Most people don't realize how much of the U.S. immigration detention system is run by private companies and how much money is involved. 🧵

The refugee camp is at the center of one of the greatest illusions of our time: that refugees can't 'keep up' temporally because they are helpless and that they shouldn't be allowed to 'keep up' because they are dangerous. I pick this illusion apart here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Camp Time: Heterochronies in ‘Other Spaces'

Contemporary global apartheid is built upon temporal discord, with refugee camps playing a central role. Yet camp studies have largely neglected the temporal dimensions of displacement, leading to re...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

For those at IHSA right now, join us for a panel on 'Ethical Exits' in humanitarianism in 15 minutes - online and in Istanbul. See you there!

Molly Gilmour@mvgilmour.bsky.social · 2y ago

The critical timeliness leads this IHSA conference to feel even more poignant than the last 🏥 This year, I'm writing a submission from my 'Ethical Exits' project, exploring the temporal tensions in aid, reach out if you'd like to join forces💫 🙏 ihsa.info #humanitarianstudies

My review of Estella Carpi's book The Politics of Crisis-Making is out now on @antipodeonline.bsky.social! Read for my thoughts on the local vs global, Southism, and humanitarian futures 👇

Antipode@antipodeonline.bsky.social · 11mo ago

New book review -- @melissagatter.bsky.social on Estella Carpi's "The Politics of Crisis-Making: Forced Displacement and Cultures of Assistance in Lebanon" antipodeonline.org/category/boo...

“The dream of returning home or simply the possibility to end a decade of exile is suddenly within reach. But this dream now comes with existential, practical and legal questions.” Charlotte Al-Khalili and @melissagatter.bsky.social for @theconversation.com. theconversation.com/syria-after-...

Syria after Assad: why many Syrian refugees aren’t returning home

Syrian refugees must be able to decide what’s next for them as pressures mount for their return.

theconversation.com

"How can ordinary citizens fight back? To scout the best approaches, I canvassed activists, lawyers, scholars, politicians, and union leaders for advice." Great resource here: newrepublic.com/article/1931...

Fighting Back: A Citizen’s Guide to Resistance

Ordinary people have more power than they know.

newrepublic.com

Has Assad's downfall in Syrian changed anything for Syrians displaced in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey? Charlotte Al Khalili and I share the perspectives of people in all three contexts for @theconversation.com, and the situation is...complicated 👇

Syria after Assad: why many Syrian refugees aren’t returning home

Syrian refugees must be able to decide what’s next for them as pressures mount for their return.

theconversation.com

On the urgent need to mobilize allies, far beyond campus, of all "who understand that the universities of America are critical to everything that is good about the country: its commitment to freedom, its devotion to excellence, its leadership in science & medicine." www.chronicle.com/article/how-...

How a University Fights an Authoritarian Regime

Viktor Orbán came for me. Donald Trump is coming for you. Here’s what to do.

chronicle.com

Interesting to see the growth of reports on digital and data. Especially when we are still a long way from good practice in the sector. Also are there inflation-adjusted / real costs figures on humanitarian appeals and spend? That would be interesting.

A deep dive into 25 years of humanitarian data

The good, the bad, and the buzzwords: 25 years of humanitarian data.

thenewhumanitarian.org

Tired of hearing about the free world but it not feeling free.

THE RESIST LIST IS HERE. Proud my team just started this @resistlist.bsky.social, which will list actions that happened and that are slated to happen.

Also, here's me reminding people about the white supremacist and segregationist legacy of American immigration policy and how Trump fits into it. www.theguardian.com/us-news/comm...

Trump’s obsession with immigration is really an obsession with segregation | Heba Gowayed

His policies are the latest instantiation of a centuries-long American tradition: laws meant to exclude people of color and privilege whiteness

theguardian.com

I was happy to speak with @melissagiragrant.com about pushing back against academic censorship in the current moment. @newrepublic.com newrepublic.com/article/1917...

Some Institutions Caved to Trump. Their Employees Are Fighting Back.

"Do not obey in advance" was the slogan going into the first Trump administration. Some universities and hospitals seem to be struggling with that advice.

newrepublic.com

Who is resilience for? What is the usefulness of calling refugees resilient? Should we avoid the term together? I've attempted to think through these questions in my article with Ethnos, out now and open access 👇 (1/4)

Resilience for Whom? Resiliency Humanitarianism and Everyday Resistance in a Carceral Camp

This article pushes beyond critiques of resilience as a neoliberal object and descriptor, approaching the term as an analytical diagnostic of power to open new anthropological query around resilien...

tandfonline.com

Trump's freeze on foreign aid will leave 100,000s in Syria without food, water & healthcare. “In a normal situation... NGOs would have a heads-up & some time to figure out what to prioritise ..But there is no common sense...about leaving people to die.” www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature...

