Welcome to my exhibit!
In this virtual experience you will learn about the ways in which race and anthropological work intertwines with refugees, overall aiming to make light of the inaccurate connotations of these individuals and how these depictions of them change the policies that are made, the enforcements of such, and the realistic conditions of their livelihood. In order to get a better understanding of the realities of being a refugee, we will look specifically at Lesvos, Greece, as it is one of the main hubs of refugee inflow. In this exhibit there are five various subtopics: Importance of Language, Why Flee?, Positive and Negative Connotations, Policies and its Enforcement, and Lesvos, Greece: Realistic Conditions. After these main subtopics, you will find the resource page along with some helpful resources that will help to get you involved.
As you move through this exhibit, each page is designed to add more and more information onto the subject, hoping to illustrate a vivid image of what it is like to be a refugee in today’s society. Each page alone provides a brick to the foundation, but together, it creates the building.
OVERVIEW ESSAY
The first page of this exhibit is entitled “Importance of Language”. It is within this page that you will gain an understanding of the three different labels a traveler can possess: refugee, migrant, and asylum seeker. It is important to recognize and employ the correct terminology as different labels have certain distinctions that provide distinct protections under the law. For example, gaining status as a refugee awards you protection under international law; whereas, being a migrant, you are not protected by that law. In this page you will learn how certain governments will intentionally use the migrant label in order to refuse the rights and protections provided for refugees. Following this page is “Why Flee”. This page houses statistics of the countries in which most refugees originate from as well as the reason for the displacement. I included two items on this page, one being a graph of some important statistics, and the other being a graph detailing the countries that produce the most refugees. The reason for the inclusion of this graph was to demonstrate just how much the influx of refugees was in around 2015 to aid in understanding how it became known as the Refugee Crisis of 2015. The second graph provides supporting information to the text, indicating the reasons that so many refugees fled. The next page is “Positive and Negative Connotations” which first gives an overview of regional opinions on refugees. As the page continues, you read what important political figures all around the world have to say, both positive and negative. Each section also contains a brief theory as to why individuals and countries occupy such perspectives of refugees. The subsequent page is “Policies and its Enforcements”. This page gives a detailed account of the Biden Administration’s proposed “Asylum Ban”, an international agency called Frontex, and two universal approaches to managing the refugee crisis (pushbacks and criminalization of humanitarian work). In order to give an encompassing viewpoint, this page encompasses what these policies or agencies are doing on paper in juxtaposition with what happens in actuality. Incorporated in this page are five items: an image of a fishing boat crammed full with refugees, a protest at the White House exhibiting the support citizens have for refugees, and three images showcasing the human rights violation and abuse that Frontex perpetuates. The image of the fishing boat was introduced to illustrate the realistic experience refugees endure on their voyage and supports the understanding of the concept of pushbacks explained at the end of the page. There are three images to explain Frontex as it paints the picture of the extent of the abuse of power. The last page works to add the final piece to the puzzle. As mentioned previously, while reading through this exhibit you receive many statistics and loaded information, but this page gives a more individualistic perspective reminding you that these are people just like you and me. It takes you to the island of Lesvos, Greece, detailing the story of Boye and giving you a look into Europe’s largest and most notorious refugee camp. The first item on this page is a map of the island to demonstrate the size and geographical location of this island, the second represents the emotions refugees experience when they finally reach their destination. The third is a screenshot of an article about Boye, a Ghanaian refugee who discussed some of the traumas he endured on his trek to Greece. The last two images work together elucidating just what this camp was like along with the devastation of the fire that took place.
In regards to how this project encompasses some of the topics that we have talked about in class, there are three to note: racialization and racial classification, whiteness and white supremacy, and contemporary racial associations. Racial classification goes hand in hand with the information discussed in the media project. With racial classifications comes unmarked designations and this is especially prominent in the page about refugee connotations. Part of the reason for negative perspectives of refugees is because countries see differing physical characteristics or societal values and assume it will bring about difficulties when attempting to incorporate themselves. They are seen as a threat to their economy and/or to their group's cultural values, traditions, and ideologies. Because of unmarked designations and racial classifications, there is more hesitation in offering refuge to those that don’t fit the perceived standard of what an individual should look like. In terms of whiteness, the acceptance of refugees changes on a case by case basis allowing for discrimination in regards to race to take place. Take the U.S. in response to the Ukrainian Refugee crisis. The Biden Administration provided guidance to those seeking asylum and exempted them from Title 42; whereas, there are many Central American, African’s, and Haitians that await approval at the border. This enforces the concept that the enforcement of immigration policies are done in racist ways, in which White, mostly Chrsitian refugees are accepted at a disproportionate rate. As defined in our class, “White Supremacy is an historically based, institutionally perpetuated systems of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations, and peoples of color by white peoples and nations of the Europeans continent, for the purpose of maintaining and defending a system of wealth, power and privilege” By neglecting the refuge of others, yet prioritizing that of European originating asylum seekers, it illuminates the efforts that the United States makes in order to maintain the white hierarchy that is present. Lastly, this topic intertwines with contemporary racial associations in terms of the era of technosecurity. In the article “Race, Racism, and Identification in the Era of Technosecurity”, the author David Skinner discussed the interaction between facial recognition software, border security, and racial discrimination by stating, “In the case of border regime, race is an absence-presence, officially denied but evident in the experiences it generates” (Skinner, 2018, p. 4). He goes on to mention how Europe specifically illustrates “...how contemporary borders facilitate mobilities but, as Étienne Balibar (2002) argues, are by function ‘polysemic’ generating different experiences and outcomes for different social groups” (Skinner, 2018, p. 8). This directly correlates to the Biden Administration policy of using CBP One, an app which uses facial recognition software to make port entry appointments that has been causing an increase in racial discrimination.
Throughout this project I have learned both personally and academically. In terms of my personal growth, this project has revitalized the passion that I had for this topic upon my return from my study abroad trip. This illuminated and strengthened the emotions that I felt for the treatment that refugees experienced prior to their courageous departure, during their journey, and in a new country. Another aspect of personal growth was in terms of awareness. I live in a world where I experience very different realities; therefore, it can be easy to ignore the conflicts that are happening around the world and underneath my nose. Learning more about this crisis has aided in my cultural and societal awareness for what is going on around me. It helped to pop the comfortable bubble that I often place myself in. Academically speaking, I had a rough understanding of this topic; however, this broadened and deepened my knowledge of the refugee crisis. A page that particularly expanded my knowledge was “Policies and its Enforcements”. Prior to this media project, I was unaware of the circumstances happening around me with the Biden Administration; to learn about this and the effects that his proposed policy would have were especially eye-opening. With what we learned over the course of this semester, it was interesting to witness the parallels and see how our class topics of race intertwined in what I was studying.
Credits
Sydney Woods