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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.
Financing matters: where funding arrangements meet resettlement in three Mexican dam projects
This paper investigates the implications for resettlement of the financial involvement of the World Bank and a coalition of private companies, in three separate Mexican dam projects in the early 1990s. This paper argues that financing arrangements can influence a project’s resettlement conditions. In two of the projects, the World Bank’s involvement was important in determining the high level of attention paid to resettlement planning and monitoring and the positive resettlement outcomes. In contrast, the lack of resettlement standards among the remaining project’s private sector financiers and the unresponsiveness of this group to pressures for reform on resettlement issues resulted in poor resettlement conditions. In an era of privatisation, the implications of this are serious. As governments turn to the private sector, rather than multi-lateral or bilateral development agencies, for assistance in infrastructure development, the likelihood also increases that the rights and needs of displacees will be marginalised.
Narrating displacement: oral histories of Sri Lankan women
This paper examines how traditional discourses on repatriation and the return home have developed, whether they are accurate or appropriate, and subsequently suggests alternative perspectives on return (Black and Koser 1999). In particular, this paper focuses on the resettlement of internally displaced Sri Lankan women to their native villages, and argues that despite physical return, a “generalized condition of homelessness” (Malkki 1992: 37) persists due to physical, social and political forms of violence which obstruct the ability of many women to return ‘home’. It contends that for many Sri Lankan women, resettlement has meant merely the return to their geographical place of origin, and no more. More generally, this paper argues that both scholars of forced migration and the international humanitarian community are working amidst a conceptual framework that has yet to truly comprehend the complexity of experiences involved in return and reintegration.
When forced migrants return 'home': the psychosocial difficulties returnees encounter in the reintegration process
Since the 1980s onwards, voluntary repatriation has been promoted by governments, NGOs and UN agencies as the ultimate solution to refugees’ displacement. This paper draws attention to some of the psychosocial difficulties refugee returnees encounter. It argues that forced migrants’ notion of home is continuously challenged and transformed from the time of the events that lead to one’s flight, up until one’s return. The way returnees perceive ‘home’ and the way they define their identity will impact their reintegration process. The objective of this study is not to provide a typology of the meaning of returning home but a hint of its complexity.
Refugees and their human rights
This paper was originally presented on the 12th November 2003, as the 2003 Annual RSC Barbara Harrell-Bond Lecture. The paper discusses why, at the level of the individual refugee and asylum seeker, there is a need for a more radical, rights- and protection-oriented approach, and how this can serve the ends of government, provided that government is concerned with fulfilling its international obligations in good faith. It examines two areas which have attracted attention in the United Kingdom, and in which human rights can and ought to influence policy and practice: the treatment of asylum seekers and the interpretation and application of the refugee definition – the criteria that determines whether to grant protection.
The meaning of place in a world of movement: lessons from long-term field research in Southern Ethiopia
This is a revised version of the Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture, sponsored by the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford and delivered at Rhodes House, Oxford on 12 May, 2004. Turton discusses the need for a theory of place that applies as much to the world of late modernity as to the pre-modern world, and helps us to understand what happens when pre-modern meets, and is overtaken by, modern. To this end, he examines what are called the ‘spatial practices’ of a small group of people who live in Southern Ethiopia.
AIDS, gender and the refugee protection framework
This paper aims to show the extent to which the HIV/AIDS pandemic is a socio-economic phenomenon, underwritten by social relations of inequality (Baylies & Burr 2000:483) and the consequences this has for the marginalisation of forced migrants. This paper develops a framework for response to HIV/AIDS through an analysis of the ethics, human rights and law relating to forced migrants and HIV/AIDS. It argues that HIV/AIDS issues need to be recognised as a social rather than essentially a medical phenomenon and receive greater prioritisation in the international agenda of refugee protection in all phases of the refugee cycle from emergency relief, to care and maintenance, to return and reintegration, with all associated implications for post-war reconstruction and peace building. This requires a shift in thinking that recognises the importance of long-term development aims at the initial stages of emergency response and can assimilate a gendered approach in to refugee relief and assistance programmes.
