Southern Methodist University doctoral student Shay Cannedy, under the guidance of Dr. Caroline Brettell, will undertake ethnographic research on how the retrenchment of political asylum and concomitant degrees of "partial legal membership" impact civic engagement among migrants. Specifically, in examining a sample of asylum seekers and refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who reside in Ireland, she will explore how migrants claim presence and legitimacy in society despite their legal and social exclusion. The project asks how migrants civically engage with their new surroundings and how bids for belonging are impacted by legal status, socioeconomic factors, and pre-migration experiences.
The researcher will undertake 12 months of field research, and utilize a combination of social scientific methods that employ both explanatory and exploratory elements, which include: questionnaires to generate baseline data on demographics and overall trends in civic engagement; in-depth interviews to capture perceptions of citizenship and belonging, attitudes toward civic engagement, and ethnic identity; participant observation at a variety of community events such as voluntary association meetings, ethnic festivals, religious ceremonies, and political protests; and a content analysis of relevant media and immigration legislation and policy to understand how migrants are constructed in public discourse and immigration law.
Findings from this research will contribute to social scientific understanding of how, in an era of heightened immigration control, refugees are claiming legitimate presence on their own terms through practice rather than law. Its focus on the socioeconomic dimensions of this process and how it intersects with legal status will yield greater insight into how migrants enter the public sphere to enact social change which is critical for theorists and policy makers alike. Funding this research also contributes to the education of a graduate student.
This project is an anthropological study of how the retrenchment of political asylum and concomitant degrees of "partial legal membership" impact civic engagement among forced migrants in Europe. Specifically, it examined how asylum seekers and refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo residing in Ireland are claiming presence and legitimacy in society despite their legal and social exclusion. It focused on the diverse pathways to Congolese civic engagement and how these bids for belonging are impacted by legal status, gender, and pre-migration experiences in the DR Congo. Data was gathered through twelve months of field research in Dublin, Ireland. Social scientific methods included questionnaires, in-depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. This study yielded a number of significant results. First, legal status coincided with a person’s ability to envision a future in the host country such that naturalized citizens and United Nations program refugees regularly spoke about educational and career plans. However, experiences of perceived racism created doubts of ever fully belonging to the Irish nation regardless of immigration status. In other words, the lived experience of citizenship was tenuous at best for many first generation Congolese migrants. Research also revealed that unless one had been involved in politics in the homeland, migrants were generally more involved in "informal" than "formal" civic engagement in the host society (e.g. volunteering for grassroots anti-racism initiatives versus participation in Irish party politics). There was also widespread concern over poverty and human rights in the Congo, which launched individuals into the Irish public sphere in order to garner outside support. However, political, regional, and social divisions within the community challenged collective action. Women in particular faced obstacles in their attempts to enact change in the homeland due to gender ideology that framed their activity as an affront to male authority and leadership. For example, they found it difficult to attract members because husbands did not want their wives to "be political." Findings from this research project have several important theoretical implications for the field of anthropology and beyond, especially in terms of how diaspora, transnationalism, and migrant political engagement have been discussed and theorized. Contrary to conceptualizations of diasporas as unified collectives organized to effect homeland restoration, this research suggests a more complex picture marked by power struggles. The Congolese case in Ireland illustrates how competing discourses are employed to define homeland problems and solutions. Thus, research findings illuminate how concern over the homeland can facilitate entrance into the public sphere of host societies, although who is allowed to speak and what they can say is highly contentious. This research points to the heterogeneity of diasporas and how becoming active in the public sphere is a gendered process. Project findings also have implications for how citizenship and refugees are theorized—topics of interest in political science and sociology, as well as the interdisciplinary fields of refugee studies and migration studies. Citizenship is commonly understood (and traditionally defined by political theorists) as a legal status marking membership in a state. Through an examination of how Congolese refugees with Irish citizenship experience social exclusion, this project problematizes this conceptualization by pointing to the limits of juridical status to confer empirical citizenship, or perceptions of everyday belonging. It also expands citizenship theory beyond legal and rights-based conceptualizations through an analysis of how those who do not have legal membership claim belonging through practice rather than law. For example, many asylum seekers claimed rightful presence by noting their "contributions to Irish society" through volunteerism while others directly challenged the law and the terms of their exclusion through protests supporting open borders. Thus, these findings also indicate how refugees may challenge regimes of power/knowledge and restrictions on their mobility, thereby complicating studies that frame refugees as passive and subject to state control.
