HOW DECENT CAMP CONDITIONS AND
REFUGEES’ BASIC NEEDS FULFILLMENT
LEAD TO BELONGING AND COOPERATION:
A CASE STUDY OF REFUGEE CAMPS IN LESVOS, GREECE
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How Decent Camp Conditions and
Refugees’ Basic Needs Fulfillment Lead
to Belonging and Cooperation:
________________________________________________
A Case Study of Refugee Camps in Lesvos, Greece
A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in International Development Studies
Graduate School of Social Sciences University of Amsterdam – Amsterdam
By Annelise Mecca (11182229), annelise.mecca@gmail.com Supervisor: Dr. Olga Nieuwenhuys
Second Reader: Word Count: 26,500 January 2018
Home, by Warsan Shire
no one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.
you only run for the border when you see the whole city running as well.
your neighbours running faster
than you, the boy you went to school with who kissed you dizzy behind
the old tin factory is
holding a gun bigger than his body, you only leave home
when home won't let you stay.
no one would leave home unless home chased you, fire under feet,
hot blood in your belly.
it's not something you ever thought about doing, and so when you did -
you carried the anthem under your breath, waiting until the airport toilet
to tear up the passport and swallow,
each mouthful of paper making it clear that you would not be going back.
you have to understand,
no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land.
who would choose to spend days and nights in the stomach of a truck unless the miles travelled
meant something more than journey.
no one would choose to crawl under fences, be beaten until your shadow leaves you, raped, then drowned, forced to the bottom of
the boat because you are darker, be sold, starved, shot at the border like a sick animal, be pitied, lose your name, lose your family, make a refugee camp a home for a year or two or ten,
stripped and searched, find prison everywhere and if you survive and you are greeted on the other side
with go home blacks, refugees dirty immigrants, asylum seekers sucking our country dry of milk, dark, with their hands out smell strange, savage -
look what they've done to their own countries, what will they do to ours?
the dirty looks in the street softer than a limb torn off, the indignity of everyday life
more tender than fourteen men who look like your father, between your legs, insults easier to swallow than rubble, than your child's body in pieces - for now, forget about pride your survival is more important.
i want to go home, but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun and no one would leave home unless home chased you to the shore unless home tells you to
leave what you could not behind, even if it was human.
no one leaves home until home is a damp voice in your ear saying leave, run now, i don't know what i've become.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
While I alone am responsible for the data collection, writing, and ideas within this thesis, it’s completion is nonetheless the outcome of many incredible minds and willing hearts contributing to the process. However heartbreaking the cause or need for this type of research, just as heartwarming is the good that aid workers, refugees, government officials and researchers are trying to bring forward.
To begin, I wish to thank the 15 young refugees whom, with complete trust and even friendship, opened themselves up to me, sharing personal stories in detail, and exposing what I would think to be the most vulnerable parts of themselves. It is they who demonstrated how even in the toughest of circumstances, it is still possible to give oneself to others and expect little in return. It is also they who taught me to appreciate the positive pieces in an overall complicated or negative pie of a day, week, month, or in their cases, year. Although the words of these fifteen men and women appear in the text of this thesis, my writing is a product of countless stories from and experiences with people of all ages and many countries.
These experiences were possible thanks to the management of Kara Tepe Hospitality of Lesvos, specifically by the permission of the camp manager, Stavros Miragiannis, as well as the director of Because We Carry, Steffi De Pous, and the many coordinators, volunteers, and refugee volunteers who believed in my mission and that I would be able to carry it out to the protection and ultimately, benefit of everyone involved. To the manager of One Happy Family, Fabian Bracher, thank you for allowing me to not only volunteer at the community center, but putting your trust enough in me to carry out research on the premises and encounter individuals from different camps, varying housing situations on the island, and from all walks of life. A special thank you goes to Lauren (Do) Lavoo and Elies Van Willenswaard of Because We Carry for continuously believing in me and keeping me on track on a weekly basis. This opportunity, which grew into much more than I could have imagined, is majorly due to your faith in my ability and intentions.
I am extremely grateful to Dr. Olga Nieuwenhuys, my supervisor, for her patience with me, her continued support through many ups and downs and a few 180 degree turns in the process, and of course, her carefully crafted and thoughtful critical feedback. Her experience not only in research but in life, influenced me in a profound way, and made her guidance incredibly helpful.
I would also so very much like to thank my field advisor, Fahrinisa Oswald, for introducing me to the ins and outs of the refugee situation in Greece, for showing me what you have learned, for sharing your many experiences both in life and through stories, and for guiding me from start to finish, as a trusted advisor and also as a friend. Your patience is endless, your demeanor is cool, and your nonchalance in the face of adversity is inspiring. Forever, thank you.
I wish to thank the University of Amsterdam’s Graduate School of Social Sciences who gave me the opportunity to enroll in such an enriching program as the Master of International Development Studies. The education provided in the classroom, which was incredibly valuable, was eclipsed by the unimaginable experience of carrying out fieldwork; I am grateful for the time spent by professors and guest speakers on teaching me all I needed to know to successfully carry out research and build a solid thesis. Without the dedication of my professors, I would not have had the knowledge base or confidence to take on such a feat; a big thanks goes to Esther Miedema from the start and Courtney Vegelin through to the end. I am very grateful to the consistent and tireless guidance of my student advisor, Eva Van Der Sleen, who kept things smooth through many transitions. Now more than ever, I appreciate the rare opportunity to receive such quality education and freedom to learn and grow as I so choose.
Finally, I wish to thank my family for their unwavering support and dedication to my education, my freedom, and emotional well-being. It is because of my parents that I have the desire to fly to great heights and know that if ever I need to come down, I can rely on the push I need to rise again.
