‘They're more than animals’: Refugees' accounts of racially motivated violence

Abstract

Previous discursive research has found that minority group members may deny or downplay the existence of discrimination. However, to date little research has addressed the issue of violence against minority group members. This study therefore draws on interviews with asylum seekers and refugees in a Scottish city to analyse their reports of violence committed against them. One form of reporting violence was by way of a complaint available to any speaker, in making no reference to attributes of attackers of victim. When racism was alleged, it was presented as a tentative, reluctant or 'last resort' explanation. The descriptions offered by interviewees reflected the contributions made by the interviewer, highlighting the ways in which these reports are interactional co-productions. The results suggest that accounts from victims of seemingly racially motivated violence may function in similar ways to 'new racism' in making racism seem to 'disappear'. These findings point to the potential difficulties that arise in identifying and looking to challenge instances of 'new racism'.

“You Should Have Told Me That Earlier”

“…We interpret the presented instances of downplaying primarily as acts of constructing belonging. This is in line with an idea also brought forward by Kirkwood et al (2013) that denying discrimination or racism may relate to potential membership of the host society. For ethnic Finnish return migrants, who may identify (and who are also sometimes expected to identify) as Finns, being discriminated against by majority group members may be a particularly sensitive issue and difficult to reconcile with belonging.…”

“…This is in line with Verkuyten's (2005) finding that downplaying discrimination may be done by claiming discrimination to be dependent on the concerns and feelings of minority members themselves. Furthermore, this also functions as repair to earlier report of discrimination and positions the speaker as someone who is not a "whinger" (see Kirkwood et al, 2013).…”

“…it can be some sort of (.) I do not know well") working to downplay discrimination and avoiding evaluating the host society negatively (Kirkwood et al, 2013). The vague expression "well it happens" could be seen as simultaneously orienting towards the factuality of name calling while also normalising it, implying that such events are regular and unnotable.…”

“…In a rare study focusing on migrants' accounts of discrimination, Kirkwood et al (2013) found that refugees sometimes downplayed racial motivations or denied them completely when reporting violent acts committed against them. Accusations could be introduced in some cases by presenting them as coming from elsewhere, stating them tentatively or after other explanations were eliminated.…”

Integration and reintegration: Comparing pathways to citizenship through asylum and criminal justice

“…Furthermore, the asylum system itself may inflict a series of harms on people, through preventing them from working, through making it difficult for families to be reunited, through potentially unjust processes and through the use of detention and deportation (Bosworth, 2008). In addition, some asylum seekers may experience hostility, discrimination or violence at the hands of members of the local community (Kirkwood et al, 2013b). This being the case, the host society should acknowledge the harms that occurred in the country of origin as well as make good on the damage it may have inflicted during the asylum process.…”