Call for papers Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, Boston
April 15-18, 2008

No place like home?  Exploring and conceptualising contemporary refuge 
experiences.


This session, sponsored by the AAG Ethnic Geography Speciality Group and the 
AAG Population Geography Speciality Group, will critically examine the notion 
and experience of contemporary asylum and seeks to facilitate discussion over 
the diverse philosophical, political and practical issues which arise from such 
multiple experiences. Both asylum seekers and refugees are all too often 
socially and politically marginalised within host communities as a combination 
of negative media attention and increasingly restrictive and hostile government 
policies coalesce to not only scapegoat the figure of the refugee, but also to 
question the very right of the individual to refuge in the first place. Within 
such a contested political climate it becomes vital to examine the varying 
experiences of individual refugees and asylum seekers as a means to not only 
question the discursive claims made by those who seek to further marginalise 
new arrivals, but also to open space in which to consider the very political 
and practical imperatives placed upon host communities by refugees and asylum 
seekers. To this end we encourage papers which engage with all aspects of 
asylum and refugee studies, from considerations of the ethical questions posed 
by the very notion of asylum and discussions of what it may mean to be a 
refugee in varying international contexts, through to examinations of the 
prosaic means via which individuals cope with the uncertainty, pressure and 
changeable nature of their experiences in their new countries.      

We are interested in a range of different topics related to the process and 
experience of asylum including, but are not limited to:  
•	The ethics and politics behind refuge
•	Processes and policies of integration
•	Experiences of settlement and resettlement
•	Public perceptions around refugees and asylum seekers
•	Media images of asylum  
•	International variations in experiences of asylum
•	Refugee employment experiences 
•	The coping strategies of individuals
•	The theoretical purchase of asylum within contemporary geography
•	Refugee identities 

Expressions of interest from potential contributors should be sent to Ruth 
Healey ([log in to unmask]) and Jonathan Darling 
([log in to unmask]) in the form of an abstract acceptable to the AAG of 
250 words or less (http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/2008/papers.htm#abstracts) 
by Friday 5th October 2007.




Jonathan Darling
Doctoral Research
Department of Geography
University of Durham
Room 301, Science Site, South Road,
Durham. DH1 3LE.
Tel: +44 (0)191 3341866