Book Review Symposium on "Survival Migration: Failed Governance and the Crisis of Displacement"
Alexander Betts
This review symposium in the journal European Political Science contains three reviews of Alexander Betts’ book "Survival Migration: Failed Governance and the Crisis of Displacement". The reviews, by Alexandra Délano, Catherine Weaver and James Milner, respectively, are followed by a response from Alexander Betts. Abstract from the symposium introduction by Lasse Thomassen: "This review symposium contains three reviews of Alexander Betts’ Survival Migration: Failed Governance and the Crisis of Displacement by Alexandra Délano, Catherine Weaver and James Milner, respectively, as well as a reply by Alexander Betts. Survival Migration addresses an issue of great and growing importance: the precarious status of refugees who flee their country to survive environmental changes, food insecurity and generalized violence – that is, people who seek refuge in another state with the aim of survival. Their status is precarious because they often fall between existing legal categories, and because they often flee to states that are unwilling or unable to protect them. Betts uses the concept of survival migration to highlight this crisis. He introduces another concept – regime stretching – to show how states adapt, or stretch, existing international frameworks and structures to the situation they face. The analytical and normative advantages of the concepts of survival migration and regime stretching are at the centre of the exchange between Betts and the reviewers of his book."