Paper details

Paper authors	Sara Riva
In panel on	Privileging Forces in the Humanitarian System: Power and Marginalization
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

People who seek refuge are mainly caught between two competing and yet supporting depictions. On the one hand, as objects of pity that need to be saved—usually by white people; and on the other hand, absent from the public eye (thus invisible) or represented as threats, turning them to “ungrievable” subjects. Additionally, neoliberalism as an ideology privileges self-sufficient and responsible individuals in society, something that clashes with how refugees are currently represented. Using a transnational feminist lens combined with Judith Butler’s articulation of precariousness and grievability, and drawing on interviews conducted with humanitarian workers, and academic literature, I first explore how humanitarian organisations contribute to the reinforcement of dichotomous representations of refugees—where migrants fail to meet the neoliberal ideal of the “proper” citizen. And second, I move on to analyse how even when people who cross borders match this neoliberal ideal—for instance, through having heteronormative families—they are still not considered neoliberal subjects. The representation of refugees has implications in global governance. Only by dehumanising refugees it is possible to justify practices such as the use indefinite detention of those who seek asylum. The discursive becomes a necessary condition/the justification for the material.

Back