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- Name: Mediating Belonging in Switzerland: Citizenship, “Integration”, and Belonging Among Labor Migrants and Refugees from Yugosalvia
- Project leader: Sandra King-Savic
- Hosting institution: University St. Gallen
- Funding: International PostDoctoral Fellow / Researcher SSHSS
- Duration: 2019 – present
- Short description: How do Yugoslav labor migrants and refugees define and negotiate “integration”? Although labor migrants and refugees arrived in Switzerland from the same sending region, these are very distinct groups: labor migrants came voluntarily mainly between the 1960s and 70s, whereas refugees were expelled from their homes during the 1990s. My project examines how labor migrants and refugees from the same sending state position themselves within narratives of “integration” in Switzerland. Crucially, I investigate integration from the perspective of the circumstances under which migrants come to Switzerland. By emphasizing the rationale of migration as a point of departure, I will demonstrate that contextual categories that led to migration affect and influence perceived inclusion in the receiving state, as opposed to ethnic and/or confessional affiliation, respectively. Based on Richard Alba, Nancy Foner, and Roxane Silberman, my research builds on, and expands scholarship on the de-racialization and de-ethnicization of migrants.
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