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The two worlds of humanitarian innovation
There has been a gradual shift in the humanitarian world to considering the role that innovation can play in addressing endemic challenges of inefficiency, unsustainability and dependency. Within this ‘humanitarian turn’, the dominant approaches have been ‘top-down’, mainly focusing on finding ways to improve organisational responses. Alongside this, though, there has been the emergence of an alternative discourse of ‘bottom-up’ innovation. This approach has not yet been integrated into the current world of innovation practice within the typical humanitarian community. However, as this paper argues, it offers a potential way to engage the skills, talents and aspirations of so-called beneficiary populations, and thereby nurture self-reliance and sustainability. In order to develop a basic framework for thinking about bottom-up innovation, this paper draws on three relevant pre-existing bodies of literature: innovation theory, design theory and ideas on participatory approaches to development. Drawing upon the ideas and gaps in these literatures, the paper sets out a research framework capable of advancing the recognition and nurturing of existing local adaptation and innovation capacities within beneficiary communities as a source of sustainable humanitarian solutions.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR): The Politics and Practice of Refugee Protection into the 21st Century
This is a concise and comprehensive introduction to both the world of refugees and the UN organization that protects and assists them. Written by experts in the field, this is one of the very few books that trace the relationship between state interests, global politics, and the work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR). Looking ahead into the twenty-first century, the authors outline how the changing nature of conflict and displacement poses UNHCR with a new array of challenges and how there exists a fundamental tension between the UN’s human rights agenda of protecting refugees fleeing conflict and persecution and the security, political and economic interests of states around the world.
Forced Migration and Global Politics
Using real-world examples and in-depth case studies, Forced Migration and Global Politics systematically applies International Relations theory to explore the international politics of forced migration.
Protection by Persuasion: International Cooperation in the Refugee Regime
States located near crisis zones are most likely to see an influx of people fleeing from manmade disasters; African states, for instance, are forced to accommodate and adjust to refugees more often than do European states far away from sites of upheaval. Geography dictates that states least able to pay the costs associated with refugees are those most likely to have them cross their borders. Therefore, refugee protection has historically been characterized by a North-South impasse. While Southern states have had to open their borders to refugees fleeing conflict or human rights abuses in neighboring states, Northern states have had little obligation or incentive to contribute to protecting refugees in the South. In recent years, however, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has sought to foster greater international cooperation within the global refugee regime through special conferences at which Northern states are pushed to contribute to the costs of protection for refugees in the South. These initiatives, Alexander Betts finds in Protection by Persuasion, can overcome the North-South impasse and lead to significant cooperation. Betts shows that Northern states will contribute to such efforts when they recognize a substantive relationship between refugee protection in the South and their own interests in such issues as security, immigration, and trade. Highlighting the mechanisms through which UNHCR has been able to persuade Northern states that such links exist, Protection by Persuasion makes clear that refugee protection is a global concern, most effectively addressed when geographic realities are overridden by the perception of interdependence.
Refugees in International Relations
Refugees lie at the heart of world politics. The causes and consequences of, and responses to, human displacement are intertwined with many of the core concerns of International Relations. Yet, scholars of International Relations have generally bypassed the study of refugees, and Forced Migration Studies has generally bypassed insights from International Relations. This volume therefore represents an attempt to bridge the divide between these disciplines, and to place refugees within the mainstream of International Relations. Drawing together the work and ideas of a combination of the world's leading and emerging International Relations scholars, the volume considers what ideas from International Relations can offer our understanding of the international politics of forced migration. The insights draw from across the theoretical spectrum of International Relations from realism to critical theory to feminism, covering issues including international cooperation, security, and the international political economy. They engage with some of the most challenging political and practical questions in contemporary forced migration, including peacebuilding, post-conflict reconstruction, and statebuilding. The result is a set of highly original chapters, yielding not only new concepts of wider relevance to International Relations but also insights for academics, policy-makers, and practitioners working on forced migration in particular and humanitarianism in general.
