Framing Refugees

In this strikingly original comparative study, the authors analyze how countries as diverse as Chile, Germany, Poland, Singapore, Turkey, and Uganda embrace or reject refugees. They focus on how politicians fit refugees in their countries' story and national cultural repertoires, using frames pertaining to security, as well as legal, moral, cultural and other concerns. They adroitly marry the older political sociology tradition focused on social cleavages and the newer cultural sociology literature on symbolic boundaries to show how the often-used cosmopolitan vs communitarian dichotomy cannot account for patterns. Framing Refugees is a brilliant and refreshing contribution that will leave its mark on how social scientists think about crucial issues facing our societies. * Michèle Lamont, Harvard University *
This carefully crafted study of political debates on refugees across six countries worldwide uncovers surprising findings at odds with much of existing theorizing. For instance, autocratic regimes are sometimes more welcoming to refugees than liberal democracies, and the political left may be more reluctant to accept refugees than the right. In a readable style and illustrated with numerous quotes from parliamentary debates, the authors show that even in a seemingly global policy field such as refugee migration, national political cultures, the historical references tied to them, and how concrete refugee populations fit (or not) into them, constitute the lens through which political controversy is structured. A key contribution to global and comparative politics, as well as to cultural sociology. * Ruud Koopmans, WZB Berlin Social Science Center & Humboldt University Berlin. *
This book meticulously analyzes the political discourse shaping refugee policies of six countries from different regions of the world. By examining how politicians construct the identities of "us," the receiving nations, and "them," the refugees, the authors uncover the unique cultural narratives--such as Turkey's neo-Ottoman ideology, Uganda's Pan-Africanism, and Poland's Christian national identity--that influence these policies. This book challenges the notion of a global trend toward uniform refugee policy, revealing instead how deeply national identity and cultural values dictate responses. A must-read for anyone seeking to understand the nuanced interplay between culture and refugee policy in today's globalized world. * Naika Foroutan, German Center for Integration and Migration (DeZIM) *
Drewski and Gerhards offer a meticulous and critical rethinking of assumptions that abound in the established literature on the "refugee crisis". Notably, in opening up study to a wider range of global cases beyond Europe, they dispel simplifications about how and why the dominant "script" of liberal democracy determines whether the doors of asylum are opened wide or slammed shut. For example, they show why sometimes authoritarian regimes are more open to admitting refugees than liberal democracies, and that political conflicts on the admission of refugees are not necessarily structured by a cleavage between cosmopolitans" and "communitarians". An impressive work in comparative political sociology. * Adrian Favell, University College Cork *