Refugee camps and asylum centres

Description: This PhD research consists of a longitudinal ethnography of families’ experiences during their asylum trajectories in Belgium. Taking as a starting point the process of applying for asylum, it follows a number of families within and beyond the multiple stages of their asylum procedure: from their stay in the reception centres to the neighborhoods and local communities, they settle into, or until they receive a negative decision and are regimented by return/deportation measures. Using various ethnographic methods – participant observation, home visits, narrative interviewing – the researcher seeks to analyze how families experience and contest processes of in/exclusion in their daily lives, as they move through multiple geographical and institutional sites in search of protection, care and stability. Moreover, she pays particular attention to the ways in which dominant family norms become entangled with notions of protection, belonging and integration in the politics of migration.
Website research project: https://soc.kuleuven.be/anthropology/staff/00134571/view
Promoter(s): Karel Arnaut , Ilse Derluyn
Researcher(s): Elsemieke van Osch
Faculty / Faculties: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences
Period of time: 2019 - 2024

Description: With this project, we aim to develop an open source prototype of a multilingual messaging system that can translate and forward simple messages via an existing messaging application (e.g. WhatsApp). The messaging system will be developed in cooperation with Fedasil, the Belgian federal agency for the reception of asylum seekers. The messaging system will allow asylum reception centre staff to convey practical messages and instructions to centre residents (e.g. inform centre residents about an activity or technical problem), including for so-called 'language of lesser diffusion'. For translation, the messaging system relies on both a context-specific translation memory and on machine translation.
Website research project: https://research.flw.ugent.be/en/projects/matias-machine-translation-inform-asylum-seekers
Promoter(s): July De Wilde , Katrijn Maryns , Lieve Macken , Arda Tezcan
Researcher(s): Ella van Hest , Michaël Lumingu
Faculty / Faculties: Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
Period of time: 2023 - 2025

Description: After entering the European mainland, an increasing amount of refugees continues their journey to the United Kingdom by crossing the English Channel. In the media, these men and boys are often displayed as being dangerous, undesirable and a threat to society. As a result of such gender stereotypes, they are perceived as less vulnerable when compared to women and children. Yet, each individual affected by forced displacement is inevitably exposed to adversities at different levels. Therefore, our research project (2021-2025) aims to gain deeper understanding about the impact of adversities, including violence, during transit on the health, wellbeing and gender identity of this mobile population in Belgium and France. Ultimately, the findings of the study will generate policy recommendations and response strategies for practice.
Promoter(s): Ines Keygnaert , Ilse Derluyn , Massil Benbouriche , Caroline Desombre
Researcher(s): Leni Linthout
Faculty / Faculties: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences , Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences
Period of time: 2021 - 2025