Black (and) Christian? : new systemic racism and the ‘refugee’ as a depersonalised category of surplus: a case study of Tunisian attitudes towards Sub-Saharan Africans

Zalta, Anja (avtor), Krašovec, Primož (avtor)

This article is based on a months-long investigation and aims to contribute to the scientific understanding of the process of racialisation of the sub-Saharan migrants in Tunisia. The starting point of our research was the speech given by the Tunisian president, Kais Saied, in February 2023. In the light of new negotiations with the EU for technical, administrative, and financial support in the management of migration in the Mediterranean, the president emphasised the importance of Tunisia being and remaining Arab and Muslim. The sub-Saharan migrants who have penetrated the Mediterranean area in large numbers, mostly via Libya or Algeria, are black. Many of them are also Christians. The Tunisian case regarding the racialisation of migrants is similar to the dynamics of political discourses and actions of systemic racialisation in European countries. Our thesis is that racialisation based on religion and/or skin colour is part of a more complex dynamic, defined by the capitalist mode of production, which, due to its inner contradictions, simultaneously requires and expels human labour force. We claim that the permanently expelled constitute surplus populations that are, due to not being disciplined by the capitalist markets, considered dangerous, which is why they fall under police jurisdiction. This process of policing surplus populations is what constitutes contemporary systemic racism as a special mode of state politics, whereby “race” is the result of said process and not determined by its biological, religious, ethnic, or cultural characteristics. We support our thesis by a fieldwork study consisting of qualitative interviews with Tunisian experts, conducted based on purposive sampling and subsequent qualitative coding, as well as of three personal narrative interviews, which were conducted with sub-Saharan migrants from Cameroon, who had been living in a refugee “village” in the north of Tunisia for more than a year.

• Jezik: Angleški jezik
• Ključne besede: black christians, Sub-Saharan Africans, religion, surplus populations, systemic racism, post-fascism, migrations, Tunisian case
• Vrsta gradiva: Članek v reviji
• Tipologija: 1.01 - Izvirni znanstveni članek
• Organizacija: FF - Filozofska fakulteta
• Status publikacije: Objavljeno
• Različica publikacije: Objavljena publikacija
• Datum objave: 01.01.2024
• Leto izida: 2024
• Št. strani: Str. 1-12
• Številčenje: Vol. 15, iss. 7, 863
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-159720
• UDK: 316.74:27-054.73(611)
• ISSN pri članku: 2077-1444
• COBISS.SI-ID: 202230019
• Datum objave v RUL: 19.07.2024

Gradivo je del revije

• Naslov: Religions
• Skrajšan naslov: Religions
• Založnik: MDPI AG
• ISSN: 2077-1444
• COBISS.SI-ID: 520261657

Licence

• Licenca: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Priznanje avtorstva 4.0 Mednarodna
• Povezava: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.sl
• Opis: To je standardna licenca Creative Commons, ki daje uporabnikom največ možnosti za nadaljnjo uporabo dela, pri čemer morajo navesti avtorja.

Sekundarni jezik

• Jezik: Slovenski jezik
• Ključne besede: kristjani, podsaharski Afričani, Tunizija, religija, rasizem, postfašizem, migracije, begunci, presežek prebivalstva

Projekti

• Financer: ARIS - Javna agencija za znanstvenoraziskovalno in inovacijsko dejavnost Republike Slovenije
• Številka projekta: P6-0194
• Naslov: Problemi avtonomije in identitet v času globalizacije