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This event is co-sponsored by the UBC Centre for Migration Stu dies Migration and Indigeneity Group.
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[Abstract]
Western countrie s are increasingly reticent to grant refugees basic rights – including lega l status – leaving them in situations of precarity and liminality. In the a bsence of access to services and legal rights\, many turn to their communit ies for physical and other forms of basic support. One common mechanism for facilitating this is the establishment of organizations founded according to identity group\, including ethnic identity. Indeed\, this is the case in Israel where the Darfurian Sudanese community has established ethnically-c onstituted ‘community centers.’ In the absence of a viable future in Israel \, in light of on-going uncertainty\, and in a context where they lack basi c legal and social rights\, these community centers revert to strategies fr om the homeland which facilitate survival and belonging. They actively harn ess ethnic identity and the ethnic group to help asylum seekers to cope wit h and even overcome threats to physical and cultural survival in a hostile hostland. Initially upon arrival to Israel\, community centers focused on provision of emergenc y and basic humanitarian assistance. However\, over time and in the absence of a viable long-term solution in the hostland\, they have increasingly en gaged in cultural and linguistic identity reclamation. For many\, these lat er activities represent a source of personal strength and pride. Arguably\, this provides them with an important coping mechanism for dealing with the difficult Israeli reality. Therefore\, this case study demonstrates that t he liminal situation represents both danger and opportunity\; danger\, in t hat the community centers are a vehicle for providing emergency assistance\ , and opportunity in that they facilitate identity reclamation. As such\, I claim that the ethnic group and ethnicity is a flexible construct that can adapt to the needs of the ethnic group ov er time. Furthermore\, it is an important tool for managing (and\, in some cases\, actively overcoming) refugees’ liminality while also subverting and reimagining their relationship to the homeland. Indeed\, community centers and the ethnic grou p anchor individuals within a liminal time and place. The find ings from this ethnographic research are based on interviews with 52 individuals and attendance at nine events.
[Bio]
Lisa Richlen\, a Canadian citizen thr ough her mother\, is originally from Seattle. She lived in Israel from 2000 -2021 and\, from 2004-2021 worked as an employee of and a consultant for te ns of social change and human rights organizations. In 2021\, Richlen compl eted a PhD at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in the Department of Polit ics and Government focusing on community organizing amongst Sudanese Darfur ian asylum seekers in Israel.
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