O'Reilly, Zoe (2012) ‘In between spaces’: experiences of asylum seekers in the ‘direct provision’ system in Ireland. PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.
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Abstract
People seeking protection in European countries, and elsewhere, are detained,
dispersed and deported, their lives treated as ‘waste’ or ‘reject’. As part of the
increasing politics of exclusion in countries of immigration, there is an increasing
number of spaces, between and within borders, in which such people are detained or
forced to wait, often in inhumane conditions, and often for years at a time. The Irish
‘direct provision’ system is part of this increasing network of ‘in between or ‘liminal’
spaces. This research is an interrogation and analysis of the lived experiences of
asylum seekers living in the direct provision system in Ireland.
Through a participatory photography project with a group of people seeking asylum
and living in the direct provision system in 2010, a body of work was gradually
created, consisting of images, texts and stories, based on everyday subjective
experiences of living in this system. Working through a participatory visual
methodology allowed for a processual approach to the research, in which the visual
became a tool for dialogue, for co-creation, for the exploration of experience and for
the representation of that experience beyond the research space. Both through the
material outcomes, as well as through the processes and lived experiences of this
collaborative project, the research is an exploration and analysis of living within the
liminal space of direct provision, and the ‘microphysics of power’ that this entails.
The images, text and stories created during the research project, both in themselves
as well as through the processes of their creation and representation, provide a means
to examine not only experiences of living in direct provision, but also the power
relations which surround the asylum system.
A collectively edited selection of the images, texts and stories created during the
project was exhibited with the participants in 2010, and later brought together as a
book in 2012, entitled New Bridges: experiences of seeking asylum in Ireland.
Through the book, the work aims to represent the experiences of the participants and
to create ‘counter-narratives’ to mainstream or stereotypical representations of
asylum seekers, opening a space for the voices of those involved to be heard in the
public realm.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) |
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Additional Information: | APPENDIX 1: New Bridges book APPENDIX 2: Disc containing digital stories and PDF of New Bridges book APPENDIX 3: Information and consent form for participants (available with hardbound copy from Library Circulation Desk) |
Keywords: | asylum seekers; ‘direct provision’ system; Ireland; |
Academic Unit: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography |
Item ID: | 6740 |
Depositing User: | IR eTheses |
Date Deposited: | 07 Jan 2016 15:55 |
URI: | https://mu.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/6740 |
Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
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