This thesis is dedicated to my readers. May these words inspire you to seek out opposing views, step into the uncomfortable, and to know difference and embrace it. In doing so, may you experience friendship with people unlike yourself, compassion in even the darkest places, and hope where there seemingly is none. Amsterdam, January 2018
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ABSTRACT
Due to the ongoing and ever-changing nature of current refugee crisis caused by conflict in the Middle East, there is little research on improving conditions for refugees stranded in Greece. Currently, there are more than 7,000 refugees on Lesvos alone, facing varying degrees of needs fulfillment. There are marked differences in the demeanor, attitudes, concerns, and well-being of the refugees who are living in Kara Tepe Hospitality Center versus those of the refugees living in Moria. This study demonstrates how these differences are cause for a difference in the individuals’ ability and desire to negotiate love and belonging, and therefore, their (in)ability to work in cohesion with NGO’s present in the camp. The data, which was collected through participant observation and open-ended interviews, categorizes the refugees into two different groups – refugees experiencing good camp conditions and the fulfillment of basic needs as well as the feelings of safety and security, and refugees experiencing poor camp conditions, causing a lack of basic needs fulfillment and a lack of safety and security. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, basic needs must be fulfilled before secondary needs fulfillment can become a focus or a possibility. The degrees to which basic and secondary needs are fulfilled have a direct correlation to the cohesion of refugees and NGO’s. Further, this relationship is relevant in distinguishing the success of NGO-refugee cooperation and the existence of a mutually beneficial relationship, i.e. refugees volunteering with NGO’s successfully. The findings of this study may be used as a guideline for new or current refugee camps to improve conditions and cohesion within.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v ABSTRACT vii ACRONYMS x LIST OF FUGIRES xi LIST OF TABLES xi LIST OF MAPS xi INTRODUCTION 1CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK & LITERATURE 6
I. MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS 7
II. THE POLITICS OF BELONGING 8
III. BELONGING WHEN SETTLED, NEEDS MET 9
IV. BELONGING WHEN SEMI-SETTLED, NEEDS MET 12
V. RESIDENT-NGO RELATIONSHIPS AND COLLABORATION 13
VI. THEORY AS IT RELATES TO MY STUDY 13
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH CONTEXT 16
I. REFUGEES IN GREECE 17
II. REFUGEES IN LESVOS 18
III. BECAUSE WE CARRY 23
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 26
I. RESEARCH QUESTION & SUBQUESTIONS 26
II. EPISTEMOLOGICAL STANCE 27
III. SAMPLING STRATEGY 28
IV. METHODOLOGY 29
V. DATA ANALYSIS 30
VI. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS 31
VII. LIMITATIONS 32
CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS I – MORIA REFUGEE CAMP 37
I. BASIC NEEDS FULFILLMENT IN MORIA 37
II. SECONDARY NEEDS FULFILLMENT IN MORIA 43
III. BELONGING WITHIN AN NGO: ONE HAPPY FAMILY 46
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CHAPTER 5: ANALYSIS II – KARA TEPE REFUGEE CAMP 53
I. BASIC NEEDS FULFILLMENT IN KARA TEPE 54
II. SECONDARY NEEDS FULFILLMENT IN KARA TEPE 58
III. BELONGING WITHIN AN NGO: BECAUSE WE CARRY 60
IV. CONCLUSION 66
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 67
I. SUMMARY OF CHAPTERS 67
II. ACADEMIC AND SOCIETAL RELEVANCE / FUTURE RESEARCH 69
REFERENCES 70
ACRONYMS
BWC Because We Carry
CBM Community-Based Management
EU European Union
IOM International Organization for Migration
KT Kara Tepe Hospitality Center of the Municipality of Lesvos
KTT Kara Tepe Team
MHN Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
NGO Nongovernmental Organization
OHF One Happy Family
UN United Nations
UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
UNICEF United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund 1951 Convention 1951 Refugee Convention relating to the Status of Refugees
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LIST OF FIGURES
FIG. 1: MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS 7
FIG. 2: CONCEPTUAL SCHEME 15
FIG. 3: REFUGEE MIGRATION ROUTE 16
FIG. 4: REFUGEE DEMOGRAPHICS CHART 17
LIST OF TABLES
TAB. 1: KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS 5TAB. 2: DATA COLLECTION TABLE 77
TAB. 3: INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR REFUGEES 78
TAB. 4: INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR NGO EMPLOYEES 79
TAB. 5: SURVEY GUIDE 80
LIST OF MAPS
MAP 1: LESVOS, SITUATED SW OF TURKEY 19MAP 2: LESVOS INDICATING REFUGEE SITES 20
INTRODUCTION
The Background to the Study
The so called refugee crisis in Europe stems not only from the sheer number of displaced individuals fleeing violence and war over a very short period of time, but also from the unwillingness of the people of Europe to accept these refugees as their own (Pickering, 2005). There exists a fear that, with the many innocent and well-intended refugees, there are also mal-intended men and women looking to slip through the cracks and gain access to European cities and towns once “protected” by their borders (Lathion, 2015). Surges of migration have fueled anti-immigrant rhetoric across Europe and have brought out nationalistic response in many people and political parties. Pickering (2005) argues that through history, refugees, who were once seen as victims of persecutions, have since become tools by which politicians incite ideas of nationalism (p. 187).
Europe was so desperate to ebb the flow of refugees from Turkey into Europe, that it created the EU-Turkey Deal in March of 2016. The purpose of the deal was to essentially pay Turkey to stop the growth of the European refugee crisis and hand everything over to Turkey until the end of conflict in the Middle East – something that is not likely to happen soon. The EU, made up of 28 member states and 510 million people, is capable of absorbing the victims of war, conflict, and persecution coming from countries like Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq, but it does not want to do so. Therefore, the majority of European camps’ conditions are poor purposefully to discourage more people from using smugglers to cross the water into Europe. As I will discuss, these poor camp conditions have short and long-term mental and physical consequences for refugees but also for camp personnel, police, residents of the town, and in the end, the people and government of whichever city the refugees are eventually settled. The lack of basic and secondary needs fulfillment prevalent in camps across Europe are not only a violation of human rights according to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (UNHCR, 2002), which outlines the ways in which host countries are meant to grant refugees freedom, security and basic needs, but it is also reason for so much of the violence in camps, and in turn, xenophobic rhetoric across Europe.
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The topic was chosen because it is relevant and current and there is a lack of research in this area. It is relevant because it is happening in Europe, and although the individuals who will be studied are in Greece, they are only temporarily so. This topic is current because refugees are arriving in Greece daily and due to the ongoing nature of the situation, the topic is lacking in research in that there is little research focusing on individuals that are in limbo – a state of prolonged displacement.
I spent many weeks talking with people, both refugees and directors/volunteers about my research topic, as well as observing young refugees in different situations in their journeys. Some situations were better than others. Upon visiting Kara Tepe refugee camp, I was given the impression that the residents of this camp fall into the “better” category, as individuals are provided with basic needs and beyond. I went there just to interview the camp manager, but left with the proposal to spend the summer as a researcher for an NGO called Because We Carry, after running into the founder of the Dutch organization at the gate of the camp. I originally began my research with the idea that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (referred to as MHN moving forward) should be turned on it’s head; I wanted to use the above and beyond work of the NGO’s in Kara Tepe, as well as that of the director and staff of the camp itself, as a way to prove that human connection, love and belonging, are equally as important as food water, shelter, safety and security. In the end, I found that these NGO’s are doing such a stellar job creating community in which refugees feel a sense of belonging and experience love because there is sufficient food, water, and shelter, because refugees don’t have to worry about violence outside their containers, and because there is equality.
