1,720,964 research outputs found
Borders and Mobility in South Asia and Beyond
Get PDFThe world is experiencing one of the largest movements of people in history with 65 million people displaced by conflict in 2015, the majority of which were from Asia. This book brings a deep engagement with individuals whose lives are shaped by encounters with borders by telling the stories of a poor Bangladeshi women who regularly crosses the India border to visit family, of Muslims from India living in Gulf countries for work, and the harrowing journey of a young Afghan man as he sets off on foot to Germany. The international and interdisciplinary work in this book contributes to this moment by analyzing how borders are experienced by migrants and borderlanders in South Asia, how mobility and diaspora are engaged in literature and media, and how the lives of migrants are transformed during their journey to new homes in South Asia, the Middle East, North America, and Europe
Borders and Mobility in South Asia and Beyond
No full textThe world is experiencing one of the largest movements of people in history with 65 million people displaced by conflict in 2015, the majority of which were from Asia. This book brings a deep engagement with individuals whose lives are shaped by encounters with borders by telling the stories of a poor Bangladeshi women who regularly crosses the India border to visit family, of Muslims from India living in Gulf countries for work, and the harrowing journey of a young Afghan man as he sets off on foot to Germany. The international and interdisciplinary work in this book contributes to this moment by analyzing how borders are experienced by migrants and borderlanders in South Asia, how mobility and diaspora are engaged in literature and media, and how the lives of migrants are transformed during their journey to new homes in South Asia, the Middle East, North America, and Europe
Borders and Mobility in South Asia and Beyond
Get PDFThe world is experiencing one of the largest movements of people in history with 65 million people displaced by conflict in 2015, the majority of which were from Asia. This book brings a deep engagement with individuals whose lives are shaped by encounters with borders by telling the stories of a poor Bangladeshi women who regularly crosses the India border to visit family, of Muslims from India living in Gulf countries for work, and the harrowing journey of a young Afghan man as he sets off on foot to Germany. The international and interdisciplinary work in this book contributes to this moment by analyzing how borders are experienced by migrants and borderlanders in South Asia, how mobility and diaspora are engaged in literature and media, and how the lives of migrants are transformed during their journey to new homes in South Asia, the Middle East, North America, and Europe
Navigating the ‘field’ : Reflexivity, uncertainties, and negotiation along the border of Bangladesh and India
Get PDFAbstractDrawing on a fourteen-month ethnographic fieldwork experience along the border of Bangladesh and India, I offer a narrative of daily challenges and uncertainties in the ‘field’. Highlighting my positionality and reflexivity, I suggest that first, although a researcher may use social capital to gain access, it may raise concerns regarding the genuineness of the participant’s response. Second, with careful attention, unplanned moments and spontaneous conversations can be turned into sources for valuable insight. Third, pushing the boundaries of social norms to attain a textbook example of ‘gender balance’ does not necessarily ‘add value’ to the research; instead, is likely to make it more challenging to access the same population for further research. Finally, I reaffirm that being from the same region with a similar background does not make the researcher an ‘insider’. Rather, their positionality becomes more ‘fluid’ and constantly shifts between an insider, an outsider, both, and sometimes none.Abstract
Drawing on a fourteen-month ethnographic fieldwork experience along the border of Bangladesh and India, I offer a narrative of daily challenges and uncertainties in the ‘field’. Highlighting my positionality and reflexivity, I suggest that first, although a researcher may use social capital to gain access, it may raise concerns regarding the genuineness of the participant’s response. Second, with careful attention, unplanned moments and spontaneous conversations can be turned into sources for valuable insight. Third, pushing the boundaries of social norms to attain a textbook example of ‘gender balance’ does not necessarily ‘add value’ to the research; instead, is likely to make it more challenging to access the same population for further research. Finally, I reaffirm that being from the same region with a similar background does not make the researcher an ‘insider’. Rather, their positionality becomes more ‘fluid’ and constantly shifts between an insider, an outsider, both, and sometimes none
After The Exchange: Citizenship And Territoriality In The Former Bangladesh-India Border Enclaves
