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South-South Humanitarianism in Contexts of Forced Displacement
This workshop report offers a thematic discussion of the main issues covered throughout the course of the international workshop on ‘South-South humanitarian responses to forced displacement’ convened by Dr. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford in October 2012, in addition to presenting areas and questions for further research. The workshop was generously supported by the Oxford Department of International Development and Refugee Studies Centre (University of Oxford) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ Policy Development and Evaluation Service (UNHCR-PDES). Dr. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh’s broader research project, South-South Humanitarianism in Contexts of Forced Displacement, is funded by an Oxford University Fell Fund Award (2012-2013).
The Arab Spring and Beyond: Human Mobility, Forced Migration and Institutional Responses
This report analyses the main themes arising from the presentations and discussions at ‘The Arab Spring and Beyond: Human Mobility, Forced Migration and Institutional Responses’ workshop organised by the International Migration Institute (IMI), Refugee Studies Centre (RSC), and Oxford Diasporas Programme on 20 March 2012. The workshop invited international scholars, practitioners and policy makers to examine the extent to which the Arab Spring has shifted both migration and forced migration dynamics and governance in North Africa and the Levant. The workshop consisted of three panels: The first panel, entitled ‘Revolution, asylum and mobility’ explored how varying processes of political, economic, and social contestation in North Africa and the Levant have affected human mobility. The second panel, entitled ‘Migration and institutional responses during the transition’ examined how events have transformed or impacted the institutional behaviour and responses of international organisations and civil society groups working in the field of migration and displacement. The final panel, entitled ‘Diaspora mobilization, transnational networks and civic society’ discussed how publics and governments in North Africa and the Levant have positioned or repositioned themselves in relation to issues of forced migration and migration.
Dana Declaration +10
Mobile indigenous peoples have sustainably managed the land they live on for centuries. However, in the name of biodiversity conservation, some have been displaced, dispossessed and expelled from their traditional territories and left destitute and culturally impoverished. While these practices have been largely discarded in rhetoric by biodiversity conservation agencies, progress in human rights observance and land restitution has lagged behind new thinking on the relationship between people and protected areas. Thus, local and national policy and institutional change in the field have not kept pace with advances in thinking at the international level; nor do they always live up to public declarations of concern for human rights. Ten years after the Dana Declaration on Mobile Peoples and Conservation was formulated in Wadi Dana, Jordan, it is time to follow up on the achievements of the past decade and consider the future.
Iraqi Protracted Displacement
Drawing on the findings of a case study on Iraqi regional displacement and on the ongoing work of IDMC on internal displacement, this workshop organised by the RSC and IDMC aimed to provide a small forum for discussion on how policymakers (specifically regional government representatives, donors and the UN), practitioners and researchers can contribute to ‘unlocking’ recurrent and protracted Iraqi displacement. This report provides a brief overview of the themes explored and goes on to present the main outcomes of the event, laying out proposals for policy development.
Iraqi Protracted Displacement (Arabic)
Drawing on the findings of a case study on Iraqi regional displacement and on the ongoing work of IDMC on internal displacement, this workshop organised by the RSC and IDMC aimed to provide a small forum for discussion on how policymakers (specifically regional government representatives, donors and the UN), practitioners and researchers can contribute to ‘unlocking’ recurrent and protracted Iraqi displacement. This report provides a brief overview of the themes explored and goes on to present the main outcomes of the event, laying out proposals for policy development.
Between Protracted and Crisis Displacement: Policy Responses to Somali Displacement
Two decades after the collapse of the Somali Republic, the country’s regions still suffer chronic political uncertainty, violence and high levels of displacement. Since 2006, protracted displacements that began in the 1990s have been overlaid by new crises associated with severe drought, political violence and governance failures. The current situation, which involves both internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees, is widely acknowledged as among the worst in the world, both in terms of the number of people affected and the extent of their humanitarian and protection needs. The aim of the workshop was to facilitate discussion about current and future policy responses. To do so, it drew on an overview of global policy on protracted displacement and a case study from Somalia.