Aims of the Study
The aim of this study is to determine the steps necessary in regards to needs fulfillment to create an environment in which refugees work in cooperation with NGO’s present in refugee camps. In order to fulfill this aim, the study can be broken down into three main goals: First, to identify through data collection the primary and secondary needs fulfillment experienced by refugees in two separate refugee camp sites, second, through the lens of MHN, to examine how basic and secondary needs fulfillment impacts the motivation of individuals to negotiate love and belonging, and third, to relate the ability or lack thereof to negotiate love and belonging with the level of cohesion and cooperation between refugees and the NGO’s in operation within the camp.
Structure
This thesis is divided into six chapters. In the first chapter, I discuss the theoretical framework of the study, exploring relevant concepts and research that shape the aim of the research summarized in this thesis, including a close look at MHN and how it relates to my study. I also provide a conceptual scheme that outlines and connects these concepts. Chapter two presents the research structure and methodology, including first, the research questions as well as the explanation of the ontological stance and epistemological assumptions serving as the guide for research methods and sampling strategy during fieldwork and analysis thereafter; and second, the limitations of the study, both expected and unforeseen, and the ethical considerations in research of vulnerable people. The third chapter provides the research context, beginning with an explanation of the refugee situation in Greece, then zeroing in to the situation on Lesvos, and finally, getting a closer look into the workings of Kara Tepe and the NGO’s working within. Chapter four serves as the first analysis, an examination of Moria refugee camp with a specific focus on the fulfillment of basic and secondary needs within the camp and its implications regarding the negotiation of love and belonging that might lead to general camp cohesion and cooperation between refugees and NGO’s. Chapter five’s second analysis similarly examines Kara Tepe refugee camp and the same aspects of the site and implications regarding needs fulfillment. The thesis concludes with chapter six, a summary of the findings, the explanation of the academic and societal relevance of the study, and suggestions for implementation and future research.
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Key Terms and Definitions
Refugee In line with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the use of the word ‘refugee’ refers to someone who has “been forced to flee
his or her country because of persecution, war, and violence” for fear of their
safety and livelihood. Reasons for this fear include race, nationality, religion, and political stance (UNHCR, 2017a).
The men and women discussed in this thesis are all registered with UNHCR and therefore waiting to be officially considered refugees.
Asylum seeker When individuals flee their home country for fear of persecution or death and seek refuge in another country, they may apply for asylum, wishing to receive protection from the host country and eventually identification papers to work and live in the country. A person who has claimed asylum under the 1951 United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees and not yet been granted refugee status, is an asylum seeker.
The participants of this study are registered asylum seekers and will not be deported while awaiting processing by the Greek authorities. If the asylum seeker is not recognized as a refugee in need of protection, the migrant may be deported back to their country.
Refugee camp Temporary accommodation for people who have fled their home countries because of persecution or violence. Camps are constructed in emergency situations to house the most vulnerable people, and allow for the distribution of UN aid.
Refugee crisis The influx of refugees is the highest since World War II, and due to the overwhelming numbers arriving in economically weak countries like Greece, which is an EU Member State, there is widespread anxiety about the handling of these migrants.
Regulation (EU) No. 604/2013 ‘Dublin Regulation’
The purpose of the regulation is to “determine which State is responsible for examining an asylum application – normally the State where the asylum seeker first entered the EU – and to make sure that each claim gets a fair examination in one Member State” (UNHCR, 2017c). This means that since all refugees coming from Turkey by way of sea land in Greece, Greece is the member state responsible for processing their asylum applications.
EU-Turkey Deal Enacted on March 20, 2016, this $3 billion deal was meant to restrict the influx of migration into Europe across land and sea. The EU put aside the money for Turkey to host refugees from Syria. Although the numbers arriving
in Greece from Turkey have decreased dramatically, people are still arriving on the islands by boat every day.
European Union
The EU is an economic and political union of 28 countries, or member states. The population of the EU is approximately 510 million (Europa, 2017).
1951 Refugee Convention
The 1951 Convention, ratified by 145 States defines the term “refugee” and provides an outline of the rights legally warranted to displaced people by the State in which they seek refuge. (UNHCR, 2017b).
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Chapter 1
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
In this chapter, I review literature on the topic of the fulfillment of basic and secondary needs specifically related to young displaced people as well as the notion of belonging and how it is created, for the purpose of later analyzing how the negotiation of belonging may work toward the cohesion of NGOs and the communities they serve. This framework is based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of human needs, through which the process of needs fulfillment is outlined. The purpose of this study was originally to determine whether or not Maslow’s Hierarchy can be debunked in the case of refugees in limbo in Greece, however, as the study progressed, it proved to follow closely Maslow’s Hierarchy and in addition, served to discover something else: first basic – food, water, shelter, and sleep – then secondary – safety and security – needs must be met in order for NGOs to work cohesively and create a mutually beneficial and sustainable relationship with the communities they serve.
Through the study of existing research, each relating to my proposed research in some way, I have developed a gap in literature. I will examine Maslow’s Hierarchy as a theory that applies to humans in general (section I), then move into the examination of the negotiation of belonging in two related areas of study: 1) permanently settled refugees with basic needs met, and 2) refugees with impermanent settlement, without basic needs met (section II). The purpose of section II is to examine the motivation behind the negotiation of belonging since the motivation to belong to something and feel included is reason to join the work of an NGO. Next, I will examine situations in which NGOs work side-by-side with members of the community, demonstrating how a mutually beneficial relationship can exist between an NGO and the members of the community in that the NGO provides goods or services to the community, while natives/residents help the NGO better understand the needs of the community and how best to serve it. Finally, I will be brought to the gap in literature, which this study focuses on to examine what can happen when refugees in limbo for several months and/or years are provided with basic needs, with the intention of determining whether or not these individuals (refugees in limbo) negotiate belonging through work with an NGO while in an environment in which their basic needs – which, for the purpose
of this study, basic needs are defined as encompassing physiological and safety needs - are being met.
Figure 1: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Source: Maslow, 1943)
I. MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
MHN, which is often represented in a hierarchical pyramid with five levels (Figure 1), is a theory of motivation that proposes that there are at least five sets of needs, or goals, which humans experience. As seen in Figure 1, these needs include physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. According to Maslow (1943: 394), these needs are hierarchical in that the most prepotent need must be met before a human will have the motivation to fulfill the need of the next level. Therefore, physiological needs – food, water, air, sleep, reproduction – which are the needs required for human survival, are prepotent to all other needs. In the same way, safety – the need for security and protection – is prepotent to the need for love and belonging, as well as esteem and self-actualization. Once one level of needs is fulfilled, an individual will have the motivation for more needs fulfillment, and the next highest need emerges as an active motivator. In this way, "Man is a perpetually wanting animal" (Maslow, 1943: 370). Since my research will focus mainly on the first three levels of MHN, I will refer to basic needs as the first level of needs, the basic physiological needs like food, water, shelter, and sleep, and safety and security as secondary needs. Tertiary needs refer to love/belonging.
