Refuge Without Refuge: Displacement, Gender Violence, and the Politics of Belonging Among Refugees in Europe and Turkey : A Comparative Study of Sudanese Displacement in France and Syrian Displacement in Turkey

This semester, the New University in Exile Consortium (https://newuniversityinexileconsortium.org/) is offering 9 Co-Led Online Seminars (https://us.list-manage.com/xzteMJ8P_2k?e=f0fc827157&c2id=593e3b1ca404e601b5f4ee87a5d671d1) which are FREE and open to anyone anywhere in the world. Taught by two endangered scholars – one who is hosted by a Consortium member institution, and the other a colleague of their choice - the seminars are designed to reconnect endangered scholars with the academic community they have lost while in exile, and provide learning opportunities that would not otherwise be available.

This seminar opens with a core question at the heart of contemporary debates about displacement: what becomes of "protection" when its legal form fails to secure safety, dignity, or a sense of belonging in practice? Through the experiences of Sudanese refugees in France and Syrian refugees in Turkey, the seminar examines the persistent gap between the formal architecture of asylum and the lived realities it is meant to address.

Despite differences between the two political contexts, both groups face a similar contradiction: legal protection is formally granted yet remains tenuous, delayed, or inaccessible in everyday life. Throughout the seminar, this tension is captured in the notion of refuge without refuge.

Rather than treating asylum systems or humanitarian programs as neutral administrative mechanisms, the course approaches them as moral and political fields that shape how displaced people are categorized, evaluated, and compelled to navigate their lives. These institutions influence not only material conditions but also how refugees understand themselves and how they are understood by others.

The seminar draws on sociology, anthropology, and social work, employing Pierre Bourdieu's concepts: capital, field, habitus, and symbolic violence, and Javier Auyero's sociology of waiting as analytical tools for interpreting everyday life under displacement. These frameworks help illuminate the effects of legal uncertainty, bureaucratic delay, gender-based and symbolic violence, transnational family obligations, and the strategies people develop to endure and adapt within precarious environments.This event is online: https://newuniversityinexileconsortium.org/updates/refuge-without-refuge/