Global Migration Governance
Unlike many other trans-boundary policy areas, international migration lacks coherent global governance. There is no UN migration organization and states have signed relatively few multilateral treaties on migration. Instead sovereign states generally decide their own immigration policies. However, given the growing politicisation of migration and the recognition that states cannot always address migration in isolation from one another, a debate has emerged about what type of international institutions and cooperation are required to meet the challenges of international migration. Until now, though, that emerging debate on global migration governance has lacked a clear analytical understanding of what global migration governance actually is, the politics underlying it, and the basis on which we can make claims about what 'better' migration governance might look like. In order to address this gap, the book brings together a group of the world's leading experts on migration to consider the global governance of different aspects of migration. The chapters offer an accessible introduction to the global governance of low-skilled labour migration, high-skilled labour migration, irregular migration, lifestyle migration, international travel, refugees, internally displaced persons, human trafficking and smuggling, diaspora, remittances, and root causes. Each of the chapters explores the three same broad questions: What, institutionally, is the global governance of migration in that area? Why, politically, does that type of governance exist? How, normatively, can we ground claims about the type of global governance that should exist in that area? Collectively, the chapters enhance our understanding of the international politics of migration and set out a vision for international cooperation on migration.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR): The Politics and Practice of Refugee Protection, 2nd Edition
This revised and expanded second edition of The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) continues to offer a concise and comprehensive introduction to both the world of refugees and the organizations that protect and assist them. This updated edition also includes: up to date coverage of the UNHCR’s most recent history and policy developments; evaluation of new thinking on issues such as working in UN integrated operations and within the UN peacebuilding commission; assessment of the UNHCR’s record of working for IDP’s (internally displaced persons); discussion of the politics of protection and its implications for the work of the UNHCR; outline of the new challenges for the agency including environmental refugees, victims of natural disasters and survival migrants. Written by experts in the field, this is one of the very few books to trace the relationship between state interests, global politics, and the work of the UNHCR. This book will appeal to students, scholars, practitioners, and readers with an interest in international relations.
The Kosovo crisis
On 18 May 1998, the Refugee Studies Centre hosted a workshop titled ‘Preventing a Humanitarian Crisis in Kosovo’ which was funded by the Department for International Development and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. The workshop provided a forum in which influential guests from the Balkans could exchange view on the current situation, and allowed participants to explore elements of possible political arrangements that take into account the human rights of the local Albanian population and the legitimate concerns of the Serb people and Yugoslav government. Two international principles guided most of the discussion throughout the day: the right to self-determination, and respect for the territorial integrity of states. Lastly, the workshop contributed to the launching of a research project at the Refugee Studies Centre to provide policymakers with analytical research that can contribute to attenuating the tensions in Kosovo and dealing with refugee outflows.
UNHCR and international refugee protection
This paper was originally given as the opening and closing addresses of the Refugee Studies Centre’s Summer School in 1998. McNamara discusses fundamental policy dilemmas that UNHCR will confront in the twenty-first century and suggests possible directions for moving forward. Most of these issues became prominent during the post-Cold War period when UNHCR was expected to ensure reasonable standards of refugee protection in a context characterised by increased internal conflicts and difficulties with the state-centred institution of asylum. Goodwin-Gill follows on this theme with suggestions on how to make the ‘culture of protection’ relevant again. He offers his reflections on the possibility of adopting a principled and pragmatic approach to refugee protection.
Globalisation, humanitarianism and the erosion of refugee protection
This paper was originally given as the first Harrell-Bond Lecture on 17 November 1999. It attempts to analyse the relationship between globalisation and humanitarianism to point to the underlying neo-liberal agenda and the selective concern with human rights. It examines the implications of new humanitarianism for the principles of refugee protection. It argues that the ideology of humanitarianism mobilises a range of meanings and practices to establish and sustain global relations of domination. In particular, humanitariansim manipulates the language of human rights to legitimise a range of dubious practices, including its selective defense. It concludes by offering some broad recommendations.
Sharing the security burden: towards the convergence of refugee protection and state security
Efforts to ensure international protection for refugees have been repeatedly frustrated as states have expressed an increased reluctance to offer asylum. This paper proposes an approach premised both on the logic of burden sharing and on a more rigorous and comprehensive understanding of the relationship between refugees and security. Through the specific case of Tanzania, this paper argues that the broader goal of improving both the quality and quantity of protection afforded to victims of conflict-induced forced migration is best realised by recognising and addressing the legitimate security interests of states. Moreover, it illustrates that refugee protection cannot effectively take place in conditions of acute and protracted state insecurity.
Refugees on screen
This paper examines the representation of refugees in the media, paying special regard to the visual image. It begins by considering some contemporary images of refugees in the press and looks for patterns and common elements in their construction and usage. It then identifies some historical archetypes that are used to portray the subject of forced migration and initially suggests that many ‘standard’ images of refugees conform to patterns already established in Christian iconography. It suggests that viewers find accord with such images and that they may evoke a familiar story-line. The paper then considers the ways that the refugee story has been structured in fiction film and the news media. The paper concludes with the identification of key topics for future research into media images of refugees.