While there have been studies that use Maslow’s Hierarchy is a guideline for mental health treatment and integration for newly settled refugees (Maddern, 2004), others have criticized the model, claiming that practical and emotional support is equally as important as primary and
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secondary needs (Keefe, 2008). Using Maslow as a guide to my study does not mean I claim that practical and emotional support are not as important as primary and secondary needs, but it does mean that I believe Maslow’s theory in that these practical and emotional support needs can only be fulfilled when an individual has the motivation to seek fulfillment. Researchers that criticize the theory tend to only focus on the loose movement between levels of needs, and do not research situations in which there is insufficient fulfillment of basic or secondary needs; the countering studies do not present situations in which individuals are hungry, thirsty, or without shelter at all.
I believe that needs as well as deprivation are relative and elastic, and the level of insufficiency in needs fulfillment felt by the refugees in my study is dependent upon the standard to which they have become accustomed. Since the participants of my research have known a life - pre war or persecution, etc. – with an abundance of food, family nearby, and freedom of movement, this is the standard to which they desire to live. As I will explain in the next section, the feeling of love and belonging is important, especially because it is something that the refugees in my study are accustomed to feeling.
II. THE POLITICS OF BELONGING
I utilize the science of belonging as a theoretical framework, considering the theory to be a means to understanding globalization, migration, and peaceful cohabitation and aiming to discover preventative mechanisms for conflict resulting from lack of empathy, disconnectedness, or isolation. According to Yuval-Davis, there are three major analytical aspects along which belonging is structured: 1) social locations, 2) people’s identifications and emotional attachments to collectives or groups, and 3) ethical and political value systems with which individuals relate their own and others’ belonging (Yuval-Davis, 2011). These distinctions seem helful to understand the politics of belonging among a certain population – refugees in Lesvos, Greece, in limbo between their country of origin and their intended destination for settlement.
Many researchers, including Mark Leary, who examined the negative effects of not belonging and identified seven key negative emotions associated with the threat to acceptance (Leary, 2015), have studied belonging in relation to humans in general. In addition to his viewpoint from the other side of the science of belonging (the science of not belonging), Leary teamed up with Baumeister to hypothesize about the human need to form and maintain lasting interpersonal relationships with other humans, claiming that humans are “naturally driven toward establishing and sustaining belongingness” (Baumeister & Leary, 1995: 499), or that the need to belong is
innate. Basic psychology explores the human need for belonging through Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs, with love/belonging falling in the middle, after psychological and safety needs, and before esteem and self-actualization (Maslow, 1968). Just as prevalent in psychology studies is the famous words of John Donne (1975), “No man is an island.” Each of these claims by researchers are important to my research question because they suggest that refugee camps can and should be environments in which mutually beneficial relationships and cohesiveness between NGO’s and refugees exist.
III. LOVE/BELONGING WHEN SETTLED AND NEEDS ARE MET
Now that the importance of belonging as well as where it falls in MHN, has been discussed, the next step is to consider situations in which belonging has been examined in situations of relevance. In this section I discuss past research related to resettled refugees situated in an environment where basic needs are met, and how these individuals negotiate belonging within that environment. Valentine, Sporton, & Nielsen (2009) seek to advance understanding in the realm of belonging in relation to integration policy for refugees and asylum seekers by collecting data from two scenarios of a similar group of refugees in two different countries. Somali refugees of the early 21st century make up the sample group in both the UK and in Denmark. While the Somali refugees in the study are aged similarly (12-18 years) and all migrated at a very young age, distinguishing factors between sample groups are the histories of migration in the host countries- specifically Somali migration- and the differing policy in practice in these countries. In both parts – or setting, in the UK and in Denmark - of the study, researchers seek to grasp how young Somalis negotiate belonging and how they position themselves within a society with strong racialized social constructs. The study seeks to understand how and why these individuals define what it means to be Somali, Muslim, and British/Danish as they do.
The findings of this study point to heavy influence of both integration policy and social constructs on the way young refugees negotiate belonging. While Denmark purposely spreads refugees amongst many areas around the country and has strict practices that include a three-year language and culture integration process, the UK has a greater concentration of Somali refugees in one place, allowing them to form their own community of people in similar situations that share similar histories. In other words, while Denmark pushes refugees to become Danish: “Somalis in Sheffield feel that they belong in the UK because they feel secure in their local community without necessarily being included in, or self-identifying with, the nation” (Valentine, Sporton, & Nielsen, 2009: 246).
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The study suggests that Somali refugees in Denmark, where there was a large push to assimilate to Danish culture, felt a sense of belonging within their religions because their religious identity was more stable than their national identity; since they were unable to hold onto Somali language and traditions, yet they were not quite perceived as Danish by the native Danish people, they didn’t exactly belong to either group (Valentine, Sporton, & Nielsen, 2009: 243). In the UK, on the other hand, Somalis held on strongly to religion as a way to stay connected with their Somali roots. Policy in the UK did not push them to conform, but instead placed refugees in large numbers together, allowing them to create a community of Somalis within the greater community. Still, their sense of belonging was neither fully within the British identity nor Somali identity, because, as this study offers, “it is not enough to claim a self-identity; rather, belonging requires that an identity is recognised or accepted as such by a wider community of practice”(Valentine, Sporton, & Nielsen, 2009: 238). With the claim that a sense of belonging relies not only on self-identity, but also the perceived and socially accepted identity, in mind, it is reasonable to understand why religion plays a role in belonging for many refugees, however varied in its role.
Practicing Muslim faith traditions and habits provides stability in an unstable environment. While social norms and traditions of host countries differ from those of the country of origin, religion is stable throughout and practiced in some capacity. In this way, refugees have the power to keep something the same while all else changes. Aziza, a fourteen-year-old refugee in Denmark frames it as followed; “I think that this is the most important to me, that I'm a Muslim. It doesn't matter where you come from, whether you are Somali or Danish or whatever you are as long as you're Muslim and believe in Islam'' (Valentine, Sporton, & Nielsen, 2009: 239). The study suggests that a sense of belonging can be “built not out of an attachment to the nation, but, rather, from complex webs of emotion and identification … that span local and transnational scales” (Valentine, Sporton, & Nielsen, 2009: 239).
The authors not only explore the role of Muslim faith in the lives of refugees, but also discuss the implications of language use, suggesting that language may have an impact on how child refugees negotiate belonging and with which group they identify, using phrases like “you are what you speak, and what you speak is where you are” (p. 242). According to the researchers, young refugees choose to speak languages that they feel belongs to the context in which they are in, and the group with whom they should identify. Somali refugees in Denmark are highly encouraged to speak Danish and therefore feel that if Danish is the language of choice, they will have a higher chance of being accepted in the Danish community and possibly viewed as Danish more than as
Somali (Valentine et al, 2008: 242). This relationship between language and negotiating belonging will be helpful in my research as I discover if refugee minors in Greece use language to negotiate belonging. Other studies have suggested that despite choice in language use and the practice of religion, some aspects of belonging are not shaped by the individual, but also by society.
