Border Crossing

Changing Numbers, Living Conditions, Unchanging Biopolitical Problematic: Syrian Refugees in Turkey

Hatice Yaprak Civelek — 2023-01-06

Five years ago, the study titled “Biopolitical Problematic: Syrians Refugees in Turkey” was the second chapter of the book, “Turkey’s Syrians, today and Tomorrow” published and its argument was found remarkable and got good feedback. This study aims to update the recent statistics belonging to the Syrian refugees and revise the new developments in connection with the discussed biopolitical perspectives. It is obvious that with its nationalist character, Turkey continues to give its citizens some moral and respectable codes to save and to defend, which also defines civil types of human behavior and relations, which are all the time culturally and politically approved but put a kind of fear inside people. Therefore, nothing has changed on the theoretical ground, but the reader can find out new references problematizing the integration issue. Syrians' noticeable presence in almost every region and mostly negative narratives of the locals, their integration strategies, and the government's policies have been supported by recent literature and, recently most of the reaction appears because of the thought that “they are not actually guests.” However, rising of such a belief is not enough to change the theoretical framework constructed for the previous study: Agamben’s concepts of the camp, bare life, and state of exception, Foucault’s opinions on the relationship between security, territory, and population as associated with the socio-political practices, and Furedi’s culture of fear is still the key concepts of the theoretical process.

CSOs Addressing Women in Agri and the Pandemic: On Actions, Issues, and Solutions

Ceren Avcil — 2023-01-10

The beginning of 2020 witnessed the global spread of COVID-19, a non-traditional threat that has since affected every part of life in all countries. In response to this non-traditional threat, national and international governments and bodies have toiled to implement targeted measures to contain the spread of the pandemic, causing many official activities and events held online, the notable example being education institutions and civil society organizations outright opting to conduct their programs online for about a year. This entire process has created challenges for each sector; however, CSOs have been faced with a distinct set of difficulties arising from this non-traditional threat in terms of their practical functionality due to the conventionally central role of face-to-face interactions in their organizational activities.

This study determines the current state of two civil society organizations working to address the needs of women in Agri along with the issues they have encountered and the solutions they have come up with during the pandemic. The study employed semi-structured interviews held during face-to-face meetings with the presidents of both CSOs. The interviewers asked 10 questions to them. The study primarily found that CSOs had suffered a negative impact due to the pandemic.

Not Only A Man’s World: Women Also Cross Borders

Maryam Liman — 2023-01-12

The migrants from Niger Republic move into the neighboring Nigerian communities in numbers in search for greener pastures. Previously, research in the region has shown migration to be male dominated (Liman, 2021). However, a new wave of women participation was noticed hence the need for literature update. The study was conducted at Daura Local Government Area, Katsina state in Nigeria. The study area shares with Niger Republic a manned border at Kongolom and unmanned borders throughout the expanse of its several remote villages making the influx of both human and animal resources uncontrolled. Women, just like men move freely into the study area yearly. In order to understand the reasons behind the decision by these women to cross the borders, four (4) Focus Group Discussions were conducted with the 35 migrants using a checklist as a guide. Four (4) Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) also held with their hostesses. Qualitative data was therefore collected and reported in descriptive narration. The results of the FGD show all respondents were female within the age range of 12-56years. Some were married, some widowed, a good number divorced and the rest were spinsters. None of them had formal education but some had basic Islamic knowledge. They engaged in farming, post harvest activities, domestic chores such as cleaning, cooking and babysitting and others street begging. Findings reveal that economic gains were the major reason for coming to Nigeria. For some respondents, this is the first time of partaking in migration, others have had the joy of returning yearly thereby making them circular migrants. These ladies and others practicing this migration type are commonly referred to as ‘Yan Tabiradi. Information gathered from the 3 of 4 of the hostesses, who were elderly women, all widowed and lived in 2-3 room houses explained that some migrants pay a token fee to stay (N150-N200 monthly/less than 50cents) for accomodation. The fourth hostess, relatively younger, entertained her relatives at no cost. Finally, it can be concluded that, women from southern Niger Republic do partake actively in short distance, seasonal, circular migration in parts of northern Nigeria. They come due to availability of work, a good network of family and friends that secure the work and accommodate them and also the ease of crossing the border.

Nations, Shadow Borders, and the Production of Gender in the Present

Noah Allison — 2023-01-20

How do borders, real and imagined, influence conceptions of gender? This paper answers this question by analyzing written materials produced by The Outlaw Ocean Project, namely “The Secret Prison that Keeps Migrants Out of Europe.” This is achieved by making sense of how bordering tactics impact people fleeing their homes in Africa on their dangerous journey to Europe. In doing so, it engages an intersectionality lens when analyzing the processes and consequences of externalized border technologies that emerge from laws, surveillance, and ransoms. Finally, this paper adds new perspectives to migration and border scholarship by specifying how African border-making are places and processes that reproduce gender.