Türkçe yayınlanmış makaleler by Burcu Akan Ellis
Bu çalışma, Bilkent Üniversitesi Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü'nde 3. sınıf öğrencisi iken (1992-... more Bu çalışma, Bilkent Üniversitesi Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü'nde 3. sınıf öğrencisi iken (1992-93) Burcu Akan [Ellis] ile birlikte dersini aldığımız Ankara Üniversitesi Siyasal Bilgiler Fakültesi profesörlerinden rahmetli Oral Sander'e sunduğumuz ortak ödevin Türkçe'ye tarafımızdan tercüme edilmiş şeklidir.
Papers by Burcu Akan Ellis
Genealogy
The rise in recognition of children’s agency—that is, their status as inalienable right-bearing a... more The rise in recognition of children’s agency—that is, their status as inalienable right-bearing actors—has been a welcome change in international organizations, albeit often through a set of media activities that depict children variously as victims or beneficiaries of moral leadership. Typically, a handful of children/youth affected directly by a particular tragedy become the recognizable faces of identified human rights abuses. This research explores media representation of children born of war in Bosnia, “invisible” children who only recently were legally categorized as victims of war. As children who were born of wartime rape, the lives of select young activists have been documented through movies and media interviews since their childhood. This paper explores the costs of such disclosure and performativity, and sacrifices that young activists make to expose their “truth” to gain recognition of their attendant rights. It ultimately highlights the tension between the search for t...
Catapulted is a unique contribution to the literature on migration as it relates skilled labor mi... more Catapulted is a unique contribution to the literature on migration as it relates skilled labor migration particularly to the displacement of youth. Studies of the Albanian diaspora are often limited to European locations, but Ellis addresses Albanian migration to alternative destinations such as Turkey and the United States. Gender dynamics, as well as generational differences, form a significant component of the book, complementing similar work on Southeast Europe. Given the small number of books on life course perspectives on youth migration and integration, Catapulted illuminates the Balkan experience in comparison to youth from North Africa, Middle East and Southeast Asia.
Insight Turkey, 2020
This essay seeks to demonstrate that there are both ethical and practical considerations for enab... more This essay seeks to demonstrate that there are both ethical and practical considerations for enabling refugees to manage the coronavirus disease (COVID-19 pandemic). Given that a majority of refugees live in highly congested environments, particularly urban areas, an outbreak would swiftly spread through their local communities. Our argument is twofold: (i) That a new approach is needed to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic –one that recognizes mounting challenges facing refugees and relies on international cooperation rather than the myopic rhetoric and sentiments of xenophobic right-wing politicians; (ii) That helping refugees to curb the spread of the current coronavirus cannot be divorced from social contexts, hence the necessity of improving employment, basic health services, and educational opportunities for refugees.
Migration Letters, 2019
This study highlights the plight of children in state orphanages during conditions of war and its... more This study highlights the plight of children in state orphanages during conditions of war and its aftermath, in order to explore how state narratives trap children between contested notions of the best interests of the child, national belonging, and familial rights. This longitudinal study focuses on international media narratives covering a group of Bosnian orphans who were removed from the Bjelave orphanage in Sarajevo through a controversial German rescue mission in 1992. The orphans were provided temporary protection in Germany for five years but were repatriated to Bosnia in 1997 upon the Bosnian government’s request. In Bosnia, they were reintroduced into the national orphanage system, and eventually to the care of international NGOs. Their plight shows that narratives of care, national belonging and family rights are fundamental tools used to sustain state identities in the process of repatriation of refugees, leaving no voice or choice to the resilient children in question.
Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2016
While the service demands of au pair programs have come under much scrutiny, less visible are the... more While the service demands of au pair programs have come under much scrutiny, less visible are the ways in which au pair positions are utilized as a career transformation strategy for skilled young women. Building on in-depth and semi-structured interviews with a dozen college-educated Turkish au pairs who left their jobs in Turkey to take care of children abroad, this study shows how young women hope to utilize the educational component of the au pair year to realize their aspirations for career change. However, attempting to stretch the au pair system beyond its original purpose runs the risk of trapping mobile young women in a continuing cycle of service jobs that hinder their academic and career goals. The study shows that transient positions provide only a limited venue to create sufficient human capital and capability to realize such aspirations, instead leading to the effective entrapment of young women abroad in potentially precarious legal and financial positions.
Anthropology of East Europe Review, 2001
BORDER CROSSING, 2018
Globalization has led to a plethora of temporary, seasonal and transient jobs characterized by po... more Globalization has led to a plethora of temporary, seasonal and transient jobs characterized by poor work conditions, tolerated by workers with the hope that such jobs will lead to better positions. Yet, it is not uncommon to find workers that spend years in temporary positions. Examining a cadre of cruise crew members from the Balkans who have repeatedly occupied transient jobs, this study addresses the underpinning discourses of savings, care and human capital that serve both to sustain and to entrap workers in transient positions. The ability to save and remit savings to their families allow transient workers to engage in “middling” back home, saving money to invest in homes, businesses or mobility capital. However, structural constraints on labor markets and a disconnect from local networks limit their ability to reach their goals and leverage their time on board to secure more permanent jobs, prompting the workers to repeatedly return to their temporary seafarer positions.
