Abstract
In the ongoing debates on migration, the subjectivities of migrants are often relegated to the background. Although critical research in refugee studies and forced migration puts a great emphasis on the unheard voices of migrants. This article strays momentarily from the focus on migrants subjectivities to interrogate the background of these voices, that is, the space that surrounds their narratives. Based on field observations conducted in two initial reception centers for asylum seekers in Germany, this article draws on Deleuze and Guattari’s geographic philosophy to explore the spatiality and temporality of these facilities. This article argues that these reception centers capture asylum seekers’ journey narratives through their reterritorialization, and thereby deletes their agency all the while they provide safety.
Résumé
Les subjectivités des migrants sont souvent reléguées à l’arrière-plan des débats courants sur la migration. Des recherches essentielles sur les réfugiés et la migration forcée mettent toutefois l’accent sur les voix ignorées des ces derniers. Le présent article s’écarte momentanément des subjectivités des migrants pour interroger ces voix d’arrière-plan, soit l’espace qui englobe ces subjectivités. Basé sur des observations recueillies sur le terrain dans deux centres d’accueil initiale de demandeurs d’asile en Allemagne, cet article s’inspire de la philosophie géographique de Deleuze et Guattari pour explorer la spatialité et la temporalité de ces installations. Il avance que ces centres captent les récits des périples des demandeurs d’asile dans le cadre de leur reterritorialisation, supprimant ainsi leur capacité d’agir, tout en leur offrant une protection.
Zusammenfassung
In den anhaltenden Migrationsdebatten werden die Subjektivitäten der Migranten oftmals in den Hintergrund gerückt. Kritische Forschungsarbeiten zu Flüchtlingsstudien und zwangsweiser Migration legen jedoch einen großen Schwerpunkt auf die ungehörten Stimmen der Migranten. Der Artikel schweift aber für einen Moment von dem Fokus auf die Subjektivitäten der Migranten ab, um den Hintergrund dieser Stimmen zu untersuchen, d. h. das Umfeld, das ihre Subjektivitäten umgibt. Beruhend auf Feldbeobachtungen, die in zwei ersten Aufnahmezentren für Asylsuchende in Deutschland durchgeführt wurden, stützt sich dieser Beitrag auf die geographische Philosophie von Deleuze und Guattari, um die Räumlichkeit und Zeitlichkeit dieser Einrichtungen zu erforschen. Es wird behauptet, dass diese Aufnahmezentren die Schilderungen der Asylsuchenden über ihre Reise durch ihre Reterritorialisierung erfassen und so ihre Handlungsfähigkeit auslöschen, gleichzeitig jedoch Sicherheit bieten.
Resumen
En los debates en curso sobre migración, las subjetividades de los migrantes quedan relegadas a menudo a un segundo plano. Sin embargo, la investigación crítica en estudios de refugiados y migración forzada pone un gran énfasis en las voces acalladas de los migrantes. Sin embargo, el presente artículo se desvía momentáneamente del foco sobre las subjetividades de los migrantes para interrogar al trasfondo de dichas voces, es decir, el espacio que rodea sus subjetividades. Basándose en observaciones de campo realizadas en dos centros de recepción iniciales para solicitantes de asilo en Alemania, el presente artículo se basa en la filosofía geográfica de Deleuze y Guattari para explorar la espacialidad y temporalidad de estas instalaciones. El presente artículo argumenta que estos centros de recepción captan las narraciones del viaje de los solicitantes de asilo mediante su reterritorialización, y de este modo eliminan su acción al mismo tiempo que proporcionan seguridad.
摘要
在长期的移民争议中,移民的主观性通常被搁置到一边。然而,对难民研究和强制移民的主要研究更加关注未倾听的移民心声。然而,本文稍微偏离主题,从专注于移民主观性转到质疑这些心声的背景,即主观性相关的空间。基于对德国的两个早期寻求庇护者接待中心的现场观察,本文结合Deleuze和Guattari的地理哲学,探讨这些设施的空间性和灵活性。本文认为,通过再疆域化,这些接待中心获得了寻求庇护者的旅途述说,从而在提供安全的同时消除他们的代理。
ملخص
في المناقشات الجارية بشأن الهجرة، غالبا" ما يتم عزل المسائل الذاتية للمهاجرين إلى الوراء. مع ذلك، البحث النقدي في الدراسات للاجئين والهجرة القسرية يضع تركيز كبيرعلى الأصوات الغير مسموعة للمهاجرين. مع ذلك، هذه المقالة ضلت للحظات للراحة من التركيزعلى المهاجرين للإستجواب على خلفية هذه الأصوات، هذا هو، الفراغ الذي يحيط بالشخصية الخاصة بهم. بناءا" على الملاحظات الميدانية التي أجريت في مركزين الإستقبال الأولي لطالبي اللجوء في ألمانيا، تعتمد هذه المقالة على (Deleuze) و(Guattari) في الفلسفة الجغرافية لإكتشاف ما وراء الحدود و وقتية هذه المرافق. تجادل هذه المقالة أن مراكز الإستقبال هذه تلتقط روايات رحلة طالبي اللجوء من خلال إعادة توزيعهم بشكل منهجي، بالتالي حذف وكالتهم جميعها حين توفر السلامة.
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Notes
As of October 2015, a single adult person staying in an accommodation center receives €143 per month. As for families, rates vary according to the number of adult partners and the age of the members of the household. These allowances are low because the Asylum Seekers’ Benefits Act states that those living in reception centers are provided with food, shelter, clothing, and sanitary products. For more on this issue, please consult the November 2015 report by AIDA (Asylum Information Database), Country Report: Germany.
There is a rich literature on the politics of space, culture, and time that stretches beyond the scope of this article, but on which I am currently working. This literature include “speed theorists” such as Paul Virilio, Zygmunt Bauman, Ben Agger, as well as David Harvey’s earlier work on postmodern space and the ontology of space.
The expression ‘initial reception center’ is a translation from the German Ertsaufnahmeeinrichtung. It is important to note that this is a bureaucratic category only as it does not correspond to what the residents themselves call it. For instance, Syrian refugees and asylum seekers seldom refer to the initial reception as such, but rather call it ‘al-camp’, an arabicized version of the word ‘camp’. While calling these facilities ‘camp’ is justified, I chose here to use the bureaucratic category nonetheless, because I would like to temporarily bracket the examination migrants' narratives in this paper.
The number of lodged applications includes first and follow-up applications and, therefore, indicate the total number of cases handled by German asylum officers. The German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), which is an agency within the Ministry of Interior, is the only entity in Germany that is capacitated to register asylum applications.
The Dublin System stems from the Dublin Convention, which was signed in 1990 and came into effect in 1997. It is one of the main legal instruments of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). The Dublin Convention established the criteria that determine the European state that is responsible for processing an asylum request. It also guarantees the right of asylum in signatory countries as it aims to prevent a phenomenon called “refugees in orbit,” where a person seeking protection cannot find a state that accepts to process her asylum request. However, the Dublin system is mostly known as the legal device designed to prevent asylum seekers from abusing the European asylum process, notably the practice of lodging simultaneously or consecutively an asylum request in more than one signatory country (a practice known as “asylum shopping”). Because of the Dublin system, it is the country of first entry of an asylum seeker that is responsible for procession of his/her asylum claim and providing accommodation during the application review process.
The fact that accommodation facilities in Germany are less overcrowded does not say much about the number of arrivals of migrants via the Mediterranean Sea. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the total number of Mediterranean Sea arrivals between January and August 2016 reached 263,636, compared to 354,628 the previous year. However, according to the last report by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), arrivals through the Central Mediterranean route (Italy) have increased in comparison to the previous year. The number of people found dead or missing while attempting to cross the sea has markedly increased: 3176 in 2016 compared to 2754 in 2015. For more details, refer to the following links: for IOM, https://missingmigrants.iom.int/migrant-arrivals-mediterranean-reach-263636-deaths-sea-3176; for UNCHR: http://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/regional.php.
In this regard, the European Commission and several non-governmental organizations warned about the appalling receptions conditions in refugee camps and even gestating humanitarian crises, mainly in Greece and Western Balkans (Amnesty International, 2015; European Commission, 2016; Humans Rights Watch, 2016).
The Reception Conditions Directive, which is part of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), is quite problematic. While the Directive refers to minimum standards of reception to be made available to asylum seekers, Member States can implement them in very different ways. Besides, there is a conceptual ambiguity between the notions of reception and detention. For instance, the hotspot approach adopted by Greece and Italy to cope with the high number of daily arrivals has deprived many asylum seekers of their capacity to freely enter and exit centers. For more on this subject, read the March 2016 report by the European Council on refugees and Exile (ECRE), Wrong Counts and Closing Doors: The Reception of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Europe.
Persecution must be understood in accordance with the definition of a refugee as stated in the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and then generalized in the 1967 Protocol. According to international refugee law, a refugee is a person who has a “well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country” (1951 Convention, Article 1-A, §2).
The ZKF is an interagency newly created (October 2015) that falls under the authority of Hamburg’s Department for Labor, Social and Family Affairs and Integration as well as the Department for Internal Affairs and Sports.
This is not a perfect English equivalent of the word ‘Heim’, which rather describes a relationship to the home or the homeland. Of course, this is further complicated by the variations in the utilization of the word ‘heim’ across German regions. In the South of Germany, one would often hear “ich gehe heim” for “I am going home”, whereas in the North, one would rather hear “ich gehe nach Hause.”.
I witnessed, however, many asylum seekers in these facilities claim that Syrian and Afghan asylum seekers are usually processed faster than Iraqis. Besides, applicants from the Balkans have become administratively prioritized since the end of summer 2015 after their countries of origin were added to the list of “safe country of origin.” This measure led to the implementation of administrative and legislative measures to accelerate the review of asylum applications.
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Author Hamza Safouane declares that he has no conflict of interest.
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This paper is the result of field observation conducted between May and July 2016 in two initial reception centers for asylum seekers in Hamburg, Germany. The study was conducted according to the research protocol IRB#16-478, which has been approved by the Virginia Tech Institutional Review Board (IRB).
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Safouane, H. Manufacturing Striated Space for Migrants: An Ethnography of Initial Reception Centers for Asylum Seekers in Germany. Voluntas 28, 1922–1939 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-016-9813-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-016-9813-1