I now move to Schmitt (2010), who explores how young refugees negotiate belonging not only through factors related to citizenship, like membership, rights, and duties, but also based on social constructs in their environment. Young people are not only actors in their own story, but also reliant on acceptance by adults into a group (Schmitt, 2010). Schmitt (2010) points to earlier research by Lister (2008) by saying, “children can make their claim to be members of the citizen-community through active participation in it; but in order to be able to participate they first need to be accepted as members of the citizen-community” (Lister, 2008: 11). Schmitt adapts Lister’s notions and argues that belonging, or membership in a certain group, is negotiated by “young people as societal actors, rather than objects of political and educational projects” (2010:175). In other words, individuals shape society and society shapes individuals. This study is relevant to my research as it suggests that socially constructed environments can shape the way that young people negotiate belonging, and that the way they do so is not just reliant on their own decisions, but also on the social constructs of the communities in which they find themselves; since the environment in which the participants of my study find themselves is unstable and temporary, it will be interesting to see how environment is shaping the ways in which they do or do not negotiate belonging. It will be important to identify and understand the already developed social constructs of the refugee community in Greece – how and if refugees are perceived, welcomed, considered - as well as those being developed by the refugees themselves.
Also, Kebede believes that identity is a social process, not an individual one. He takes the analysis a step further by suggesting that identity is an ever-forming entity, socially constructed by an ever-changing world because, “Identity formation […] is a social process rather than an individual one because it sees the ‘self’ as always being embedded in society” (Kebede, 2010: 7). I take this to mean that the author is suggesting that there is no sense of self or identity without a sense of belonging to a society or group within the society, and therefore, society has a great influence on the formation of self and identity.
As said, the studies above are about young refugees whose basic needs being met, and who have settled in the country in which they have been granted asylum. In my research, all refugees are
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unsettled in camps meant to be temporary, and I explore the different variations of needs fulfillment searching to determine how individuals negotiate belonging with or without their basic and secondary needs met. My study also varies with regard to language and citizen community, the areas in which the studies have shown young refugees negotiate belonging. Since the sample population of my study – young refugees who are waiting for processing and to move on from Greece – are not settled, and have no intention of settling permanently in Greece, language and citizenship may or may not play significant roles in their lives.
IV. LOVE/BELONGING WHEN SEMI-SETTLED AND NEEDS ARE MET The following section will discuss the ways in which refugees who are semi-settled because they live in refugee camps without the immediate intention to leave negotiate a sense of belonging in their state of prolonged displacement. An important consideration when trying to trace back the feeling of belonging for a displaced minor is education – both formal and informal. Fincham (2012) seeks to challenge the notion that school is the main source of education when it comes to the formation of nationalism, claiming that particularly in the situation of refugees or stateless individuals, “school becomes ‘decentered’ as the most important learning site for young people, as it often represents a state or authority structure that they do not recognize or with which they do not identify” (pg. 304). Fincham gives the example of Palestinians in Lebanon, who live years in exile and attend schools through which testing is carried out to Lebanese standards. According to Fincham and her research, the UNRWA- run schools and camps create a sense of belonging by creating a sense of “difference” between “Palestinians” and “Others” (p. 307). In other words, “In order to know who we are, we must first know who we are not” (p. 307). While the sample population in this study is young refugees, it is different from my intended research population in that they are unsettled, or in a non-permanent refugee camp, but are not attempting to go elsewhere. These claims demonstrate the importance of carrying out research through diverse channels when studying how individuals cultivate a sense of belonging.
Somalis in a Kenyan refugee camp utilize religion and a collectivist culture to negotiate belonging within their state of prolonged displacement (Horst, 2006). According to Horst, Somali refugees have strong ties with family and friends living elsewhere, and therefore, their social network is very important to them. With connections to other Somalis, these refugees are able to cultivate a sense of belonging by maintaining their personal connections and Somali traditions and religion (Horst, 2006).
Fincham’s and Horst’s studies do not apply, as said, to refugees that are in a state of limbo between their country of origin and their intended final destination, as is the situation of the sample population of my intended research. But the results of their research highlight ways in which refugees may negotiate belonging that may relate to findings of my intended study particularly with respect to formal and informal education (Finchman, 2012) and diaspora and social networks (Horst, 2006).
V. RESIDENT-NGO RELATIONSHIPS AND COLLABORATION
Community-based management is not a new concept. However, most instances of CBM involve the preservation of natural resources, and the goal of non-profit organizations is to teach the locals how to preserve and maintain their own resources with the initial help of outside funding and/or training. An example of one such project is the use of community-based fishery management in the Philippines (Yang, & Pomeroy, 2017). Unlike resource management, the management and governance of humans is greatly complicated by circumstance, cultural difference, and a range of unlimited factors. For the purpose of my research, it is best to examine a rare case in which refugees are involved in a CBM; Burmese refugees in Thailand, 1984. In one year, 10,000 refugees crossed the border to Thailand in search of refuge and managed their own camp; “Villagers fled their homes as whole communities, negotiated land with local Thaiauthorities and established themselves in camps around their traditional village leaders” (Thompson, 2008). This situation worked well for years with community-run schools, medical clinics, governance, etc., but did not succeed in the end. As the situation in Burma escalated and refugees were no longer safe in the camps and had to either protect themselves within the camps, or move elsewhere in Thailand, where unaccustomed to having to integrate, they met with an unfamiliar way of life. This case demonstrates how, if aided with resources, refugees are capable of managing themselves, but that success may only be fleeting in long-term situations. It also differs from my research in that refugees in Greece come from many different countries and cultures near and far, and do not arrive in already-made government structures. The camps in Lesvos are also built as temporary entities originally meant only to house individuals for days - maybe months - not years.
VI. THEORY AS IT RELATES TO MY STUDY
In sum, there is a gap in literature at the crossroads of the study of belonging, MHN, and all of the aforementioned studies. It has proven impossible to find literature that examines a case of
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refugees kept in temporary camps (unsettled) with infrastructures successfully providing basic and secondary needs fulfillment and an environment that fosters a sense of belonging within a mutually beneficial relationship between NGO’s and community members. I have explored literature explaining how permanently settled refugees negotiate belonging within their new communities, how semi-settled refugees negotiate belonging within multi-generational camps and settlements, and how displaced people are capable of self-managing given minimal aid. Each of the studies read, however, do not fit the situation of Lesvos, Greece and the thousands of refugees waiting for processing in temporary camps. I intend to provide data that proves that with the help of aid and guidance in fulfilling basic and secondary needs, NGO’s like Because We Carry can successfully integrate CBM, or a situation in with refugees share responsibilities with the NGO and therefore multiple parties balance out the knowledge base and create, together, a community working to better the lives and jobs of everyone involved as well as a community in which to belong.