Protection through participation: young people affected by forced migration and political crisis
This paper was originally intended to provide background reading for the Cumberland Lodge Conference, “Voices Out of Conflict: Young People Affected by Forced Migration and Political Crisis.” It considers the situations of youth and adolescents affected by war and displacement throughout the world, and provides a summary of some of the key issues to be explored with regard to their protection. It draws upon insights and experience from researchers, practitioners and war-affected young people in an attempt to better understand the challenges young people face during war, and the resulting implications for policy and practice.
Contesting fraternité: vulnerable migrants and the politics of protection in contemporary France
This paper analyses the délit de solidarité debate through the discourse of politicians, NGOs and citizens. Through this it seeks to answer the following questions: (i) what role has the republican principle of Fraternité played in debates over vulnerable migrants in contemporary France? (ii) to what extent does the political instrumentalisation of the principle of Fraternité and the related concept of Solidarité reflect a broader tension in the way French citizens understand their responsibilities towards “outsiders”, between particularism and universal obligation? The argument proceeds in four parts. Chapter 1 traces the tension between particularism and universalism historically to the foundation of the French nation-state and its republican philosophy of citizenship. Chapter 2 offers an empirical analysis of the délit de solidarité debate as a case study for the ambiguity outlined in Chapter 1. It examines legislation and policy in light of critiques advanced by various institutional and civil society actors in order to explain the issue’s politicisation and elevation to a matter of national concern. Chapter 3 analyses the discourse of the government and opposition throughout the debate whilst Chapter 4 considers the shortcomings of the nationalist framing outlined in Chapter 3 through an examination of the marginalisation of non-citizens as well as alternative discourses of solidarity. On the basis of this analysis it is argued that the délit de solidarité debate politicised concerns regarding the protection of vulnerable non-citizens in France, reducing the issue to a debate over the rights and reputation of French citizens and the scope and substance of Fraternité.
Detention, alternatives to detention, and deportation
Asylum seekers and refugees – men, women and even children – are increasingly detained and interned around the world, as are numbers of other migrants. Sometimes detained indefinitely and often in appalling conditions, they may suffer not only deprivation of their liberty but other abuses of their human rights too. Detention may appear to be a convenient solution to states’ political quest to manage migration (often as a precursor to deportation) but it is an expensive option and has lasting effects on those detained. In the search for a more humane – and cheaper – approach, agencies and government authorities have trialled a variety of alternatives to detention. FMR 44 includes 36 articles on immigration detention, alternatives to detention, and deportation, plus a mini-feature on the Syria crisis and a selection of other articles.
Sexual orientation and gender identity and the protection of forced migrants
Around the world, people face abuse, arbitrary arrest, extortion, violence, severe discrimination and lack of official protection because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. This latest issue of FMR includes 26 articles on the abuse of rights of forced migrants who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex. Authors discuss both the challenges faced and examples of good practice in securing protection for LGBTI forced migrants.
Preventing displacement
Preventing displacement is obviously a worthwhile objective. Being displaced puts people at a higher risk of being both impoverished and unable to enjoy their human rights. Such a situation is worth preventing – but not at any cost. FMR 41 includes a major feature on ‘Preventing displacement’ plus a range of articles on other subjects such as North Koreans in China, East Africans adapting to the UK, the Rohingya, slum evictions in Tanzania, the Nansen Initiative and a new methodology for assessing the costs and impacts of displacement.
Being young and out of place
Being displaced involves not just a change of physical location but a dislocation of many aspects of normal life, and young people may be particularly susceptible to being physically and socially ‘out of place’ during this period of their lives. FMR 40 examines the stresses of ‘being young and out of place’, explores young people’s needs and coping strategies, and asks why relatively little attention is paid to their rights and needs. It also includes articles on other subjects such as national IDP policies in Afghanistan and Nigeria, resettlement in Argentina, mental health in Lebanese camps and why some issues make it onto the international agenda while others do not.
North Africa and displacement 2011–2012
The so-called Arab Spring continues to reverberate locally, regionally and geopolitically. The 20 articles in this issue of FMR reflect on some of the experiences, challenges and lessons of the Arab Spring in North Africa, the implications of which resonate far wider than the region itself.