The subject of my essay concerns the images of refugees that have been taken on Lesvos during the last year. The aim of this essay is to examine the relationship between the photographer, the camera and the island as a scene för photographers, through the images that were taken there. The main scene is the beaches of Lesvos where tragedies and (sometimes) even comedies take place. I am working in a field where photography, aesthetics and social anthropology intersect. As regards to method, I have applied researcher Ruben Anderssson's ”extended field site” to my own field studies concerning Lesvos. The refugee situation that recently found its centre on the Greek islands is built up of networks that stretch far and wide across the globe. Events in one part of the world affect what is happening on Lesvos and vice versa. The media and NGOs are also part of larger networks. Therefore the field site needs to be extended beyond the geographical borders of Lesvos. I did field studies on Lesvos two times during the last year. I interviewed photographers and volunteers and took photographs of my own. Intuition is an integral part of my work and I have also applied it to my field studies. One of my starting points has been Judith Butler’s thoughts on what makes a life grievable. Butler's main hypothesis is that we view certain lives as having less value than others and thereby we will be less likely to grieve the passing of such lives. I examine the images of refugees to see if photography can help us better regard their lives as grievable. Refugees are people whose exposed bodies live precarious lives. Photographers can capture this in images but it is the spectator who has the final say in how images affect him or her. I end the essay by examining the spectator and what happens when we are confronted with disturbing images. Images of refugees in need exhort us to react whether we want to or not. We can turn away, but once images have entered out consciousness, there is no turning back.

In the autumn of 2015 a huge amount of refugees were on the run to Sweden. The news media described the situation as a refugee crisis and border controls were initiated. The aim of this study was to examine how two Swedish newspapers, one national and one local, portrayed refugees at the time when the border controls were initiated in Sweden. The questions examined were: How are the refugees portrayed, what are the similarities and differences between Dagens Nyheter and Sydsvenskan’s portrayal of the refugees? To approach this we made two different analysis of reports from each newspaper, three from Dagens Nyheter and two from Sydsvenskan. We did a framing analysis on the text and a semiotic analysis on the pictures. Findings show that the portrayal of refugees are very similar in both newspapers. The refugees are described as inferior, but at the same time brave, well-educated and hopeful. We also found that refugees often are portrayed as “the others” and the citizens of Sweden are portrayed as “we”. Although the similarities outweighs, we found some interesting differences in the newspapers portrayal of the refugees. For example, in Dagens Nyheter the hopefulness is combined with a positive and joyful approach, while Sydsvenskan describes the hope with an uncertainty and concern about the future.

Since the collapse of the New Order regime in 1998, democratisation and economic liberalisation have combined to create both opportunities and constraints for the revival of organised labour in Indonesia. The picture of post-authoritarian labour movements painted by various scholars is almost universally bleak, portraying helpless trade unions in the face of economic impasse and the undemocratic remnants of the old forces. Being overtly cautious of the new democracy, this line of analysis has not done justice to Indonesian labour movements. It overestimates the ghost of the old dictatorship and underestimates the power of budding organised labour. Using trade union as the unit of analysis, this dissertation seeks to offer a different view of Indonesian labour movements. It looks at shifting political opportunities in the regions and the agency of trade unions which constitute a political force that is far from being consolidated but has certainly made a significant contribution to the broadening of democratic politics. In negotiating pressures that originate from an increasingly liberalised economy, trade unions have adopted a strategy which is called „playing politics‟ in this dissertation. The term means that in the absence of significant market power, trade unions enter into the realm of power politics primarily by organising labour as social movements and attempt to ally with political elites, exploit the conflicts that emerge within state institutions and between the state and business, and try to join the ruling classes. In developing this argument, this dissertation makes two contributions to the study of labour politics in Indonesia: its reassessment of the historiography of the first ten years of post-authoritarianism and its offer of insights into possible future directions of labour politics.

The spatiality of refugee protection has been a key issue for humanitarian practitioners and policy-makers, and it has become of increasing concern in academic studies. This study interrogates the policy and practice-oriented concept of ‘protection space’ in regard to the experiences of the Congolese refugees in the city of Kampala, Uganda. My analysis of ‘protection space’ uses the geographical concepts of the ‘right to the city’ and ‘sense of place’ to emphasise the physical, imagined, lived and relational understandings of urban space. I also investigate the conceptual links between ‘protection’, ‘space’ and ‘trust’. I apply a qualitative case-study approach in this study and collected primary data from individual Congolese refugees, refugee communities and officers of the protection institutions. The data-collection methods included a combination of semi-structured interviews, observation and focus group discussions, supported by visual methods. I rely on aspects of discourse analysis to analyse my textual and visual data. I conclude that the Congolese refugees informing this study conceptualised ‘protection’ not only legally, physically and relationally, but also spiritually. The geographical levels of protection and insecurity that refugees experienced varied: their ‘sense of place’ in relation to the city of exile depended on their micro-, meso-, and macro-scale experiences and perceptions of protection. Given the prevalence of generalised and particularised social mistrust and institutional mistrust – two matters that were intertwined in refugees’ discourses of their everyday urban life – it is concluded that the distinction between protection and insecurity was at times unclear. Refugees, however, found a sense of protection from various ‘communities of trust’, even though their community life was also characterised by struggles over their ‘right to the city’ and inter-community mistrust.

