Graduate student Jennifer Erickson, supervised by Dr. Carol Silverman, will undertake research on the interaction between legal Southern Sudanese and Bosnian refugees, private and public agency social service workers, and local residents, in Fargo, North Dakota. Her focus will be on how differences in religion, culture, ethnicity, race, gender, and class produce differential refugee experiences in a non-traditional relocation site. Skin color varies from dark (Southern Sudanese), to lighter (Roma Bosnians), to very light (majority Bosnians). The Bosnians self-identify as Muslims while the Southern Sudanese are primarily Christians. The social service institutions differ in that one is a private church-related social service agency and the other is a public welfare agency. Recent social science scholarship has found that the concept of citizenship is not universal but is variably applied to people with different characteristics. Her goal is to understand how the different characteristics of the refugees affect how they are viewed as citizens or potential citizens, and how citizenship processes affect access their resources.
The researcher will employ comparative, qualitative social science methodologies during twelve months of field research. She will collect data through participant observation at local events, in neighborhoods, and through volunteer work. She will conduct individual and group interviews with refugees, caseworkers and other agency employees, and a sample of Fargo residents. Additional semi-structured interviews will be done to collect life histories and kinship information. She will use text analysis techniques to analyze reports concerning refugees in print and non-print media.
In a period of intense debate about immigration, the research will provide a timely opportunity to better understand how differential notions of citizenship affect the potential for refugees to be integrated successfully into mainstream society. The research will contribute to changing social science theory about citizenship and the state. It also will support the education of a social scientist.
