I balance suffering(s)
The politics and moralities of humanitarian caseworkers in Egypt as a refugee transit point
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5151602 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ramy Magdy (0000-0002-2157-3268, Political Science Department, Faculty of Economics and Political Science Cairo University Giza Egypt, corresponding author), Mai Yasser (0000-0002-2067-8113, UNHCR Cairo Egypt) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 265-281 |
| Publication date | 2024-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Digest of Middle East Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1060-4367 • E-ISSN: 1949-3606 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/dome.12330 |
| OpenAlex | W4399929273 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 31 |
In a world where asylum and migration have become major concerns for countries of transit and destination, political neutrality seems to be demanded from humanitarian workers. But under the pressures of workload, limited funds, and complex settings, these actors deviate from expectations and practice extra-legal authority of a unique political nature. When handling asylum cases, these agents take crucial decisions that decisively impact the lives of asylum seekers. In legally fragile transit points where the rule of law faces challenges and where asylum seekers come seeking further resettlement in European countries, rejected applicants face risky fates of deportation, jail, violence, or death. In turn, humanitarian caseworkers pushed by workloads, purse strings, emotional burnout, and compassion fatigue, flatten the sufferings of their applicants, balance, and rank them. Caseworkers have to rank sufferings and decide who may eventually survive and who may simply be left to a risky unknown. In Agambian terms, this extralegal authority draws the lines, creates a zone of exception and throws rejected applicants into the realm of "Bare Life" where they become "Homo Sacer," whose life is worthless. Using Lipsky's theorization of street-level bureaucrats and in-depth interviews, the paper tackles these crucial issues by interviewing caseworkers from a variety of international organizations operating in the transit point of Egypt. These caseworkers are responsible for conducting different roles in the Refugee Status Determination process
Criminology · Political science · Politics · Refugee · Sociology · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Psychology
Living High and Letting Die
Street-Level Bureaucracy
The Trolley Problem
Against Biopolitics
The State of Exception
Thinking Tools
Let Me Be a Refugee
Reluctant Reception
Homo Sacer
Everyday Coordination in EU Migration Management
Beyond the Law
Greece’s Discriminatory Migrant Regime
Bureaucracy and Representative Government
Chivalry, 'Race' and Discretion at the Canadian Border
Delegation, agency, and agenda setting in the European Community
Autobiographical international relations
The Limits of Unilateral Migration Control
Political interest and humanitarian action
Border security as practice
The Strange Case of Ethnography and International Relations
The Politics, Power, and Pathologies of International Organizations
Three Approaches to Qualitative Content Analysis
Street-level' agents operating beyond 'remote control
International Relations in Uncommon Places
Purity and Exile
Between War and City
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |