Publikationen

This issue of IQAS seeks to focus on the 1960s in Asia, covering East, South-east and South Asia and discussing the decade from perspectives that have often escaped notice. It sheds a critical light on the notion of the “global sixties” and focuses on the local in order to grasp the spirit of the 1960s in selected Asian countries. It looks at individual nation-states but also transcends their borders, tracing transnational and transregional connectivities, mobilities and relations

Tilman Lüdke recently published a working paper on whether sectarianism – or rather, sectarian violence – in Syria and in Iraq is the outcome of societal upheaval in times of crisis or a historically grown phenomenon that can only be controlled by authoritarian regimes.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected refugees and their protection? To respond to this question, Nadine Segadlo, Ulrike Krause, Franzisca Zanker, Hannah Edler conducted a study using a qualitative questionnaire in six countries in East Africa, Southern Africa and West Africa, namely Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. In this paper, they explore the information provided by the 90 respondents and focus on three main areas.

The consequences of threat constructions and security-dominated politics in many Asian states and regions have been all too apparent recently: The invocation of “security” and the often violent practices of security agents constitute a powerful “key mode of governing”. In offering various empirical studies guided by the pragmatic frameworks of securitisation and Critical Security Studies, this Special Issue (edited by Werner Distler) aims at deconstructing security as a governing mode in the Asian context.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic migrant communities have become immobile–stuck in the destination countries, or unable to continue their journeys in transit or in origin countries. This project brings together a collection of essays that seek to spell out how migrant communities in the Global South, namely in Mexico, Nepal, Qatar and Zimbabwe, have been affected by, and reacted to the pandemic.

In this article, the author gives an example for how particular policies during COVID19 in Qatar have affected the lives of migrants there, and in their countries of origin. Originally aimed at improving the conditions of migrant communities in Qatar, the Wage Protection System has further restricted the mobility of these communities.

COVID-19’s impact on migrants has now been well noted in Nepal, as well. This article starts with a discussion about whether/how the ongoing pandemic has altered trajectories and ambitions of current and aspiring migrants and their spouses who remain in Nepal. It then reflects on the pre-COVID migration policies of Nepal and analyses what policy/programme shifts might be needed to address the new situation.

In this article, the author shows how the Pandemic aggravated the already precarious conditions of migrants. When the Pandemic started in Mexico, the authorities were already upgrading their migration control measurements on several levels. Deeper coordination with the Trump Administration, suspension of asylum processes in the USA, militarization of the migration management and bureaucratic institutions in Mexico, have all been taking place simultaneously by March 2020.