Get PDFThis dissertation explores how the exchange of the Bangladesh-India enclaves in July 2015 affected the lives of the residents in terms of their experience with citizenship and their understanding of territory. After the partition of India in 1947, 198 border enclaves were created that were entirely surrounded by the other country’s territory i.e., Indian enclaves were situated inside Bangladesh and vice versa. Almost 55,000 people living in these enclaves were completely isolated from their respective nation-states and lived as de facto stateless populations for the last seven decades. During the exchange, the residents were given the option to choose their citizenship. Ninety-eight percent of the residents decided to stay in their homes and change their official citizenship, while the remaining two percent moved from Indian enclaves back to India proper to retain their Indian citizenship. Drawing on the experiences of the former enclave residents in Bangladesh, the dissertation explores their choice of citizenship, whether the status of citizenship makes any difference in their lives, and the techniques of state-making and territoriality employed by the state of Bangladesh. The dissertation is based on a twelve months of ethnographic field research in the former enclaves and two months of archival research in Bangladesh. The ethnography involved (participant) observation, 89 in-depth interviews with different groups, and 6 focus group discussions with the former enclave residents. The research finds that acts of belonging played a significant role in their choice of citizenship. As a result, an overwhelming majority decided to stay where they were and opted for a change in their citizenship. After the enclave residents were formally recognized as citizens, Bangladesh took numerous distinct measures to help smooth their transition as citizens. A process understood as sovereign overcompensation. However, it also reveals that such extraordinary measures stemmed not from a ‘sorry state’ but as a byproduct of state-making. The nature of citizenship created from such overcompensation is termed as showcase citizenship. Showcase citizenship is used by the state as a means to conceal the unequal treatment of its citizens and the structural violence fashioned by numerous state apparatuses. The research views these former enclaves as symbolic spaces that surpassed their real economic and strategic value to gain an amplified status in nationalistic debates and rhetoric. Therefore, it took almost seven decades for Bangladesh and India to finally exchange them. Bangladesh employed numerous techniques of governmentality and territoriality, ranging from controlling the population to building physical infrastructure in order to bring these spaces under its legible control. Bangladesh also placed special attention to land formalization. Thus, the research reveals that land became flexible as the state and its citizens struggled over land ownership.Ph.D
To “help” or not to “help” the participant : A global South ethnographer’s dilemma in the global South
Get PDFAbstractEthnographers are often faced with the dilemma of whether to help or not help participants, especially those from the global South conducting fieldwork at “home.” While such dilemmas are frequent, rarely any guideline directly engages with them. In this brief paper, I engage with the ethical dilemma of whether to help research participants during fieldwork, especially in the global South where participants are often marginalized populations who may ask for crucial help. In so doing, I first question what should be considered as “help.” Then I juxtapose help with the ethical issues of reciprocity and responsibility. Third, I briefly focus on the emotional burden that ethnographers often become subject to for not being able to help the way they might have wanted and finally, discuss uneven immersion as a tactic to deal with the dilemma.Abstract
Ethnographers are often faced with the dilemma of whether to help or not help participants, especially those from the global South conducting fieldwork at “home.” While such dilemmas are frequent, rarely any guideline directly engages with them. In this brief paper, I engage with the ethical dilemma of whether to help research participants during fieldwork, especially in the global South where participants are often marginalized populations who may ask for crucial help. In so doing, I first question what should be considered as “help.” Then I juxtapose help with the ethical issues of reciprocity and responsibility. Third, I briefly focus on the emotional burden that ethnographers often become subject to for not being able to help the way they might have wanted and finally, discuss uneven immersion as a tactic to deal with the dilemma
New Borders and Mobility in the Age of Globalization : De-bordering, Re-bordering, and Beyond
Get PDFAbstractThe authors analyze borders and tourism in the context of globalization. They critically assess the progress and status of borders and border studies in various narratives related to globalization. In so doing, they start with an understanding that both “borders” and “globalization” are contested and historically contingent categories. The focus of the chapter is threefold. The authors first scrutinize how globalization became topical in research since the 1990s in relation to tourism. Tourism has been recognized as an important force in the process of globalization, owing principally to its contribution to creating modern transportation systems and infrastructure that support traveling, such as airports, hotels, and resorts. Expanding tourism has also forced governments to simplify formal procedures related to travel and adopt innovative technologies, such as self-check-in kiosks, which enable the processing of an escalating number of tourists. Second, the authors examine how borders became a keyword in the age of globalization, and how the meaning of borders has been gradually shifting. Tourism, along with other forms of mobilities, both physical and imsaginative travel, has contributed to the touristic visions of the world as borderless or “un-bounded”, often drawing on the metaphors of “networks” and “fluids”. Finally, they problematize the relation between territories, borders, and (tourism) mobilities. In so doing, the authors contend that borders and mobilities are becoming increasingly two sides of the same coin though mobility itself remains divided.Abstract