The purpose of my thesis Position of war refugees in international law is to analyze particular types of protection of war refugees, to construe unclear legal provisions and to evaluate suitability of possible solutions. The thesis focuses on specifics of the position of war refugees and on options of their protection. The research question relates to the determination who a war refugee is and how his situation is solved in international law. The reason for this research is my great interest in refugee law and the current instability of the position of war refugees. The methodology used during writing the thesis was the analysis, comparison and description. The thesis is composed of three chapters, each of them dealing with different aspects of the position and the protection of war refugees. Chapter One defines characteristics of war refugees and addresses the issue of armed conflicts. Chapter Two concerns individual options of protection of war refugees in international law. This part concentrates primarily on issues related to the broader refugee definition, asylum and subsidiary protection. Within this chapter subsidiary protection is examined from a general point of view, as well as in relation to provisions of particular legal instruments. Furthermore, it pays close attention to the law of...

The aim of this thesis is to explore immigration from Nigeria to the United States and United Kingdom in contemporary Nigerian and English literature by comparing two novels, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah and Chris Cleave's The Other Hand. The authors' authentic experience is described and their opinion on the pressing issues connected with immigration, such as reasons for immigration and psychological trauma associated with it are explored.

No description available.

This study’s aim is to make visible journalistic power to form, strengthen and effect readers’ opinions. Within a Swedish journalistic discourse, this study examines how opinions take form in the news report, with what methods journalists legitimises or questions opinions and how social issues are being defined and portrayed as means to target the self-image of journalists as impartial and independent. This study applies theories of mediatisation, the mediated construction of reality, agenda setting, perception of public opinions, influence and the sources and media portrayal. I focus on the case of the refugee migration to Europe in the fall of 2015. The study analyzes daily, local and evening press such as Svenska Dagbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Sydsvenskan, Göteborgs-posten, Expressen and Aftonbladet, during the period of january 1st 2015 to december 31st 2016. The results show the power of journalists to affect the audience’s view on refugees as well as migration and their stand towards it. Further, the study presents journalistic methods to legitimise or question opinions in the news report, as well as the importence of sources when defining and portraying social issues. Furthermore, the study shows the level of the news as well as policial residence of the media to be of greater importance for this than the media form itself.

Background: The current global refugee crisis requires attention from the public health community to improve the health and wellbeing of forcibly displaced groups. Eighty-six percent of refugees are hosted in developing countries, while 58% migrate to urban centers in search of opportunities. Although there are benefits to urban migration, refugees residing in Nairobi, Kenya are vulnerable to police extortion, arrests, deportations, and social exclusion as a result of anti-refugee policies. Despite threats to psychosocial wellbeing, many refugees successfully cope with acute and cumulative stressors to exhibit positive mental health outcomes in the context of adversity. This dissertation explores the ways urban Congolese refugees in Nairobi negotiate and navigate personal, social, and environmental resources to mitigate stress and promote psychosocial wellbeing. Research Aims: The dissertation included the following three aims: (1) document stressors experienced by urban Congolese refugees in Nairobi; (2) describe the range of coping supports available to Congolese refugees; identify how individuals, families, and groups navigate and negotiate these resources; and (3) explore relationships that exist among stressors, supportive resources, and reported mental health status of urban Congolese refugees. Methods: Mixed-methods exploratory research took place over a 12-month period in Nairobi. Preliminary research was conducted between May and August 2012, and dissertation fieldwork occurred between January and August 2014. Qualitative research included ethnographic participant observation, semi-structured in-depth interviews, and small group discussions with Congolese refugees (n=70). Additional interviews were conducted in Kenya with academics (n=3), intergovernmental employees (n=4), representatives from government agencies (n=2), and refugee service providers (n=18). Quantitative research was comprised of two surveys administered to Congolese refugees (N=244) in 150 households. The Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20) assessed mental health functioning, and a survey developed in-field inventoried perceived stressors and supports. Results: The results by aim were: (1) stressors fell within three primary domains: inadequate material resources, political and personal insecurity, and emotional distress; (2) Congolese refugees utilized three salient coping strategies, comprised of reliance on religious communities and faith in God, participation in borrowing networks, and managing memories; and (3) isolation was associated with poor mental health functioning, while perceived support from religious communities enhanced mental health outcomes. Recommendations: Organizations should bolster community-based programs and strengthen partnerships with religious communities to improve the psychosocial wellbeing of urban Congolese refugees. Conclusions: Shifting the paradigm with refugee populations from a deficits-centric to resilience-focused framework recognizes the inherent strengths of individuals, families and communities with refugee status, and has the potential to mold future research and praxis that aims to enhance the wellbeing of displaced populations.

Refugee adult language learners in the United States need alphabetic print literacy in English in order to successfully integrate into their adoptive societies and find meaningful employment. Accurate spelling and word recognition are important for completing forms about medical history, school paperwork, job applications, and social benefits. To aid in their integration, adult refugees are often enrolled in English courses targeted to those with low levels of education and alphabetic print literacy. However, many leave without having achieved a level of print literacy necessary for economic or social purposes. Current teaching approaches for alphabetic print literacy are either social- (Bigelow & Vinogradov, 2011) or skills-based (Burt, Peyton,& Adams, 2003; Haverson & Haynes, 1982) approaches. They are ineffective for meeting student learning needs within the six-month time frame for self-sufficiency imposed by U.S. refugee resettlement (U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, 2015). The purpose of this project was to see if using two principles of implicit learning: variability and complexity, would help low literate refugee English learners enrolled in English classes to accurately spell and perceive words in their curriculum. Specifically, the use of high variability visual input was contrasted with high and low linguistic complexity. Stimuli with high visual variability and low linguistic complexity proved the right combination for successful word learning for this population.