Making Refugees’ Political Agency Visible: Practices of the Subject

This book centres refugees and asylum seekers as agents of global politics, broadening our thinking about political agency beyond statism, citizenship, and organized political protest. Arguing that to understand forced migration, we must understand the construction of refugees as individual human subjects and how subconscious ideas about refugees influence daily practices and policies, the author studies how refugees make meaning about themselves. Forced migration is a key formative phenomenon of international politics but debates habitually discuss displacement only as an abstract number, economic challenge, or security issue. This volume shifts attention to the individual human subjects as overlooked agents of international relations. To this end, the book rethinks individual subjects altogether and develops a comprehensive practice-theoretical framework of subject construction. Through extensive ethnographic data generated with refugees in Germany and Austria, the author reveals how refugees are depoliticized, and how they combat this using creativity, humor, and intercultural resources. This volume highlights people’s agency despite being subjected to powerful ideas and mechanisms. It will appeal to scholars and students of International Relations, Sociology, Political Science, and Migration Studies.

Dr Amelie Harbisch is a PostDoc at the University of Erfurt. As part of the BMBF-funded project ＂KNOWPRO＂, she is researching knowledge production in German peace and security policy. She focuses on ethnographic work, migration, and international political sociology (practice theory, performance/performativity, discourse).