The RRN Research Digest provides a synopsis of recent research on refugee and forced migration issues from entities associated with the RRN and others.

You can download the digest in PDF format here: RRN Research Digest

NEW RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS

Ruehs-Navarro, E., Caswell Muñoz, L., & Diaz, S. J. (2024). Kids in cages: Surviving and resisting child migrant detention. University of Arizona Press. In recent years, the plight of immigrant children has been in the national spotlight. A primary issue of concern is the experience of child migrants in detention by the U.S. government. The authors in this volume approach the topic of child migrant detention from a range of perspectives. Some authors, particularly those who provide a legal perspective, chronicle the harms of detention, arguing that despite governmental assurances of child protection, detention is fundamentally a state-sanctioned form of violence. The social scientists in the volume have worked closely with detained youth themselves; in these chapters, authors highlight the ways in which youth survive detention, often through everyday acts of resistance and through the formation of temporary relationships. Practitioners including psychologists, activists, and faith leaders look at forms of resistance to detention. From retheorizing psychological interventions for detained youth to forming hospitality homes that act as alternatives to detention, these practitioners highlight ways forward for advocates of youth. At the heart of these narratives lies a crucial debate: the tension between harm-reduction strategies and abolition.

Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2024). A manifesto for bread and roses. Migration and Society, 7(1), xv–xx. In the midst of the mass displacement, dispossession and systematic killing of Palestinians in Gaza, this manifesto for “bread and roses” centralizes not only the rights of Palestinians in Gaza to life, safety, and security but also displaced people’s rights to joy, beauty, and happiness. At a time when Palestinians in Gaza are being massacred and openly deprived of aid, it is, precisely, Palestinians’ commitment to joy and beauty being projected and practiced by displaced and dispossessed Palestinians in Gaza, which provides the impetus for this manifesto. Created around and centering the words and lifeworlds of Palestinians in Gaza, this piece is offered as an inevitably partial but needed archive of this more-than-massacre and as an archive that stands for the future. Starting with roses pushes us to reimagine what meaningful responses to displacement could, and should, entail.

Krause, U. & Segadlo, N. (2024). Surviving Exile. Queer displaced people’s lived experiences of aid, risks, and coping in Kakuma. Gender Issues, 41, article 26. This paper examines the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ displaced individuals in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya. It delves into how queer people experience the humanitarian-aid system on-site, what risks they encounter, and how they exert agency to cope with the prevalent challenges of day to day life. Findings reveal that, in a country context where same-sex relations are illegalized and queer people criminalized, those displaced face heightened risks. They are confronted with the heteronormative paradigms inherent to the humanitarian-aid system, ones resulting in their neglect and denied access to much-needed assistance and protection. Structural and physical violence such as discrimination, exclusion, harassment and threats of murder exacerbate unrelenting fears and tangible risks in the camp. To navigate these challenges, they employ diverse individual and especially collective coping strategies, creating safe spaces for mutual support, exchange and hope.

Nisa, S., Murad, S., Salma, J., & Au, A. (2024). Service-policy gaps in the settlement journey of Arabic-speaking immigrant newcomer and refugee older adults in Edmonton, Canada. PLOS ONE, 19(10). Immigrant newcomers and refugees (INRs) are two migrant categories that experience consistent systemic barriers to settlement and integration in Canada as older adults. This paper explores the challenges experienced by Arabic-speaking INR older adults in Edmonton, Canada, during settlement and discusses policy and service implications. Experiences of settlement challenges were consistently identified during data collection and engagement of INR older adult participants. Two main themes were identified: (1) Limited English skills and digital literacy gaps create service barriers for INR older adults, and (2) Gaps in services and policies as basic needs remain unmet. The authors describe key challenges experienced by INR older adults, such as language barriers, precarious finances, poor access to health care services and lack of transportation and employment opportunities, which hinder successful integration into the new society. This study showcases the ongoing challenges with early settlement and integration that continue despite Canada’s well-developed immigration settlement landscape. INR older adults often remain invisible in policy, and understanding their experiences is a first step to addressing their needs for resources that support healthy ageing in the post-migration context.

Zambelli, P. (2024). Internal flight anarchy: Points of divergence from UNHCR guidelines in Canadian decision making. International Journal of Refugee Law. Over the years, Canadian decision makers have come to apply the concept of ‘internal flight alternative’ (IFA) more expansively than recommended by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Given the significant proportion of refugee claims that are refused on the basis of this concept each year, this divergence of interpretation has a real-life impact. To examine this phenomenon, the article provides a brief overview of the IFA concept, including a review of the scholarly literature and UNHCR guidance. Next, it traces the concept’s development in Canadian law and highlights points of divergence with UNHCR’s position. Finally, the article discusses potential strategies for realignment. The goal is to encourage practitioners and decision makers to think more deeply about the IFA concept, to raise awareness in regard to existing scholarship and applicable norms, and to ensure that these norms are applied in a conscious, humane, and consistent manner.

REPORTS AND POLICY BRIEFS

After the Darien: Aid and Pathways for Migrants in Panama and Costa Rica by ​​Rachel Schmidtke & Caitlyn Yates. (2024). Refugees International. This report–based on a research trip conducted by Refugees International–looks closely at the humanitarian conditions for those who successfully traverse the gap, and lays out a path to greater harmonization of migration management that respects governments’ desire for orderly movement while upholding the basic human rights of migrants. The report provides recommendations to improve reception in Panama and address the gaps in protection occurring due to increasing enforcement in the country. The report also argues that there is great potential for the international community and the government of Costa Rica to develop a more comprehensive humanitarian response given Costa Rica’s history as a country of asylum and its strong collaboration with the United States. Further, this report suggests ways that the United States could support improved humanitarian services, access to protection, and integration for people taking the route through the Darien Gap, Panama, and Costa Rica while also better targeting access to pathways to the United States so as to decrease the use of this route and continued migration northward through Central America and Mexico.

Canadian public opinion about immigration and refugees – Fall 2024 by Keith Neuman. (2024). Environics Institute. 2024 has been another challenging year for Canadians. While inflation finally began to recede, the cost of living remains high and housing continues to be unaffordable for many, and in short supply. The previous year saw a record number of new immigrants settling in cities across the country, and arrivals continued to build in 2024 until mid-year when the federal government finally announced new limits on the number of temporary foreign workers and international students. The global context has grown darker, with the intensification of conflict in the Middle East, and the unfolding drama of a pivotal US presidential election. This year also marks another dramatic surge in public opinion that immigration levels are too high, along with rising concerns about who is being admitted and how they are fitting in. For the first time in a quarter century, a clear majority of Canadians say there is too much immigration, with this view strengthening considerably for the second consecutive year. This trend is evident across the population but is most significant in the Prairie provinces, while least so in Quebec.

