from humanitarian workers to the refugees they work with. However, this research seeks to problematize this conceptualization and instead re-theorizes this humanitarian encounter between refugees and resettlement organizations as the “refugee resettlement exchange,” a complex web of relationships in which goods, services, and intangible placeholders of value (i.e. narratives) travel in multiple directions between refugees and the people involved with their resettlement. Drawing on my personal experiences during my ten-week internship-cum-fieldwork period and the interviews I conducted with resettlement workers, I locate my work within a discussion of narratives, value, and the biopolitical and capitalist underpinnings of conversations around refugees. Ultimately, I argue that the reception and redeployment of refugee narratives by resettlement workers reveals the moral, motivational, and political value of these narratives as part of the refugee resettlement exchange.
Comments
Department: Sociology and Anthropology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Rania Sweis