This talk intends to deepen our current understanding of refugees’ livelihood transformation and integration by investigating the experience of socio-economic well-being among vulnerable Sub-Saharan African refugees from Rwanda, Congo, and Burundi. Economic geography has devoted little attention to the indebted status of U.S. refugees; I attempt to fill that scholarly gap. I work within the parameters of human geography and economic geography and contribute to the debates on debt and financialization with a case study on how the International Organization of Migration (IOM) loans Sub-Saharan African refugees take out for travel expenses to come to the US affect their lives.
About the speaker - MS. OZLEM OZGUR, Ph.D. Candidate, School of Geography, Development & Environment
Ms. Ozgur is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Geography and Development at the University of Arizona, studying Human and Film Geography. Her research focuses on the socio-spatial and economic well-being of refugees from Sub-Saharan Africa. Ms. Ozgur uses participatory research methods, film ethnography, theories of subjectivity, and performativity in her research.