Localizing Climate Adaptation Planning in Kenya’s Refugee-Hosting Counties by Jocelyn Perry. (2024). Refugees International. Kenya sits at the nexus of two of the most profound challenges of our time: climate change and displacement. The east African country faces some of the most significant impacts of climate change while hosting nearly 800,000 refugees and asylum seekers. This creates a significant opportunity for Kenya to play a leading role in the global effort to ensure refugees and other displaced communities are able to prepare for and respond to climate change. From April to June 2024, Refugees International met with refugee communities, Kenyan civil society leaders, UN agencies, contributing country governments, and Kenyan government officials to understand how Kenya is including refugees in their climate change adaptation efforts and where they are falling short. Drawing on these interviews, this report examines the effects of the climate emergency on refugee communities in Kenya and how Kenya’s national and local governments, donors, and humanitarian agencies can support refugee-led adaptation to climate change.

These 10 countries receive the most refugees by Eirik Christophersen. (2024). Norwegian Refugee Council. Türkiye has provided protection to more refugees than any other country in the last ten years. But in terms of refugees as a proportion of the total population, it is mostly small and lesser-known countries that have accepted the largest number of refugees in this period. Here are the ten countries that have received the most refugees relative to their population during the period 2014–2023.

UNHCR calls for urgent help for 228,000 flood-affected people in West Africa. (2024). UNHCR. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is urgently appealing for $10.6 million to address the most pressing needs of 228,000 forcibly displaced people and their host communities across West and Central Africa, where devastating climate-induced torrential rains and floods have wreaked havoc and impacted over 5.1 million people. In Chad, some 1.9 million people have been affected. Niger (1.4 million) and Nigeria (1.2 million) have also been severely impacted, as well as Cameroon (365,000) and Mali (260,000). The catastrophic effects of flooding are poised to extend well beyond this year’s rainy season, compounding the hardships already faced by vulnerable communities. The funding is critical to provide life-saving support, including protection, shelter and emergency relief items, and to strengthen preparedness activities.

NEWS AND BLOG POSTS

Borderline existence: The risk of refugees disappearing from history by Richard Pine, October 22, 2024. The Irish Times. The Greek word, “asylum”, is very apt, meaning supremacy and the power to exercise it either benevolently or not, as occasion demands. The Greek state was profoundly changed by the influx of 1.2 million refugees from Anatolia, the Pontic region and Thrace (Salvanou’s particular area of study). But it was almost impossible to accommodate the human, social and cultural differences this involved. Probably the worst hit by the 1922 relocations were the Pontic Greeks, from the Black Sea area of Turkey, whose cultural and linguistic differences were so marked that even today they suffer ostracisation and marginalisation, as depicted in Constantine Giannaris’s vivid 1998 film From the Edge of the City. In the past 10 years, 1.35 million refugees arrived on Greek shores – almost the same number who arrived in Greece from Turkey a century ago. They have a similar problem: how to accept their new circumstances and yet sustain a memory of who they actually are, because the international refugee system, as Salvanou explains, designates all refugees as a single problem.

d’Orsi, C. (2024). Externalization of migration control in Africa: An African perspective. ADiM Blog. In this contribution, the author analyses the initiatives undertaken to externalize migration control in Africa. While the European Union is striving to strengthen its partnership with African stakeholders, there is a growing dissatisfaction at the African level with several initiatives because they are considered to be undertaken in the exclusive interest of the European Union. By externalising migration governance, the EU seeks to protect itself from migration, while at the same time becoming reliant on third countries to manage migratory flows, thus exposing itself to vulnerability and complicity in human rights abuses against migrants. In this scenario, the author believes that assistance through any migration agreement under which African countries prevent individuals from leaving their own countries should be limited. Options allowing African countries to build their capacity to respect and protect human rights and to address their development needs should be widely preferred. No one is likely to have the intention to “invade” Europe if there is economic and political security at home.

Institutions, not international students, are to blame for rising asylum claims by Yvonne Su, November 4, 2024. Policy Options. Immigration and Refugees Minister Marc Miller’s recently announced reduction in international student visas for 2024 and his subsequent statement about the “alarming trend” of an increasing number of these students applying for asylum in Canada highlight a troubling trend. But it is being framed through a dangerous lens. While it’s true that asylum claims from international students are on the rise, the implication that students are abusing Canada’s asylum system does a disservice to both the students and the integrity of our immigration processes. From 2018-24, only 33,985 students applied for asylum out of the 1,747,940 study permits approved – only 1.94 per cent. Therefore, instead of casting suspicion over the entire cohort, we should direct our attention to the real culprits: the predatory learning institutions that exploit these students for profit and place them in a vulnerable situation.

Tamil asylum seekers mark 100 days of protest in Melbourne despite disruption by neo-Nazis, October 27, 2024. Tamil Guardian. Tamil asylum seekers who rallied in Melbourne, Australia, earlier this week to mark 100 days of continuous protests to demand permanent visa protection were disrupted by a group of neo-Nazis. Tamil asylum seekers have been camped outside the Department Home Affairs since July 15, to call on the Australian government to grant them permanent visas. Many of the protesters have been on short term visas for over a decade. Without permanent residency, asylum seekers do not have access to Medicare – Australia’s universal health insurance scheme, they do not have the right to work or study nor the right to travel. 

UN expert calls for action as Marshall Islands faces dual displacement crisis, October 31, 2024. United Nations. The appeal from Paula Gaviria Betancur, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, comes as the Pacific nation grapples with generational displacement and the threat posed by rising sea levels and unprecedented global heating. The Marshall Islands, a frontline nation in the fight to slow global warming, faces unique challenges. As one of the small island developing States (SIDS), it has played a significant role in international climate action. Under the Paris Agreement of 2015, the Marshall Islands was instrumental, along with other SIDS, in advocating strongly for the inclusion of the 1.5 C temperature goal. The nation also submitted one of the first Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCS) under the agreement. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) identifies the Marshall Islands as particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts, with rising sea levels posing an existential threat. Despite these challenges, the agreement on ‘Loss and Damage funding’ at COP27,  marks a critical development for vulnerable nations like the Marshall Islands. This mechanism aims to provide financial assistance to the most vulnerable nations impacted by climate change effects.

