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Cultures of Exile and the Experience of «Refugeeness»

by Stephen Dobson (Author)
©2004 Monographs 348 Pages

Summary

Refugee research and debate have focused on international agreements, border controls and the legal status of asylum seekers. The lived, daily life of refugees in different phases of their flight has thus been unduly neglected. How have refugees experienced policies of reception and resettlement, and how have they individually and collectively built up their own cultures of exile?
To answer these questions the author of this study has undertaken long-term fieldwork as a community worker in a Norwegian municipality. Refugees from Chile, Iran, Somalia, Bosnia and Vietnam were on occasions subjected to exclusionary and discriminatory practices. Nevertheless, restistance was seen in the form of a Somali women’s sewing circle, the organisation of a multi-cultural youth club, running refugee associations and printing their own language newspapers.
Moreover, in activities such as these, refugees addressed and came to terms with a limited number of shared existential concerns: morality, violence, sexuality, family reunion, belonging and not belonging to a second generation. Drawing upon these experiences a general theory of refugeeness is proposed. It states that the cultures refugees create in exile are the necessary prerequisite for self-recognition and survival.

Details

Pages
348
Year
2004
ISBN (PDF)
9783035104134
ISBN (Softcover)
9783906768007
DOI
10.3726/978-3-0351-0413-4
Language
English
Publication date
2012 (May)
Keywords
Norwegen Flüchtling Akkulturation Refugee research border controls legal status cultures of exile resistance asylum seekers Soziale Integration exclusionary and discriminatory practices
Published
Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Oxford, Wien, 2004. 348 pp.

Biographical notes

Stephen Dobson (Author)

The Author: Stephen Dobson was born in Zambia (1963) and grew up in England. He took his first degree at Goldsmith’s College, London, and emigrated to Norway in 1984. After several years as a refugee community worker he is now Senior Lecturer in education at Lillehammer University College, Norway.

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Title: Cultures of Exile and the Experience of «Refugeeness»
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349 pages