North Africa in Transition: Mobility, Forced Migration and Humanitarian Crises
This report analyses the main themes arising from the presentations and discussions at the ‘North Africa in Transition: Mobility, Forced Migration and Humanitarian Crises’ workshop organized by the International Migration Institute and Refugee Studies Centre on 6 May 2011. The workshop provided a space for academics, practitioners and policy makers to critically engage with the evolving crises in North Africa, focusing in particular on the challenges surrounding the displacement of people in their wake, including: migrant workers from across the African continent, sub-Saharan African and Middle Eastern asylum seekers and refugees, and third-country nationals. The workshop consisted of two panels. The first examined how the revolutions and subsequent crises in North Africa are influencing different forms of mobility, displacement, and immobility in the region. The second explored the key protection and legal challenges faced by the international community in light of these large-scale displacements.
Dynamics of Conflict and Forced Migration in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
At the end of November, the RSC hosted a two-day experts workshop on conflict and forced migration in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The event was generously funded by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (DRC office) and DFID. Fifty practitioners, academics and policymakers from the DRC and beyond explored the relation between conflict, displacement, the return of populations and the interaction between armed actors and civilians. Policy suggestions to end the vicious cycle of violence, including sexual and gender-based violence and displacement emanating from FMR 36 and the workshop have been presented and discussed in a visit of RSC affiliates to the DRC in February 2011.
Dynamics of Conflict and Forced Migration in the Democratic Republic of Congo (French)
At the end of November, the RSC hosted a two-day experts workshop on conflict and forced migration in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The event was generously funded by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (DRC office) and DFID. Fifty practitioners, academics and policymakers from the DRC and beyond explored the relation between conflict, displacement, the return of populations and the interaction between armed actors and civilians. Policy suggestions to end the vicious cycle of violence, including sexual and gender-based violence and displacement emanating from FMR 36 and the workshop have been presented and discussed in a visit of RSC affiliates to the DRC in February 2011.
More labels, fewer refugees: remaking the refugee label in an era of globalization
This paper revisits the concept of refugee labelling I elaborated nearly two decades ago. In radically different conditions, the contemporary relevance and utility of the concept are re-examined and re-established. Formulated at a time of regionally contained, mass refugee migration in the south during the late 1970s and early 1980s, the paper argues that the concept still offers vital insights into the impacts of institutional and bureaucratic power on the lives of refugees in a globalized era of transnational social transformations, mixed migration flows, and the continuing presence of large scale refugee migration. The core of the paper argues that the ‘convenient images’ of refugees, labelled within a co-opting humanitarian discourse in the past, have been displaced by a fractioning of the label which is driven by the need to manage globalized processes and patterns of migration and forced migration in particular. The paper re-evaluates the concept using the three original axioms—forming, transforming and politicizing the label ‘refugee’. The core argument is that in the contemporary era: a) the formation of the refugee label reflects causes and patterns of forced migration which are much more complex than in the past, contrasting with an essentially homogeneous connotation in the past; b) responding to this complexity, the refugee label is transformed by an institutional ‘fractioning’ in order to manage the new migration; c) governments, rather than NGOs as in the past, are the pre-eminent agency in the contemporary processes of transforming the refugee label, a process driven by northern interests; d) the refugee label has become politicized by the reproduction of institutional fractioning and by embedding the wider political discourse of resistance to migrants and refugees.
Labelling refugees: forming and transforming a bureaucratic identity
This essay examines how and with what consequences people become labelled as refugees within the context of public policy practices, Conceptual and operational limitations to the existing definition of refugees are noted. These, the paper contends, derive from the absence of a systematic study of labelling processes in the donative policy discourse associated with refugees. The paper outlines the conceptual tools of bureaucratic labelling - stereo typing, conformity, designation, identity disaggrcgation and political/power relationships. These tools are then deployed to analyse empirical data collected from a large refugee population in Cyprus, supplemented by selective secondary research data on various African refugee populations. The analysis proceeds in three parts. First the formation of the label is considered in which stereotyped identities are translated into bureaucratically assumed needs. The label thus takes on a selective, materialist meaning. Alienating distinctions emerge by the creation of different categories of refugee deemed necessary to prioritize need. Next, reformation of the label is considered. The evidence shows how latent and manifest processes of institutional action and programme delivery, reinforce a disaggregated model of identity; in this case disturbing distinctions are made between refugee and non-refugee. Third, the paper considers how labels assume, often conflicting, politicized meanings, for both labelled and labellers. The paper concludes by emphasizing: the extreme vulnerability of refugees to imposed labels; the importance of symbolic meaning; the dynamic nature of the identity; and, most fundamentally of all, the non-participatory nature and powerlessness of refugees in these processes.
