MIASU Seminar: Sayana Namsaraeva (University of Cambridge)

Sayana Namsaraeva (University of Cambridge) 

Dystopian Mongolia: Reconceptualization of the Home Country by Mongolian Asylum Seekers in the UK

Based on anonymized background papers of the Mongolian asylum seekers in the UK, this presentation critically analyses  these ‘affectively loaded’ documents (to use expression by Navaro-Yashin 2007) and their attempts to present Mongolia as a failed state, in cataclysmic decline and a degraded society. I argue,  that though the dystopic image of Mongolia in their victimhood stories seems to be the result of interaction between two actors – the UK legal system and illegal migrants, these narratives cannot be viewed as entirely constructed, since they contain worrying signs of a society in a deepening crisis. So the question remains: will this dystopic image become a reality?