Mass migrations of people has become a significant challenge in Europe and America in the 21st century as several refugees and immigrants leave their homes and seek asylum in foreign countries either due to forceful eviction or desire to seek better standards of living abroad. The situation has forced various European countries and human rights organizations to set up refugee camps to accommodate immigrants. In the camps, refugees face significant problems of cultural identity. Through the zero tolerance immigration policies implemented by President Donald Trump, children of Mexican immigrants in America were recently separated from their parents as adults were kept in camps. Several people who have escaped from political persecutions and economic crises in Middle East and North Africa are also placed in refugee camps. Such immigrants are often denied asylum because they are viewed as threats to Europe’s cultural identity and international security. This crisis can be explained using the anthropological concept of liminality. The theory refers to the disorientation or ambiguity experienced by human beings during a rite, when the members can no longer hold their pre-ritual identity or status, but have not yet attained full status of the new phase of life. Refugees living in camps while waiting for asylum in foreign countries are in the liminal stage of rite where they can only stand at the center between their previous cultural identity and new way of life in the host country.
Turner (1967) developed the idea of limimality from the Latin word limen, which means threshold. Based on the idea of liminality, local social changes put migrants in a liminal space from which they must be rescued through either asylum or home return. Turner defined liminality as a situation in which a person moves from a known status to an ambiguous circumstance between two fixed classifications or statuses. Following the globalization, technological development, and changing economic situations in the recent times, individuals have increasingly fallen into the liminal space of social transformation. Colson (2003) argues that the life of refugees in camps exemplifies the liminal space experienced in the middle of transition rites. The participants of the rites move from their previous social patterns to new communities where they assume new roles. Camps accommodate immigrants in the middle of their rite of transition, and reflects a midpoint between the past and future lives of immigrants. At the camp, the refugees require social support to adapt to their new roles.
Douglas (1966) argues that cultural aberrations experienced by human beings in their social change can be mitigated in a number of ways. First, one universal interpretation should be used to reduce ambiguity. In the case of refugees, international laws can be used define the status of refugees to reduce obscurity in relation to their cultural identity. Secondly, the aberrance should be physically controlled. In this regard, the obstacles of refugees’ movement should be minimized. Lastly, the anomalous can be labelled as dangerous threats to people. Thus, immigrants may be seen as threats to national security in the host country. This perspective explains why some European countries such as Italy have turned away some immigrants trying to enter their territories. However, contemporary anthropologists such as Black (1994) have refuted the argument that refugees are threats to host nations.
Based on the concept of liminality, refugees are helpless people who need support. Because the immigrants have moved from their homes and have not settled in a new society, they are no longer whole people (Schechter, 2000). In this regard, the camp is a necessary institution that helps the refugees to meet their needs and preserve their cultural values and families. Immigrants exchange their original homes with an imagined homeland as a necessary contingency for their survival. However, lack of asylum in the host country places the immigrant in a liminal situation in which they cannot reach the imagined homeland or go back to the original home.
Schechter (2000) explains that refugees maintain the threshold status at the camp to continue enjoying international attention. Due to the fear of the consequences of social change, the refugees prefer the liminal space to new status. The refugee status offers the immigrants a chance to receive international aid at the borders rather than experiencing worse situations out of the liminal space at the camp.
The refugee camps also offer sanctuaries to immigrants who can neither move on to new destinations nor go back to their previous homes. The placement of helpless and dependent people in camps leads to the creation of international institutions to continuously respond to disasters and help people in need (Colson, 2003). The assistance provided by international institutions such as human rights organizations help to perpetuate the liminality status as refugees prefer receiving the support in the camp rather than risking a move back home or to a new place (Schechter, 2000). Furthermore, refugees in camps are people who have lost their homes through forced migration. As they pursue a new life of transition in the camp, the immigrants become mentally disturbed by the thought of losing their homes. However, the refugees continue to keep their home memories and identify themselves with their home countries.
One of the characteristics of refugee camps that demonstrate the concept of liminality is fragmentation on the bases of ethnicity, gender and other social groupings. At the camp, refugees from different parts of the world intermix, forming an ambiguous culture and social status (Black, 1994). As each individual in the camp exercises his or her social and cultural identity, variations and disagreements ensue. In this regard, there is little chances of social integration or solidarity at the camp as it were at home, and as it would possibly be in their dream destinations.
The liminal state of refugees is also demonstrated through unfamiliar social action which characterizes their new environment. The resettlement of refugees in the new country represents a rite of transition from the camp life to a new status in the host country (Colson, 2003). As a refugee changes status from the ambiguous situation in the camp to new settlement in a third country, he or she experiences new relationships, orientation and languages. Resettlement does not eliminate the memories of past life, but offers an opportunity for shared experiences and creation of new identity.
Indeed, liminality offers a good understanding of the situation of displaced persons in refugee camps across the world. As immigrants move to new countries, they often end up in refugee camps as they wait for asylum. In most cases, the refugees never get a chances to be fully integrated in the new environment. The camp life reflects a liminal space between past and future life. This transition stage is characterized by dependence on social support, lack of solidarity, and loss of social identity.
References
Colson, E. (2003). Forced Migration and the Anthropological Response. Journal of Refugee Status, 16(1), 1-18.
Black, R. (1994). Forced Migration and Environmental Change: The Impact of Refugees on Host Environments. Journal of Environmental Management, 42, 261-277.
Douglas, M. (1966). Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. New York: Frederick A. Praeger.
Schechter, J. (2000). Anthropological Theory and Fieldwork: Problem Solving Tools for Forced Migration Issues. High Plains Applied Anthropologist, 2(20), 153-165.
Turner, V. (1967). Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage. In The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. Pp. 93-111. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
