Phenomenology of Exclusion: Capturing the Everyday Thresholds of Belonging

Abstract

In this article I critically interrogate the ways researchers produce knowledge about the making and unmaking of borders. I do so by focusing on social processes of boundary-drawing that have dramatically intensified since the 2015 summer of displacements in Europe. I think through some of the methodological possibilities and conundrums that arise if we try to make visible the unarticulated social conventions underlying the everyday thresholds of belonging that determine who is permitted in, and who has to remain outside, the affective socio-political space of societies. By drawing on my own research experiences, I show why methodologies aimed at lending marginalized people a voice often fail to capture the voiceless, silent nature of these boundary-drawing practices. I suggest that in order to bring the invisible barbed wires permeating societies into the open, we need to develop phenomenologies of everyday exclusionary practices, or ‘cultures of unwelcome.’ Through my ethnographic encounters with marginalized refugee youth and individuals who believe that the influx of refugees is a threat to their values and ways of life, I argue for more nuanced research methodologies that allow us to better capture the everyday social processes underlying acts of boundary-drawing. I suggest that approaching border work as an intersubjective, worldly phenomenon involves paying attention to the experiences of individuals who find themselves pushed to the margins of society, and to those who actively participate in keeping people and groups marked as other locked out.

Bordered Trajectories: The Impact of Institutional Bordering Practices on Young Refugees’ (Re-)Engagement with Post-15 Education in Greece

“…In terms of research, more investigation is needed into the educational impacts of the Greek state's responses to irregularly arriving youth. This means exploring more deeply the multiple, intersecting forms of exclusion and neglect that impact their life trajectories, along with more overt instances of hostility and abuse, and especially as they are established, maintained, and navigated in everyday educational life (Lems 2020). The study demonstrates the importance of a bottom-up approach to studying these issues, which centres refugees' everyday experiences and perspectives.…”

Method as Border: Tuning in to the Cacophony of Academic Backstages of Migration, Mobility and Border Studies

“…With our focus on the backstage of academia, we want to make these concerns, shifts and (self)doubts that cross-cut academic positions insightful, in order to unpack some of the emotional labour, power asymme-tries and political dilemmas in the process of 'staging' our research. In this issue, Lems (2020), for instance, confronts the dominant concerns of the ethnographic research traditions she is trained in, of "empathy," and of "lending marginalized people a voice" (p. 116). Lems reflects on encounters with her research participants, in this case a group of 'refugee youth' in Switzerland, who challenged her assumptions of 'participation' (in using methods of participatory observation) by refusing to tell their stories, while shifting her research gaze to examine opaque yet violent acts of boundary drawing in everyday relations of refugee support and care.…”

Methods as Moving Ground: Reflections on the ‘Doings’ of Mobile Methodologies

“…The stiffer social relations, the easier research relations collapsed. To put it differently, I ended up 'following' people on the basis of 'liking' each other (see also Lems, 2020). These bonds-some lasting for over a decade now-form fruitful grounds for insightful discussions on borders and mobility.…”