MHN, as discussed previously, provides a breakdown of human needs and determines that certain needs are prepotent to other needs, and that prepotent needs must be met to a sufficient degree before needs later in the hierarchy can be met. Basic physiological needs are most important, according to Maslow. If physiological needs – food, water, shelter, and sleep – are not properly met, the fulfillment of these needs will be the priority of an individual. If an individual is hungry, then other needs and desires will not be the priority until hunger is satisfied; the goal is not to seek safety, love, belonging, or esteem at this point, but rather to obtain food. Maslow’s theory relates to this study in that refugees cannot focus on lower-rated needs until higher-rated needs are met. Therefore, if refugees are hungry, thirsty, exposed to the elements, or lacking in sleep, then safety and security are not a priority, belonging within a group (or working with an NGO) is not a priority, and disruption and insubordination are likely to occur.
Figure 2: Conceptual Scheme (Source: Author)
Analyzing the data through the conceptual scheme shown above will prove my argument. The conceptual scheme depicts a linear process beginning with the refugee camp in question. The camp contains refugees, NGOs working within- to varying degrees - and a governing body responsible for keeping the camp running logistically – renting the land, providing water access, security staff, etc. Moving along from left to right, along the line connecting a camp to its end goal, cooperation between refugees, NGOs, and the government, is the existence of the refugees’ basic needs and secondary needs fulfillment. Basic needs include physiological needs such as food, water, and shelter, while secondary needs refer to safety and security. According to MHN, which is the theoretical framework used, basic needs must be fulfilled before secondary needs fulfillment can become a focus or a possibility. Likewise, basic and secondary needs must be fulfilled before refugees can be motivated to negotiate a sense of love/belonging. The degrees to which basic and secondary needs are fulfilled have a direct correlation to the level of cooperation between refugees and NGOs because the need to belong leads to the choice of a refugee to work for an NGO. The purpose of this conceptual scheme is to give a visual representation of this relationship, and then prove that it is relevant in distinguishing the success of NGO-refugee cooperation and the existence of a mutually beneficial relationship, i.e. refugees volunteering with NGOs successfully.
In the next chapter, I give context to my research, explaining the basics of the refugee crisis and how it impacts Greece, then giving a more detailed description of the setting of the research within a refugee camp and the NGO for which I worked.
Chapter 2
RESEARCH CONTEXT
In the previous chapter I examined theory framing my research and how I believe it relates to Maslow’s Hierarchy. Now, I move to the wider context in which my fieldwork took place. Today, there are 65.6 million people worldwide forcibly displaced by conflict, war, and persecution. Europe is facing a “refugee crisis” as it experiences an influx of migrants, predominantly from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq at a volume comparable to post World War II While this influx is relatively large for Europe, calling the refugee situation a “crisis” in Eurocentric, as Africa (30%) the Middle East and North Africa (26%) carry the bulk of the burden of all displaced people. (UNHCR, 2017). Given its geographical positioning as the most accessible EU Member State to the conflict in the Middle East, Greece is bearing much of the weight of migrants crossing the sea from Turkey. The majority of migrants come via the Eastern Mediterranean Route (Figure 3).
According to the United Nations (2017), a “refugee” is defined as “someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence.” Eventually, all refugees must seek asylum, or claim “the right to be recognized as a refugee and receive legal protection and
material assistance” if they cannot return to their country of origin. Therefore, all refugees are
asylum seekers in time, but not all asylum seekers are ever officially considered refugees. Currently, there are thousands of individuals living on the Greek islands in limbo – these people have sought refuge in Greece by way of smuggling themselves out of their countries, have applied for asylum, yet wait months and years for their cases to be reviewed. They consider themselves refugees, but they are waiting for the government of Greece, in accordance with the
1951 Refugee Convention (UNHCR, 2017b), to do the same. Figure 4 shows the demographic
breakdown of refugees fleeing the Middle East. As shown, the male-female ratio is not drastic, despite what news programs - especially in the US - depict (Rich & Sullivan, 2017).
Figure 4: Demographic breakdown of refugees fleeing war and violence in the Middle East (Source: data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/regional.php
I. REFUGEES IN GREECE
Greece is currently home – albeit temporarily – to close to 70,000 refugees. With its close proximity to the Middle East – most refugees in eastern Europe have fled from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq (UNHCR, 2015) – and border closures in countries nearby, Greece has become home to the largest number of refugees in Europe, with one third of them being children (UNICEF, 2016c). For most of these tens of thousands of people, being stranded in Greece is a waiting game:
There is a real sense in Greece of refugee families just waiting – waiting for their asylum request to be processed, a decision to relocate elsewhere in Europe, waiting for proper
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schooling and playgrounds for their children, proper housing, simply waiting to know what their future will be (UNICEF, 2016c)
Prior to the creation of the EU-Turkey deal in March of 2016, the majority of refugees used Greece as a stopping-off point, a temporary situation, and the most attainable destination to touch down in Europe for the first time. With the ratification of the EU-Turkey deal however, combined with the border closer of Macedonia, which blocked the most used land route to central Europe, Greece, a country in economic crisis, has become the default host of tens of thousands of people feeling war and persecution and searching for a new, safe place to call home (Oswald, 2017c). It is more complicated than that, though; Greece, a country of 11 million people, does not equally share the responsibility of caring for these refugees because since the enactment of the EU Turkey deal in March of 2016, and in accordance with the Dublin Regulation1 refugees are not only stranded in Greece, they are stranded on the islands on which they first touched EU soil. In the case of Lesvos, only once the asylum-seeker office of the island’s main city of Mytilene processes the individual or family, will they be able to move forward (or backward, sometimes actually deported back to Turkey or their country of origin) from Lesvos. Therefore, Lesvos alone is host to more than 7,000 refugees, and more arrive from Turkey every single day.
II. REFUGEES IN LESVOS
As shown in Map 1, Lesvos is geographically situated next to, or nestled into Turkey; at the closest point in the north of the island at Skala Sikamineas, there is just six kilometers between Turkey and Greece. However, many smugglers send the refugees from the coast southwest of Ayvalik, where the boats can aim for the flashing lights of the airport on the east side of Lesvos. In the majority of cases, smugglers do not drive the boat over-full of refugees because they want neither to risk death by drowning nor being caught by Turkish or Greek authorities. Therefore, individuals – typically men – are held at gunpoint, threatened, or bribed to drive a boat across the water, whether or not they posses any sort of knowledge in captaining a boat. Boats, more often than not, do not make it to Greece – they are either sent back to Turkey, where the refugees will be held in prison for typically one week, or, more rarely, they will sink. Refugees spend anywhere
1The Dublin Regulation is an agreement between Member States. The purpose of the regulation is to
“determine which State is responsible for examining an asylum application – normally the State where the asylum seeker first entered the EU – and to make sure that each claim gets a fair examination in one Member State” (UNHCR, 2017c). This means that since all refugees coming from Turkey by way of sea land in Greece, Greece is the member state responsible for processing their asylum applications.
from days to years in Turkey waiting to save enough cash to pay smugglers for this short yet treacherous journey across the water.
