The Enduring Effects of Deterrence Border Regimes: Afghan Hazara Narratives of Social Dislocation and Refuge in Australia
Speaker: Dr. Helena Zeweri
Department of Anthropology, UBC | Centre for Migration Studies | Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice
Abstract:
In Australia, deterring ‘irregular migration’ encompasses a range of mechanisms, including placing migrants who take sea routes into offshore detention and prolonged temporary legal regimes. This talk examines the cumulative effects of deterrence that last well after migrants who arrive via boat are granted legal recognition as refugees. It does so through centering Afghan Hazara refugees’ experiences of prolonged temporary status as a question of personhood. By centering the framework of intersubjectivity, I argue that for those who have transitioned from temporary visas to permanent status in Australia, the cumulative effects of prolonged legal precarity have irreparably damaged prospects for family reunification and, by extension, refugees’ senses of personhood. At a systemic level, such experiences reveal that contemporary migration deterrence functions as a spatially and temporally expansive regime of social dislocation. At an ethnographic level, such narratives show that the political recognition of ‘refuge’ does not always correlate with a feeling of refuge, especially for those for whom it is defined as an intersubjective and interconnected mode of living.
About Dr. Helena Zeweri
I was drawn to the field of Anthropology because of its ability to attend to how people navigate relations of power in everyday life. I believe in the power of ethnography to capture the nuances of people’s multi-layered experiences of systems, institutions, and policies. I completed my doctoral studies in Cultural Anthropology at Rice University, where I conducted research on migrant-targeted social welfare policies in Melbourne, Australia, observing the everyday work of family violence prevention workers, policymakers, and migrant community leaders. After completing my PhD, I spent two years as an Assistant Professor (general faculty) at the University of Virginia’s Global Studies Program. At UBC anthropology, I teach courses in culture, power, and politics; diasporic belonging; ethnographies of Australia; and the relationship between empire and migration.
Photo Credit: Australian Customs and Border Protection Service