The struggle for belonging: forming and reforming identities among 1.5-generation asylum seekers and refugees
Issues of identity can be tricky for refugees, asylum seekers and other immigrants in general. From an essentialist perspective, finding oneself dislocated from the place where one was born and grew up, from the community where one’s ancestors had deep connections and ties, and perhaps where one feels that one belongs, is difficult to deal with. The research question that is being investigated is as follows: in what ways do people of the 1.5-generation (particularly given to the Ethiopian 1.5-generation) in the diaspora represent themselves, and what are the ways in which they negotiate and construct their identities? As the first part of the question indicates, by asking ‘in what ways,’ it is evident that there is no single response. This paper argues that while the process of identity formation may in general be difficult, this process is intensified and becomes more complex in the case of the 1.5-generation of forced migrants, often leading to a painful ‘struggle for belonging.’
Tony Blair’s asylum policies: the narratives and conceptualisations at the heart of New Labour’s restrictionism
Over the last twenty years, there has been a radical shift in public perceptions of and political reactions to asylum seekers in democratic states across the world. As numbers of asylum seekers have risen, at times dramatically, governments of all political persuasions have implemented restrictionist policies designed to prevent and deter individuals from seeking asylum. This paper examines the development of this restrictionist trend by exploring the conceptual foundations of New Labour’s asylum policies through an analysis of the contributions made by Tony Blair in the House of Commons between 1992 and 2007. Blair’s attitude towards asylum shifted dramatically as he himself moved from the opposition to the government. I will examine the justifications offered for his increasing restrictionism in order to identify the way in which Blair articulates the tension inherent in all modern liberal democratic states between universal human rights and state sovereignty.
Flowing into the state: returning refugee youth and citizenship in Angola
This paper considers citizenship in its non-legal sense, using Angola as a case study and focusing primarily on returning refugee youth and the manner in which reintegration programs are designed and implemented in light of the transition to democratic governance. This paper suggests that outdated notions of childhood development still widely inform the manner in which youth are treated today. It explores education as a means through which this process is manifest, in both UN and Angolan domestic policy. It also questions the ability of education in and of itself to address the needs of young people in a post-conflict setting in which civil and social institutions have been widely ruptured. It calls for the engagement of refugee youth in the process of their repatriation at the earliest possible moment, and highlights the need for a reframing of young people such that their contributions to Angolan and international society are recognized and their ‘citizenship’ consequently validated at an experiential level.
Negotiating childhood: age assessment in the UK asylum system
Faced with rising numbers of undocumented asylum seekers claiming to be minors, age assessment is increasingly conceived as an integral part of asylum determination in Europe. Portrayed as a viable way to safeguard domestic asylum and welfare systems from adults posing as minors whilst concurrently ensuring that children are protected (Council of Europe 2005), age assessment has nonetheless been notoriously controversial in the UK. This paper therefore seeks to address the underlying issue of why age assessment is so politicised. This paper seeks to demonstrate how a range of domestic social, discursive, political and institutional factors impact and shape the seemingly technical process of assessing UASCs’ age. Importantly, these conditions of possibility do not necessarily relate directly to age assessment. Nonetheless, their intersection can open, exacerbate or close spaces for contestation around age assessment. Hence the politicised nature of age assessment might meaningfully be understood as a response to shifting issues of age and asylum resulting from a particular conflation of conditions in the UK.
