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A Microfluidic Device for Studying Multiple Distinct Strains
Published on: November 9, 2012
Conditional belonging under institutional ambiguity: narratives of Sudanese asylum seekers in Eilat, Israel
Keren Beja Weinberg1, Miguel A Maldonado1,2, Manuel Moyano1,2
1Departamento de Psicología, Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación y Psicología, Universidad de Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain.
Introduction:
This qualitative study explores how Sudanese asylum seekers living in Eilat, Israel, narrate belonging under conditions of prolonged legal and institutional ambiguity.
Methods:
Based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 30 participants, the study examines everyday experiences across employment, education, welfare and health services, and housing, while remaining open to emergent themes, including the role of the Sudanese community. The analysis combines a multidimensional integration framework with intergroup contact theory to assess how participation in key domains interacts with status relations and institutional support.
Results:
The analysis identified five interrelated themes: traumatic rupture and forced displacement; institutional rejection upon arrival; Eilat as a space of partial reconstruction; conditional belonging; and the dual protective and constraining role of the Sudanese community. Across employment, housing, education, and welfare and health, participants described functional integration and everyday stabilisation without corresponding legal security or broader social inclusion. Contact with members of the host society was described as largely instrumental, whereas co-ethnic networks provided essential material and emotional support in a context where opportunities for bridging ties remained limited.
Discussion:
The study contributes to contemporary debates on conditional belonging by offering an empirically grounded account from a peripheral city in which labour demand coexists with constrained civic inclusion.
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