EVENTS, RESOURCES, DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Aging in and out of place: Lived experience of forced migration across the life course. Centre for Research on Security Practices. The Centre for Research on Security Practices (CRSP) invites you to meet Dr. Christina Clark-Kazak as she discusses her new book, “Aging in and Out of Place: Lived Experience of Forced Migration across the Life Course,” with Drs. Bree Akesson, Anh Ngo, and Nuha Dwaikat-Shaer on Monday, November 18, 2024, from 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM EST. This event will be in a hybrid format, with in-person and virtual attendance options. The in-person location is Senate and Board Chambers, OM206-10, 1 Market Street, Brantford, ON. Aging in and out of place: Lived experience of forced migration across the life course provides a cradle-to-grave understanding of displacement. Using an innovative social age perspective, this book challenges students and policymakers to think about how migration journeys intersect with key life course events in cross-border and cross-cultural contexts.

CRS Book Launch: Forced migration in/to Canada. Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS). Offering a comprehensive resource in the growing field of migration studies, Forced Migration in/to Canada edited by Professor Christina Clark-Kazak of the University of Ottawa is a critical primer from multiple disciplinary perspectives. Researchers, practitioners, and knowledge keepers draw on documentary evidence and analysis to foreground lived experiences of displacement and migration policies at the municipal, provincial, territorial, and federal levels. From the earliest instances of Indigenous displacement and settler colonialism, through Black enslavement, to statelessness, trafficking, and climate migration in today’s world, contributors show how migration, as a human phenomenon, is differentially shaped by intersecting identities and structures. Particularly novel are the specific insights into disability, race, class, social age, and gender identity. This event will be on Thursday December 5, 2024, 11:30am – 1:00pm ET. This will be a hybrid event. The in-person location will be at 305 York Lanes, Keele Campus, York University.

New podcast ‘Australia Fair’: The long tail of the White Australia Policy by SBS Audio. Australia Fair is the new SBS podcast series with some challenging history lessons for everyone who calls Australia home, chronicling the key moments contributing to their national identity. Interviewing academics and high-profile Australians, host Janak Rogers travels back in time to examine everything from ‘blackbirding’ South Pacific Islanders and settling ‘Ten-Pound Poms’, to attitudes towards the first Vietnamese refugees arriving on Australian shores by boat and African youth ‘crime gangs’. The series charts Australia’s growing pains through successive waves of immigration, and our nation’s ongoing efforts to make multiculturalism work.

Virtual Launch of the Mixed Migration Review 2024 (Event) by Mixed Migration Centre. The Mixed Migration Review (MMR) 2024 dives into the politics of mixed migration and the salience of migration issues in politics. How is migration instrumentalized both domestically and internationally? In what ways do rising populist movements rely on maintaining migration as a perceived threat? What role does modern media play in shaping migration narratives? How do governments balance restricting asylum and migration with the growing demand for migrant labour? Through critical essays, interviews with global and regional experts, thematic snapshots and personal migrant stories, the Mixed Migration Review explores these issues and more. As always, the Mixed Migration Review also documents the best and worst behaviour by authorities in relation to mixed migration in the annual “Resisting and Normalising the Extreme” features. This online event will take place on 5 December 2024, from 14:00 to 15:30 CET for the virtual launch of the Mixed Migration Review 2024. The event will feature engaging discussions with experts, journalists, and academics.

The RRN Research Digest provides a synopsis of recent research on refugee and forced migration issues from entities associated with the RRN and others.

You can download the digest in PDF format here: RRN Research Digest

NEW RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS

Leboeuf, L., Brun, C., Lidén, H., Marchetti, S., Nakache, D., & Sarolea, S. (2025). Between protection and harm: Negotiated vulnerabilities in asylum laws and bureaucracies. Springer. This open access book dissects the current narratives of ‘vulnerability’ in asylum laws and policies, by unpacking the meanings, productions, and performances, of ‘vulnerability’ in different contexts, from countries of first asylum in the Global South to Europe and Canada. It discusses how the increased reliance on ‘vulnerability’ to guide states’ replies to refugee movements improves refugee protection, while also generating contestations and exclusionary effects that may cause harm. Based on data collected as part of the EU Horizon 2020 VULNER project, the book examines existing legal and bureaucratic approaches to refugees’ vulnerabilities, which it confronts with the refugees’ experiences and understandings of their own life challenges. It analyses the perspectives from state actors, humanitarian organisations, and social and aid workers, as well as the refugees themselves. By emphasizing how these perspectives relate and feed into each other, the book unpacks the humanitarian replies from states and the international community to refugee movements – including in their implied exclusionary dimensions that generate contestations and implementation difficulties which, if not tackled and understood properly, risk exacerbating and/or producing vulnerabilities among refugees.

Nofil, B. (2024). The Migrant’s Jail: An American History of Mass Incarceration. Princeton University Press. Today, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) detains an average of 37,000 migrants each night. To do so, they rely on, and pay for, the use of hundreds of local jails. But this is nothing new: the federal government has been detaining migrants in city and county jails for more than 100 years. In The Migrant’s Jail, Brianna Nofil examines how a century of political, ideological, and economic exchange between the U.S. immigration bureaucracy and the criminal justice system gave rise to the world’s largest system of migrant incarceration. Migrant detention is not simply an outgrowth of mass incarceration; rather, it has propelled carceral state–building and fostered intergovernmental policing efforts since the turn of the twentieth century. Drawing on immigration records, affidavits, protest letters, and a variety of local sources, Nofil excavates the web of political negotiations, financial deals, and legal precedents that allows the United States to incarcerate migrants with little accountability and devastating consequences.

Anastasiadou, A., Kim, J., Sanlitürk, E., de Valk, H. A., & Zagheni, E. (2024). Gender differences in the migration process: A narrative literature review. Population and Development Review. Migration scholars agree that migration is a highly gendered process. While the literature on this topic is increasing, the knowledge produced remains fragmentary and has not been synthesized systematically yet. This literature review aims at summarizing the current findings of quantitative migration research comparing migration patterns between genders and highlighting gaps and patterns in the literature over time. The review of the literature revealed that women have a lower propensity than men to realize their migration aspirations conditional on migration intentions. Moreover, many articles analyzing migration flows by gender do not support the common narrative of a feminization of migration. Finally, evidence from the migration literature supports the assumption that migrant women experience a double burden of discrimination in the destination country labour market based on their gender and their migration status. It becomes apparent that gender-based comparisons between migration outcomes have received the most attention in the literature followed by the comparison of determinants. The stage of the journey received only little attention.

