Refugees representing refugees

When it comes to creating knowledge about the situations of refugees, and representing these, several critics have been stated. For example in the text from Heath Cabot named “Refugee Voices”: Tragedy, Ghosts, and the Anthropology of Not Knowing (2016). While, as an Anthropologist for example, having good intentions to make the life realities from refugees understandable to the public, there are limits when it comes to empirical research. Especially when it comes to such a huge and complex topic as refugee realities. The tendency is to unintentionally simplify and generalize their actually situation, all in good means to make it more accessible, yet this process leads to silencing their independent voices, oftentimes by portraying them as 'voiceless victims'. Cabot refers to this silencing as making “ghosts” out of refugees.

The refugee situation is talked about a lot, while the voices of refugees seem to be non existing. But this might be slowly changing. Now we see viral videos on the internet about displaced people, using social media as a platform to speak. In Germany one Syrian refugee in particular gained popularity with a big audience by making YouTube videos in collaboration with Germans and he even wrote a book, “Ich komme auf Deutschland zu” (I am approaching Germany) (2016) in which he describes his story, coming to Germany and experiencing a cultural shock, as well as the difficulties and sometimes nonsensical processes refugees have to go through. He does it all in a satirical way, yet with hard passages to read when he describes his several times in prison, followed by torture back in Syria, due to his habit of protesting. His name is Firas Alshater and he studied acting in Syria, but also made videos from the war scenes before he came to Germany. On his website called okayfactor.com he publishes satirical videos with and about Germans, explaining life in Syria and debunking several stereotypes. But he also publishes tips for fellow refugees, helping them to find a flat to rent or places for apprenticeships in Germany. His website can be viewed in German, English and Arabic and is therefore accessible for a wide audience.

He gained quite a lot of fame in Germany and through comments of his multicultural viewers, certain topics could be elaborated on, which seemed to be of importance to the crowd. This way, a dialog could be established between receptionist and content creator.

His book is written for a German speaking audience. He uses experience from his life to make his situation understandable, but also represents living conditions of many fellow refugees. His approach is satirical, rather than victimizing himself.

Yet I believe being representing social realities in general can never be done perfectly, as in being complete. Many pieces will be needed to put a picture together, from different angles. Many outside perspectives from non refugee researchers had been stated so far, but also it seems crucial to me to include self-representations of several refugees, which will most likely differ from each other.

There is not that one source of knowledge that is reliable to know it all and to say it all. Rather one could think of a need for increasing multi-vocal sources, when it comes to trying to represent refugees/ represent themselves.

Reference:

Cabot, Heath. 2016. Refugee Voices”: Tragedy, Ghosts, and the Anthropology of Not Knowing. In : Journal of Contemporary Ethnography. 1-28

Web Link:

http://okayfactor.com/?lang=de