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Chapter 4 Discussion Questions
Vulnerability and the Gendering of Political Status
- How does gender shape migrants’ journeys—from their decisions to leave home, to their experiences of mobility and detention, to their integration into new communities of temporary or permanent resettlement? Why do both Moroccan women and non-citizen women settled in Morocco feel “doubly stigmatized” through their roles in the public sphere?
- In the field of anthropology, contemporary studies of human migration have moved from the transnational paradigm, first popularized by Glick-Schiller, Basch & Blanc-Szanton, to more recent theories that place both migrants and non-migrants within a “transnationalized” space (i.e. Levitt). Drawing on examples from the chapter, select two of the major theories, highlighting the ways in which it was challenged by other anthropologists and the merits that it still holds within the field.
- What are the legal definitions of a migrant and a refugee? What do the narratives in this book reveal about the primary challenges that migrants face in accessing the protected category of refugee, and who is most likely to face these challenges? Would you argue that the process of assigning legal status, as it currently stands, is an objective or a subjective process? What changes would you propose to increase the equitable distribution of human rights?