The situation in Lesvos can be summarized by narrowing in on first the island as a whole, then the camps and other forms of accommodation and the NGO’s working within the space, and last by explaining the target group of people – in this case, young refugee men and women working as volunteers for an NGO- under study for this research. There are three refugee camps in Lesvos housing refugees. Kara Tepe, Moria, and Pipka, as well as apartment accommodation for individuals or families whom the government deems to be better suited for living outside a camp. All refugees are located on the east side of the island, near to the airport and the port, which is in Mytilene [refer to Map 3]. For the purpose of this study, I will narrow in on Moria and Kara Tepe alone, as I conducted research solely with refugees living in these camps.
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Map 2: Camp Sites in Greece indicating capacity and occupancy (Source: UNHCR, October, 2017). Online map with further information: http://www.unhcr.gr/sites)
Map 3: SE Lesvos island, Kara Tepe starred (Source: Google Maps)
The first is most relevant to the world and the refugee crisis as a whole: Moria Refugee camp is the most relevant to the refugee crisis of Europe because it is representative of the conditions and circumstances surrounding the majority of refugee camps in France, Germany, Italy, Greece, etc. (Al Jazeera, 2017). Moria was a maximum-security penitentiary detention center was converted into an open refugee camp. It is run by the military and the police, who follows direct orders from the national government, which, at least in theory, follows orders from the European Union.
When refugees arrive in Lesvos, which is always via boat crossing, always by way of Turkey, they are immediately moved directly to a secured section of Moria. This secured area consists of a large tent surrounded by high fencing and barbed wire. For the first days on Lesvos, refugees are kept, or locked, in this area for processing with no contact or access to the outside world. This is important to note simply because it can by a traumatizing experience for these individuals, especially when family members abroad can’t learn whether or not their loved ones made it across the sea alive. This initial process can take anywhere from three – which is the minimum – to thirty days and it includes identification verification, a briefing on where the refugee fled from, through which countries he or she traveled, and to where the individual or family intends to go. Once the individual or family is processed, they are placed more permanently in one of the three camps. As mentioned previously, every individual that lands in Greece must be processed completely by Greece, in accordance to the Dublin Regulation. This processing can take anywhere from a few weeks to two years.
Once the new arrivals are allowed out of this detention center inside the camp, they are placed in a container home or a tent holding five to twenty people. The general guide for placing people together in tents or containers is country of origin, for instance, Afghans together, Syrians together possibly with Iraqis, Congolese together, etc. Although this seems to work in everyone’s interest, it becomes complicated with the influx of new arrivals over the summer. There are simply not enough spaces to house so many people. The camp is currently (October, 2017) holding approximately 5,000 people, while the capacity of the camp is 1,800. The capacity is dependent on spots for sleeping, water and electricity supply, and food available. What this means is that the camp cannot provide ample food, water, electricity, or bathroom facilities for everyone in the camp. Basic needs are not fulfilled in this camp, and there is also a lack of safety or security provided. There is a front gate, but residents mostly move through holes in the fence. ID cards of anyone who looks like a refugee are not checked at the entrance, so there is no stopping smugglers or human traffickers from entering. There are bathroom facilities, but many men and women choose the forest over the unkempt toilets without water for fear of disease.
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There is food provided, but every resident must wait in line one to two hours per meal, per day. There is access to the outside world through the smartphones that many residents have, but the electricity for charging is provided for approximately only two hours per day. Residents are free to come and go as they choose, which is good and bad, because they are not safe from each other and human traffickers. There are very few NGO’s in the camp, most of them are for food distribution or security. There are few recreational activities, educational or skill development programs within Moria, but there is a football program that residents can travel to with the bus to Mytilene.
The description of this camp can continue for many pages, but the gist is this; Moria is a place where human rights violations are commonplace- cameras or journalists are not allowed inside – and it is an overcrowded space housing people from many different countries, many different cultures and culturally ingrained prejudices, many different languages, and many different stories of violent and depressing pasts. Though the same applies to the other refugee camps in the area, every single resident of Moria is facing a consistent lack of basic needs and secondary- safely and security - needs fulfillment, and because of this, Moria faces a lot of mental and physical problems, violence, self-mutilation, and crime.
The second camp on the island is Kara Tepe Hospitality Center of the Municipality of Lesvos (KT). KT, where I spent most of my time and serves as the location for most my research, is a camp sustained to some degree by government funding, but mostly by NGO’s. All everyday functions, as well as the implementation of new infrastructure, the distribution of food, school, and activities are the work of NGO’s. Basically, the municipality of Lesvos oversees everything going on in the camp and serves as a filter to guarantee that NGO’s serve in the best interest of the residents of the camp. ERCI, Save the Children, Samaritan’s Purse, International Rescue Committee, Movement on the Ground, and Because We Carry are the NGO’s present in Kara Tepe. It is important to note that the approximately 850 residents of Kara Tepe receive breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day, and sleep in containers – albeit crowded – that shelter from the snow and rain in the winter, and from the sun in the summer. There is a level of safety and security felt through the camp because the residents know each other, and no outsider is allowed to enter the camp except aid workers registered by the municipality. If a visitor wants to enter the camp, they must first get permission from the mayor of Mytilene, then have access granted at the front gate with additional paperwork stating their purpose. Although there are mishaps in every community, typically related to the effects of drugs and alcohol or the lack of proper childcare by parents, the
camp is relatively safe and secure. The residents, however, just like any refugee on the island, do not feel secure in their future, and have little to grasp onto from their pasts.
III. BECAUSE WE CARRY
Kara Tepe is a place of dignity and yes, we need more to do in Kara Tepe, of course, it is not enough, we could always do more. I am not totally happy. I would want to close Kara Tepe tomorrow. If these people go to the city, here or other cities, other countries, if they have a house, have a way, have their dreams, have people to help them with life, finding a job, I would be happy. If I make this paradise, it is not enough to live in paradise, my people have dreams, they want to go. They want to go to Germany where their cousins or their mom, or whoever is. Even if they have a small apartment and work very hard and have a hard life, they will be happy because they can choose. –Kara Tepe Camp Manager
Now that the context of the island and the many refugees inhabiting it has been explained, as well as the NGO’s that are present in Kara Tepe (from now on KT), it is time to zero in on Because We Carry (BWC). BWC is a Dutch organization that formed as a result of the influx of refugees specifically on Lesvos. It is a hands-on organization that is operated by a team of field managers and coordinators, and overseen by the founders and board members. Each week, there is a new team of volunteers, mostly from The Netherlands, that fill in the team of eight people and do the work of each team before them. Each foreign volunteer team is required to raise 7500 euro because the money raised by volunteers operates the NGO. Each week, BWC purchases, prepares, and distributes breakfast to all residents of KT. It also hosts weekly events for different demographics within the camp, i.e. barber shop for men, children’s activities for children under five years of age, etc. In addition, BWC manages the purchasing and distribution of welcome packages for new arrivals. The fund-raising and spending is thoroughly organized and flexible for the many changes in the camp over time. Employees of BWC live frugally and work long hours. The aim of BWC is to provide equal resources to all residents of KT, follow the “less talk, more action” code of conduct, and involve and learn from the community in which it serves (Because We Carry, 2018).
Now, I will explain the work this organization does with the help of 25 refugee volunteers, which is a group that may be referred to as the “Kara Tepe Team” or “KTT.” This group of people in KT is the men and women that serve every day of the week with BWC. Sometimes they are chosen because they seek out the NGO themselves, looking to be involved in helping around the
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camp or looking for something to belong to – the varying reasons for joining will be discussed later. Other times, BWC coordinators or volunteers seek out refugees specifically because they believe the refugee would be fit to be a part of the team. There is no requirement besides age – seventeen is the minimum age because involving anyone younger is not permitted by the director of the camp because he believes children aged sixteen and younger should be in school, and does not want NGO’s to create a distraction or discourage teenagers from attending school. The individuals of the KTT are from varying countries, of varying ages and genders, and speak an array of languages. It is representative of the population of KT, at least in country of origin and language. However, it is disproportionate in that it consists mostly of men between the ages of 20-25; this is a due to a combination of who is willing to volunteer and who is reliable and consistent in showing up to work.
The team is an ever-evolving entity that has grown and been molded together over the past two years. The dynamic between the refugee residents and between the residents and the foreign volunteers is a work in progress, as any business or relationship is. Duties include, first and foremost, breakfast preparation and distribution throughout the camp, as well as other activities in which the KTT takes the lead in helping foreign volunteers with tasks, rallying other residents to join, helping with translation, setting an example, etc. The team serves as a go-to for anything happening inside the camp and also the first people outside the BWC team that is relied on for anything. These twenty-five people are also a helpful resource for camp management for information or help on projects. The KTT is a community within itself of men and women from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Nepal, Angola and Congo, they speak Urdu, Pashto, Farsi, Kurish, Arabic, French, and Portuguese, and they are all rapidly learning English through their work with BWC. Although residents that are not on the KTT resent that the team members have access to goods and services which they have not, their feelings are relatively under control and never a source of violence; as much as the situation is beneficial for the Kara Tepe Team (and of course, for BWC) it is an open and transparent relationship that is technically available to everyone over the age of sixteen, and it is evident every day that there is a lot of work involved, simply by the fact that each of the twenty-five individuals awakens at 7:30 in the morning to show up to work, and then later distribute breakfast into the very hands of the residents that choose not to be a part of the team. There are positives and negatives that come with the separation of the Kara Tepe Team from the remainder of the refugees in KT, but the overall balance is positive, and the team feels a sense of community and purpose that counters any negative. What is important to note, is that every individual on the KKT has their basic needs
fulfilled every day, and experiences safety and security within the camp and within the community of NGO’s.
In the next chapter, I present the research question that guides my research and a thorough explanation of the planning and execution.
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Chapter 3
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
In what follows I first present the research question and sub-questions (1), and explain the ontological stance and epistemological assumptions serving as the basis of the research methods, process and analysis (2). In section 3, I outline the sampling strategy. Data collection methods and process are then explained in section 4. The data were collected between the end of May through August 2017 on Lesvos, Greece.
I. RESEARCH QUESTION The main research question is:
Do camp conditions and refugees’ basic and secondary needs fulfillment allow or prevent the possibility of refugee volunteer-NGO cohesion? If so, how?
This question is divided into the following, interconnected sub-questions:
1. What refugees’ needs, both basic and secondary, are being fulfilled in Kara Tepe and Moria refugee camps?
2. Does the sequence and/or existence of basic and secondary needs support or disprove Maslow’s theory of the Hierarchy of Needs? In which ways?
3. How do contextual variables, for instance, size versus capacity of the camps, and government involvement effect the cohesion of general refugee-NGO cohesion?
4. What are the characteristics of a camp experiencing refugee-NGO cohesion in regard to basic and secondary needs fulfillment?
5. Can refugees serving as volunteers for NGO’s create a mutually-beneficial situation for both parties, and if so, how?
II. EPISTEMOLOGICAL STANCE
The research process integrated various sources of knowledge simultaneously. I used intuitive knowledge in deciding my topic of research, as my familiarity with the refugee crisis on Lesvos, and this led me to the knowledge that there is a large discrepancy between the camp conditions of Moria and Kara Tepe. I gained authoritative knowledge was gained somewhat during the literature review, in that previous research was taken into consideration and trusted as truth, at least for similar situations to that of my research. I was able to generate logical knowledge through the analysis of primary data via in-depth interviews and quantitative data collection on basic facts about the camps. The conclusion, and therefore the purpose of the study, however, should be considered as empirical knowledge.
In this study, I aim to evaluate the characteristics of a cohesive, cooperative relationship between NGO’s and residents within a refugee camp, with the goal of estimating what is required to create a mutually beneficial relationship between both parties. Since I believe that reality is socially constructed and relative, in that refugees’ opinions and feelings rather than “direct reflections of the real”(Raskin, 2008, pg. 97) are influenced by the environment, I have taken a relativist ontological stance (Hudson and Ozanne, 1988). This stance emphasizes the existence of multiple realities, and considers that “Truth and meaning do not exist in some external world, but are created by the subject’s interactions with the world”(Grey, 2014, pg. 7).
A relativist ontological stance and the belief that a researcher cannot be separate from the research and its subjects, led me to adopt a subjectivist epistemology and an interpretivist approach to research. Since I used large amounts of data and aimed to determine themes and theories within the data, my research was inductive. Gaining insight and collecting observations as well as words from participants without the use of rigid structural data collection methods enabled me to capture the meaning of human interaction (Black, 2006). As a researcher seeking to “understand motives, meanings, reasons and other subjective experiences” (Hudson and Ozanne, 1988), I took the interpretivist approach with the aim of evaluating how human interaction and behavior changes or evolves according to environment – in the case of my research, the most relevant aspects of environment refer to the fulfillment of basic and secondary needs and overall camp conditions.
