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Abstracts
Abstract
Although refugee resettlement is characterized by opaque decision-making of United Nations and government agencies, refugees may exert agency throughout the resettlement process. Tracing the journeys of several refugees through the resettlement and humanitarian admission processes from Jordan and Turkey to Germany, this article highlights refugees’ intentions, strategies, and actions to access and navigate the process in Jordan and Turkey. Defining agency as a combination of intention and action, without reference to a specific outcome, the article argues for a nuanced conceptualization of agency that can be employed in situations where people’s agency is very limited.
Keywords:
- refugee resettlement,
- humanitarian admission,
- agency,
- Germany,
- Turkey,
- Jordan
Résumé
Bien que la réinstallation des réfugiés soit caractérisée par l'opacité des décisions prises par les Nations Unies et les agences gouvernementales, les réfugiés peuvent exercer une agentivité tout au long du processus de réinstallation. En retraçant le parcours de plusieurs réfugiés à travers les processus de réinstallation et d'admission humanitaires de la Jordanie et de la Turquie vers l'Allemagne, cet article met en lumière les intentions, les stratégies et les actions des réfugiés pour accéder au processus et s'y frayer un chemin en Jordanie et en Turquie. Définissant l'agentivité comme une combinaison d'intention et d'action, indépendamment d'un résultat spécifique, l'article propose une conceptualisation nuancée de l'agentivité qui peut être employée dans des situations où l'agentivité des personnes est très limitée.
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Appendices
Biographical note
Hanna Elisabeth Schneider is a PhD researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. She can be reached at hanna.schneider@vub.be.
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