Andersson conducted interviews with different groups to learn how they operate under the constraints of a conflict zone.
#Vicious circle player count how to#
The question of how to engage under such circumstances thus became the starting point for his project. Andersson was forced to adapt his ethnographic methods to a situation that made his physical presence impossible-the same problem faced by the interveners he was studying in this high-risk region: humanitarian workers, peacekeepers, the UN. When Jihadist groups extended into northern Mali, making it a no-go zone for Westerners, Dr. He is looking at the response to governmental and humanitarian crises, terrorism and, more particularly, conflict in Mali and the wider sub-Saharan Sahel region, a focus that was made possible by his grant from the AXA Research Fund.
This might be through the deployment of peacekeepers, disbursement of funds, or launch of diplomatic missions. Andersson’s second research theme: how the world manages conflict and crisis zones. Migration frequently drives the events underlying Dr. Recommendations may or may not be taken up, but we have to try and build momentum.” “If we want to shift the dynamics, we need to look at the incentives. Andersson explains, and the mistake is now being repeated in Turkey. In Libya, this situation gave Gaddafi incentive to drum up trouble around migrants, Dr. Andersson emphasizes that this is not just a question of states failing to manage migration, but a situation in which “the threat of migration is maintained, because there is no interest in stopping it.” The many players with a stake in the “medicine” being applied include agencies needing to justify their work during times of austerity the private defense sector providing surveillance technology smugglers who have become increasingly professionalized as a result of shifting migration routes and neighboring countries that receive political and financial concessions from European governments. But interviews with border guards show that these efforts only push migrants to turn to riskier routes and smuggling networks, all of which fuels more fear.ĭr. The more that governments and the media fan the flames of migration drama in the Mediterranean, the more investments are made in border controls, in blocking migrants, monitoring their movements and building fences. “They treat the symptoms, but the medicine only makes things worse”, resulting in a vicious circle at the borders. His findings insist on the fact that the approach taken by the EU and European states has been very counterproductive. Andersson has examined the methods employed in an attempt to counter the flow of undocumented migration from Africa towards southern Europe.
Through ethnographic and field research, Dr. The Syrian crisis is currently of prime concern and, as in other conflict zones, there are questions about what is really happening in the region and how the world can intervene in a better way-“better”, because the current way isn’t working.
Migration “Medicine” Makes the Patient Sicker By understanding the perspective of the people directly involved – the migrants and border guards and others – his method is providing the start of a shift in the way researchers, governments and society understand migration. Andersson’s specific ethnographic methods provide this ground-level knowledge and a new angle on the matter. “People say Let’s close the borders!, but can we even do that?” he asks. He believes that the current debate, based on arguments for or against migration, leads to simplistic discussion of the issues, with no understanding of the realities on the ground. An anthropologist and AXA Research Fund fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE), he is studying these topics from the point of view of the people directly involved. While the themes he addresses are as old as time, Dr. Ruben Andersson’s research on migration and conflict has never been timelier.
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