Digital Commons Network^™

Mental Health In The Undocuqueer Community, Cailan Cordwell

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Trauma is increasingly experienced by people in transit as border militarization increases migrants’ exposure to violence and forces them into more precarious situations. For queer migrants, this includes situations where they are more likely to experience persecution and sexual violence. This presentation explores the availability of care for queer undocumented migrants in the United States after surviving a precarious and potentially deadly journey from their country of origin to the US, as well as forms of alternative care developed by the undocuqueer community. In particular, I focus on access to care for LGBT migrants, who face stigmatization on multiple levels …

Risking Rescue: The Politics Of Precarity In Mediterranean Crossing, Eleanor Paynter

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Over the course of Europe’s recent refugee crisis, the role of Search and Rescue (SAR) has changed dramatically, first forming a critical part of (inter)national responses to the crisis, and now occupying an antagonistic position, as countries have closed their ports to NGO-operated vessels and the European Commission (EC) has ceased naval Search and Rescue operations. As a result, migrants crossing the Central Mediterranean face different and increased risks, including dying at sea, being held by European authorities, or being apprehended closer to Libya and sent to a Libyan detention camp.

In response to these shifts, groups that continue SAR …

“Jedna Noga Tutaj I Jedna Noga Tam”: The Polish Population In Ireland And Identity Formation In An Expanding European Union, Ella Iacoviello

Celebration of Learning

In this paper I address the idea of a changing cultural identity among the Polish communities in Ireland. Though quantitative demographic data as well as qualitative data before 2008 exists, there is little written about how the Polish population exist today, years after Ireland's economic downturn. The research presented in this paper offers a look into contemporary Ireland through the eyes of current Polish immigrants. During the summer of 2017, I spent three and a half weeks conducting ethnographic fieldwork in Dublin and Cork through the use of interviewing and participant observation. From living with first generation families, to interviewing …

Building A Bridge Across The Sea, Abby Wheatley

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

On October 3, 2013, the island of Lampedusa, Italy, was transformed into an international stage for the crisis of migration when a boat carrying hundreds of migrants traveling from Libya sank off its coast. Reports indicate that 368 people drowned, while 89 people were rescued, most of them by locals. Though the mass drowning of Africans seeking refuge in Europe was not a new phenomenon, the event brought international attention to Lampedusa and underscored the fragile line between local and global processes and the intertwined yet opposing forces of mobility and enclosure.

Using Lampedusa as a case study, this paper …