Middle East North Africa (MENA) Refugee Crisis: Digital Resources in Review

Instability in the Middle East has become increasingly marked since the so-called Arab Spring in 2011 and escalating refugee flows and internally displaced populations continue to invoke global humanitarian and political concern. Although neighbouring countries have predominantly assumed responsibility for those displaced in the region, movements of desperate people into Europe has further heightened awareness of the regional crisis. While there is international awareness through press coverage and all-pervasive social media forums, for those interested in accessing more critical and comprehensive sources for Middle Eastern refugees there is a wealth of material available. This article provides an overview to a selection of these, much of which are Open Access. As Subject Consultant for Forced Migration at the Bodleian Social Science Library at the University of Oxford, Sarah Rhodes is fortunate to work with one of the world’s best collections on population displacement. This collection, formerly housed at the Refugee Studies Centre (RSC), was created in the mid-1980s and consequently also charts some of the earlier conflicts within the region. The library catalogue, Search Oxford Libraries Online (SOLO), can be searched, and in some cases full-text documents from the unpublished document collection can be accessed as a link through the Forced Migration Online Digital Library.