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Materialising Exile: Material Culture and Embodied Experience among Karenni Refugees in Thailand

Focusing on the highly diverse Karenni refugee population living in camps on the Thai-Burma border, this innovative book explores materiality, embodiment, memory, imagination, and identity among refugees, providing new and important ways of understanding how refugees make sense of experience, self, and other. It examines how and to what ends refugees perceive, represent, manipulate, use as metaphor, and otherwise engage with material objects and spaces, and includes a focus on the real and metaphorical journeys that bring about and perpetuate exile. The combined emphasis on both displacement and materiality, and the analysis of the cultural construction and intersections of exilic objects, spaces, and bodies, are unique in the study of both refugees and material culture. Drawing theoretical influences from phenomenology, aesthetics, and beyond, as well as from refugee studies and anthropology, the author addresses the current lack of theoretical analysis of the material, visual, spatial, and embodied aspects of forced migration, providing a fundamentally interlinked analysis of enforced exile and materiality.

The Early Morning Phonecall: Somali Refugees' Remittances

As migration from poverty-stricken and conflict-affected countries continues to hit the headlines, this book focuses on an important counter-flow: the money that people send home. Despite considerable research on the impact of migration and remittances in countries of origin - increasingly viewed as a source of development capital - still little is known about refugees’ remittances to conflict-affected countries because such funds are most often seen as a source of conflict finance. This book explores the dynamics, infrastructure, and far-reaching effects of remittances from the perspectives of people in the Somali regions and the diaspora. With conflict driving mass displacement, Somali society has become progressively transnational, its vigorous remittance economy reaching from the heart of the global North into wrecked cities, refugee camps, and remote rural areas. By ‘following the money’ the author opens a window on the everyday lives of people caught up in processes of conflict, migration, and development. The book demonstrates how, in the interstices of state disruption and globalisation, and in the shadow of violence and political uncertainty, life in the Somali regions goes on, subject to complex transnational forms of social, economic, and political innovation and change.

Politics of Innocence: Hutu Identity, Conflict and Camp Life

Based on thorough ethnographic fieldwork in a refugee camp in Tanzania this book provides a rich account of the benevolent “disciplining mechanisms” of humanitarian agencies, led by the UNHCR, and of the situated, dynamic, indeterminate, and fluid nature of identity (re)construction in the camp. While the refugees are expected to behave as innocent, helpless victims, the question of victimhood among Burundian Hutu is increasingly challenged, following the 1993 massacres in Burundi and the Rwandan genocide. The book explores how different groups within the camp apply different strategies to cope with these issues and how the question of innocence and victimhood is itself imbued with ambiguity, as young men struggle to recuperate their masculinity and their political subjectivity.

Zimbabwe's New Diaspora: Displacement and the Cultural Politics of Survival

Zimbabwe’s crisis since 2000 has produced a dramatic global scattering of people. This volume investigates this enforced dispersal, and the processes shaping the emergence of a new "diaspora" of Zimbabweans abroad, focusing on the most important concentrations in South Africa and in Britain. Not only is this the first book on the diasporic connections created through Zimbabwe’s multifaceted crisis, but it also offers an innovative combination of research on the political, economic, cultural and legal dimensions of movement across borders and survival thereafter with a discussion of shifting identities and cultural change. It highlights the ways in which new movements are connected to older flows, and how displacements across physical borders are intimately linked to the reworking of conceptual borders in both sending and receiving states. The book is essential reading for researchers/students in migration, diaspora and postcolonial literary studies.

The Migration–Displacement Nexus: Patterns, Processes, and Policies

The “migration-displacement nexus” is a new concept intended to capture the complex and dynamic interactions between voluntary and forced migration, both internally and internationally. Besides elaborating a new concept, this volume has three main purposes: the first is to focus empirical attention on previously understudied topics, such as internal trafficking and the displacement of foreign nationals, using case studies including Afghanistan and Iraq; the second is to highlight new challenges, including urban displacement and the effects of climate change; and the third is to explore gaps in current policy responses and elaborate alternatives for the future.

