{"title":"Care and neoliberal self-sufficiency in the U.S. refugee resettlement program","authors":"Lauren Fritzsche","doi":"10.1016/j.geoforum.2024.104083","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper interrogates the intricacies of care, neoliberalism, and self-sufficiency within the U.S. refugee resettlement program and as shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. For refugees, as well as for most Americans, the pandemic rendered (more) visible the injustices of neoliberal individualism and self-sufficiency. I examine how humanitarian care, via the resettlement program, is co-opted toward neoliberal goals of economic self-sufficiency, and how the pandemic shaped these humanitarian and economic responses and narratives. Drawing on feminist ethics of care, I demonstrate the ways in which care is infused with power and normalizing values; however, feminist ethics of care also provides a framework for envisioning a different world in which the goals of resettlement are not predicated upon neoliberal standards of self-sufficiency, but instead center collectivity, interconnection, safety, and belonging. Drawing on 12 months of fieldwork in a resettlement city in the U.S. West between 2021–2022, this article examines how resettlement services and care are provided in ways that often reinforce neoliberal expectations of good citizenship, and questions what this means for resettlement beyond self-sufficiency.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":12497,"journal":{"name":"Geoforum","volume":"155 ","pages":"Article 104083"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Geoforum","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016718524001441","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"GEOGRAPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This paper interrogates the intricacies of care, neoliberalism, and self-sufficiency within the U.S. refugee resettlement program and as shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. For refugees, as well as for most Americans, the pandemic rendered (more) visible the injustices of neoliberal individualism and self-sufficiency. I examine how humanitarian care, via the resettlement program, is co-opted toward neoliberal goals of economic self-sufficiency, and how the pandemic shaped these humanitarian and economic responses and narratives. Drawing on feminist ethics of care, I demonstrate the ways in which care is infused with power and normalizing values; however, feminist ethics of care also provides a framework for envisioning a different world in which the goals of resettlement are not predicated upon neoliberal standards of self-sufficiency, but instead center collectivity, interconnection, safety, and belonging. Drawing on 12 months of fieldwork in a resettlement city in the U.S. West between 2021–2022, this article examines how resettlement services and care are provided in ways that often reinforce neoliberal expectations of good citizenship, and questions what this means for resettlement beyond self-sufficiency.
期刊介绍:
Geoforum is an international, inter-disciplinary journal, global in outlook, and integrative in approach. The broad focus of Geoforum is the organisation of economic, political, social and environmental systems through space and over time. Areas of study range from the analysis of the global political economy and environment, through national systems of regulation and governance, to urban and regional development, local economic and urban planning and resources management. The journal also includes a Critical Review section which features critical assessments of research in all the above areas.