Benson, G. E. (2024). Comparing refugee resettlement services: A new global dataset and typology. Refugee Survey Quarterly. The number of countries participating in resettlement has increased substantially in recent years: since 2010, one-third of resettlement countries officially began offering permanent homes to refugees. The services provided to refugees upon resettlement are surprisingly distinct, even among countries with similar political and economic contexts. Despite the importance of these services, existing scholarship offers surprisingly little comparison of resettlement policies globally. The study introduces an original Global Resettlement Services dataset with 42 indicators that provide a current, reliable, and easily accessible overview of resettlement services in each country. Cluster analysis of these data helped to construct a typology that captures four distinct “types” of refugee resettlement: Limited Provision, Cultural Transition, Core Services, and Flexible Support. The typology provides a framework to help policy-makers, academics, and practitioners increase collaboration, design innovative programmes, and improve existing resettlement services. This study offers a comprehensive analysis of the different approaches to resettling refugees worldwide, with significant implications for advancing theory and improving global refugee resettlement policies.

Culcasi, K. (2024). Gendered orientalism and Syrian women refugees. Fennia – International Journal of Geography. Orientalist discourses have long recirculated the idea that Muslim women are oppressed victims of Islam; an idea that has denigrated Muslims and positioned white, Christians as superior. For Muslim women refugees specifically, the gendered orientalist discourse of victimization has reappeared on both sides of the debate on Syrian refugee resettlement in the US and Europe. Within anti-resettlement circles, the narrative of Muslim women as oppressed victims has been leveraged as a reason to stop their resettlement, because their lifestyles and values are framed as incompatible with liberal, Western societies. Pro-resettlement circles, on the other hand, often position Muslim women’s victimization as a reason to save them by resettling them. In other words, the same cultural essentialism that positions Muslim women as victims has been used to reject and to support Muslim refugee resettlement. Yet the representations of Syrian Muslim women as oppressed victims of Islam exist in stark contrast to the strong, capable, and resilient Syrian women refugees scattered across SWANA, Europe, the US, and elsewhere. Building from postcolonial, feminist literature, in this paper the first focus is on the intersections of the gendered orientalism and refugee resettlement discourses, underscoring the commonality of the victim discourse on both sides of the Syrian refugee resettlement debate. Then, it shifts to highlight the disconnect between the victim representation and the life and experiences of Syrian women refugees. This later point draws from the author’s past research on Syrian Muslim women refugees in Jordan who have managed seemingly insurmountable obstacles with strength and determination; and they have done so in part through their faith. The discussion of their strength is situated within literature on Islamic feminism and Muslim women’s agency.

Schneider, H. E. (2024). Intentions, strategies, and actions: How refugees exert agency in the resettlement and humanitarian admission process from Jordan and Turkey to Germany. Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees, 40(2), 1–17. Although refugee resettlement is characterized by opaque decision-making of United Nations and government agencies, refugees may exert agency throughout the resettlement process. Tracing the journeys of several refugees through the resettlement and humanitarian admission processes from Jordan and Turkey to Germany, this article highlights refugees’ intentions, strategies, and actions to access and navigate the process in Jordan and Turkey. Defining agency as a combination of intention and action, without reference to a specific outcome, the article argues for a nuanced conceptualization of agency that can be employed in situations where people’s agency is very limited.

Sisic, M., Tastsoglou, E., Dawson, M., Holtmann, C., Wilkinson, L., & Falconer, C. (2024). The continuum of gender-based violence experienced by migrant and refugee women in Canada: Perspectives from key informants. Frontiers in Sociology, 9. Little research has been done on conceptualizing gender-based violence (GBV) against immigrant and refugee women as a continuum of violence. The objective of the larger study was to understand gender-based violence in migration and analyze the ways in which discriminations and inequalities interact to increase vulnerability and decrease access to supports and services for some women. Using (a) the concept of continuum of [sexual] violence and (b) intersectionality, the authors demonstrate the need to both document the range of violence in women’s lives and the tactics of victimization among immigrant and refugee women and show how they are different than the cumulated literature showing victimization tactics against the Canadian-born population. Participants reported that non-physical forms of violence are more normalized, but also more commonly experienced than physical forms of violence in Canada. Additionally, intersecting social identities impact both the distinct and amplified forms of GBV immigrant and refugee women experienced. Results contribute theoretically and empirically to the conceptualization of the GBV experiences by immigrant and refugee women in Canada.

Taha, D. (2024). Double immobility: Syrian refugee women navigating the voluntary and forced marriage binary in Egypt. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 1-18. Research on why women, especially racialized women, stay in undesirable relationships is scarce and often misses how intersecting inequalities affect their decisions and the wider range of consent and coercion. Syrian refugee women in Egypt, grappling with not just unwanted marriages but also displacement and uprooting are a case in point. Their limited cultural, social, and legal mobility complicates their decision-making and limits their options. The author describes this compounded precarity as ‘double immobility’: immobility within the marriage and immobility within the country. A secondary displacement where this time they become ‘displaced in place’. The paper offers a novel framework for understanding the intersection of gendered displacement and marital dynamics and contributes to the broader discussion within the sociology of gender, displacement, and marriage.

REPORTS AND POLICY BRIEFS

A fair and fast asylum process for Australia: Lessons from Switzerland by Daniel Ghezelbash and Constantin Hruschka. (2024). UNSW Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law. Australia’s onshore protection system is currently facing significant backlogs. The resulting delays are undermining the integrity of the asylum system, eroding public confidence and causing significant harm and distress to people seeking asylum. This policy brief examines how Australia’s asylum procedures can be redesigned to be both fair and fast, drawing on lessons from Switzerland. The new Swiss asylum procedures introduced in 2019 have proved effective in significantly increasing efficiency, while maintaining fairness for applicants and ensuring that the rights and needs of asylum seekers are met. This policy brief examines the Swiss model’s strengths and limitations to make recommendations for reforming Australia’s asylum process.