Protection in Europe for refugees from Syria (summary)

This policy note provides an executive summary of RSC Policy Briefing 10, which considers the response of European countries to the refugee crisis in the Syrian region. Whilst we applaud both the humanitarian efforts to assist refugees and the resettlement that is ongoing, we believe that the primary aim of the European response – to contain the crisis in the countries neighbouring Syria and to reinforce Europe's borders – is unsustainable. We recommend that European countries implement a Comprehensive Plan of Action for refugees in the countries neighbouring Syria, comprising three main components: activation of a regional temporary protection regime, expanded resettlement, and the development of other legal routes of entry into European countries. This publication was supervised by Professor Dawn Chatty.

Protection in Europe for refugees from Syria

This report considers the response of European countries to the refugee crisis in the Syrian region. We provide an overview of the European reaction generally, brief summaries of the responses of selected countries (Germany, Sweden, Norway, Bulgaria, Greece and Italy), and a more in-depth case study of the UK. Whilst we applaud both the humanitarian efforts to assist refugees and the resettlement that is ongoing, we believe that the primary aim of the European response – to contain the crisis in the countries neighbouring Syria and to reinforce Europe's borders – is unsustainable. We recommend that European countries implement a Comprehensive Plan of Action for refugees in the countries neighbouring Syria, comprising three main components: activation of a regional temporary protection regime, expanded resettlement, and the development of other legal routes of entry into European countries. This publication was supervised by Professor Dawn Chatty.

The Syrian displacement crisis and a regional development and protection programme: mapping and meta-analysis of existing studies of costs, impacts and protection

Since the beginning of the armed conflict in 2011, almost 2.4 million people had fled Syria by January 2014. The prospect of protracted refugee displacement accentuates the already severe negative social, economic and developmental impacts. The sixth inter-agency Syria Regional Response Plan (RPP6), approved in November 2013, appealed for US$ 4.2 billion for the 2014 humanitarian and developmental programme for the refugees and their host communities in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Within this context, the European Union has prepared a three year Regional Development and Protection Programme (RDPP) for Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq covering two programme areas - costs and impacts of displacement on refugees and host countries and protection needs of the refugees. This report, provides a mapping and meta-analysis of 163 reports produced since 1st March 2013. It presents a systematic assessment of these studies and a triangulated evidence-base from which to launch the RDPP, detailed in a programme of Fast Track Interventions.

The culture of disbelief: an ethnographic approach to understanding an under-theorised concept in the UK asylum system

In the context of increasingly restrictive immigration and asylum policies in the United Kingdom, human rights advocates suggest that a ‘culture of disbelief’ permeates the asylum system, forestalling the provision of protection to those who need it. This study aims to contribute to emerging academic literature on the culture of disbelief by asking how and to what extent it manifests through the performance of law. Adopting an ethnographic approach, we observed nine complete and five partial asylum appeal hearings at Taylor House Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in London, spoke with judges and solicitors, and conducted two key informant interviews. Framing our findings using Bourdieu’s concepts of ‘habitus’, ‘field’ and ‘capital’, we do not argue that any individual element in the courtroom accounts for the culture of disbelief. Instead, this culture, or habitus, emerges when various structures and agents, with varying capital, combine.

The Human Rights of Migrants and Refugees in European Law

2016 Winner of the Odysseus Network Prize for Best Publication. Focussing on access to territory and authorization of presence and residence for third-country nationals, this book examines the EU law on immigration and asylum, addressing related questions of security of residence. Concentrating on the key measures concerning both the rights of third-country nationals to enter and stay in the EU, and the EU's construction of illegal immigration, it provides a detailed and critical discussion of EU and ECHR migration and refugee law. Rights of admission include three categories of entrants: labour migrants, family migrants, and asylum seekers and refugees. Legal entry raises further questions, and recent key measures, including the EU Blue Card Directive, the Family Reunification Directive, and the Dublin Regulation and related instruments are examined. As most of these EU measures deal with those border crossings where human rights norms have already established some constraints on state discretion, the interaction between the EU norms and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) is a key concern. The uniting theme is the interaction between established human rights norms, in particular the ECHR, and EU law. Does the EU fulfil its post-national promise to create forms of membership beyond the state, or in its treatment of non-Europeans, does it undermine human rights and existing legal protections? Part of the acclaimed Oxford Studies in European Law, this book contributes a scholarly analysis of EU and ECHR migration and refugee law, including key EU legislative measures, the Court of Justice’s main rulings, and related European Court of Human Rights case law. To claim a 30% discount, order online from the Oxford University Press website, adding promotion code ALAUTHC4 to your shopping basket. The discount is valid until 31 March 2017. Limit 10 copies per transaction, non-trade customers only. This discount does not apply to the eBook. Visit: www.oup.com/uk/law