The International Journal of Turkish Studies, 2017
"Shadow Genealogies" explores identity transformations under conditions of intense soci... more "Shadow Genealogies" explores identity transformations under conditions of intense sociopolitical change. This book chronicles the fragmentation of the once-widespread urban Muslim communities known as the Sehirli into Turks and Albanians in the formative years of former Yugoslavia. This book is about the strategies that communities undertake in the face of rapid social change to protect their identities. Recreating identities under pressure forces communities to act like "cultural cannibals" who destroy and consume their own meaningful categories to emerge with alternative definitions or acceptable modes of survival. Based on intensive fieldwork in Macedonia, "Shadow Genealogies" demonstrates this process by weaving together the life histories of more than two hundred individuals across ninety well-known Muslim families.
Genealogy
International norms do not diffuse linearly; they are localized, adapted and contested at every t... more International norms do not diffuse linearly; they are localized, adapted and contested at every turn. Foster care systems have been enthusiastically promoted by international organizations to serve the best interests of children. This study explores the recent adaptation of foster care (Koruyucu Aile) in Turkey. This elite-driven norm change was institutionalized through comprehensive legislation, economic incentives and national campaigns, situated in the “politics of responsibility” arising from moral duty and national and religious ethics. These efforts faced early resistance, leading to slow cultivation of foster families, while over time, the foster system found unlikely allies among urban middle-class women. Using Zimmermann’s typologies of reinterpretation of norms through an analysis of narratives about foster parenting in 50 local and national TV productions, this article shows how the foster family system has evolved as a panacea for women’s empowerment in contemporary Tur...
Border Crossing, 2018
Globalization has led to a plethora of temporary, seasonal and transient jobs characterized by po... more Globalization has led to a plethora of temporary, seasonal and transient jobs characterized by poor work conditions, tolerated by workers with the hope that such jobs will lead to better positions. Yet, it is not uncommon to find workers that spend years in temporary positions. Examining a cadre of cruise crew members from the Balkans who have repeatedly occupied transient jobs, this study addresses the underpinning discourses of savings, care and human capital that serve both to sustain and to entrap workers in transient positions. The ability to save and remit savings to their families allow transient workers to engage in "middling" back home, saving money to invest in homes, businesses or mobility capital. However, structural constraints on labor markets and a disconnect from local networks limit their ability to reach their goals and leverage their time on board to secure more permanent jobs, prompting the workers to repeatedly return to their temporary seafarer positions.
Migration Letters, 2019
This study highlights the plight of children in state orphanages during conditions of war and its... more This study highlights the plight of children in state orphanages during conditions of war and its aftermath, in order to explore how state narratives trap children between contested notions of the best interests of the child, national belonging, and familial rights. This longitudinal study focuses on international media narratives covering a group of Bosnian orphans who were removed from the Bjelave orphanage in Sarajevo through a controversial German rescue mission in 1992. The orphans were provided temporary protection in Germany for five years but were repatriated to Bosnia in 1997 upon the Bosnian government's request. In Bosnia, they were reintroduced into the national orphanage system, and eventually to the care of international NGOs. Their plight shows that narratives of care, national belonging and family rights are fundamental tools used to sustain state identities in the process of repatriation of refugees, leaving no voice or choice to the resilient children in question.
While the service demands of au pair programs have come under much scrutiny, less visible are the... more While the service demands of au pair programs have come under much scrutiny, less visible are the ways in which au pair positions are utilized as a career transformation and upward mobility strategy for female professionals from the Middle East. Building on in-depth and semi-structured interviews with a dozen college-educated Turkish au pairs who left their jobs in Turkey to take care of children through the au pair program, this study shows how young women hope to utilize transient transnational mobility as a venue to shape their careers by developing educational capital that transcend their domestic social and economic constraints. However, attempting to stretch the au pair system beyond its original purpose runs the risk of trapping mobile young women in a continuing cycle of service jobs that hinder their academic and career goals. Nevertheless, through their global mobility, Middle Eastern women gain a sense of independence that they come to value as their emotional capital and part of their new identity. The Turkish au pair experience shows how female mobility is a product of both the constraints of domestic systems and the internationalization of dreams; it is integral to identity construction.
Journal of Management Development, 2013
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to assess the role that transient interpretation jobs play ... more Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to assess the role that transient interpretation jobs play in the career development of skilled migrants. Design/methodology/approach -Based on interviews and correspondence with ethnic Albanian interpreters in the USA and Britain, this study analyzes the bonding and bridging effects of transient careers. Respondents include a diverse group of freelancers, as well as volunteer and professional interpreters and the interpretation experiences of the dozen Albanian skilled migrants are analyzed through a grounded theory approach. Findings -Interpretation jobs enable highly-skilled immigrants to initially sustain themselves abroad while adjusting to the host country. Interpretation is one area where skilled women can find a professional voice. Yet, the social capital value of interpretation exceeds its economic benefits. Migrant interpreters acquire human capital and social and cultural networks through their jobs and pass this "know-how" to their communities through their volunteer work. Research limitations/implications -Further research beyond the limited ethnic scope of the study is necessary to assess the links between migration and translation activism. Practical implications -As an initial career choice for migrants, interpretation jobs remain typically transient, ad hoc and low-wage, and the important functions they provide in economic, social and cultural capital, and their role in enabling migrants to get skilled through their migration remain unrecognized in studies of career development. Social implications -Talented young immigrants in a transient career also get skilled through their migration process. Originality/value -Young Albanian interpreters, invisible as immigrants and refugees, are indicative of the potential talent hidden in many such transient careers. The social, economic and cultural gains from interpretation indicate the need to view transient careers as more than short-term strategies to make a living.
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Türkçe yayınlanmış makaleler by Burcu Akan Ellis
Papers by Burcu Akan Ellis