In “Without Distances,” we propose to think about anthropological questions related
human migration
In current contexts of globalization migration studies carried out by
anthropologists show that migration it is rooted in human beings for their own
survival as well as the survival of their societies and cultures
And human groups have to migrate as a consequence of natural catastrophes, wars
violence, hunger, or to seek better living conditions
Anthropological studies also show that national, social and cultural borders
are continuously changing and reshaping
Current migratory movements and involuntary population displacements have led
anthropologists, as well as members of related disciplines, to work together with
migrants, residents, and communities seeking to contribute to the production
of knowledge and social applications
Seeking to address these challenges and provide anthropological theoretical and
methodological frameworks of how scholars and practitioners
from different disciplines can approach these processes
the Lexington Books series Crossing Borders in a Global World
Applying Anthropology to Migration, Displacement and Social Change was proposed in 2017
edited by anthropologists Raúl Sánchez Molina and Nancy A. Konvalinka, professors at UNED
Let’s know about its objectives and the books which have been published by its editors.
Hello everybody listens to UNED radio Anthropology program
In today’s radio program, professor Raúl Sánchez Molina, and I, Nancy A. Konvalinka
want to introduce you the US Lexington Books series
Books Crossing Borders in a Global World: Applying Anthropology to Migration, Displacement
and Social Change: “Cruzar fronteras en un mundo global: la antropología aplicada
a migraciones, desplazamientos y cambio social” as well as two books which have been published from this series:
Identities on Trial in the United States: Asylum Seekers from
Asia: “Enjuiciando la identidad de los Estados Unidos: Los buscadores de asilo de Asia”,
by ChorSwang Ngin, based on her long experience working as an anthropologist, professor
at the California State University in Los Angeles, and as an
“expert witnesses” testifying in asylum appeals in different US courts
And the edition, The Crux of Refugee Resettlement
edited by anthropologists Andrew Nelson (University of North Texas), Alex Rödlach
(Creighton University) and Roos Willems (University of Leuven), which
twelve chapters, based on participatory ethnographic research, focuse on
social exclusion resettlement policies in several receiving countries:
United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the United States.
In current contexts of globalization, research on migration, as well as
other voluntary and involuntary population displacements in anthropology,
and other related (academic) disciplines show –in contrast to the increase of reiterative
nationalist, xenophobic, racist and anti-immigrant discourses, occurring in many
receiving countries– that migration it is not a contemporary phenomenon at all. It is
rooted in human beings to survive themselves as well as their societies
and cultures
And human groups have to migrate as a consequence of natural catastrophes
wars, invasions, violence, persecutions, hunger, diseases, or seeking for better
life conditions.
Ethnographic studies carried out by anthropologists as well as other social scientists
have shown, in opposition to these dominant discourses and narratives
that borders –not only geopolitics, but also social and cultural borders– are not fixed
permanent, static, unmovable. They are continuously changing and reshaping.
To such an extent that when these (borders) change or reshape, the ways we organize ourselves
think, behave and know ourselves also change.
By crossing political, social, cultural, and identity borders current migrants,
refugees, and travelers meet challenges of globalization in their processes
of displacement, incorporation, and adaptation
to new settlements
In the last decades, these circumstances have made anthropologists
as well as, members of related disciplines, to work together with migrants
residents, and communities seeking to contribute not only to produce knowledge,
but also social applications/actions.
Following this objective/aim, the Lexington Books series
Crossing Borders in a Global World
was proposed:
seeking to address these challenges and their intersections with relevant aspects
in anthropology analyzing these processes such
as national, ethnic, gender, and generational identities
by providing anthropological theoretical and methodological frameworks
of how scholars and practitioners from different disciplines can approach these processes
by applying acquire knowledge from diverse fields such as economy, policy
social and physical reproduction, health, labor market, education, and other social
institutions.
We consider that the series should be of value to anthropologists and other social scientists/ scholars
studying historical and contemporary issues in displacement, migration
and development studies as well as students and practitioners
interested in the impact of displacements
and social and cultural changes
in contemporary societies Some examples of specific movements
are migrants from less
to more affluent areas
migrants escaping violence in their home contexts,
migrants sent abroad by their companies
and people seeking medical and reproductive treatments.
Although other editorial series also focus on some topics mentioned earlier
addressing them from an interdisciplinary and empirical perspective.
And like this series, they cover major aspects of migration and citizenship,
borders and practices of bordering, politics and practices of belonging,
or transnationalism, among other aspects. Based on anthropologic and
interdisciplinary ethnographic research, this series does not only address
“crossing borders” in a wider social and cultural sense, but also in a variety of
academic knowledge and social practice fields in migration and immigration, displacement, development, health and reproduction,
social services, labor market, education, and ethnic and gender identity.
To such an extent that the concept of “crossing borders” brings together/ articulate a broader spectrum
of research on both long and short term movements (in time),
on movements of people who have to cross national borders in
, a variety of socioeconomic situations
around the world.
And for this reason, this series advisory board is formed by relevant scholars
from different academic areas and countries around the world: Maria Eugenia Bozzoli
(University of Costa Rica, Adi Bharadwaj (The Graduate Institute Geneve),
Monica Bonnacorso (Queen Mary University of London), Lucy M.
Cohen (The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.), Yasmine Ergas
(Columbia Universidad in New York), Andrés Fábregas Puig (CIESAS in Mexico),
Carles Feixa (Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona), Ubaldo Martínez Veiga (UNED in Madrid), Marit Melhuus
(University of Oslo), Alicia Re Cruz (University of North Texas), Timothy
Reedy (Western Michigan University), Alexander Roedlach (Creighton University),
Amy Speier (University of Texas in Arlington), Meenakshi Thapan (University of Delhi)
and María Amelia Viteri (San Francisco University in Quito).
