Jenny Renner | 2024 I.S. Symposium

Name: Jenny Renner
Title: “I Will Walk With You”: The Role of Engaged Communities in the Work of Jesuit Refugee Service
Major: French & Francophone Studies
Minors: Anthropology; Education
Pathway: Global Impacts
Advisors: Laura Burch; Harry Gamble (second reader)

This study seeks to understand the correlations between external influences and the work of Jesuit Refugee Service. To best understand if and how external factors influence, JRS USA and JRS France are both studied within the framework of each country’s unique historical context of refugee resettlement, current legal procedures, and public opinion. This thesis
opens by providing an in-depth overview of Jesuit Refugee Service as an organization, important terminology and classifications, and differentiation in the meaning of the word “refugee” according to the United Nations, the United States of America, and France before analyzing each country more intensely.

This project was of particular interest to me because I plan to work within refugee resettlement agencies as my career. I was focused on future applications, looking to see what I could do as an individual to improve the work of these agencies. My final conclusion was that cultural perceptions seem to have the largest impact on how a resettlement agency operates; to help ameliorate conditions, spreading positive perceptions of refugees and advocacy work can best support resettlement. Next steps for my research would involve interviews with individuals from each country’s office, as well as shadowing at each office, originally a part of my research methods by unable to be completed due to external factors.

Posted in Symposium 2024 on April 24, 2024.