Sophia Schmid
PhD candidate in political science.
Title: The Political Potential of Women‘s Voluntary Activity in Refugee Support Work: Care-Ethical Approaches to the Negotiation of Difference
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Naika Foroutan
Title: The Political Potential of Women‘s Voluntary Activity in Refugee Support Work: Care-Ethical Approaches to the Negotiation of Difference
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Naika Foroutan
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from the summer of 2015 on has greatly stirred German society and
politics and deeply divided the population on how to deal with
asylum seekers and immigration. This article enters this
controversy by examining supporters committed to the prorefugee
side of the debate – female volunteers in refugee support
work. It investigates how the volunteers interpret their
relationship with refugees and adopts the social-psychological
hypothesis claiming that the construction of a common identity
helps decrease prejudice and facilitate intergroup relations.
However, I go on to argue that manifestations of difference
continuously interfere with these conceptions of ‘sameness’, as
difference is fundamental for the construction of identities and
meaning in general. Drawing on 22 in-depth interviews with
female refugee support workers in Germany, this paper then
traces how female volunteers imagine and locate ‘sameness’ and
‘difference’ when working with refugees. The article shows that
while outwardly, participants are keen to develop a sense of a
shared identity with the refugees, distinctions through power
hierarchies or cultural or gender identities disrupt their experience
in ambivalent, complex and covert ways.
Germany and how female volunteers, who outnumber male volunteers
considerably, understand their involvement differently from men.
Drawing upon quantitative data from two studies with volunteers in
refugee work in Germany from 2015 and 2016, I discuss the motivations
of female volunteers to engage in refugee support work, the meaning
they give to their experience of working with refugees and the values
they wish to demonstrate through their voluntary work. The article
centrally maintains that refugee support work can be classed as a form
of care work and is informed by an ethics and values of care. However,
other results unveil that women interpret their care work as an expression
of their political attitudes, specifically about anti-racism and antiright-
wing activism, as well, and thereby have recourse to a supposedly
male political justification for engaging in volunteering. Thus, this article
argues that these two forms of motivation for volunteering, care and
politics, do not need to be mutually exclusive. Crucially, voluntary refugee
support work represents a unique opportunity for women’s political
activism for anti-racism and cultural openness.
from the summer of 2015 on has greatly stirred German society and
politics and deeply divided the population on how to deal with
asylum seekers and immigration. This article enters this
controversy by examining supporters committed to the prorefugee
side of the debate – female volunteers in refugee support
work. It investigates how the volunteers interpret their
relationship with refugees and adopts the social-psychological
hypothesis claiming that the construction of a common identity
helps decrease prejudice and facilitate intergroup relations.
However, I go on to argue that manifestations of difference
continuously interfere with these conceptions of ‘sameness’, as
difference is fundamental for the construction of identities and
meaning in general. Drawing on 22 in-depth interviews with
female refugee support workers in Germany, this paper then
traces how female volunteers imagine and locate ‘sameness’ and
‘difference’ when working with refugees. The article shows that
while outwardly, participants are keen to develop a sense of a
shared identity with the refugees, distinctions through power
hierarchies or cultural or gender identities disrupt their experience
in ambivalent, complex and covert ways.
Germany and how female volunteers, who outnumber male volunteers
considerably, understand their involvement differently from men.
Drawing upon quantitative data from two studies with volunteers in
refugee work in Germany from 2015 and 2016, I discuss the motivations
of female volunteers to engage in refugee support work, the meaning
they give to their experience of working with refugees and the values
they wish to demonstrate through their voluntary work. The article
centrally maintains that refugee support work can be classed as a form
of care work and is informed by an ethics and values of care. However,
other results unveil that women interpret their care work as an expression
of their political attitudes, specifically about anti-racism and antiright-
wing activism, as well, and thereby have recourse to a supposedly
male political justification for engaging in volunteering. Thus, this article
argues that these two forms of motivation for volunteering, care and
politics, do not need to be mutually exclusive. Crucially, voluntary refugee
support work represents a unique opportunity for women’s political
activism for anti-racism and cultural openness.