Abstracts

The Border Studies Network links GLCA/GLAA scholars from a range of contexts who study not just their own sites, “but the connections, borders, mobilities and immobilities between them, situating borders not only at the edges of but beyond and within nation states…as… active processes of control and regulation, resistance and contestation.” Participating scholars seek to analyze “links between different spaces and to help students …situate borders as sites of constrained mobility in the context of global and regional systems and processes.” Collectively, participants engage in interdisciplinary, critical, grounded study and pedagogies of borders through myriad spaces, lenses and processes including “literature, online space, race, class, gender, sexuality, land, air, water, age, labor, globalization, political economies, policing, spatial practices, mobilities, movements, displacement, dispossession, urban borders, frontiers, occupation and much more.” This presentation discusses this framework and describes the initial visioning of the network, ongoing projects, and possibilities for sustained collaboration. 

In the Latin American context, intra-regional migration became an important focal point when Venezuelan migration sharply increased and reached every country in South America. Venezuelan migration is a multifactor phenomenon, including its political and economic crisis, violence, and corruption. This presentation argues that a central factor for Venezuelan migration is also food scarcity. As several authors argue, the complexities and interrelations between migration and food security remain under-researched in Latin America (Crush 2016). Although food insecurity can be a decisive factor for migration, it also accompanies the settlement of Venezuelan migrants in the city of Quito Ecuador. The small number of studies addressing migration and hunger do not consider a gender perspective, yet this presentation draws on an international mixed methods research project to argue that the migratory experience involves greater risks of different kinds for women

On December 22, 2018, President Donald Trump shut down the U.S. government after Congress refused to fund the border wall. A series of lawsuits would follow, yet none were powerful enough to stop this plan that would further divide indigenous communities and harm sacred sites, including Quitobaquito Springs. Construction commenced in August of 2019. For two years, saguaros, greasewood, palo verde, organ pipe cactus, and other plant and animal life was bulldozed over, dynamited, and the earth was dug into and filled with concrete - with no protections for the environment, culture, nor gravesites. Numerous laws were waived. As a result, countless acts of ecocide were carried out by private contractors and enabled by National Park Service issued closure orders. In response, several indigenous community members put their bodies in harm's way in a last attempt to maintain our connections across this landscape we call home.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP or “Border Patrol”) comprises the United States’ largest federal law enforcement agency (GAO 2019), yet it operates with scant oversight and enormous discretion in how it applies immigration policy and to whom (Anthony 2020, Erikson 2018, Graff 2014, Jones 2022, Lyall et. al. 2015, Maddux 2017).  This paper offers a reflection on how immigrant rights advocates lift this veil of secrecy in the Great Lakes region.  Drawing on observations made during a short-term collaboration between students at Kenyon College and Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE), a non-profit law firm in Ohio, it illustrates how a coalition of immigrant-serving organizations and individuals procured and publicized information about Border Patrol practices.  This case study adds to scholarship on the immigrant rights movement by suggesting that long-term government transparency work constitutes a key but understudied strategy in the movement’s broader toolkit to advance social justice for immigrants.

Research has linked certain forms of migration with distress, however whether psychopathology is a result of migration or if those who are distressed are more likely to migrate is debated. Still, a series of large scale studies have noted significantly increased incidence, or new cases of disorders, among first and second generation immigrants when compared to native born across the world. In this presentation, I will describe the factors that are associated with worse outcomes among those who migrate and resettle in the U.S., with particular attention given to the effects of how pre-migration variables (such as experiencing trauma) can affect post migration functioning and adaptation. 

The members of the Somali-Bantu people began arriving as refugees to the United States in 2004. A group of approximately 50 families settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Too often the voices of this refugee group have been silenced and when their history has been told it is through the directing agencies that facilitated their resettlement. In 2018, I began an oral history project with this community that is facilitated through an upper division course at Allegheny College that explores (im)mobility history through the voices of refugees themselves. In this course, students conduct oral histories with the Pittsburgh Somali-Bantu community so that community members may have an opportunity to narrate their lived experiences. From these interviews, I am working with the community to retell their history that privileges their voices and perspectives and offers revisions in the current historiography. My presentation explores a series of these new narratives based on their oral histories.     

The literature on the economics of assimilation canonically assumes that assimilation is a one-way process. This has led to a focus on questions like how immigrants fare in the labor market relative to natives. We will begin by sharing some insights from the economics of assimilation and then introduce the Asian American Assimilation paradox. As Lee and Sheng (2023) argue, “while Asian Americans attainment defies theories of racial disadvantage, their experiences with xenophobia, racism and Anti-Asian violence point to an assimilation paradox”. We will also discuss different approaches to conceptualizing movement by drawing from Mimi Sheller’s Mobility Justice.

Findings for this presentation is based on a study that examined the educational experiences of African immigrant students. Photovoice, a participatory research approach was used to examine their understandings of school expectations, and how these in turn influenced their schooling experiences and academic outcomes. Participants documented their experiences by taking photos of issues that were important to them. Through critical reflections and dialogue, participants shared what these images represented and meant to them. Findings revealed that even though participants understood and were able to successfully navigate school expectations, they still questioned the meanings and relevance of these processes. Participants revealed a number of issues, including a desire for hands on learning, rampant bullying, lack of meaningful relationships with peers and teachers, among others. For historically disenfranchised student populations such as immigrant students, photovoice can be a powerful platform to share their experiences, exercise agency and advocate for change. 