Outside the protection of the law: the situation of irregular migrants in Europe
The desire to understand the complex problem of irregular migration in Europe led the Jesuit Refugee Service in 1996 to commission three country studies on the issue from the UK, Germany and Spain. They were intended to provide a broad view of the problem of irregular migration across countries with diverse migration histories. This paper acts as a synthesis report, bringing together the findings of the three national reports to focus attention on the situation of migrants with irregular status in Europe as a whole. It aims to draw out common themes from the national studies that are applicable across all European Union countries. Moreover, it proffers a number of recommendations for policy responses towards irregular migrants at the European level. The policies advocated here are intended to form the basis of humane and rights-respecting responses by European governments to the phenomenon of irregular migration.
Children affected by armed conflict in South Asia: a review of trends and isues identified through secondary research
This paper is a summary of the trends and issues identified through surveys of the impacts of conflict on children in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh and the Chittagong Hill Tracts. This research was intended to identify existing information on war-affected and displaced children in these countries as well as the organisations that are working on these issues. It analyses both the macro conditions that contribute to political violence as well as the micro level impacts of these conflicts on children. Moreover, it points to knowledge gaps and methodological shortcoming. The findings will be used to establish priority areas for capacity-building and programmatic intervention, and key issues for policy and advocacy.
Toward local development and mitigating impoverishment in development-induced displacement and resettlement
Why have guidelines failed to transform resettlement experiences? To answer this question, this study employs first-hand experience of resettlement at Manantali (Mali). It presents the most recent formulation of Cernea’s risks and reconstruction model and the World Bank guidelines, and looks at the ability of resettlement programs to address economic and power issues. This paper identifies places where improvements have occurred: social welfare, recognition of the importance of social capital as well as secure land access, attempts to make compensation more equitable and useful, and avoidance of unnecessary resettlement. Moreover, it examines areas where risks are known but resettlement practice remains problematic. This paper concludes with a discussion of the potential problems involved in moving from an economic approach to a more explicitly political-economic one.
Displacement, resistance and the critique of development: from the grass-roots to the global
This paper explores the ways the rights, claims and visions of the development process that are expressed in the complex and multidimensional forms of resistance to development-induced displacement and resettlement become not only means to refuse relocation or claim compensation or better conditions, but also help to initiate and become part of a multi-level and multi-sectoral effort to critique and reconceptualise the development process.
Experiences of integration: accessing resources in a new society: the case of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers in Milton Keynes
This paper describes a project which explored the integration of unaccompanied minor asylum-seekers and refugees (UMAs) in Milton Keynes (MK). It argues that policy and practice concerning UMAs in MK are ill-defined and inconsistent. Institutional resources already in place are not being fully utilised as UMAs are often an after-thought in the service provision for citizen children. UMAs encounter difficulties in accessing education facilities, and living arrangements do not consistently meet protection requirements. As a result, UMAs frequently experience isolation and confusion about their present and future in the UK. Based on these findings, this paper makes recommendations for policy changes at both the local and the national levels.
Addressing the root causes of forced migration: a European Union policy of containment?
This paper examines whether or not European Union (EU) root causes policies are a desirable means to address appropriate ends. It analyzes the ways in which root causes policies interact with primary migration measures in its attempt to understand whether these policies seek to defend the right of people to remain in their country of origin by attenuating causes of departure on normative grounds or prevent and contain conflict to limit the influx of foreigners on its territory. It argues for a deepening and widening of the understanding of development, and for increased autonomy of human rights and conflict prevention policies. Moreover it suggests that the institutional structure of the EU and its multiple overlapping layers of competence and governance pose significant challenges to the effective and coherent co-ordination and implementation of root causes policies.
Conceptualising forced migration
To conceptualise something is to construct it rather than to define or describe it. In this way, the metaphorical language used to talk about migration carries with it certain implications for the way we think about, and therefore act towards, migrants. This paper explores the conceptual and practical difficulties involved in separating out forced from unforced migrants, and considers the main categorical distinctions that have emerged over the years within the broader category of forced migrants. These distinctions, like the term ‘forced migrant’ itself, are artifacts of policy concerns, rather than of empirical observation and sociological analysis. This paper suggests that this raises problems, both for the practical relevance of research and for the dialogue between policy makers and advocates in the field of forced migration.
Refugees and ‘other forced migrants'
This paper discusses a general problem that arises whenever one attempts to formalise and institutionalise a relatively new field of academic enquiry, such as forced migration, with the aim of having an impact on policy: namely, how to define the subject matter of the field. It argues that the scientific study of forced migration is, paradoxically, less likely to be ‘relevant’ to policy and practice, the more slavishly it follows policy related categories in defining its subject matter. This paper suggests that the main obstacle to what Cernea calls the ‘bridging of the research divide’ (1996) between these different populations of forced migrants is the over-reliance of refugee studies scholars on ad hoc distinctions which have important political and policy implications but which result in categories which are ill-suited both to comparison, and to the observation, description and analysis of empirical data.