text: Research - Natasha A. Bennett
  Natasha A. Bennett
  "Equal Rights, Unequal Access: Citizenship, State Capacity, and Social Rights for Marginal Ethnic Groups in Europe and South America"
  The international human rights regime sets out to safeguard human rights and human dignity through an international architecture designed to protect vulnerable populations. Yet, those populations who have the most to benefit from an extensive human rights regime, face some of the greatest difficulties in accessing the institutions designed to protect them. Marginality and human rights appear incompatible because marginalized groups fall out of the purview of state-based human rights protection and fulfillment. While much of the literature on social human rights examines specific social rights in particular contexts, this dissertation broadens the scope to identify and analyze similar patterns across contexts, beginning with best-test cases.
  The aim of this study is to determine the central barriers that marginalized groups face in accessing social rights in democratic societies. It asks, "Why is it that even in the most favorable conditions, marginalized ethnic groups continue to face difficulties accessing social rights?" In order to answer these questions, this dissertation includes two controlled comparisons of marginalized ethnic groups that have historically been excluded, but that are in the process of acquiring expanded citizenship rights: indigenous populations in Latin America and ethnic Romani groups in Europe. Despite centuries of exclusion and discrimination, these two groups are now in a process of new rights acquisition. Indigenous rights and representation are flourishing in Latin American democracies, and many ethnic Romani groups are now citizens of the European Union. To answer the central question, I analyze how citizenship regimes and state capacity influence indigenous groups' access to housing, and health care rights in Bolivia and Peru, and the same for Romani migrants in France and Spain.
  Using qualitative methods such as process tracing, content analysis, and in-depth interviews collected through multi-sited field work, the main finding of this dissertation is that in democratic societies, two key variables affect the ability of marginalized ethnic groups to access social rights: the nature of the state's citizenship regime and its state capacity. For marginalized ethnic groups to have the best chance at accessing social rights, they must live in a state whose citizenship regime provides institutional opportunities to accommodate ethnic diversity, and that has both financial and administrative capacity. For marginalized groups to successfully access social rights, favorable citizenship is not enough. Social and political inclusion only helps to ensure that individuals have a say in their governments, but if their governments cannot effectively govern or provide material resources, their input may not have much of an effect. However, when states do have the capacity to provide material resources, and effectively govern and distribute those resources, citizenship regimes can make a considerable difference in improving access to social rights for marginalized groups.
  Additionally, from the perspective of social goods provisions, there can be a trade off between social and cultural belonging, and material wellbeing. Having one without having the other will perpetrate marginality and undermine the protection and fulfillment of human rights. This trade off has implications for human rights fulfillment in conjunction with development policy design; development policy must avoid a myopic focus on welfare outcomes that does not integrate mechanisms for access to justice and social inclusion. Unfortunately, the enjoyment of social rights specifically continues to rely on state-based institutions. However, improvements in states' citizenship regimes and capacity can go a long way in providing more opportunities for marginalized ethnic groups to access those human rights institutions designed to protect their human rights and improve their welfare.
  "Bottom Two Billion: The Global Expansion of Slums and Second-Class Citizenship" in Contracting Human Rights, eds. Brysk, Alison and Michael Stohl, Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018.
  Bolivian Protestors Unseated a President. So Why Are They Still in the Streets? The Washington Post, The Monkey Cage. 15 November 2019.
  "A European Game of Humanitarian Chicken Where the Only Winning Move is Not to Play" Global-e, Vol. 11, Issue 44. Aug 28, 2018.
  ​"Voice in the Village: Indigenous Peoples Contest Globalization in Bolivia" (with Alison Brysk), Brown Journal of World Affairs, Vol. 18, No 2. Spring 2012.
  ​"Constitutional Reform in Bolivia, 2005-present" Encyclopedia of Protest and Revolution, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009 (2012 update).
  "Legal, Undocumented Migration: Roma Migrant Incorporation in France and Spain" ​under review
  Since 2007, the migration of Roma to Western Europe highlights key challenges for migrant incorporation. It also provides a clear case where E.U. migrants are denied active citizenship and access to human rights. As E.U. citizens the Roma, Europe's most marginalized ethnic group, represent a new kind of "unwanted" migrant: one that does not require a passport stamp or visa. This lack of documentation acts as a double-edged sword for migrants because it affects the human and citizenship rights that they can access, expanding access to some rights while limiting access to others. Based on interviews with legal experts, human rights activists, Roma migrants, and on the analysis of secondary sources, this study compares Roma's incorporation in France--arguably the worst place for Roma migrants with tens of thousands evictions a year--and in Spain, where Roma are the most integrated. It finds that France's centralized system uniformly scapegoats Roma migrants, prohibiting any form of incorporation or access to social rights. Yet, Spain's decentralized system allows for cultural acceptance to flourish in some parts of the country, because local level actors have the power to create inclusive immigration policies and better provide public goods.
  "Providing Refuge: A Human Rights Regime Analysis of Rights Protections for Displaced Persons in Sub-Saharan Africa" (with Hannah K. Brown) ​under review
  While refugees are entitled to the right of asylum vis-a-vis the U.N. 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the subsequent 1967 Protocol, which includes rights of a legal resident in the host country, African states vary in their domestic implementation of refugee rights. Sub-Saharan Africa host approximately 29 percent of the world's refugees, and as such represents a key region for understanding the dynamics of refugee rights and protections. With 45 member states having ratified (another 4 have signed) the Organization of African Unity's 1969 Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of the Refugee Problem in Africa (OAU Convention), and 53 states having ratified the African Charter on Human and People's rights, Africa is one of the most legally inclusive for refugees. Even so, domestic refugee laws come into conflict with international and regional legal commitments, in some cases threatening legal protections in detrimental ways. This study comparatively analyzes domestic laws pertaining to the rights of refugees, creating a typology of refugee regimes for the region. We then situate and comparatively analyze the refugee rights and protections for the most recent mass displacement of Burundians to Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. Drawing on these three cases, the paper asks which aspects of their domestic refugee laws are the most significant in protecting displaced persons. Based on content analysis of relevant regional and domestic laws, we argue that in addition to commitments to international and regional legal conventions, domestic respect for freedom of movement and employment opportunities are key factors that drive different outcomes for fulfilling refugee human rights.
  "Transnational Possibilities for Judging Social Rights: Regional Courts and the Protection of Minority Rights" ​in preparation