Nancy Powers' presentation will use data from a 2018 survey of over 300 immigrants in rural Ohio, conducted by GLCA students working under  team of GLCA faculty members and the staff of the Immigrant Worker Project (Canton, OH). Her presentation examines the conditions on the journeys from Guatemala and Mexico to the United States, with attention to the uncommon experience of easy entry with a visa versus the more common experiences of dangerous desert crossings with multiple hazards and unknowns. Powers will argue that the  interview narratives make clear that government efforts to deter, penalize, or dissuade border crossing cannot be expected to succeed in their objectives because they are based on a misunderstanding of the migrant's motivations. 

There are ~7 million displaced people living in refugee camps worldwide. While these camps are considered as temporary settlements, refugees on average stay in camps for ~10 years. Children are born and youth turn to adults under circumstances where only basic needs are met with few developmental opportunities. This presentation traces the history and current state of refugee camp environmental management and explores emerging concepts to improve existing programs. It presents an applied framework with examples and lessons learned from the Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh - the largest refugee camp in the world. The initiatives are designed to improve environmental conditions, engage refugee population in meaningful endeavors, and purposefully infuse resilience building in refugee response. The ultimate goal is to facilitate a comprehensive, integrative, collaborative, community-engaged and transformative process to develop synergistic solutions that address social, environmental, and economic issues in refugee camps and their surrounding areas.

The Immigrant Worker Project is dedicated to the struggle for justice and human dignity for rural immigrant workers from Latin America.  We are an organization that is working toward a future when Economic Democracy and Communities of Solidarity are achieved for rural immigrants in Ohio.  By Economic Democracy we mean a participatory system in which workers have a meaningful voice in all structures of their economic existence.  By Communities of Solidarity we mean communities where cultural diversity is embraced by institutions of faith, education, social services and health care.  To obtain these goals the Immigrant Worker Project (IWP) empowers community leaders, creates structures for global education, and advocates for workplace justice.  Jeff Stewart has been a coordinator at Immigrant Worker Project for over twenty years. 

While there is an increasing body of research on the plight of irregular migrants and rejected asylum seekers with severely restricted rights in their destination countries, there are relatively few studies on how these subjects with what sociologist Cecilia Menjívar calls “liminal legality” actually survive. These studies, moreover, tend to examine explicitly political actions, such as protest rallies or labor strikes, by the migrants and their allies as an example of the acts of resistance. My presentation, instead, will highlight everyday acts of survival by these migrants and their allies, to prolong and improve their lives in the destination countries despite the profound precarity and uncertainty that characterize their lives. Drawing on my ethnographic fieldwork in Japan on rejected asylum seekers’ survival tactics, my paper will explore the ways in which solidarity and coalition among the liminally legal migrants and citizen-allies are formed, and what their potentials and limitations are.  

Demands for proof of ID have become a more pronounced feature of today’s society. At the same time, post-9/11 policies severely curtailed the availability of state-issued identification for undocumented migrants. Ranging from the banning of undocumented migrants from accessing licenses and ID cards in various states to the development of the REAL ID Act, eligibility to state-issued identification has shifted into the realm of securitization rhetoric. While undocumented migrants and their allies have been successfully in pushing for access to IDs in several states, other efforts have been less successful. As a result, communities galvanized to facilitate the availability of ID cards through lower levels of government, primarily counties or municipalities. In this paper, I discuss efforts taken to create the Kalamazoo County ID. I focus on the ways organizers addressed concerns regarding safety and accessibility. To do so, I describe the limits and possibilities of working with a county government, describe novel methods to support vulnerable populations in the County, and outline steps to promote greater availability of the ID to all residents.

Traditionally characterized as a country of emigration, Greece became a host country for several hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the past decades, and more recently, due to its geographical location as the gateway to Europe, a transit and destination country for large numbers of refugees and asylum seekers from the Middle East. 

Refugees’ life trajectories are characterized by experiences of multiple displacement (i.e., spatial, temporal, material, relational). How is/can ‘home’ (be) (re)imagined under conditions of repeated dislocation? 

Drawing on my own past study, as well as more recent research, my presentation will focus on the (additional) challenges refugees’ and asylum seekers currently encounter in Greece as they search for home away from home amidst important changes and governmental decisions  (i.e. the termination of the EU funded  ESTIA -Emergency Support to Integration and Accommodation -program, the restructuring of the country’s operation facilities, and  the creation of Closed Controlled Access Centers -C.C.A.Cs). These developments force them to be constantly on the move even after the “end” of their journey and their temporary (?) settlement in Greece: from open spaces and camps (formerly “Open Temporary Reception Facilities”) to rented apartments via the UNHCR ESTIA Program and back to the streets and prison-like camps (C.C.A. Cs) with the program’s termination in 2022.