The authors analyze borders and tourism in the context of globalization. They critically assess the progress and status of borders and border studies in various narratives related to globalization. In so doing, they start with an understanding that both “borders” and “globalization” are contested and historically contingent categories. The focus of the chapter is threefold. The authors first scrutinize how globalization became topical in research since the 1990s in relation to tourism. Tourism has been recognized as an important force in the process of globalization, owing principally to its contribution to creating modern transportation systems and infrastructure that support traveling, such as airports, hotels, and resorts. Expanding tourism has also forced governments to simplify formal procedures related to travel and adopt innovative technologies, such as self-check-in kiosks, which enable the processing of an escalating number of tourists. Second, the authors examine how borders became a keyword in the age of globalization, and how the meaning of borders has been gradually shifting. Tourism, along with other forms of mobilities, both physical and imsaginative travel, has contributed to the touristic visions of the world as borderless or “un-bounded”, often drawing on the metaphors of “networks” and “fluids”. Finally, they problematize the relation between territories, borders, and (tourism) mobilities. In so doing, the authors contend that borders and mobilities are becoming increasingly two sides of the same coin though mobility itself remains divided
Sovereign Atonement: (Non)citizenship, Territory, and State‐Making in Post‐Colonial South Asia
Get PDFAbstractThe former border enclaves of Bangladesh and India, which were small pieces of one state entirely surrounded by the other, existed as extraterritorial spaces from 1947 until 2015. Since these spaces were subject to state violence but remained completely excluded from the protections provided by courts, police, and government, they have historically been understood as spaces of exception that contained bare lives. After the exchange of enclaves in 2015, the situation changed dramatically as the state assumed an active role in incorporating new lands and citizens. Such an active role resulted in unique privileges exclusively for the enclave residents understood here as sovereign atonement. Drawing on field research in Bangladesh, however, the paper argues that it would be misleading to capture sovereign atonement as an effort to correct the past violence of extraterritorial exclusion; instead it must be understood through the primacy of territory in state-making in post-colonial South Asia.Abstract
The former border enclaves of Bangladesh and India, which were small pieces of one state entirely surrounded by the other, existed as extraterritorial spaces from 1947 until 2015. Since these spaces were subject to state violence but remained completely excluded from the protections provided by courts, police, and government, they have historically been understood as spaces of exception that contained bare lives. After the exchange of enclaves in 2015, the situation changed dramatically as the state assumed an active role in incorporating new lands and citizens. Such an active role resulted in unique privileges exclusively for the enclave residents understood here as sovereign atonement. Drawing on field research in Bangladesh, however, the paper argues that it would be misleading to capture sovereign atonement as an effort to correct the past violence of extraterritorial exclusion; instead it must be understood through the primacy of territory in state-making in post-colonial South Asia
The borders of integration : paperwork between Bangladesh and Belgium
No full textThis chapter draws on the experience of Bangladeshi men in Belgium to argue that integration should be conceptualized not as the outcome of ideal-type national models of citizenship and integration, but as the product of the intersection of migrant aspirations and strategies with regulatory frameworks. It argues that a comprehensive engagement with identity theft and new forms of paperwork that straddles South Asia and Europe offers insights into what integration entails, and how it materializes through everyday practices and dilemmas. The struggles for paper documents and processes that establish the paper identities and civic participation that are foundational to integration provokes us to rethink what such processes and policies entail. In other words, integration is also about the struggle to integrate. Such struggles include troubled border-crossings and anxious arrivals, and moral claim-making civic participation, and collective protests in the re-settled context. The chapter suggests that the everyday aspirations and prolonged disappointments of people in resettled contexts are foundational to comprehending what integration implies. The processes and dilemmas that enable and disable people to integrate in Europe rely on ‘paperwork’
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