HARBOR · HARBOR. Humanitarianism and Refugees at the Border: A Transnational Feminist Analysis of Nonprofit Organizations

HARBOR—Humanitarianism and Refugees at the Border—departs from the idea that humanitarianism is a neutral and timeless ideology, and instead turns a critical eye towards this sector to understand the ways in which nonprofit organizations become complicit with the neoliberal order—through reinforcing certain ideals of citizenship and sovereignty, occupying spaces that are destined for public institutions, and influencing refugees’ decision-making processes—and their possibilities for resistance. This feminist transnational comparison project expands my previous research in the refugee nonprofit sector at the US-Mexico border by including the two other most sought-after destinations in the world for refugees: Australia and Europe. Its aim is to make connections between nonprofit local practices and global dynamics to draw broader conclusions about the role nonprofit organizations play within refugee management. Through a combination of a transnational feminist lens and a Foucauldian framework, as well as ethnographic, participant observation and interview methods, HARBOR will reconstruct the role that humanitarian organizations play in the current refugee regime. In so doing, this project works at the connections between the academic, humanitarian, and policy-making sectors. In order to achieve my research objectives, I will be based at the University of Queensland (UQ) in Brisbane Australia where I will be trained in Global Governance and feminist political theory under the supervision of Dr. Hoffstaedter. Upon my return to my European host institution, CSIC, I will bring my new skills and engage in theory-building that challenges the idea of borders as protection with my mentor Professor Velasco at the Humanities Research Center.