“Heading West” Reuters, Every day, thousands of refugees entrust their lives to human smugglers as they make their way to Europe. But safety is not always the smugglers' top priority -- leading to the kind of disaster like the 71 dead migrants found in the back of a refrigerated truck in Austria in late August.

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http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/photo-gallery-heading-west-fotostrecke-129794.html 

 

Images of refugees tend to highlight refugees in motion. Refugees are shown hiking across flatlands or crossing bodies of water in makeshift boats. While these depictions are accurate representations of some refugee journeys, they give the false depiction that refugee journeys are uniform, linear, and involve travelling a long distance. There are more internally displaced people, people who have been displaced within their country than UNHCR refugees. In addition, unlike common assumptions, only 1% of refugees are resettled in a Western country while the rest either reside in refugee camps or return to their country of origin. What does this perspective of a linear journey hide about refugee narratives? How does who is seen as a refugee or not influence how refugees are seen? 

 

Theme: emphasis on mobility - stateless and displaced people who never leave the country?/ complexities of refugee journeys 

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