ORCID
0009-0002-4128-5770
Date of Award
5-9-2024
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Type
Dissertation
Abstract
Today there are more displaced people in the world than ever before. While the majority remain internally displaced or settle in neighboring countries in the Global South, a smaller number make it to host countries in the Global North, either as resettled refugees or asylum seekers. The reception and integration of such individuals has become a pressing concern for many Western nations, especially in the face of a marked increase in arrivals, alongside rising xenophobic and anti-immigrant sentiments. The provision of services for this population is often left to humanitarian organizations, which may receive funding to facilitate government reception programs. This dissertation examines the day-to-day operations of one such non-governmental organization (NGO) within Spain, a country that only began experiencing large waves of immigration around the turn of the 21st century, and which has seen a dramatic increase in asylum applications since 2015. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted at a refugee and asylum seeker reception NGO in Madrid, this study explores the dynamics of interactions between humanitarian workers and forced migrants as they attempted to carry out the program’s goal of promoting autonomy and integration. In doing so, this research considers the particular challenges humanitarian institutions and professionals faced in implementing the more development-oriented objective of fostering self-sufficiency, and it elucidates how shared precarity and the social class backgrounds of migrants and workers influenced their relationships within the humanitarian space, particularly in the context of an economically challenging local environment. Ultimately, many refugees and asylum seekers came to see Spain as a land of limited opportunities not only for themselves but also for many native Spaniards, as well. As workers strove to assist migrants within these restrictive circumstances, their strategies often failed to further autonomy, instead serving to (re)produce structural inequalities in Spanish society.
Language
English (en)
Chair and Committee
John Bowen
Recommended Citation
Wagner, Jacqueline, "Land of Limited Opportunities: Disillusionment and Striving for Autonomy Among Refugees and Asylum Seekers in a Madrid NGO" (2024). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3069.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/3069