Outside In: The European Refugee Crisis through the Prism of Risk

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

The aim of this panel is to contribute knowledge about refugees’ perilous journeys to the EU and their plights within resettlement communities. It is framed around the concept of risk to allow for a multi-dimensional look at the “refugee crisis.” Risk theorists conceptualize risk as exposure to danger, which is associated with fear or uncertainty (Beck, 1992; Giddens, 1991). Initially, refugees were labelled at-risk due their fleeing worn-torn regions and because of their journeys from the Middle East to European countries. However, after ISIS attacks in Paris and Lebanon, the tide of public opinion shifted and they were deemed too risky. Borders become harder to penetrate and countries known for humanitarian policies closed borders, increased security and enacted laws restricting asylum. Subsequently, there have been clashes between EU publics and refugees. This panel includes studies about different stages of refugees’ risk journeys from those first arriving in Greece to those who now reside in resettlement communities in Sweden. These first-hand narratives elucidate the contours of being at-risk and viewed as risky. These studies show how risk is negotiated and we hope that they give migrants a voice in their plight for safe resettlement.

Sub Unit

• Area XI: Global Perspectives / 66: International Perspectives

Individual Presentations

• Do Not Come to Europe: The Experience of Migration to Greece at the Height of the European Union’s Crisis - Alexandra Hiropoulos, African Centre for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand

• Unaccompanied Minor Refugees’ Narratives of Risk - Amber Horning Ruf, William Paterson University

• Unaccompanied Minor Refugees in the Swedish Landscape: Visualizing Double-Edged Risk - Sara Jordeno, University of Gothenburg

• Moral Obligation is not Risk Averse: Ideal Theory vs. Pragmatism - Jessica Otto, University of Buffalo

Discussant

• Alexandra Hiropoulos, African Centre for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand