Caterina is a full professor of sociology at the Berlin School of Economics and Law. Her current research focuses on childhood, migration, gender and religion.
This Rahmenpapier of my habilitation discusses the performativity approaches of Bourdieu and Butl... more This Rahmenpapier of my habilitation discusses the performativity approaches of Bourdieu and Butler as reflexive research perspectives on the social construction of migrant and refugee identities. Focusing on the performativity of speech acts and emotionalized enactments, I employ empirical data examples about commodified and familial care work that reveals how migration and refugeeness are constituted in micro-level face-to-face interactions. Introducing the concepts of doing, undoing and not doing migration/refugeeness, I show different care performances that reproduce, transform or subvert social identities in the interplay of individual agency with the social regulation by institutional, organizational and discursive structures of the national migration, asylum and integration regimes. Throughout the paper, I argue that the social order of migration/refugeeness is biopolitical and postcolonial: drawing on historical images of orientalism, social positions of internal others are constituted and simultaneously subordinated to the majority society. Regulated by biopolitical means of administration and disciplining, social processes of doing of migration/refugeeness generate affective values in the images of internal and external others, who supposedly depend on the care and control of the hegemonic nation. When ‘migrant/refugee workers’ are used as an effective and economical solution to the increasing labor demand of the nation and when ‘refugee families’ become a commodity on the national market of public and private social services, the social order of migration/refugeeness materializes in productive values that benefit the nation state.
Auf Grundlage einer interdisziplinären qualitativ-empirischen Studie mit muslimischen, christlich... more Auf Grundlage einer interdisziplinären qualitativ-empirischen Studie mit muslimischen, christlichen und ezidischen Familien widmet sich dieses Buch der Bedeutung von Religion für die Bewältigung (Coping) traumatisierender Erlebnisse in Fluchtprozessen. Mithilfe des Konzepts der VulnerAbility zeigt dieses Buch, wie die Kinder und ihre Eltern durch ihren Glauben und die Zugehörigkeit zu einer Religionsgemeinschaft (Belonging) Handlungsfähigkeit im Sinne einer Agency generieren. In individuellen Adaptionsleistungen passen sie ihr religiöses Erbe, das sich in Gottesbildern und religiösen Relevanzsystemen offenbart, sinnstiftend an neue Lebenskontexte an. Dies erlaubt ihnen durch einen Rückgriff auf ihren Glauben positive Zukunftsimaginationen zu entwickeln, auch wenn sie Religionszugehörigkeiten als Gegenstand gesellschaftlicher Konfliktlinien erlebt haben, die im Herkunftskontext, auf den Fluchtwegen und im deutschen Asylsystem durch Praktiken der Diskriminierung etabliert werden.
Even though almost half of the forced migrant population that entered Germany during the last sev... more Even though almost half of the forced migrant population that entered Germany during the last several years are minors, research about the perspective of children on forced migration is very scarce. Drawing on childhood studies, which regard children as being capable of social thinking and acting, and generational theories, which scrutinize how childhood constitutes a common “social space,” this article aims to analyze narratives of local and forced migrant primary school children on flight and integration. Current regulations of the German educational system insert forced migrant children into the regular school system. Within the restrictive framework of schools, which disadvantage newly arriving migrant children by focusing on their German language skills as the primary marker of their educational potential and success, friendship making is the sphere where children can have agency. Children construct the school as their common generational space and discuss flight as the experie...
On the basis of theoretical approaches to ethnic group formation and belonging, this article exam... more On the basis of theoretical approaches to ethnic group formation and belonging, this article examines how Russian au pairs in Germany relate to the Russian-speaking migrant community in the context of their migration processes. It shows how au pairs use their bilingual skills as an emblem of identity but also as a tool to establish social relationships. At the beginning of their stay au pairs use their native language to draw on the Russian-speaking community, explore their host city, and get social support during their au pair year. In later stages of settlement au pairs, who may enroll in university or enter highly skilled work, emphasize social relationships with German citizens and migrants of the same socioeconomic background. In biographical narratives they seek to distance themselves from the Russian-speaking community by creating intra group boundaries and rejecting interest in speaking Russian or socializingwith Russian speakers. They use their German-language skills as mar...
Der Au-pair Aufenthalt war lange Zeit eine Mobilitatsform, die fast ausnahmslos von jungen Frauen... more Der Au-pair Aufenthalt war lange Zeit eine Mobilitatsform, die fast ausnahmslos von jungen Frauen genutzt wurde. Mittlerweile nimmt der Anteil an mannlichen Au-pairs zu, aber es ist bisher nur wenig uber ihre Motive und Perspektiven auf diesem 'gender untypischen' Migrationsweg bekannt. Basierend auf Schutzes Ansatz zu biographischen Schemata, Verlaufskurven und Wandlungsprozessen legt dieser Aufsatz dar, wie junge Manner den Au-pair-Aufenthalt fur ein biographisches Moratorium im jungen Erwachsenenalter nutzen. Indem sie Erwartungsstrukturen an Mannlichkeit in ihren unterschiedlichen Lebenskontexten durchbrechen, initiieren sie biographische Wandlungsprozesse, die ihnen erlauben, Verlaufskurven in ihrem durch eine hohe Arbeitslosigkeit gepragten Herkunftskontext zu verlassen und Zugang zu hochqualifizierten Berufen in Deutschland zu erlangen. In den Au-pair-Familien wird von ihnen die Performativitat einer „caring masculinity“ erwartet, um den fehlenden Einsatz von Vatern i...
Familien stellen einen großen Anteil der Geflüchteten, die in den letzten Jahren nach Deutschland... more Familien stellen einen großen Anteil der Geflüchteten, die in den letzten Jahren nach Deutschland gekommen sind. Basierend auf dem theoretischen Konzept des »doing family« geht dieser Beitrag der Frage nach, wie Bedingungen der Flucht und des deutschen Asylsystems Familienbeziehungen und familiäre care Praktiken beeinflussen. Die Analyse zeigt, dass Familien unterschiedliche Phasen miteinander verbundener geographischer und persönlicher (Im-)Mobilität erleben, die zur Transformation ihrer care Praktiken führen. Die aktive Entscheidung zur Flucht als Mobilisierung der Familie soll das Überleben und Wohl der Kinder sichern. Trotz ihrer hochgradigen geographischen Mobilität erfahren Familien die Flucht, Verteilung und Unterbringung in Deutschland als Phase der »persönlichen Immobilisierung«, da die Fremdbestimmung und Disziplinierung im Asylverfahren die Möglichkeiten von Familien einschränken, ihre Kinder zu beschützen und zu versorgen. Nachdem Familien eine (befristete) Aufenthaltser...
This article investigates the perspectives of au pairs on conflicts and exploitation during the a... more This article investigates the perspectives of au pairs on conflicts and exploitation during the au pair stay. Theoretically based on the concept of moral economy, it will be shown that au pairs disidentify with professional domestic and care workers to maintain their identity of an international student acting as a helper for a local family struggling with childcare. Referring to moral norms, au pairs react to conflicts by using the strategy of ‘shaming’ to protest against dissatisfying conditions of au pairing, or they decide to change to another family. These forms of resistance are legitimised in narratives, which in processes of
Laboratorium: Russian Review of Social Research, 2020
Even though almost half of the forced migrant population that entered Germany during the last sev... more Even though almost half of the forced migrant population that entered Germany during the last several years are minors, research about the perspective of children on forced migration is very scarce. Drawing on childhood studies, which regard children as being capable of social thinking and acting, and generational theories, which scrutinize how childhood constitutes a common “social space,” this article aims to analyze narratives of local and forced migrant primary school children on flight and integration. Current regulations of the German educational system insert forced migrant children into the regular school system. Within the restrictive framework of schools, which disadvantage newly arriving migrant children by focusing on their German language skills as the primary marker of their educational potential and success, friendship making is the sphere where children can have agency. Children construct the school as their common generational space and discuss flight as the experience of “being new in school.” This allows children to acknowledge their different biographical backgrounds but empathize with each other and identify as generational members through their subjection to the educational system. Local and forced migrant children bridge language differences by performing their friendships through language-learning rituals. Hence, the public primary school system sets preconditions for the structural integration of local and migrant children, but the most important actors who “do integration” as a social process are children themselves.
Au pair mobility has long been dominated by females. In recent years, young men have also begun t... more Au pair mobility has long been dominated by females. In recent years, young men have also begun to travel abroad as au pairs, but little is known about their motives and perspectives on this gender atypical migration pathway and occupation. Based on Schütze's concept of biographical patterns, dynamics and change processes this article shows how young men use the au pair stay as a biographical moratorium of emerging adulthood. By transcending expectation patterns of masculinity in their home and receiving context, they initiate a biographical turning process which allows them to escape a life course trajectory in their home country that is determined by high unemployment and access highly skilled jobs in Germany. In the au pair families, they are expected to perform "caring masculinity" for male children to substitute the missing participation of fathers. Hence, the commodification of care work does not only imply the outsourcing of practical tasks to an employee but also relational work of doing gender within families.
This Rahmenpapier of my habilitation discusses the performativity approaches of Bourdieu and Butl... more This Rahmenpapier of my habilitation discusses the performativity approaches of Bourdieu and Butler as reflexive research perspectives on the social construction of migrant and refugee identities. Focusing on the performativity of speech acts and emotionalized enactments, I employ empirical data examples about commodified and familial care work that reveals how migration and refugeeness are constituted in micro-level face-to-face interactions. Introducing the concepts of doing, undoing and not doing migration/refugeeness, I show different care performances that reproduce, transform or subvert social identities in the interplay of individual agency with the social regulation by institutional, organizational and discursive structures of the national migration, asylum and integration regimes. Throughout the paper, I argue that the social order of migration/refugeeness is biopolitical and postcolonial: drawing on historical images of orientalism, social positions of internal others are constituted and simultaneously subordinated to the majority society. Regulated by biopolitical means of administration and disciplining, social processes of doing of migration/refugeeness generate affective values in the images of internal and external others, who supposedly depend on the care and control of the hegemonic nation. When ‘migrant/refugee workers’ are used as an effective and economical solution to the increasing labor demand of the nation and when ‘refugee families’ become a commodity on the national market of public and private social services, the social order of migration/refugeeness materializes in productive values that benefit the nation state.
Auf Grundlage einer interdisziplinären qualitativ-empirischen Studie mit muslimischen, christlich... more Auf Grundlage einer interdisziplinären qualitativ-empirischen Studie mit muslimischen, christlichen und ezidischen Familien widmet sich dieses Buch der Bedeutung von Religion für die Bewältigung (Coping) traumatisierender Erlebnisse in Fluchtprozessen. Mithilfe des Konzepts der VulnerAbility zeigt dieses Buch, wie die Kinder und ihre Eltern durch ihren Glauben und die Zugehörigkeit zu einer Religionsgemeinschaft (Belonging) Handlungsfähigkeit im Sinne einer Agency generieren. In individuellen Adaptionsleistungen passen sie ihr religiöses Erbe, das sich in Gottesbildern und religiösen Relevanzsystemen offenbart, sinnstiftend an neue Lebenskontexte an. Dies erlaubt ihnen durch einen Rückgriff auf ihren Glauben positive Zukunftsimaginationen zu entwickeln, auch wenn sie Religionszugehörigkeiten als Gegenstand gesellschaftlicher Konfliktlinien erlebt haben, die im Herkunftskontext, auf den Fluchtwegen und im deutschen Asylsystem durch Praktiken der Diskriminierung etabliert werden.
Even though almost half of the forced migrant population that entered Germany during the last sev... more Even though almost half of the forced migrant population that entered Germany during the last several years are minors, research about the perspective of children on forced migration is very scarce. Drawing on childhood studies, which regard children as being capable of social thinking and acting, and generational theories, which scrutinize how childhood constitutes a common “social space,” this article aims to analyze narratives of local and forced migrant primary school children on flight and integration. Current regulations of the German educational system insert forced migrant children into the regular school system. Within the restrictive framework of schools, which disadvantage newly arriving migrant children by focusing on their German language skills as the primary marker of their educational potential and success, friendship making is the sphere where children can have agency. Children construct the school as their common generational space and discuss flight as the experie...
On the basis of theoretical approaches to ethnic group formation and belonging, this article exam... more On the basis of theoretical approaches to ethnic group formation and belonging, this article examines how Russian au pairs in Germany relate to the Russian-speaking migrant community in the context of their migration processes. It shows how au pairs use their bilingual skills as an emblem of identity but also as a tool to establish social relationships. At the beginning of their stay au pairs use their native language to draw on the Russian-speaking community, explore their host city, and get social support during their au pair year. In later stages of settlement au pairs, who may enroll in university or enter highly skilled work, emphasize social relationships with German citizens and migrants of the same socioeconomic background. In biographical narratives they seek to distance themselves from the Russian-speaking community by creating intra group boundaries and rejecting interest in speaking Russian or socializingwith Russian speakers. They use their German-language skills as mar...
Der Au-pair Aufenthalt war lange Zeit eine Mobilitatsform, die fast ausnahmslos von jungen Frauen... more Der Au-pair Aufenthalt war lange Zeit eine Mobilitatsform, die fast ausnahmslos von jungen Frauen genutzt wurde. Mittlerweile nimmt der Anteil an mannlichen Au-pairs zu, aber es ist bisher nur wenig uber ihre Motive und Perspektiven auf diesem 'gender untypischen' Migrationsweg bekannt. Basierend auf Schutzes Ansatz zu biographischen Schemata, Verlaufskurven und Wandlungsprozessen legt dieser Aufsatz dar, wie junge Manner den Au-pair-Aufenthalt fur ein biographisches Moratorium im jungen Erwachsenenalter nutzen. Indem sie Erwartungsstrukturen an Mannlichkeit in ihren unterschiedlichen Lebenskontexten durchbrechen, initiieren sie biographische Wandlungsprozesse, die ihnen erlauben, Verlaufskurven in ihrem durch eine hohe Arbeitslosigkeit gepragten Herkunftskontext zu verlassen und Zugang zu hochqualifizierten Berufen in Deutschland zu erlangen. In den Au-pair-Familien wird von ihnen die Performativitat einer „caring masculinity“ erwartet, um den fehlenden Einsatz von Vatern i...
Familien stellen einen großen Anteil der Geflüchteten, die in den letzten Jahren nach Deutschland... more Familien stellen einen großen Anteil der Geflüchteten, die in den letzten Jahren nach Deutschland gekommen sind. Basierend auf dem theoretischen Konzept des »doing family« geht dieser Beitrag der Frage nach, wie Bedingungen der Flucht und des deutschen Asylsystems Familienbeziehungen und familiäre care Praktiken beeinflussen. Die Analyse zeigt, dass Familien unterschiedliche Phasen miteinander verbundener geographischer und persönlicher (Im-)Mobilität erleben, die zur Transformation ihrer care Praktiken führen. Die aktive Entscheidung zur Flucht als Mobilisierung der Familie soll das Überleben und Wohl der Kinder sichern. Trotz ihrer hochgradigen geographischen Mobilität erfahren Familien die Flucht, Verteilung und Unterbringung in Deutschland als Phase der »persönlichen Immobilisierung«, da die Fremdbestimmung und Disziplinierung im Asylverfahren die Möglichkeiten von Familien einschränken, ihre Kinder zu beschützen und zu versorgen. Nachdem Familien eine (befristete) Aufenthaltser...
This article investigates the perspectives of au pairs on conflicts and exploitation during the a... more This article investigates the perspectives of au pairs on conflicts and exploitation during the au pair stay. Theoretically based on the concept of moral economy, it will be shown that au pairs disidentify with professional domestic and care workers to maintain their identity of an international student acting as a helper for a local family struggling with childcare. Referring to moral norms, au pairs react to conflicts by using the strategy of ‘shaming’ to protest against dissatisfying conditions of au pairing, or they decide to change to another family. These forms of resistance are legitimised in narratives, which in processes of
Laboratorium: Russian Review of Social Research, 2020
Even though almost half of the forced migrant population that entered Germany during the last sev... more Even though almost half of the forced migrant population that entered Germany during the last several years are minors, research about the perspective of children on forced migration is very scarce. Drawing on childhood studies, which regard children as being capable of social thinking and acting, and generational theories, which scrutinize how childhood constitutes a common “social space,” this article aims to analyze narratives of local and forced migrant primary school children on flight and integration. Current regulations of the German educational system insert forced migrant children into the regular school system. Within the restrictive framework of schools, which disadvantage newly arriving migrant children by focusing on their German language skills as the primary marker of their educational potential and success, friendship making is the sphere where children can have agency. Children construct the school as their common generational space and discuss flight as the experience of “being new in school.” This allows children to acknowledge their different biographical backgrounds but empathize with each other and identify as generational members through their subjection to the educational system. Local and forced migrant children bridge language differences by performing their friendships through language-learning rituals. Hence, the public primary school system sets preconditions for the structural integration of local and migrant children, but the most important actors who “do integration” as a social process are children themselves.
Au pair mobility has long been dominated by females. In recent years, young men have also begun t... more Au pair mobility has long been dominated by females. In recent years, young men have also begun to travel abroad as au pairs, but little is known about their motives and perspectives on this gender atypical migration pathway and occupation. Based on Schütze's concept of biographical patterns, dynamics and change processes this article shows how young men use the au pair stay as a biographical moratorium of emerging adulthood. By transcending expectation patterns of masculinity in their home and receiving context, they initiate a biographical turning process which allows them to escape a life course trajectory in their home country that is determined by high unemployment and access highly skilled jobs in Germany. In the au pair families, they are expected to perform "caring masculinity" for male children to substitute the missing participation of fathers. Hence, the commodification of care work does not only imply the outsourcing of practical tasks to an employee but also relational work of doing gender within families.
This qualitative study, conducted in Germany, focuses on the sexual violence faced by children on... more This qualitative study, conducted in Germany, focuses on the sexual violence faced by children on the move, particularly unaccompanied minors coming to Germany. It addresses how systemic gaps in asylum and protection mechanisms expose refugee children to heightened risks of trafficking and sexual exploitation. The study emphasizes the vulnerability of these children throughout their journey - from transit countries to the destination - and illustrates the inadequacies in current protection systems that often fail to safeguard them. Unaccompanied minors are especially vulnerable to exploitation due to the lack of protective services and safe migration pathways. These children are often targeted by trafficking networks while in transit, in refugee camps, and even after resettlement. There are critical deficiencies in European and German asylum processes, which fail to protect children adequately from trafficking and sexual exploitation. Many children fall through the cracks due to a lack of coordination and specialized services. The study provides case studies from Germany and other European countries, showcasing how traffickers exploit the vulnerabilities of unaccompanied refugee children, pointing to the need for urgent reforms in both migration and child protection systems. The study calls for reforms to asylum procedures, improved cross-border cooperation, and the inclusion of child-specific needs in migration policies. It also advocates for trauma-informed care for survivors of exploitation.
Uploads
Papers by Caterina Rohde-Abuba