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Inter-generational negotiations of religious identity, belief and practice: child, youth and adult perspectives from three cities
Book description: Rescripting Religion in the City explores the role of faith and religious practices as strategies for understanding and negotiating the migratory experience. Leading international scholars draw on case studies of urban settings in the global north and south. Presenting a nuanced understanding of the religious identities of migrants within the 'modern metropolis' this book makes a significant contribution to fields as diverse as twentieth-century immigration history, the sociology of religion and migration studies, as well as historical and urban geography and practical theology.
The pragmatics of performance: putting ‘faith’ in aid in the Sahrawi refugee camps
Since the 1970s, Sahrawi refugees have depended upon humanitarian assistance and political support offered by a variety of secular and faith-based non-governmental organizations. In this article I explore the ways in which Sahrawi refugees’ political representatives (the Polisario Front) have mobilized religiously-related claims to maximize diverse short- and long-term benefits both inside and outside the camps. In light of the contemporary geopolitical context, including localized concerns regarding ‘Islamism’ and ‘terrorism’ in North Africa, I argue that notions of ‘secularism’ and ‘religious tolerance’ have been invoked during interactions with different non-Sahrawi audiences to demonstrate the ‘ideal’ nature of the Sahrawi camps. In particular, the presence and activism of American evangelical humanitarians are invoked by the Polisario Front to demonstrate the ‘ideal’ nature of the camps as spaces of ‘religious tolerance’ and ‘inter-faith dialogue’. However, the presence of evangelical humanitarians equally has the potential to create an irreconcilable rupture not only with other, non-evangelical donors (including ‘secular’ Spanish ‘Friends of the Sahrawi’), but also between the Polisario and the very refugees which this organization purports to represent. I conclude the article by arguing that rather than creating a dialogic process between refugees and both secular- and faith-based humanitarians, maintaining the appearance of ‘religious tolerance’ is ultimately founded upon a system of repress-entation which purposefully centralizes certain groups, identifiers and dynamics whilst simultaneously displacing and marginalizing the potential for debate and contestation.
Human rights and the elusive universal subject: immigration detention under international human rights and EU law
The right to liberty is ubiquitous in human rights instruments, in essence protecting all individuals from arbitrary arrest and detention. Yet, in practice, immigration detention is increasingly routine, even automatic, across Europe. Asylum seekers in particular have been targeted for detention. While international human rights law limits detention, its protections against immigration detention are weaker than in other contexts, as the state's immigration control prerogatives are given sway. In spite of the overlapping authority of international and regional human rights bodies, the caselaw in this field is diverse. Focusing on the U.N. Human Rights Committee, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Court of Justice of the European Union, this Article explores how greater interaction between these bodies could produce more rights-protective standards.
Courting access to asylum in Europe: recent supranational jurisprudence explored
This article explores access to refugee protection, which in practice means access to a place of refuge, in light of various barriers to protection erected by European States. First, European States increasingly extend their border controls beyond their territorial borders and co-operate in order to prevent those seeking protection from reaching their territory. Yet, legal obligations, in particular the principle of non-refoulement, may continue to apply to these activities, as the concept of ‘jurisdiction’ in human rights law develops. Second, they engage a further, diametrically opposed move, where they purport to act as a single zone of protection, and allocate responsibility for asylum claimants in a manner that also hinders access to protection. The aim of this article is to explore the recent responses of Europe’s two supranational courts, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or ‘Strasbourg’) and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU or ‘Luxembourg’), in confronting these attempts to limit and manage access to protection in the EU. Its focus is the ECtHR ruling in Hirsi Jamaa v Italy (condemning Italy’s pushback of migrants intercepted on boats in the Mediterranean to Libya), as well as that in MSS v Belgium and Greece (concerning the Dublin system for allocation of responsibility for processing asylum claims) and the subsequent CJEU ruling in NS/ME.
Metock: free movement and “normal family life” in the Union
This article examines the ECJ’s ruling, following an exceptional accelerated procedure, in Case C–127/08 Metock, of 25 July 2008. The article praises the Court’s boldness in abandoning the “prior lawful residence” requirement for residence rights of third–country national (TCN) family members of migrant EU Citizens, explicitly overruling Akrich on this issue. Its reasoning is bold, yet economical, grounded in the 2004 Citizenship Directive and right to free movement of EU citizens. However, the article is critical of the failure to publish the Opinion of AG Maduro and the sparse reasoning in the case. The ECJ’s fundamental rights reticence is particularly striking, in particular as its conception of the residence rights inherent in “normal family life” diverges from the analogous protections under Article 8 ECHR. Although Metock was an easy transborder case concerning migrant EU citizens resident in another EU Member State, the article also argues that the denial of the EC dimension to the family reunification claims of static EU citizens against their home Member States is increasingly untenable.
The Bosphorus ruling of the European Court of Human Rights: fundamental rights and blurred boundaries in Europe
The recent case of Bosphorus Airlines v Ireland provided the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) with an opportunity to refine further its relationship with the EU. In particular, the ECtHR was called upon to clarify when States could be held responsible for actions taken under the banner of the EU. This article examines the status quo prior to the Bosphorus judgment, and then scrutinises the judgment itself, focusing particularly on the use and scope of the doctrine of ‘equivalent protection’ to determine State responsibility. The doctrine as outlined in Bosphorus is applied to some likely scenarios involving EU action and its relative merits and disadvantages are discussed. The article also briefly addresses the further global implications of the judgment, namely for the legal accountability of the UN Security Council and the ongoing issue of responsibility of international organisations under international law.
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.