REFUGEES: FRAMING VULNERABILITY AND THE STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the refugee, who is interpreted as a figure in a state of precarity. The article is divided into three interconnected blocks. The first block examines the development of the refugee problem in Ukrainian social sciences. We suggest that in the sciences, refugees are identified with the problem that needs to be solved, thus losing their own subjectivity. Whether it is the need for help, the discourse of the "alien" or potential economic utility - these nominations saturate the concept of "refugee", depriving the refugees themselves of self-sufficiency in the field of scientific conceptualization. In the second block, we develop the figure of the refugee within the frame theory. A frame is a framework of interpretation, which, on the one hand, acts normalizing, as a normative judgment, and on the other hand, must constantly circulate in the discourse for the sake of its own legitimation, thereby breaking away from its own context and causing its own instability. We interpret the refugee as a precarious figure in two senses: on the one hand, they depend on whether society recognizes him (whether he will fit into the frame), on the other hand, they are framed as a precarious figure. At the same time, the refugee - who enables the self-destruction of the frame, thereby poses a threat to the social order of society. The third block is devoted to a brief description of the strategies that refugees can potentially take in the matter of integration into the frame/society. By strategies, we understand general vectors, the most abstract directions of movement, relationships that a refugee can take in the process of framing the very existence of a refugee in a state of precarity. It is this word that we propose to use, since each of these vectors can be implemented by various tactics and, accordingly, crystallize into a set of typical trajectories (or, as E. Goffman would say, a career). We highlight three general strategies, in which we briefly mention the specific tactics of their implementation: these are the strategies of integration, building oppositions, and balancing on the border.