Neoliberalism, Race, and a Sense of Belonging of Refugee Youth

• In Event: The Use of Decolonization Within Ethnic Studies, Refugee Studies, and Gender and Empire/Counter-Terrorism Discourses

Abstract

Objective
Displaced youth subjects negotiate home and a sense of belonging differently since the new place of their arrival in an ambivalent space. This ambivalence over belonging to the new space has much to do the structures of oppression that immigrants and refugees encounter in the United States. Neo-liberal and racial discourse play a prominent role in how immigrant/refugees negotiate a sense of belonging. The question of belonging for Bhutanese refugee youth has a different meaning since their sense of home is rooted in contemporary reality of ethnic cleansing and the displacement it has unleashed in contemporary world. My intervention in this discussion is to decolonize mainstream belong narratives of citizenship and belonging.

Perspectives
As public discussion continues over travel-ban and building of wall on Mexico-US border, education scholars have noted that school climate has been historically hostile to students of color and that students of color struggle to meaningfully belong in schools (Lee, 1997). El-haj (2007) uses the term “unsettled belonging” to speak about homelessness that Palestanian youth feel in US. schools. Place-making is a process of claiming one’s (and community’s) place in racialized landscape of U.S., include reimaging local, cultural ways of being and knowing (Kinloch, 2010). Place-making speaks about how belonging is often ambivalent, uncertain and has local meanings (neighborhood, etc.). Migration scholars argue that it is because of displacement that refugee subjects seek a sense of belonging. Unlike the middle-class immigrants who often arrive at US borders as neo-liberal subjects, Bhutanese refugee youth have faced difficulties claiming their rights because of linguistic, cultural and educational barriers.
Methods and Data Sources

Using a qualitative interpretive framework (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) and grounded theory methods (Strauss & Corbin, 1998), the research highlighted the experiences and perspectives of a displaced community’s place-making practices, particular what constituted belonging and making a place “home.” The findings of the research was based on a four-year research project. It asked: how did eight Bhutanese youth reimagined their sense of place in a space where they were not desired and not welcomed. The data was collected via interviews, document analysis, and observations. I used audiotape and videotape to document family’s experiences and their experiences with U.S. citizenship narratives and how they attempted to claim a sense of place. I also used semi-structured interview to examine the experiences of the participants (Siedman, 1998) and constant comparison methods (Patton, 1990) were used to code the themes and the patterns that emerged from the data (Miles & Huberman, 1984).


Significance

The topic of youth refuge experiences and its connection to social justice education has not been adequately addressed. First, this research will provide alternate ways youth understand belonging and make sense of citizenship. The research engages with how citizenship feeling is connected to local, national and global discourses and within the current anti-immigrant and anti-refugee discourses. In general, research concerning experiences of refugee communities is a marginalized topic that is under-theorized in humanities and social sciences (Ong 2003).

Author

• Binaya Subedi, The Ohio State University