Since this series started a year and a half ago, two monographs
have been published while and other three have been approved
Identities on Trial in the United States ChorSwang Ngin
–as have been said earlier– it is based on
the author long experience working as “witness expert” testifying in asylum appeals
with Chinese origin refuges in different US courts, particularly
in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Arizona, and Chicago.
And the edition led by Andrew
Nelson, Alex Rödlach and Roos Willems (2018) The Crux of Refugee Resettlement which
introduces several studies on refugee and migrant resettlements in The United States,
Great Britain, Australia and Canada.
In the book, Identities on Trial in the United States, anthropologist ChorSwang Ngin addresses
what is considered as “refugee crisis” due the increase
of people who, after having to flee their home countries, have to
cross national borders asking for asylum in other countries.
A drama –as the author highlights– that world has not witnessed since
World War II.
With a long experience doing ethnographic fieldwork with migrants and refugees
in Los Angeles (United States), we can observe reading this book how the author
applies anthropological theories and methods, combining with the US law,
to analyze these complex legal processes who have to face current asylum seekers
while showing how anthropological knowledge can help
attorneys, prosecutors and judges to determine cultural identities among asylum
seekers, through the cases introduce by the author, from different Asian countries.
In this book, ChorSwang Ngin radically shifts the asylum seeking narrative by
focusing on rarely heard stories of persecution and escape from China and other
Southeast Asian countries as a result of racist and nationalist prejudices as well as
politic and religious persecutions.
She analyzes cases of a tortured student from a Myanmar prison, several
victims of ethnic and sexual violence from Indonesia or a man and women who
escape the former Chinese One-Child Policy.
Joann Yeh, an immigration attorney, collaborates in this work authored three
chapters, analyzing how Mandarin speakers
seek asylum in California.
They also discuss the failure of the United States judicial immigration system
by showing the drama suffering by asylum seekers in courtrooms
while highlighting the anthropologists’ contributions,
as “witness experts”, in these processes by offering applied anthropological
knowledge to law.
Besides women and men anthropologists, we recommend this book to policy makers,
lawyers, activists, and those people engaged with migration studies
and their application to cases of asylum claims.
After reading this book, Livia Holden –professor at Oxford University– underlines that “unravels
the tormented stories that lie behind asylum claims in the United States”
offering, drawing from ethnographic grounds, “a fascinating range of cases that illustrates
the dilemmas, conflicts and contradictions” what she names “cultural expertise”;
by poignantly arguing against the narrow use of
culture and how anthropologists can involve themselves
in court.
And James Loucky –professor at Western Washington University–, after pointing out that immigration
is “so misrepresented” and “the political asylum process so daunting”,
he states that this book “is most welcome”, among other reasons
because their cultural analyses are “crucial for verifying conditions
of persecution and credibility of accounts” drawing from asylum claims.
The second book, The Crux of Refugee Resettlement edited by Andrew Nelson, Alex Rödlach and
Roos Willems, structured in twelve chapters, are based –as said earlier–
on participatory ethnographies focusing on social exclusion resettlement policies
in several receiving societies:
United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and the United States.
Through these chapters, authors show how anthropologists work, together with other professionals
and social agents, with refugees groups from different countries around
the world: Myanmar, Nepal, Somalia, Iraq, Central African and Central American countries,
while analyzing how these refugees respond/contest these social exclusion policies
through their social networks (social capital) in their
process of resettlement.
In doing so, the authors apply anthropological theories and methods
by working together with other discipline professionals and refugees.
These studies highlight that while the world’s refugee population reaches
historic record numbers, receiving countries shift “toward policies of exclusion
and austerity.”
Authors combine anthropology with other professional perspectives:
education, health, religion, administration, politics, and social work. And their contributors
show studies of resettlements highlighting the essential role (the crux)
played by these refugee groups’ social networks in these processes to face
among other aspects, the bureaucratic limitations imposed by public institutions.
One of this book’s novelty and contribution is the inclusion of shorts statements
provided by refugees, representatives of resettlement organizations, and government officials.
Jeff Crisp, formerly at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
considers that this edition is not only interesting, but also “intriguing and uplifting
exploration of the way that resettled refugees adapt to their new homes”
while highlight “the limitations of formal assistance programs and the central role played
by social networks” based on solidarity and community action.
Therefore, he considers that this book “is essential reading for policymakers
practitioners and researchers engaged in the issue of refugee resettlement.”
And Alan LeBaron (Kennesaw State University in Georgia, United States) highlights
its significant contributions in the field of migration and refugee studies
by deeply exploring, and from a comprehensive way, the complexities in the lives of displaced peoples
and their resettlement on their new societies.
While focusing on refugee possibilities, according to
this professor, weaknesses and conflicts of the community are discussed by the authors.
In addition, he appreciates “as a treasure” in the processes of acquire knowledge
the participatory methodologies, allowing these authors
to gain trust of and access to their communities and
participate with them.
To such an extent that shows, according to him, that refugees have much to teach us
about these processes.
If you wish to receive or see more information about this series of books, you can go
to the Lexington Books website, by simply putting Lexington Books on Google
and there you will find the series Crossing Borders in a Global Word.
We hope to soon be able to offer many more novel and interesting books
in this series
Thank you very much all of you for listening to this new radio Anthropology program
which Raúl and I have focused on the anthropological series: Crossing
Borders in a Global Word.
See you soon.