Middle East Encounters 69 Degrees North Latitude: Syrian Refugees and Everyday Humanitarianism in the Arctic

Abstract

In late 2015, approximately 2,000 Syrian asylum seekers made their way into Norway via the Arctic passage from Russia. What ensued are “global moments,” breakthrough events that have reshaped lives and futures for both the refugees and those who aided them, and it is the latter group on which this article focuses. As refugees began arriving in Arctic Norway, Refugees Welcome to the Arctic, an ad hoc grassroots organization, was formed to assist them. This group of ordinary people, most of them with no previous humanitarian experience, took action in defiance of Norwegian government policies, and providing food became the focus of their efforts. Refugees Welcome to the Arctic members often described being motived to act by their own traumatic memories of the region's experience of World War II, a time of deprivation and brutality suffered at the hands of the retreating German army. Food, as an enactment of compassion, is shown to be a powerful means through which people connect in very personal, concrete ways to the humanitarian enterprise.

Minoritizing Processes and Power Relations between Volunteers and Immigrant Participants—An Example from Norway

“…There probably is a mix of both altruistic and egoistic reasons for organizing activities for immigrants as seen here with Mette's behaviour towards Azmia (see also the study by Naguib 2017). The altruistic reasoning can be, as is the case with Mette's knitting café, to bring together (newly arrived) immigrants and long-term residents to give immigrants the opportunities to get to know locals and improve their language skills.…”

“…In recent years, the concept of '(immigrant) integration' and approaches to study it have been increasingly under scrutiny in academia because of its unclarity and ambiguity (see among many others Korteweg 2017;Rytter 2018;Schinkel 2018;Sjørslev 2011;Wimmer & Glick Schiller 2002). In this article, I follow Naguib's example who chooses not to deconstruct the term (Naguib 2017). Instead, like Naguib, I will use 'integration' because it is the term the persons, I talked with, used.…”

“…Through these activities, volunteers can get a connection to the 'wider world' (cf. Malkki 2015;Naguib 2017), based on the wish or neediness on the side of the volunteers to 'be a part of something greater than themselves' and 'to keep busy and useful' (Malkki 2015: 9f. ).…”

Opening Polish Schools to Ukrainian Refugee Children and Providing Them with Spiritual Support: Survey Results

“…The issues related to refugees are not new in the European experience (Paulgaard and Soleim 2023;Boe and Horsti 2019;Asfeldt et al 2018;Naguib 2017). Poland, having been a transit country for refugees for years, does not have much experience with problems in this regard (Weinar 2003).…”

Masculinity, Migration, and Forced Conscription in the Syrian War

“…It developed, in 2011, from discontent with the regime's violent suppression of civil uprisings that formed part of the broader Arab Spring protests. Much of our understanding of the war's impact focuses on the experiences of Syrians displaced by violence and the untold forms of suffering they have endured both before and since leaving their country for highly precarious lives and futures in places within and far beyond the region (see, e.g., Maadad and Rodwell 2016; Baban, Ilcan, and Rygiel 2017; Naguib 2017; Pearlman 2017). The group of men I interviewed in Doha in 2017–2018 differ from this population.…”