Tuesday, 17th May 2022 (16:00-17:30, CEST) | Webinar
Drawing on a global and comparative ethnography, this presentation explored how Syrian men and women seeking refuge in a moment of unprecedented global displacement are received by countries of resettlement and asylum—the U.S., Canada, and Germany. It showed that human capital, typically examined as the skills immigrants bring with them that shape their potential, is actually created, transformed, or destroyed by receiving states’ incorporation policies. Since these policies derive from historically informed and unequal approaches to social welfare, refugees’ experiences raise a mirror to how states (re)produce inequality.
Heba Gowayed
Heba Gowayed is the Moorman-Simon Assistant Professor of Sociology at Boston University. After receiving her BA in Political Science from the American University in Cairo, she pursued her career and did her PhD in Sociology at Princeton University. Her research analyzes how low-income people traverse social services, immigration laws and their associated bureaucracies, while grappling with gender and racial inequalities. She examines all these areas in a global and comparative way.
Her book, Refuge, explores how states (here: The United-States, Canada and Germany) shape the potential of people pursuing refuge within their borders. Furthermore, she examines whether and how these countries recognize and invest in new arrival’s humanities.
She is currently working on her second book Cost of Borders.
Beside her book(s), she has published writings in academic outlets as well as public outlets, for example Slate, Al Jazeera English, The New Humanitarian, and Teen Vogue.
Programme
15:55 | Log-in to Webinar |
16:00–16:10 | WELCOME AND INTRODUCTORY REMARKS BY THE MODERATOR Volker M. Heins Affiliate Professor of Political Science, University of Duisburg-Essen; Senior Researcher, Käte Hamburger Kolleg/ Centre for Global Cooperation Research |
16:10–17:00 | 6th GLOBAL MIGRATION LECTURE REFUGE: HOW THE STATE SHAPES HUMAN POTENTIAL Heba Gowayed Assistant Professor of Sociology, Boston University |
| Discussant: Anja Weiß Chair in Macrosociology and Transnational Processes, University of Duisburg-Essen |
| Moderator: Volker M. Heins |
17:00–17:30 | Q&A WITH THE AUDIENCE AND CONCLUDING REMARKS |
17:30 | END OF THE LECTURE |
