Katharina Obser

Katharina is currently Program Specialist an the Women’s Refugee Commission, Washington, D.C. In this position, Katharina Obser the WRC's research and advocacy efforts and its Detention and Asylum program. Prior to joining the Women’s Refugee Commission, Katharina was as a research assistant with the Forced Migration Studies Programme (now ACMS) based in Johannesburg, South Africa, conducting field research at the Mozambican border and contributing to a report on the rights and protection of migrant children in border areas. She has also worked as a Program Associate/Legal Assistant in Human Rights First’s Refugee Protection Program where she interviewed asylum-seekers needing protection in the U.S., coordinated the D.C. pro bono legal representation program, and supported the program’s advocacy work on detention and bars to asylum.

Katharina holds a B.A. in Political Science and French from the University of Michigan and holds an M.A. in Forced Migration Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Originally from Germany, she is fluent in German and also speaks French.

Thesis title: Victims or Villains: Deconstructing the Policing of Migrant Children in South African Border Towns

Thesis abstract: Research surrounding issues of police treatment of migrant children at South Africa’s border areas remains incomplete and often policy-driven. Similarly, theoretical literature on policing often fails to consider the sociological and anthropological complexities that impact upon police officers’ conceptions of criminality, vulnerability, and ultimately, their behaviour. This paper seeks to study the policing of migrant children in a predominantly sociological framework by examining the influences on South African Police Service (SAPS) officers’ behaviour and constructions of criminality and vulnerability in migrant children. The research is grounded within an extensive review of the theoretical and contemporary literature pertaining to policing, policing of vulnerable groups, and the South African policing context, and included approximately three months of ethnographic fieldwork of interviews and participant observation in Nkomazi Municipality at South Africa’s border with Mozambique. Conclusions identified that personal history and experiences, an officer’s perceptions of his or her work within a localized and even nationalized environment of some accountability and culture, as well as external factors ought to be heavily considered and are fluid influences on a police officer’s behaviour toward migrant children. These factors, which can result in seemingly arbitrary policing within a nonetheless structured localized and individualized culture, suggest a unique framework within which to consider policing from a sociological perspective even beyond their specific impact on migrant children or the border area.

Check out her Aug. 27, 2010 piece A Closer Look Inside Arizona Detention Centers: Calling for More Access and Oversight at the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katharina-obser/a-closer-look-inside-ariz_....