“History had taken such a large piece out of my life” — Neuroscientist refugees from Hamburg during National Socialism

ABSTRACT

Approximately 9,000 physicians were uprooted for so-called “racial” or “political” reasons by the Nazi regime and 6,000 fled Germany. These refugees are often seen as survivors who contributed to a “brain drain” from Germany. About 432 doctors (all specialties, private and academic) were dismissed from the major German city of Hamburg. Of these, 16 were Hamburg University faculty members dismissed from their government-supported positions for “racial” reasons, and, of these, five were neuroscientists. In a critical analysis, not comprehensively done previously, we will demonstrate that the brain drain did not equal a “brain gain.” The annihilation of these five neuroscientists’ careers under different but similar auspices, their shameful harassment and incarceration, financial expropriation by Nazi ransom techniques, forced migration, and roadblocks once reaching destination countries stalled and set back any hopes of research and quickly continuing once-promising careers. A major continuing challenge is finding ways to repair an open wound and obvious vacuum in the German neuroscience community created by the largely collective persecution of colleagues 80 years ago.     

Journeys of resilience: the emotional geographies of refugee women

This article considers the emotional geographies of a highly vulnerable demographic: refugee women. As a marginalised and ontologically fragile group, refugees have developed rich and perceptive insight on space and place, by developing a critical vigilance that reflects forward and back on their life journeys, real and metaphorical. Through participation in a psycho-educational course designed by the author, nine women produced their own images of resilience, in creative exercises that provided ‘landmarks’ of recognition for other participants. Via participation in this temporary ‘community of practice’, therefore, another journey was taken; this article will also consider the epistemology of that itinerary using interdisciplinary insights from geography, cultural studies, cognitive behavioural therapy and gender studies.     

Sanctuary Revisited: Central American Refugee Assistance in the History of Church-based Immigrant Advocacy

Abstract

Extant literature on the U.S. Sanctuary movement of the 1980s mainly facilitates an understanding of the movement as part of liberal religious resistance to the Reagan-Bush Administrations' policy in Central America. However, I argue that Sanctuary should also be understood as pivotal to church involvement in a longer lineage of social activism that can be called immigrant advocacy. Church-based immigrant advocates (CBIAs) were in short supply until the end of World War II, when Christian clergy and laity used biblical calls for hospitality to argue for the admission of thousands of displaced persons from Europe. Over the next quarter-century, many CBIAs provided services to political refugees admitted under State Department criteria. But as CBIAs grew frustrated with double standards in refugee admissions, they began to develop discourses legitimating hospitality work outside of a nation-state framework. In tracing the history of church-based immigrant advocacy, Sanctuary indexes the juncture at which many Christian organizations widened their operations beyond the standard of sovereignty to accommodate undocumented refugees as well as immigrants motivated by economic need.     

“A serious lack of uniformity…”

Abstract

This article attempts to bring to light a rather neglected aspect of the history of Botswana's role in the liberation struggle of southern Africa. It demonstrates that Botswana hosted a whole political party in the form of the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP). Members of this party and others from Lesotho were refugees from Prime Minister Chief Leabua Jonathan's repressive rule in Lesotho from 1974 to 1986. In 1974 the opposition BCP resorted to acts of sabotage against Jonathan's government which responded with more repression leading to members of the BCP Central Committee fleeing the country and became refugees in Botswana. The Basotho refugees were largely welcome and contributed to the educational and economic development in the country. Some of them became prosperous businessmen in Botswana. This is different from later situations where economic prosperity on the part of a refugee community breeds resentment and xenophobia by some sections of the host population. However, while some BCP leaders prospered in Botswana the party itself was later faced with serious internal power wrangling and split.     

Australia’s Detention Centre and the Erosion of Democracy in Nauru

Since 2013, the Nauru government has undermined democracy by reducing the independence of the judiciary, treating opposition MPs as potential traitors, curbing freedom of speech and restricting visits by variously defined groups of people who include journalists, Australians and New Zealanders. New Zealand responded by suspending its aid to Nauru’s justice and border control department. Australia, by contrast, has said little. The Nauru government would not have acted so boldly in curbing civil freedoms and weakening the rule of law if Australia had been less dependent on its goodwill to act as host for Australia’s Regional Processing Centre, which houses asylum seekers who have attempted to reach Australia by boat. Australia’s reliance on Nauru – driven by urgent domestic political considerations – has fostered an atmosphere where the principles of good governance can be flouted with little fear of significant criticism from Canberra.     

Gendered insecurity in the Rohingya crisis

The purpose of this piece is to analyse the data on pregnant women and new mothers in the Rohingya refugee population in Bangladesh to determine if it can be used as an indicator of increased conflict related sexual violence and ethnic cleansing. The reported data is problematised in the context of the notorious unreliability of data in emergencies. By comparing the available data with known birth rates among the Rohingya and the broad demographic patterns seen in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide the piece shows there is cause for the concerns of increasing conflict related sexual violence and ethnic cleansing. When taken with qualitative data from international organisations responding to the humanitarian crisis and refugee testimony, the paper reliably concludes the quantitative data can tell a reliable story of conflict related sexual violence and ethnic cleansing in Rakhine State. The paper also highlights the need for improved sex- and age-disaggregated data collection in emergencies.     

“明代遗民”:韩国华人历史探微

论文运用历史研究方法,从倭乱时期的移民和明清交替时期的移民两个方面考察了明代遗民的迁移以及定居过程;分析了明代遗民同时具有对明朝、对韩国、对明代遗民社团的多重认同和形成这种认同的客观条件,并将明代遗民的地位变化过程与韩中关系的变化过程相结合进行探讨。相对于向来以单一民族自居的韩国,朝鲜时期的明代遗民,是对韩国民族的一种学术性挑战,同时明代遗民研究对韩国华侨华人历史研究也是一种新的开拓。     

A changing sense of Somaliness: Somali women in London and Toronto

This article considers how direct and indirect transnational linkages influence Somali refugee women settling in London, England and Toronto, Canada, and lead to shifts in identity in resettlement contexts. Drawing on interviews with Somali refugee women and discussions with resettlement staff, this article shows that under influences of distant and local linkages with other Somalis and through the cultural and social influences of the receiving society, Somali women develop a changing sense of their own Somaliness. The article argues that indicators of belonging, such as dress, religion and language, come to hold new and increased value within the new context, and familiar facets of national, cultural and religious identity shift in significance in response to competing influences and are used as intentional signifiers of identity.     

Testing the waters: the limits of consequentialist logic in Australia’s asylum seeker debate

This work takes existing justifications for Australian asylum seeker policy at face value. For the past five years now both major parties have articulated themselves using the rhetoric of consequentialism, arguing that the policies of offshore detention and boat turn backs are all about securing the safety of refugees. This work puts the personal opinions of each member of parliament aside and examines whether these rhetorical justifications are internally consistent. What will become clear is that the utilitarian framework used in this debate does not sit on terra firma. Rather, its foundations lead to conclusions many might find uncomfortable – suggesting that existing theoretical justifications for Australian asylum seeker policy are ultimately implausible.