Paper details

Paper authors	Mehmoona Moosa-Mitha
In panel on	“Humanitarian borders” between care and control
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

Using the lens of affective citizenship, that focuses on the role that emotions play in the citizenry practices of the citizen-subject, an analysis of a field study exploring the motivations and experiences of members of private sponsor groups in sponsoring and supporting refugee newcomers’ resettlement processes in their first year in Canada will be presented. The analysis will center on the concept of care, identified by research participants as a significant motivational desire for sponsoring refugee newcomers. The relationship of care as it relates to private sponsors’ assumptions of the ‘desirable’ citizen, plural and different cultural values and identity, and unequal power relations as the context within which care practices between private sponsors and refugee newcomers takes place will be examined. The contradictory nature of citizenship, which has been described as being “Janus like” for being both inclusionary and exclusionary, as it is reflected in affective citizenship where the desire to care can also mean control will be discussed.

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