Advancing Equity and Inclusion: Strategies for Integrating Racialized Immigrant Women into Canada’s Labour Market by Marika Jeziorek. (2024). University of Waterloo Policy Brief – Women, Work & Economy. Racialized immigrant women in Canada face significant barriers to labour market integration, marked by underemployment, discrimination, and underutilization of their skills. Dr. Ana Ferrer’s research highlights the triad of barriers these women face: discrimination, credentialing challenges, and limited employment opportunities. Moreover, the gender wage gap and labour market participation rates underscore the systemic inequities, with immigrant women facing the largest within-job gender wage gap. This brief proposes a set of policy alternatives focused on reducing discrimination, enhancing credential recognition, and addressing institutional and cultural barriers. Recommendations include establishing a National Task Force on Credential Recognition, expanding language and professional development programs, implementing childcare support based on Quebec’s successful model, and promoting voluntary adoption of workplace anti-discrimination and inclusion initiatives. To successfully integrate racialized immigrant women into Canada’s labour market and society, a concerted effort from federal and provincial governments, professional licensing bodies, educational institutions, and employers is required. These strategies not only aim to support racialized immigrant women and their families but also seek to enrich Canada’s social and economic fabric by leveraging the full potential of this underrepresented demographic.

Charting a Path for LGBTIQ+ Justice in Humanitarian Response in Asia and the Pacific. (2024). ReliefWeb. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ+)1 individuals face challenges across different crises, including armed conflicts, disasters, and migration, and forced displacement. As in other regions, LGBTIQ+ communities in Asia and the Pacific are vulnerable to various forms of discrimination and violence, which are both similar to and distinct from other individuals and groups in humanitarian emergencies. These vulnerabilities stem from pre-existing inequalities, discrimination, and violence that are frequently exacerbated during crises, and are shaped by multiple intersecting factors, such as gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, sex characteristics, race, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, and displacement status, among others. Yet, humanitarian agencies struggle to fully understand and effectively respond to the diverse needs of LGBTIQ+ individuals. This advocacy brief underscores a number of significant challenges faced by LGBTIQ+ communities in Asia and the Pacific region, addresses some of the major barriers to achieving LGBTIQ+ inclusion in humanitarian response, and calls on humanitarian organizations to prioritize the protection and inclusion of LGBTIQ+ communities in their response efforts.

Returning from Pakistan: How are Afghan returnees coping back in their homeland? by Jelena Bjelica & Ali Mohammad Sabawoon. (2024). ReliefWeb. It is almost a year since, on 3 October 2023, Pakistan’s Prime Minister announced its decision to enact the Illegal Foreigners’ Repatriation Plan. Since then, more than 700,000 Afghans have returned to their homeland. These returns were not voluntary. Some Afghans were deported, while others fled in fear of arrest and expulsion. Some, born in Pakistan, had never before set foot on Afghan soil. AAN’s Ali Mohammad Sabawoon has spoken to five returnees in different provinces and, together with AAN’s Jelena Bjelica, explores how they have been managing this utter upturning of their lives.

The Future of U.S. Immigration: Trump and Harris on Key Immigration Policy Areas. (2024). National Immigration Forum. As the 2024 election approaches, immigration remains a central issue. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, the two leading candidates for president, have presented markedly different approaches to immigration and its value to the United States. Voters will have an opportunity to study each candidate’s views and decide our nation’s approach to immigration policy for the forseeable future. The document below provides a top-level chart with an overview of eight positions Trump and Harris have taken during their tenure as President and their general election campaigns. Then read on for greater detail on each.

NEWS AND BLOG POSTS

Australia’s refugee policy – reforms needed to reflect humane approach and national spirit of welcome, October 15, 2024. The AIM Network. International and national refugee sector experts and advocates have identified four urgent areas of reform needed to address ongoing disadvantage and exclusion caused by Australia’s policies towards refugees and people seeking asylum. Two hundred delegates gathered in Kyneton, Victoria (11-13 October) for the two-yearly Rural Australians for Refugees conference which brings 75 groups together from around the country. Delegates agreed that Australia’s policies need to be urgently reviewed to comply with our responsibilities under international law and to prevent further damage to people seeking protection.

Bouncing between war-torn countries: Displacement in Lebanon and Syria highlights cyclical nature of cross-border refuge by Jasmin Lilian Diab, October 16, 2024. The Conversation. The escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah since September 2024, and Israel’s bombing of civilian areas across Lebanon, have unleashed a profound humanitarian disaster. The mass displacement of over 1 million people, including Lebanese citizens, migrant workers and Syrian and Palestinian refugees, has created a crisis within Lebanon. Yet an equally significant phenomenon is occurring away from Lebanon’s southern border with Israel: the movement of people who have been displaced within Lebanon into Syria. An estimated 400,000 Lebanese and Syrians have reportedly fled into Syria through overcrowded border crossings. Not to be confused with return, this movement represents a reversal of the refugee flow that followed the descent of Syria into civil war in 2011. It is also emblematic of a broader pattern of cyclical displacement crises in the region. The complex and intertwined histories of Lebanon and Syria – where each has at various points been a refuge for citizens of the other – challenge the simple binaries often associated with the refugee experience.

Italy vows to push ahead with Albania migrant centres despite court blow by Angelo Amante, October 18, 2024. Reuters. The Italian government vowed on Friday to push ahead with its contested plan to divert asylum-seekers abroad, saying it would appeal against a court’s ruling that a group of migrants in reception centres in Albania should be taken to Italy. The court potentially dealt a major blow to a flagship project of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to house migrants picked up at sea in facilities outside the EU. The scheme, aimed at deterring migrants from making the sea crossing to Italy, has won plaudits from some European nations. Meloni called a cabinet meeting for Monday to decide on the government’s response to the legal ruling. The court said the 12 migrants in the new Albanian facility of Gjader had to return to Italy because their countries of origin — Egypt and Bangladesh — could not be considered safe.

Migrant deaths in New Mexico have increased tenfold by The Associated Press, October 15, 2024. NPR. Ten times as many migrants died in New Mexico near the U.S.-Mexico border in each of the last two years compared with just five years ago as smuggling gangs steer them — exhausted, dehydrated and malnourished — mostly into the hot desert, canyons or mountains west of El Paso, Texas. During the first eight months of 2024, the bodies of 108 presumed migrants mostly from Mexico and Central America were found near the border in New Mexico and often less than 10 miles (6 kilometers) from El Paso, according to the most recent data. The remains of 113 presumed migrants were found in New Mexico in 2023, compared with nine in 2020 and 10 in 2019.

