About the project
This project is a comparative study of patterns of social exclusion in Norway aiming to analyse how they differ with regard to citizens and non-citizens.
Two qualitative studies will be conducted, one among the so-called ‘insiders outside’, and one among the ‘outsiders inside’. The first group is a group of what might be termed traditionally marginalised persons: homeless drug addicts. They are insiders due to their citizenship yet socially excluded due to their lifestyle. The latter group, ‘outsiders inside’, will consist of rejected asylum seekers, who are deemed ‘not returnable’ by the immigration authorities, and who reside in a so-called waiting camp. Although the two groups share similarities in terms of their social exclusion, there are also important differences between them due to citizenship and different discursive regimes.
The study will consist of ethnographic field work in Oslo and in a waiting camp, where the researcher will observe and mix with the respondents in their daily routines. The waiting camp will be analyses in terms of its institutional characteristics and the relations between the staff and the inmates. The observations will be supported by in-depth interviews with some members of the two groups who will be interviewed about their life strategies, their relations to different types of state welfare and immigration services and to the police. The objective is to describe the various state strategies of governing social marginality and to compare them with regard to the two groups of respondents.
The project is a post.doc project conducted by Nicolay Borchgrevink Johansen.
Funding
This project is a sub-project of Crime Control in the Borderlands of Europe funded by the European Research Council (ERC).
