Day 16: Inclusion and Exclusion

Today’s session entitled “Inclusion and Exclusion: Citizens and ‘Others’ ” was very awakening. We essentially talked about immigration in the sense that nation states today control their borders vigorously to keep out those they do not want. Also, historically, states have even denied citizenship to groups within their borders as well: women, ethnic and religious minorities, prisoners, and others. Moreover, we discussed refugees, asylum seekers, and indigenous peoples and what that means in terms of citizenship. Of course the term citizenship is often defined as a set of rights, duties, and identities that link citizens to the nation-state, so there is room to question whether or not these people take away from that national identity.

Basically, we explored how formal citizenship is a process of exclusion as well as inclusion. Additionally, within the context of rights and responsibilities, the complexities of realities faced by refugees, asylum seekers, and indigenous peoples raises a critical question of “Who belongs as a citizen?” Furthermore, such categories of individuals and groups can be used to construct boundaries of “inside and outside,” which may in turn pose challenges to the State system.

We considered what it would look like to have a world with no borders. On one hand, Ira Mehlman quotes that “far from promoting liberty and prosperity, a world without borders will inevitably lead to conflict, misery, and chaos – in other words, tyranny.” On the other hand, Teresa Hayter notes that “by far the most important reason for opposing immigration controls is that they impose harsh suffering and injustice on those who attempt to migrate, or to free for their lives and liberty.”

As we learned the definitions of asylum seekers and refugees, the one that really struck me was what it means to be an Internally Displaced Person (IDP). An IDP is a refugee in all but name. Essentially, it is a person with a well-founded fear of persecution due to their nationality, race, political opinion, religion, etc. The difference between an IDP and refugee is that an IDP has not crossed out of their country’s borders, but a refugee has. Therefore, if there is a problem in one region of the country, an IDP may be moved to a different, safer area of that country. Interestingly enough, the worldwide statistics show that there are 15.2 million refugees (the top country to receive refugees is South Africa, second is United States), 983,000 asylum claims (however, Western countries only accept 30% of asylum claims), and 27.1 million IDPs.

In order to add into this information, we watched a film over the conflict of refugees in Darfur, Sudan. During a time of civil war and genocide, over 200,000 refugees have gone to Chad, one of the neighboring countries. Basically, the “main character” of the film showed what it’s like to live as one of these refugees for 30 days. The quality of life is obviously poor and the whole situation there is just not good. The refugee camps that we got to see definitely weren’t following the international laws that refugees have the right to a comfortable living environment. After all, refugees are fleeing a bad living situation. It was very sad to see what it would be like to experience that. :(

During lunch when we were putting our dirty plates away, I mistakenly tried to balance my tray on the edge of the table… it definitely got knocked over and the entire dining room full of approximately 300 Italians and Spanish people started cheering! It was hilarious… it didn’t feel epic enough for such attention though, since nothing broke and no food spilled… but it was great regardless ;)

I guess now would be a good time to reflect on a typical lunch at Digby Stuart Dining Hall. Essentially, we show up and it's very crowded by Italian students partcipating in an MLA language program to help them learn English. As they stand in a long line, we are actually able to cut that line. :) Most of the time, the meals are pure carbohydrates. There is always some sort of potato side (usually French fries, or "chips"), and there is always a side of pasta. The main dish ranges from chicken, to fish, to lasagna, to turkey balls (like meat balls...sort of), to quiche. It's not bad, and hey, we're eating for free! The International Centre asked us to submit video clips of what it's like to be in this program, so for one of them, I took a short clip of a daily lunch in the shoes of a Fulbrighter.

Typical lunch

In the afternoon part of the session, we explored the history of the prison and conflicting theories of its purposes. We answered questions like: do prisons exist to punish, to deter others from crime, to keep society safe, or to rehabilitate offenders? Can it do all these things? Should prisoners have the right to vote? What kinds of places do we think prisons are or should be? We took a brief look at prisons and prisoners in film, on TV and in literature, and considered how these have influenced public perceptions.

We were lucky enough to have Janet Fearnley come in and speak with us. She is a Senior Probation Officer at Her Majesty’s Prison Wormwood Scrubs, a large London prison. The main subject focused on the reality of prisoners and prisoners in Britain today. She was very informative and it was interesting to hear from someone who works in a prison. She spoke about how different the prison systems are in the UK vs. the US. For example, there are only 50 people in the entire UK right now who are sentenced to prison for life, which is obviously very different from the US. Also, the sentences are much more lenient here, in that if you are sentenced to 6 months of prison, you’ll probably only actually be in prison for 3 months, and then doing community service for a month and a half, and finally on parole for the final month and a half.

Finally, we considered a few of the rehabilitation initiatives in US and UK prisons: reading groups; opera productions; fine needlework and quilt making; joint classes with prisoners and college students at Amherst, Emory, NYU, and University of Massachusetts. It was definitely an interesting and informative day, as usual!

We got out of class and some people went to Putney, while others stayed behind to get some odds and ends done… I feel like we have a TON to do while here! There definitely haven’t been any days where I have felt bored or out of things to do. We reconvened in the evening to watch the Bourne Identity... mainly because we all wanted to see the Waterloo Station scene. :)