Displacement and dispossession through land grabbing in Mozambique: the limits of international and national legal instruments

A debate exists regarding the limits of international law to influence state behaviour. Some attribute these limits to the inability of law to compel states to incorporate norms into domestic legal frameworks. Others maintain that even if institutionalised, the incapacity of states to put those norms into action is where the problem lies. In examining displacement and dispossession through land grabbing in Mozambique, the author investigates what limits the ability of international and national law to address displacement and dispossession. She argues that the limits of law to address displacement and dispossession are not due to a lack of institutionalising international good governance norms into domestic-level legal frameworks. Rather, the limits of law lie within the norm implementation process, wherein norms are conditioned by the local Mozambican governance context to serve domestic interests. As such, the other frequently cited reason of lack of state capacity is not to blame. The author explains the gap between law and practice by examining the role that a decentralised land governance structure has had upon shaping the norm implementation process. The evidence points to a state that devolves power over norm implementation to local actors, who frequently interpret them to their advantage. This co-option cannot be attributed to a lack of state capacity, as the material benefits the state accrues in the process point to a state that is disinterested in seeing the norms implemented and has devised decentralisation as a strategic governance strategy to accumulate these benefits.

An exploration and critique of the use of mental health information within refugee status determination proceedings in the United Kingdom

This study seeks to understand the composition, use and cultural orientation of mental health evidence within the UK’s refugee status determination (RSD) process, focusing specifically on mental health evidence provided in the form of a medico-legal report (MLR). By exploring those themes, this paper also strives to provide insight into what constitutes “valid” medical evidence in the context of RSD. Employing a constructivist paradigm, the study is based on 14 interviews with individuals involved in the production of mental health evidence, analysis of documents providing guidance about the production of MLRs, and analysis of MLRs themselves. It is argued that the “validity” of an MLR is based on the one hand on the perceived credibility of MLRs, and on the other hand on the perceived veracity of the mental health information it contains. The perception that evidence is “valid” can be seen as proportionate to the extent to which the report author is considered to be credible and able to frame and articulate information in a “neutral and objective way”. However, this “objectivity” is an expression of a particular, culturally specific conception of mental health; one that is framed within a Western, biomedical paradigm. As such, the MLR author has a de facto role of structuring and channelling a range of cross-cultural information into a particular, culturally specific model.

Psychosocial well-being within refugee education in Cairo

From the perspective of teachers working in refugee schools in Cairo, this article offers a brief overview of the psychosocial effects on students forced to migrate and what can be done to promote well-being and meaningful learning in refugee schools.

Closing the health gap: The role of lifelong learning and social protection

Social Determinants of Health brings together a selection of proceedings drawn from a major conference held in London 2008—this was the first independent, inter-disciplinary and critical gathering to assess the Commission's Final Report, and the results were impressive. Apart from providing searching analyses of different sections of the document, the presentations also provided the basis for a fruitful engagement between academics and those involved in policy design and implementation. The papers presented in this volume provide us with numerous insights into the genesis, management and reception of global health projects, as they unfolded in international, national and local contexts. These analyses will be of interest to teachers, students, NGOs, national governments, global and international funding agencies, and others involved in health initiatives and advocacy.

Refugee Economies: Rethinking Popular Assumptions

In the words of UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, we face ‘the most serious refugee crisis for 20 years’. Recent displacement from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan, and Somalia has increased the number of refugees in the world to 15.4 million. Significantly, some 10.2 million of these people are in protracted refugee situations. In other words, they have been in limbo for at least 5 years, with an average length of stay in exile of nearly 20 years. Rather than transitioning from emergency relief to long-term reintegration, displaced populations too often get trapped within the system. This report aims to challenge the current model of donor state-led assistance, drawing on ground-breaking new research on the economic life of refugees. By attempting to understand the economic systems of displaced populations, we hope to generate new ideas which can turn humanitarian challenges into sustainable opportunities.

