Laura OttoGoethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main · Institut für Kulturanthropologie / Europäische Ethnologie
Laura Otto
Doctor of Philosophy
About
20
Publications
908
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Introduction
Coastal and island regions as well as transnational mobilities and migrations have been at the center of my research since 2013. The question of what happens when new actors arrive in coastal areas has been an overlapping research theme that connects my various research projects. I currently work on governance practices in the context of harmful algae bloom in Mexico.
Please also visit me here: www.laura-otto.com
Additional affiliations
April 2019 - present
Publications
Publications (20)
Die Erfahrungen von Frauen* und Mädchen* sind in den Debatten um Flucht und Migration unterbeleuchtet. Der Beitrag greift diese Lücke auf, indem er nach Perspektiven und Erfahrungen junger, weiblich gelesener Geflüchteter somalischer Herkunft fragt, die in der Europäischen Union auf Malta ankamen. Anhand von gemeinsam gelesenen und interpretierten...
Official categorization systems classify some states, including island-states, as small. Malta, located in the Mediterranean Sea, is one of six European microstates and the European Union’s smallest member state. Smallness, however, refers to more than fixed geographic scales. The understanding of smallness developed in this article, in contrast, m...
Immer mehr junge Menschen fliehen nach Europa. Nach ihrer Ankunft findet in der Regel ein Altersfeststellungsverfahren statt. Die Mitgliedstaaten der EU versuchen in den Asylverfahren das Alter der Ankommenden eindeutig zu bestimmen, denn an die Minder- und Volljährigkeit sind Aufnahmebedingungen geknüpft. Entlang von Migrationsbewegungen junger Ge...
What do people think about unauthorised migrants reaching their shores? This article examines ethnographically what and how Maltese citizens think about recent migrant arrivals from northern Africa. This case study adds to research on public opinion formation in migrant-receiving societies in the European Union, offering perspectives from a small s...
International and national legal frameworks clearly define who an ‘unaccompanied minor’ or ‘separated child’ is in the context of forced migration: a young person under eighteen years of age without the presence of a legal guardian. The category of the ‘unaccompanied minor’ is inextricably linked with vulnerability, suggesting that young refugees a...
Even though the relational turn within Island Studies has long evoked the equation of islands with insularity, disconnectedness and backwardness, these ascriptions are still often deterministically attributed to islands, mainly by non-island scholars. Thereby these designations are not only reproduced, but connections dynamics, different forms of e...
Since Malta joined the EU in 2004, almost 20,000 refugees have reached its shores. Obliged to remain on the island state, they are required to integrate, despite an absence of governmental integration processes. With Malta being an EU member, its government is, however, obliged to conform to EU policies covering reception procedures. In this chapte...
Historically, crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic have prompted politicians to break up dead-locked structures and implement far-reaching reforms. Path dependencies can be interrupted in times of crisis. This volume examines the social impact of the current pandemic as well as both the long-term challenges it poses and the potential it offers from...
Young male refugees are denoted, represented and grouped, both in public discourse and in social work, in socially constructed categories. To avoid the reproduction of these ascriptions, we engage in “shared reading” of ethnographic data in an intersectional manner. This approach helps to highlight ambiguities and practices of the production of dif...
Die geografische Kleinheit Maltas ist ein bedeutender Bestandteil aktueller Flucht_Migrationsdiskurse. Bootsmigration wird diskursiv als bedrohliches und überlastendes Phänomen für das lokale Asylsystem sowie die Inselgesellschaft dargestellt. Die Kleinheit wird als wirkmächtige Bezugsgröße zur Legitimation restriktiver Migrations- und Asylmaßnahme...
The stories and lived experiences of Iraqi refugees residing in Germany remain broadly overlooked in academic and public debates. Finding themselves in various situations and personal desires between settlement and return, this chapter focuses on three stories told by Iraqi refugees on how they give meaning to their very personal experiences. The c...
Ganz gleich, wo und mit wem wir uns in den letzten Jahren, spätestens seit dem „langen Sommer der Migration” 2015 (Hess et al. 2017), zu den Themen Flucht, Asyl, europäische Außengrenze, Solidarität oder auch Grenzmanagement unterhalten haben, haben wir nicht selten von unserem Gegenüber gehört, dass er*sie auch gerne ‚irgendwas mit Flüchtlingen‘ m...
In a state care facility in Malta, young refugees classified as unaccompanied minors and staff charged with their supervision and administration interact daily. Within these interactions, the young refugees and the staff negotiate interests, which I examine ethnographically. These interactions were contentious, because young refugees’ and care staf...
This paper offers some behind-the-scenes insights drawn from the collective fieldwork experiences of the contributors to this Special Issue. These include reflections on: how decisions about modes of accessing research participants fundamentally shape the research process and outcomes; the pitfalls of only focusing on young people's migratory exper...
Kernfragen in Bezug auf Kontextualisierung, Repräsentation, Verantwortung und Beziehung zu Geflüchteten sowohl in Forschungs- als auch in Arbeitsfeldern sind in Flucht-Migrationsforschungen bisher wenig thematisiert. Die Autorinnen und Autoren widmen sich diesen Reflexionslücken sowie grundlegenden Repräsentations- und Ethikfragen. Die breit aufges...
Projects
Projects (2)
Climate change creates new relations between the local and global, new practices of governance emerge, and questions of responsibility are raised. In this project I examine questions of responsibility-making and governance in the context of anthropogenic environmental change ethnographically by studying the Mexican Caribbean coast. Sargasso algae has been washed up in vast amounts for several years along the country's touristified coastal zones. The algae leads to beach degradation, decreased tourism, and a pronounced health risk to humans. The question I address with my research is: How is anthropogenic environmental change governed and negotiated along the Caribbean coast with and through anthropogenic environmental change in actors’ everyday lives?