Tunisia: UN experts concerned over safety of migrants, refugees and victims of trafficking, October 14, 2024. United Nations. UN experts* said they are alarmed by reports of human rights violations against migrants, refugees and victims of trafficking during search and rescue operations and transfers to border areas. They noted that, between January and July 2024, 189 people, including children, are reported to have lost their lives during crossings and 265 during interception operations at sea; 95 people are reported missing, and, in certain cases, they could be victims of enforced disappearance or acts tantamount to enforced disappearance.

EVENTS, RESOURCES, DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Being Stateless: An Oral History Podcast. Melbourne Law School. People who arrived in Australia stateless tell of their experiences in a new podcast by the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness at the University of Melbourne. Being Stateless: An Oral History Podcast features a Holocaust survivor, a Palestinian born in Lebanon, and a Tamil woman. They talk to interviewer Dr. Jordana Silverstein about what it was like to be forced to migrate to a new country; how they made a home and dealt with loss; and how they remember where they came from. Dr. Silverstein says, “The figures are not firm, but the United Nations High Commission for Refugees estimates that there are about 8,000 stateless people in Australia. It is probable there are many more, as Australia does not have a way of counting people, and some people would not in any case self-identify their status to the state.”

CRS/EUC Seminar: Migrant labour on land and at sea: Labour geographies of global food processing. CRS and EUC York University. Join the Centre for Refugee Studies and the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University for a dialogue on two research projects that examine the conditions of work for migrant and refugee workers in global food production. Both industrial meat processing and the global seafood industry rely on low paid migrant workers to do jobs in industries that are quintessentially 3D – dirty, difficult, and dangerous. This seminar will present findings from two projects addressing the intersection of precarious work and migration, including the crucial role of refugee workers in these industries. This in-person event will be on November 14, 2024, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET, at HNES 141, Keele Campus, York University.

Immigrant and Refugee Mental Health Course: Fall 2024. IRCC. The Immigrant and Refugee Mental Health Course, funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), provides information, tools and resources for service providers to provide mental health care and support to both immigrants and refugees arriving in Canada. Date: November 4 – December 16, 2024; For who: Settlement, social and health service providers across Canada (excluding Quebec)*; Location: Online; Cost: Free.

Living Refugee Archive Seminar and Q&A with Dr. Ceren Yüksel. University of East London. Welcome to the first of our Living Refugee Archive Seminar Series events here at the University of East London. For this seminar, we are very happy to be able to welcome Dr Ceren Yuksel, Senior Lecturer at the UAL Creative Computing Institute and Course Leader for the postgraduate MA Internet Equalities course. This event will be Hybrid, both In-Person at UEL and virtually through MS Teams, on November 5, 2024, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM GMT.

To Stay or to Go? Migration Decisions and Tipping Points in Ghana | Voices on the Move Podcast. Migration Matters. What are the tipping points that compel people to migrate in the face of climate change? This episode looks at the personal and environmental factors that influence migration decisions. Through the stories of farmers in Ghana, we explore how economic opportunities, community ties, and individual perceptions shape responses to climate challenges. Dr. Rachel Keeton (University of Twente) and Dr. Ricardo Safra de Campos (University of Exeter) from the HABITABLE research project offer insights into the nuanced dynamics of staying or leaving in the face of environmental change.

The RRN Research Digest provides a synopsis of recent research on refugee and forced migration issues from entities associated with the RRN and others.

You can download the digest in PDF format here: RRN Research Digest

NEW RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS

Min Wha Han, Eun-Jeong Han & JongHwa Lee. (2024). Displacement, mobility, and diversity in Korea: Diaspora within homeland. Routledge. This book examines the transformation and the dynamic reconfiguration of borders within Korea through inter/trans-disciplinary approaches. It offers a comprehensive synthesis for the changing geo-political, cultural, and economic dynamics among Korea’s diasporas by applying the theme of “diasporas within homeland” as a theoretical lens. While diaspora remains a central theoretical perspective (often highlighting “out of home” experiences), the volume turns its gaze inward, “within homeland,” to trace internal displacement, mobility, and diversity in Korea. In addition, this volume brings diverse scholarly traditions that bridge the diaspora with a wide range of theoretical lenses and methodological approaches, such as intercultural sensitivity and adaptation, acculturation, ideology critique, alienation, national memory, and postcolonialism. The book further explores the possibilities of coalition-building between/among diverse communities. 

Zagor, M. (2024). From borders to pathways: Innovations and regressions in the movement of people into Europe. ANU Press. This open access book examines the evolution of European migration policy, offering a forward-looking analysis that extends beyond traditional border controls to innovative legal migration pathways. Contributors provide an in-depth exploration of the drivers shaping migration policies, including public opinion and the rise of populist discourses, the contrasting responses to various real and imagined migrant crises, and critiques of recent policy innovations such as refugee finance schemes, ‘safe legal pathways’, and migrant lotteries. Through interdisciplinary perspectives, the authors assess socio-political, legal, geo-political and cultural shifts to advocate for a more inclusive, humane and sustainable approach to migration. By challenging dominant narratives of deterrence, extraterritoriality and exclusion, this book advocates for policies that balance Europe’s myriad commitments, values and imperatives, highlighting the need for ethical frameworks that respect the dignity of migrants.

Celestino, M. R., Lee, S., & Kivimaki, T. (2024). Coups and refugee flows in autocracies and democracies. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 1–20. Much research stresses the impact of armed conflict on refugee flows. This article focuses on another form of political instability that has yet to be systematically examined: coups. It presents a typology of coups by considering (a) whether coup plotters succeed or not in seizing power, and (b) the type of regime after the coup. It identifies four types of coup attempts: (1) failed coups in autocracy, (2) failed coups in democracy, (3) autocratic coups, and (4) democratic coups. The authors argue that failed coups in autocracies and autocratic coups increase government repression and hinder economic performance, creating societal environments that trigger refugee flows. This contrasts with more stable environments following failed coups in democracies and democratic coups that are expected not to affect refugee flows.

Cranwell, G. (2024). A Primer on trauma-informed practice in refugee law. Bond Law Review, 36(1). This article is intended as a primer on trauma-informed practice for professionals working in the area of refugee law. Refugees and asylum seekers are amongst the most vulnerable groups in the community, and the process of seeking asylum itself can intensify stress. Trauma-informed practice is founded on ‘safety first’ and ‘do no harm’. It reflects adherence to core principles, rather than a prescribed set of practices and procedures. The core principles of trauma-informed practice include safety, trust, choice, collaboration and empowerment. This article primarily focuses on professional applications of trauma-informed practice at an individual level. By taking steps to integrate these principles into interpersonal interactions with refugees and asylum seekers, professionals can better support their needs in the refugee law context.