Ending internal displacement: the long-term IDPs in Sri Lanka
This paper considers the end of internal displacement in Sri Lanka with particular emphasis on the northern Muslim internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the district of Puttalam. It highlights the dilemmas and challenges faced by the IDPs after a protracted displacement, where the end of a war presents two main options: a return to their origins or integration in the present area of displacement. As analyzed in this paper, these durable solutions need structures and conditions to support them, including effective IDP participation in the decision-making process. The central lesson drawn from the northern Muslim IDP experience is that while there is no single precise durable solution to end displacement, a holistic and integrated approach is needed. The right to return will require the recognition of many factors analyzed in this paper that should be set in place so that return is a sustainable durable solution.
Deportation, non-deportability and ideas of membership
The purpose of this paper is to bridge the scholarships on deportation and citizenship and account for the “soft line” between aliens and citizens (Ngai, 2004) epitomised in the current dilemma on deportation enforcement. In particular, this paper explores the extent to which, and why, states are unable to enforce deportation orders and the concurrent creation of new forms of quasi-members of the polity. Building upon the emerging literature on the so-called ‘deportation turn’, whereby countries are seeking to deport an increasingly high number of undocumented migrants to their alleged countries of origin (De Genova and Peutz, 2010), this paper focuses on the constraints that states face in fully implementing deportation and the manner in which they respond to them. This paper suggests that the limited capacity of states to exercise efficaciously their power of coercion, such as deportation, can be understood as a function of the predicament of liberal democratic society.
No refuge: Palestinians in Lebanon
Suleiman’s paper sets out the restricted legal, political, economic and social conditions within which Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are forced to live. More than any of the other four populations under the UNRWA mandate, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are deprived of basic civil and human rights. In the aftermath of the Nahr el-Bared debates regarding its rebuilding and the possible association with tawteen, Suleiman maintains that Palestinians in Lebanon do not wish to be naturalised or integrated; they do not wish to give up their claims to Palestine but simply seek to “mitigate their destitution and alleviate their day-to-day suffering.” The paper by Mansour and Yassin places the rebuilding of the Nahr el-Bared camp within the current concerns on the ‘global war on terror’ and the securitisation debates which link refugees to threats to national security. The paper asks whether post-conflict reconstruction is designed to restore refugee protection - as the state claims - or to implement greater control, confinement and exclusion. Using Foucault’s framework of governmentality, it analyses the Lebanese state’s protection and reconstruction policy and practice over Nahr el-Bared camp. It concludes that, while the reconstruction plan for the camp in strictly technical terms is a model of innovation, it has serious implications for the rights and protection of refugees.
The African Union, the United Nations and civilian protection challenges in Darfur
This paper examines the relationship between the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN) in the protection of civilians in armed conflicts. The paper proposes that we can best understand the AU-UN collaboration for civilian protection from a perspective that takes seriously the value of legitimacy for state actors. The benefits of such an approach are illustrated by reference to the AU’s lead role in the Darfur conflict and its African Mission in Sudan. It concludes that since the AU-UN relationship for civilian protection appears to be ‘the only game in town’, and this state of affairs is becoming more institutionalised, it isnecessary that scholars comment on its political effects in terms of the quality of protection provided. The paper draws on a particular understanding of international legitimacy to increase our understanding of how UNSC has executed its responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security in Africa.
Livelihoods under protracted conflict: a case study of Sri Lanka
Populations affected by violent conflicts often withstand threats to their security and livelihoods. Their response to the former threat affects their response to the latter, and vice versa. This paper identifies and assesses the effectiveness of certain responses used in a protracted conflict setting by households in Medawachchiya DSD of the Anuradhapura district in Sri Lanka. The field work for this study involved a sample of 82 households and was conducted during January-April 2008. It finds evidence that the protection and livelihood strategies of households affected by protracted conflict are often interlaced. It also finds that Sinhalese and Muslim households had largely responded to the protracted conflict in ways that were unique to their ethnic groups. This is evident as certain vulnerabilities that impinge upon protection and livelihood opportunities are ethnically biased. The differences in responses meant that the final outcome of these responses, mainly the income, also tended to differ across ethnicities.