Research Topic Title: Governing time, governing migrants
Usually questions of migration – whether and how people cross borders, settle as “migrants” or “refugees”, and how they “integrate” – are analysed through the lens of space. My project instead looks at how time shapes displacement within increasingly restrictive border regimes, and how governance of time shapes refugees’ social lives. Based on qualitative research with refugees Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey living in Frankfurt, Germany and Istanbul, Turkey, my project explores how refugee governance shapes refugees’ social relations not only in space but in and through time. By this I mean that insecure status, age cut-off points, application deadlines, and social narratives of national pasts and futures, interact with how refugees experience the present, think about the future, and maintain relationships with friends and family. I show how bordering separates refugees from family, friends and neighbours – in space across geographies but also in time across presents, pasts and futures. At the same time, refugees work to rebuild social relations across times and spaces – through sharing moments, caring for each other over time, and working in solidarity for better futures. Understanding these mechanisms and effects of time as a tool of migration governance can help in work towards equal rights, belonging, membership and justice for mobile and immobile people in the present and the future.
Mentor:
Prof Bridget Anderson
Publications:
– Ziss, P. (2024) “’A knife with two sides’: naturalisation and the ambivalent value of citizenship amongst Syrians in Turkey”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 0:0
– Amr, N., Bass, M., Bialas, U., Lanari, E., Mitchell, K., Schoon, E., Sohail, J. and P. Ziss (2024) “Foreclosure, Disclosure, and Political Engagement. A Collaborative Reflection on Scholar-Activism in the Neoliberal University”, Migration & Society 7 – Phillimore, J., G. D’Avino, V. Strain-Fajth, A. Papoutsi, and P. Ziss (2023) “Family reunion policy for resettled refugees: governance, challenges and impacts”, Frontiers in Human Dynamics 5 – Lessard-Phillips, L., N. Sigona, A. Papoutsi and P. Ziss (eds.) (2023) Migration, displacement and diversity: the IRiS anthology. Oxford: Oxford Publishing Services.
– Ziss, P. (2023) “Futures denied: temporalities of citizenship amongst naturalised Syrian citizens of Turkey” in L. Lessard-Phillips, N. Sigona, A. Papoutsi and P. Ziss (eds.) Migration, displacement and diversity: the IRiS anthology, Oxford: Oxford Publishing Services. – Ziss, P. (2021) “Selective memory? How history figures in social sciences research on forced displacement to Germany”. Refugee History Blog
Contact Details:
Email: paladia.ziss@bristol.ac.uk
LinkedIn: Paladia Ziss, PhD – Senior Research Associate – University of Bristol | LinkedIn
Twitter: pyziss