14 February 2018
Audrey Macklin gave the ninth Sarah van Walsum lecture, titled 'Resettler Society: Making and Remaking Citizenship Through Private Refugee Sponsorship.'
Audrey Macklin presented her research on private sponsorship of refugees. The overarching question that drives the research is: how does the citizenship of refugees remake the citizenship of sponsors? The talk focused on those aspects that touch on the confluence of family and state. In her work, Macklin undertakes empirical research to explore private refugee sponsorship from the perspective of sponsors, using a combination of surveys, focus groups and interviews. The research draws on three theoretical resources for conceptualising private refugee sponsorship: cosmopolitanism as a motive, privatisation as a mode, and active citizenship as an effect.