Abstract
Inadequate living conditions in collective accommodation centres for refugees and asylum seekers—such as issues of overcrowding, privacy, or segregation—have negative consequences for the health and well-being of the residents and can lead to accumulated experiences of violence. We borrow from psychoanalytic, feminist, and existential theories and argue how these experiences can engender vulnerability. However, we also underline that refugees and asylum seekers should not be considered vulnerable per se. People who fled from the Middle East and North Africa to Europe against all odds, and who are confronted with completely new and unfamiliar experiences in the resettlement country possess tremendous strength and power. We rather point to structural forces that contribute to the vulnerabilisation of refugees and asylum seekers. We focus on the context of refugee accommodation and emphasise how structures and processes deem refugees and asylum seekers vulnerable and can disturb their sense of emplacement. We support this by analysing women’s experiences in collective accommodation centres in Germany during the Covid-19 pandemic.
We thank the International Women* Space, the feminist, anti-racist refugee and migrant organisation based in Germany for their permission to use the Corona Lager Reports, initiated by the organisation’s “Break Isolation Group”. We are indebted to the women in accommodation centres who choose to speak up about their experiences and whose power emanate from their voices.
Verena Penning is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG FOR 2928)
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Notes
- 1.
According to §47(1b) Asylum Act, federal states can stipulate that the compulsory residence in reception centres applies until refugee status determination or, in case of refusal, until deportation, but for a maximum period of 24 months. This extended residence obligation does not apply for families with minors (and their adult siblings), in which case there is a residence obligation of six months.
- 2.
According to §61 Asylum Act, asylum seekers are not allowed to take up employment during the period of compulsory residence in reception centres. If the asylum application is still under review after nine months of stay in reception centres, asylum seekers are allowed to work. Permission may also be granted to asylum seekers who do not come from a safe third country and who legally live in Germany (outside the reception centres) for three months (provided that their asylum application is still under review).
- 3.
The Break Isolation Group is a self-organised subgroup of IWS comprised of refugee women who share and discuss their experiences and challenges in weekly meetings.
- 4.
The term “Corona Lager Report” refers to the women's experiences in regular refugee accommodation during the Covid-19 pandemic. “Lager “ can be understood as a synonym for camps, here referring to German collective accommodation centres for refugees and asylum seekers.
- 5.
For the full SARS-CoV-2 regulations of the federal state Brandenburg from 12 June 2020 see https://bravors.brandenburg.de/de/verordnungen-249912 (in German).
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Penning, V., Namer, Y., Razum, O. (2021). Vulnerabilisation of Refugees: Covid-19—Related Experiences from Accommodation Centres in Germany. In: Fromm, N., Jünemann, A., Safouane, H. (eds) Power in Vulnerability. Studien zur Migrations- und Integrationspolitik. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-34052-0_8
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