Middle East Encounters 69 Degrees North Latitude

Syrian Refugees and Everyday Humanitarianism in the Arctic

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8968367
AutoresNefissa Naguib (0000-0002-0327-0570, University of Oslo, autor correspondente)
Ano2017
Volume49
Fascículo4
Páginas645-660
Data de publicação2017-10-16
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoInternational Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020743817000630
OpenAlexW2767051633
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas10
Referências citadas23

In late 2015, approximately 2,000 Syrian asylum seekers made their way into Norway via the Arctic passage from Russia. What ensued are “global moments,” breakthrough events that have reshaped lives and futures for both the refugees and those who aided them, and it is the latter group on which this article focuses. As refugees began arriving in Arctic Norway, Refugees Welcome to the Arctic, an ad hoc grassroots organization, was formed to assist them. This group of ordinary people, most of them with no previous humanitarian experience, took action in defiance of Norwegian government policies, and providing food became the focus of their efforts. Refugees Welcome to the Arctic members often described being motived to act by their own traumatic memories of the region's experience of World War II, a time of deprivation and brutality suffered at the hands of the retreating German army. Food, as an enactment of compassion, is shown to be a powerful means through which people connect in very personal, concrete ways to the humanitarian enterprise

Arctic · Displaced person · Grassroots · Political science · Politics · Refugee · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender Studies · History · Law · Oceanography