US aid freezes escalate Syria’s crisis

Aid officials involved in the response say people are already suffering and predict huge problems ahead due to the abrupt end of programmes.

thenewhumanitarian.org

I have some very cool colleagues 👇

Guy Edwards@guywhedwards.bsky.social · 2y ago

🥳 Here's a starter pack with some friends and colleagues at Sussex University doing fascinating research on energy transitions, green militarism, climate change, the history of the British empire, war and violence and lots more. If I missed anyone let me know and I'll add them! go.bsky.app/CA5ENwu

Tonight!!

Melissa Gatter@melissagatter.bsky.social · 2y ago

I'll be at @ucl.ac.uk next Thursday to discuss my book with Estella Carpi and Anne Irfan and talk about what's next for the Syrian refugees whose stories shape my research. Register here 👇

And not to give this more thought than it deserves, but it would be worth it for some enterprising journalist in the position to do so to ask Trump just who the US would buy Gaza from. It could get him on the record endorsing a sovereign Palestinian state.

Trump says US is 'committed to buying and owning Gaza'

There has been global condemnation of his plan to take over the strip and move its Palestinians out.

bbc.co.uk

Saturday morning reading: Charlotte Al Khalili describes reuniting with her interlocutors for the 1st time in Syria, one of whom she quotes: “Charlotte, we are meeting in Damascus! Damascus!”, Bilal exclaimed as we greeted. “Can you believe it?! Who could have thought we would meet here one day!” 🥹

Snapshots of Post-Assad Syriaby Charlotte Al-Khalili - American Ethnological Society

“Welcome to Syria,” greeted the robust man as he took our passports. He was seated at a counter, behind security glass. The man, unlike the young men carrying

americanethnologist.org

I'll be at @ucl.ac.uk next Thursday to discuss my book with Estella Carpi and Anne Irfan and talk about what's next for the Syrian refugees whose stories shape my research. Register here 👇

IAS Book Launch: Time and Power in Azraq Refugee Camp

Join us for the launch of Time and Power in Azraq Refugee Camp. A Nine-to-Five Emergency by Melissa Gatter

ucl.ac.uk

Back at the desk today with Monday morning reading: Ruben Andersson gives us anthropologists a roadmap for studying humans in an increasingly inhumane world. Much needed motivation as we stare down the barrel of 2025, full of monsters we've seen before (and some we haven't).

Another must-read story on the end of the Assad regime, in which palace insiders talk about the final hours, by the New York Times’s Ben Hubbard, Christina Goldbaum, and Hwaida Saad. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/21/w... @nytimes.com @benhubbard.bsky.social

Inside the Final Days of the Assad Regime in Syria (Gift Article)

President Bashar al-Assad, who wielded fear and force over Syria for more than two decades, fled the country under the cover of night — and a fake political address.

nytimes.com

In "The Time beneath the Concrete," Nasser Abourahme argues that settler colonialism in #Palestine is always as much an attempt to conquer time as it is to conquer land. Read the introduction for free now. https://buff.ly/3BwdKyr

I had an open and honest conversation with @mdelbosque.bsky.social about the state of immigration headed a GOP controlled Washington and the urgent need to get a better understanding of nativists now in power.

Facing Trump 2.0: The Immigrant Rights Movement Needs to Step Up Its Game

Mutual aid isn’t enough, says Zachary Mueller, political director for the nonprofit America’s Voice. We need a new coalition that studies the Right’s strategy, and builds a viable counterstrategy.

open.substack.com

My feed is a mix of celebration in Syria and destruction in Palestine. How I wish to see Palestinians share the joy of liberation in the very near future 🍉

If you want to fill your Friday with something truly remarkable, take a moment to look at the images and videos from across Syria today, where Syrians are celebrating the first Friday following the fall of the 54-year Assad family rule. ✊❤️

Like clockwork, European countries have started halting the processing of Syrian asylum claims. Is it surprising how quickly otherwise slow immigration systems can implement change if they want to? No! Let's nerd out about time, shall we? 🧵 (1/8)

European countries put Syrian asylum bids on hold after Assad's fall

European countries put asylum applications from Syrians on hold until further notice on Monday after rebels seized the Syrian capital and President Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia following 13 years of civil war.

reuters.com

Just two days after the fall of the al-Assad regime in Syria, several European countries have seized the opportunity to publicly announce that they will suspend the processing of asylum applications from Syrians. 🧵⤵️

NEW: For some, the idea that Syrians could free themselves from despotism seems so implausible it’s dismissed outright — like prisoners hesitating to walk out of an open cell door, writes Layla Maghribi in @newlinesmag.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/argument/lib...

Liberation in Syria Is a Victory Worth Embracing

The country is now free, yet some remain trapped in the past

newlinesmag.com

I’m not really worthy to write anything about beautiful Syria today but they asked me to and so I tried through tears to write some words that are inadequate but here they are anyway: Dawn in Damascus @newlinesmag.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/spotlight/da...

Dawn in Damascus

In the end, Bashar al-Assad had nothing to say to the country he bludgeoned and bled, but what matters now is that his ‘forever’ rule is over

newlinesmag.com