This thesis investigates the processes of repression and exclusion of the Palestinian refugee in the Arab host-state. A theoretical framework using theories from Michel Foucault, Hannah Arendt,...Show moreThis thesis investigates the processes of repression and exclusion of the Palestinian refugee in the Arab host-state. A theoretical framework using theories from Michel Foucault, Hannah Arendt, Giorgio Agamben, Michael Hardt, and Antonio Negri, is used to analyse the situation of the refugee in the three case studies of Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. It is argued that biopolitics are employed to control and exclude the Palestinian refugee. The host-state excuses this exclusion through the retoric of the incommensurability of the right of return to Palestine with citizenship of the host-state. Gaining citizenship of the host-state supposedly cancels the right of return to Palestine. This discourse is a tool that is employed by the host-states when he refugee proses a threat to their status quo. This thesis disagrees with this supposed incommensurability argueing that the two can co-exist. Furthermore, an analysis of the situation of the Palestinian refugee in the case studies leads to the conclusion that Hannah Arendt and Giorgio Agamben were right when argueing that the nation-state is the only institution capable of upholding human rights and that without citizenship the refugee is vulnerable and without protection. Because of this, serious steps need to be taken towards citizenship for the Palestinian refugee.Show less
In face of various political and economic challenges, the EU has been making efforts to glue its member states together through the concept of a “European culture.” This research seeks to answer...Show moreIn face of various political and economic challenges, the EU has been making efforts to glue its member states together through the concept of a “European culture.” This research seeks to answer how the position of elderly citizens in the aspiration of fostering “Europeanness” through the The European Year represents the larger problematics of creating a “European” identity? In this way, another aspect of the complicated matter of the creation of “one united European people” is to be provided by including how the attempts of creating unity can be at the expense of excluding certain persons and even whole demographic groups who do not fit into the specific rhetoric of unity. The innovativeness of this research lies in the fact that it will focus on elderly EU citizens. So far, this demographic group has namely been insufficiently recognised in the context of “European” identity creation.Show less
Following the abolition of the slave trade, colonial Cuba imported Chinese labourers to ensure a steady labour supply for their massive sugar production. After the Independence Wars that occurred...Show moreFollowing the abolition of the slave trade, colonial Cuba imported Chinese labourers to ensure a steady labour supply for their massive sugar production. After the Independence Wars that occurred between 1868-1898, the Chinese were heralded for their widespread involvement. Following U.S. annexation however, the Chinese were marked as a distinct 'other' which resulted in the Chinese Exclusion Act. This thesis traces the development from inclusion to exclusion and argues that Chinese labour exclusion in Cuba was facilitated by a two-fold dependency on sugar and the U.S., ultimately leading to extreme nationalist and anti-foreign sentiments that completely excluded Chinese labourers from the Cuban nation-state.Show less
This thesis analyses the double trauma of loss of belonging and exclusion from US society after the events of 9/11 as experienced by the characters of the novel Once in a Promised Land by Laila...Show moreThis thesis analyses the double trauma of loss of belonging and exclusion from US society after the events of 9/11 as experienced by the characters of the novel Once in a Promised Land by Laila Halaby. Building on the theory of Orientalism provided by Edward Said, edited with the work of Fadda-Conrey, the chapters discuss each trauma separately. Doing so creates an overview of the double trauma experienced by the main characters of Salwa and Jassim.Show less
The Zainichi Koreans have been excluded Japanese society by a latent structure of discrimination that is encoded in the Japanese constitution and promoted by homogeneous society idealists such as...Show moreThe Zainichi Koreans have been excluded Japanese society by a latent structure of discrimination that is encoded in the Japanese constitution and promoted by homogeneous society idealists such as Nakasone. This latent structure becomes blatant when the notion of Japanese homogeneity and cultural superiority is challenged. This drive for exclusion exhibits itself through anti-foreigner rhetoric of politicians such as Ishihara who instrumentalise fear and nationalism for their own political ends, and manifests itself as negative portrayals of Koreans in media and through Zaitokukai protests. Understanding the Zainichi Koreans within the context of Japanese national identity shows that Koreans are denied an identity, a history, and legal and economic rights by the dominant narrative of a homogenous and culturally superior Japan. When this narrative is challenged, it is then reinforced by nationalistic politicians and the Zaitokukai who actively exclude the Zainichi. Japan’s national identity has been constructed in opposition to its heterogeneous past and contemporary heterogeneous countries. For its ethnic minorities that are associated with its multiethnic past, they face losing identity and blatant discrimination in modern Japan.Show less
The means of identification of the population determine the institutional practice. The census in India led to the institution of the caste-system in order for the British to better manage the...Show moreThe means of identification of the population determine the institutional practice. The census in India led to the institution of the caste-system in order for the British to better manage the population. Under the Foucauldian governmentality paradigm, this thesis argues that the modern practices used by the government for identifying the population are a continuation of the earlier census method of identification. The extrapolation of characteristics to determine the structure of Indian society was a system that relayed information from the population back to the government through the census. Segregation or exclusion of people who fell outside of the proposed structure presented in the census were homogenised within castes. Contemporary systems for the population to relay information to the government may move beyond the earlier traits of structure. However, as the government becomes increasingly dependent on technology to identify and gain insight into the issues facing the population, the role of technology in providing the government with data becomes an issue. Essentially, the government is in a process of increasing automation in institutions in order to better assess the population. It is capable of putting in place the systems that register the issues facing the population. Yet, as the institutions begin to provide an assessment of the data to the government in order for them to act. Those people within the population who are not registered in- or providing relevant data to – institutions therefore fall outside of the assessment of the government. As they do remain part of the population this thesis will argue that the big data systems (1) are dependent on the means that the government to collects data, (2) do not include the whole population and thus policy recommendations, based on big data assessment, require the government to extrapolate the perceived issues to the whole of the population, (3) the welfare of the population as the end-goal of the government will see a changing role in citizenship when the policy of the government becomes increasingly determined by the information the citizen provides.Show less