Introduction: Refugee and forced migration studies in transition

Book description: Refugee and Forced Migration Studies has grown from being a concern of a relatively small number of scholars and policy researchers in the 1980s to a global field of interest with thousands of students worldwide studying displacement either from traditional disciplinary perspectives or as a core component of newer programmes across the Humanities and Social and Political Sciences. Today the field encompasses both rigorous academic research which may or may not ultimately inform policy and practice, as well as action-research focused on advocating in favour of refugees' needs and rights. This authoritative Handbook critically evaluates the birth and development of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, and analyses the key contemporary and future challenges faced by academics and practitioners working with and for forcibly displaced populations around the world. The 52 state-of-the-art chapters, written by leading academics, practitioners, and policymakers working in universities, research centres, think tanks, NGOs and international organizations, provide a comprehensive and cutting-edge overview of the key intellectual, political, social and institutional challenges arising from mass displacement in the world today. The chapters vividly illustrate the vibrant and engaging debates that characterize this rapidly expanding field of research and practice.

Football Shirts, terror and affiliation policy (Swedish)

Nationalism, cosmopolitanism and statelessness: an interview with Craig Calhoun

This interview with Professor Craig Calhoun expands on issues of nationalism and cosmopolitanism in relation to the question of statelessness. Since the 1990s, Calhoun has worked on nationalism, ethnicity and cosmopolitanism. For Calhoun, nations still matter despite post-national and cosmopolitan elaboration and repudiation of so-called parochial and provincialised identities like nation or national identity and citizenship. In this interview, Calhoun dis-cusses the material, political and cultural situations of the Kurds in the Middle East and the role of Kurdish nationalism in the context of statelessness. Calhoun finds class-based understanding of inequalities between the Kurds and their dominant others in the Middle East as problematic and incomplete since the cultural, political and material inequalities are intimately interlinked in rendering the Kurds to a subordinated position in the states they inhabit. The interview also engages with diasporic identities and examines how countries of residence can impinge on the identity formation of diasporas and how they obstruct or facilitate migrants translating their citizenship status into the right to have rights (Arendt). An important issue that Calhoun discusses is that there are both asymmetrical power relations between dominated (Kurdish) and dominating nationalisms (Turkish, Iraqi, Iranian and Syrian) and within the same nationalisms.

The extraterritorial application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: from territoriality to facticity, the effectiveness model

About the book: The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union enshrines the key political, social and economic rights of EU citizens and residents in EU law. In its present form it was approved in 2000 by the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the European Commission. However its legal status remained uncertain until the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon in December 2009. The Charter obliges the EU to act and legislate consistently with the Charter, and enables the EU's courts to strike down EU legislation which contravenes it. The Charter applies to EU Member States when they are implementing EU law but does not extend the competences of the EU beyond the competences given to it in the treaties. This Commentary on the Charter, the first in English, written by experts from several EU Member States, provides an authoritative but succinct statement of how the Charter impacts upon EU, domestic and international law. Following the conventional article-by-article approach, each commentator offers an expert view of how each article is either already being interpreted in the courts, or is likely to be interpreted. Each commentary is referenced to the case law and is augmented with extensive references to further reading. Six cross-cutting introductory chapters explain the Charter's institutional anchorage, its relationship to the Fundamental Rights Agency, its interaction with other parts of international human rights law, the enforcement mechanisms, extraterritorial scope, and the all-important 'Explanations'.

Family and professional life

About the book: The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union enshrines the key political, social and economic rights of EU citizens and residents in EU law. In its present form it was approved in 2000 by the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the European Commission. However its legal status remained uncertain until the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon in December 2009. The Charter obliges the EU to act and legislate consistently with the Charter, and enables the EU's courts to strike down EU legislation which contravenes it. The Charter applies to EU Member States when they are implementing EU law but does not extend the competences of the EU beyond the competences given to it in the treaties. This Commentary on the Charter, the first in English, written by experts from several EU Member States, provides an authoritative but succinct statement of how the Charter impacts upon EU, domestic and international law. Following the conventional article-by-article approach, each commentator offers an expert view of how each article is either already being interpreted in the courts, or is likely to be interpreted. Each commentary is referenced to the case law and is augmented with extensive references to further reading. Six cross-cutting introductory chapters explain the Charter's institutional anchorage, its relationship to the Fundamental Rights Agency, its interaction with other parts of international human rights law, the enforcement mechanisms, extraterritorial scope, and the all-important 'Explanations'.