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La patota (Argentina, 2015) recreates the experience of Paulina, a young lawyer who participates in a civics program in a rural school next to Posadas (Misiones). As in the plot of the original 60s film, the lawyer-teacher is raped by a gang (patota), of which some of her students are a part. She becomes pregnant and decides not to have an abortion. Based on the modernity/coloniality perspective, this socio-critical study applies the neologism “minori'ethage” to disarticulate the way in which the 2015 remake problematizes five centuries of coloniality and highlights the patriarchal environment in which everybody got trapped, underscoring the dangers of “playing fake democracy.”

Keywords: (de)colonialidad, (de)coloniality, gender violence, violencia de género, La patota, La patota, Santiago Mitre, Santiago Mitre, representación de escuela y minoriédad, representation of school and minori'ethage, sociocrítica, socio-criticism

In recent years, the US government has implemented several bureaucratic changes aimed at stalling the influx of asylum seekers. From the “metering” system initiated under the Obama administration to the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) implemented by the Trump administration, these measures have erected a bureaucratic wall against asylum seekers that has kept them captive in Mexican border cities. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Tijuana, Mexico, I examine how these policies have produced deadly conditions for asylum seekers by calibrating time and space in such a way that increases their exposure and vulnerability to highly precarious environments and predatory bureaucracies.

Keywords: asylum, bureaucracies, waiting, temporality, necropolitics, Mexico

In this paper, we analyze the multiple encounters queer asylum seekers face due to violence embedded in border control and asylum recognition processes. This analysis is based on the reconstitution of two narratives that form part of an ethnographic study, the result of five years of fieldwork with queer migrants in Brazil and Spain. We employ the notion of bureaucratic violence to understand the ambiguities between control and protection in the emergence of the LGBTI refugee as a subject of rights in the humanitarian realm. 

Keywords: asylum, queer, migrants, violence, bureaucracy

This study examined whether an educational television show would affect young Haitian children’s gender perceptions. We first collected data on children’s beliefs about male and female characteristics and roles. Among 862 participating 6- and 7-year-olds from urban, peri-urban, and rural settings, we saw gender stereotypical beliefs about activities, traits, and occupations. We conducted a school-based intervention over a 10-week period, in which children were randomly assigned to watch a children’s television program in either of two groups: one that watched Lakou Kajou or one that watched Dora the Explorer. Each group saw 21 episodes of its assigned show, spread over 3 screenings of 7 episodes each. Lakou Kajou is an educational television show created in Haiti that purposely incorporates overt counter-stereotypical gender messaging. Among those children who watched Lakou Kajou and recalled more characters from the show, beliefs around gender became less stereotypical. In countries like Haiti, where pronounced gender disparities and biases exist, it is encouraging to see that a locally produced educational television show can change beliefs.

Keywords: television, media, educational, gender, sex roles, Haiti, receptivity, stereotypes

This study explored changes in shared decision-making roles (day-to-day, financial, and major life decisions) and their relationships to perceived stress among 148 Syrian refugee parents after resettling in Toronto using a generalized estimated equation model. Parents were categorized as “towards shared” decision-making for 20.3%, 23.0%, and 21.6% of day-to-day, major life, and financial decisions, respectively. In families where both parents were unemployed, those who “always shared” making financial decisions had significantly lower perceived stress than those “towards shared” (p = .02). Understanding the cultural contexts of gender roles and the impact of acculturation may help promote better post-migration strategies.

Keywords: Syrian refugee parents, Canada, changes in decision-making roles, perceived stress

In recent years, refugee response in Jordan has centred on self-reliance, aiming to support individuals in displacement and contain further movement. However, non-Syrian refugees have been largely overlooked. This article explores the relationship between self-reliance and resettlement for Sudanese refugee men in Amman. Drawing on conceptualizations of work beyond paid labour, I show how refugees have pursued resettlement through relational, emotional, physical, and administrative work. I contribute to understandings of how forced migrants work towards long-term solutions to displacement and add to the limited literature on Sudanese displacement in Jordan.

Keywords: refugees, resettlement, Jordan, Sudanese, work

The Syrian Civil War displaced millions of Syrian women and children, many of whom face economic challenges and discrimination. This paper examines self-reported poverty and its relationship with perceived discrimination among women, as framed by social exclusion theory. The cross-sectional study included 507 Syrian refugee women visiting health clinics outside camps in Jordan. Consistent with our hypothesis, 79.09% of women reported poverty as a serious problem, and women reporting discrimination were found to have higher odds of reporting poverty as a serious problem post-migration (AOR: 3.489; 95% CI: 1.534, 7.937). Gender-responsive interventions, policy implications, and recommendations are addressed.

Keywords: Discrimination, Poverty, Syria, Jordan, Refugees, Women

This paper examines how Canada’s Official Languages Act (OLA) reinforces the socio-political constructs of language barriers and linguistic borders. Questions addressed are: in Canada, who do linguistic borders serve, how do linguistic borders function, and what are the effects of linguistic borders? The theoretical framework draws from raciolinguistics and border imperialism. The method, a socio-diagnostic critique, juxtaposes the discursive practices of the OLA with border governance strategies. Results highlight how linguistic border governance creates the conditions for language-based discrimination to thrive. The paper concludes with a call to disinvest from the OLA, and a turning toward the water-language connection.

Keywords: lingustic borders, language policy, raciolingustics, language-based discrimination, critical race theory