Owen, D. (2024). From forced migration to displacement? Refugee Survey Quarterly. Should the multi-disciplinary field of Forced Migration Studies (FMS) re-orient itself around the concept of “displacement”? This short intervention situates this question against the background of the transition from Refugee Studies to FMS, as well as external developments in the realm of protection. It draws attention to how the concept of displacement has become more central to both policy and academic discussion in FMS before considering what difference such a re-orientation might make conceptually, ethically, and politically. It concludes by suggesting that FMS might be conceived as standing between and across two larger fields of enquiry: Migration Studies and Displacement Studies.

Samoilov, O., Krupenyna, N., Mukhina, G., Bykova, V., & Remekh, T. (2024). Psychological and pedagogical aspects of adaptation of displaced Ukrainian children to the educational environment of another country. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education. The sudden and unexpected war in Ukraine led to a large flow of citizens displaced abroad. Almost half of them are preschool- and school-age children. The peculiarities of their adaptation to the educational environment of another country necessitates the study of the main aspects of adaptation in these conditions. The aim is to identify the psychological and pedagogical aspects of adaptation to the educational environment of another country of school-age refugee children. The research found that the 203 children who relocated to other countries have high rates of adaptation to the educational environment. Their performance indicators improved, high satisfaction with school, teachers, and relationships with classmates was revealed. The study showed that, in general, displaced Ukrainian children have high rates of adaptation to the educational space of other countries. They are emotionally stable, sociable, moderately hyperactive, have no behavioural disorders, and have high prosocial behaviour. The obtained results can contribute to the development of a programme to support Ukrainian children of immigrants to the educational environment of other countries, which will contribute to their psychological and pedagogical adaptation to it.

Taha, D. M. (2024). Marriage in displacement: Gendered (self)resettlement strategies of Syrian women in Egypt. The British Journal of Sociology, 1–16. Drawing on fieldwork data among Syrian refugee women marrying Egyptian men amid forced migration, the author explores how displacement reshapes the meaning and purpose of marriage. Many such unions, often customary or polygamous, provoke comparisons to forced marriage and gender-based violence. Bypassing the reductive exploitation and static narratives, they ask: How does displacement alter refugee women’s perceptions of marriage’s purpose? And can marriage serve as a strategic tool for (self)resettlement? This investigation urges us to reevaluate the existing range of resettlement options and criteria, offering fresh perspectives on marital strategies post-displacement. Rather, similar marriages often stem from both affective and practical considerations, challenging colonial dichotomies (e.g., agent/victim) and reinstating the role of factors such as social capital in the trajectories of the uprooted. This study expands understanding of gendered and Othered refugee experiences, highlighting marriage’s transformative role in forced displacement and resettlement. It contributes to ongoing discussions on marriage, displacement, and resettlement, urging a nuanced approach that acknowledges the complexities of refugee agency and adaptation.

REPORTS AND POLICY BRIEFS

Decolonising Knowledge Production in the Field of Refugee Education: Unsettling the Ontology and Epistemology of a Nascent Field by C. Brun, C. Saab & M. Shuayb. (2024). Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies. This report provides an in-depth analysis of the knowledge production landscape in the field of refugee education, critically exploring how it continues to be shaped by colonial legacies and dominated by global north (GN) perspectives. Analysing the English language and Arabic language academic literature on refugee education, the study investigates the power dynamics, economic interests, and ideological influences that sustain the divide between the global north and global south (GS) in this body of research. The findings reveal that the field of refugee education, despite its growth and diversification over the past two decades, remains profoundly unequal in terms of authorship, geographic focus, and the overall epistemological and ontological frameworks that underpin it.

Enduring Change: A Data Review of Firsthand Accounts of Climate Mobility Impacts. (2024). IRAP. The International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), Al Otro Lado, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, and Haitian Bridge Alliance released a groundbreaking new report providing definitive evidence that climate change and environmental disasters are substantially impacting people seeking immigration relief in the United States. The report represents the largest data analysis of its kind in the Americas. One of the key findings include 43% of respondents from the Americas reported experiencing environmental disasters such as hurricanes, droughts, extreme heat, and floods in their home countries.

Engaging Local Communities for More Effective Climate Mobility Programming by Lawrence Huang & Camille Le Coz. (2024). Migration Policy Institute. Climate change does not affect all communities the same way. Floods in one location can cause massive, long-term displacement and even permanent relocation, while they might only trigger short-term evacuations elsewhere. This depends to a significant extent on how vulnerable communities are to begin with and the resources they have to cope and adapt. And because the impacts of climate change on human mobility are highly localized, the solutions need to be as well. This issue brief explores the importance of localization in climate migration solutions, as well as common barriers that have kept local actors from taking on greater roles. It also offers recommendations for turning localization from a rhetorical commitment into practical action.

Expanding Refugee Access to National Education Systems: The State of the Evidence on Enabling Factors, Constraints, and Interventions by A. Pacifico, S. Ferrans, A. Almassri, G. Kebe. (2024). Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies. This policy brief summarises actionable findings from the ERICC Evidence Review: Expanding Refugee Access to National Education Systems: The State of the Evidence (forthcoming) to further highlight evidence gaps and research needs. The policy brief describes the substantive, methodological and geographic scope of existing evidence on refugee student access to NES. It then presents findings about six global-, regional- and national-level enabling factors and constraints for refugee student access to NES: financing, education infrastructure and sector capacity, political will and support for refugee inclusion, governance and coordination arrangements, non-state actor engagement and data systems. Local and child-level risk and protective factors further influencing refugee access to NES are presented in the third section of the brief, including: gender, socioeconomic and legal status, language barriers, perceptions of education relevance, and xenophobia, gender-based violence and intolerance. The fourth section synthesises evidence on interventions used in refugee-hosting contexts to improve student access: global and regional frameworks that support refugee inclusion; double shift schools; recognition, validation and accreditation of prior learning, flexible learning programmes, and host country language acquisition; cash transfers; and school feeding. Finally, this brief presents research needs which stakeholders can prioritise to significantly improve the evidence base for (cost-)effective, inclusive and scalable interventions that enhance refugee student access to education.

Haiti: Increased internal displacement heightens food and health needs in the Grand Sud region. (2024). Reliefweb. In 2024, Haiti has seen a 60% increase in the number of displaced people, rising from 362,000 in March to 702,973 in September, primarily as a result of deteriorating security conditions in the Port-au-Prince Metropolitan Zone (ZMPAP). One-third of those displaced nationwide left their homes in the first half of the year, marking this as a period with one of the highest levels of displacement in Haiti’s recent history. More than 90% of all displaced people originated from the Ouest department, particularly the ZMPAP, which accounted for 85% of the national total. These areas also experienced the highest violence-related incidents between 2023–2024.

NEWS AND BLOG POSTS

A new chapter of hope: refugee students embark on university journeys in Canada by Mohamed Maalim, September 20, 2024. UNHCR Kenya. At the dusty Dadaab airstrip in Garissa County, north eastern Kenya, a mix of emotions fills the air as fourteen young refugees stand together, clutching their boarding passes. Some hug their families tightly, fighting back tears, while others wear nervous smiles, trying to comfort parents who whisper final words of encouragement. These young men and women, selected from thousands of hopefuls are about to embark on a transformative journey – one that will lead them to universities in Canada through a special scholarship program offered by the World University Service of Canada. For these refugees, this opportunity represents more than an education; it is a path of hope, stability, and a brighter future. The selection process for this scholarship was rigorous, testing academic potential, leadership qualities, and the candidates’ commitment to contribute to their communities in Dadaab and beyond.

Eighteen years since warning of climate refugee crisis, Albanese has the power to do something, but not the will by Richard Denniss, October 13, 2024. The New Daily. Eighteen years ago today Anthony Albanese issued a press release about the urgent need to not just act on climate change, but prepare for the humanitarian crisis of climate refugees fleeing low-lying Pacific island nations. Specifically his press release, having criticised the Howard government for being slow to act, called for “the establishment of an international coalition led by Australia to accept climate change refugees from Pacific countries”. But 18 years later, the Albanese government, like the Howard government of 2006, is still ignoring the scientific consensus about the urgent need to reduce emissions, still subsidising and opening new gas and coal mines and still hasn’t created a legal framework for climate refugees.

Refugees in east Africa suffer from high levels of depression, making it harder to rebuild lives – new study by Olivier Sterck, Julia R Pozuelo, Maria Flinder Stierna, and Raphael Bradenbrink, October 9, 2024. The Conversation. By the end of 2023, more than 100 million people globally had been forced to flee their homes due to war, violence, fear of persecution, and human rights violations. The majority are hosted in low- and middle-income countries, where many live in overcrowded camps or urban settlements, with limited access to food, employment and essential services. Many endure traumatic experiences not only before their displacement but also during and after it. They face armed conflict, marginalisation and poverty at every stage of their journey. These experiences may increase the likelihood of developing mental health disorders, which can persist years after displacement. This makes it harder for refugees to earn a living and integrate into society.

Supporting refugee students: How and why universities should prioritize inclusivity, access by Michelle Bellino, September 18, 2024. Michigan News. Drawing on her research with displaced communities, Michelle Bellino, associate professor of education at the University of Michigan, argues that universities should care about refugees, asylum-seekers and displaced communities as part of their mission to prepare students for a more just and egalitarian society. Bellino urges institutions of higher education to join Welcome Corps on Campus, a new opportunity for U.S. universities to welcome, enroll and support refugee students. This article covers the challenges refugee youth face when accessing education, how universities currently consider refugee students for admission and financial support, and what they can do to make education more accessible for them.

UK seeks to move 36 Diego Garcia asylum seekers to Romania by Jacob Godlberg, October 9, 2024. The New Humanitarian. UNHCR has approved a request by the UK to transfer 36 Sri Lankan asylum seekers from Diego Garcia and Rwanda to a transit centre in Romania, the UN’s refugee agency told The New Humanitarian.The 36 people are part of a group of 64 who arrived on the remote Indian Ocean island by boat, starting in October 2021, and have sought to claim asylum in the UK or elsewhere. The island is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), which the UK agreed earlier this month to cede to Mauritius following years of negotiations.

EVENTS, RESOURCES, DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Being Stateless: An Oral History Podcast. Melbourne Law School. People who arrived in Australia stateless tell of their experiences in a new podcast by the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness at the University of Melbourne. Being Stateless: An Oral History Podcast features a Holocaust survivor, a Palestinian born in Lebanon, and a Tamil woman. They talk to interviewer Dr. Jordana Silverstein about what it was like to be forced to migrate to a new country; how they made a home and dealt with loss; and how they remember where they came from. Dr. Silverstein says, “The figures are not firm, but the United Nations High Commission for Refugees estimates that there are about 8,000 stateless people in Australia. It is probable there are many more, as Australia does not have a way of counting people, and some people would not in any case self-identify their status to the state.”

Protection in the UK: the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill. Refugees Studies Centre. The UK is ending its migration partnership with Rwanda and preparing new legislation. The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill is likely to include measures allowing ‘fast-track decisions and returns to safe countries’ and ‘stronger powers to disrupt, investigate and prosecute organised criminals facilitating organised immigration crime.’ An expert panel will analyse these developments and consider what taking a progressive, rights-protective, approach to protection in the UK could and should involve. The online event will be on October 30, 2024, from 5pm to 6pm (UK & UTC).

Public Seminar Series 2023/24; Seminar Three: Climate Change, Displacement and Gender. Women in Refugee Law (WiRL). The United Nations estimates that 80% of people who are displaced by the impact of climate change are women. Climate change not only affects where people live; it can exacerbate existing gender inequalities and expose women to increased risks such as SGBV. This panel discussion considers some of the ways that climate change specifically affects women and reflects on ways this is being addressed in refugee law, policy and practice. This online event will be on October 28, 2024, 3:00 PM – 4:15 PM (UK & UTC).

Voices on the Move Podcast Launch Event. The Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research. Migration Matters and York University is proud to announce the launch of its latest podcast series, Voices on the Move, an in-depth exploration of the complex and urgent relationship between climate change and migration. The podcast features expert insights and personal stories from communities directly affected by climate-induced displacement, offering a fresh perspective on the consequences of environmental shifts on mobility, habitability, and global migration patterns.  This event is on October 29, 2024, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET, in person at the 2120 Dahdaleh Building at York University.

The RRN Research Digest provides a synopsis of recent research on refugee and forced migration issues from entities associated with the RRN and others.

You can download the digest in PDF format here: RRN Research Digest

Dear RRN Colleagues and Friends,  

We want to welcome everyone back to another academic year! We are thrilled to announce that our RRN Research Digest will continue to be published bi-weekly this year.  

We sincerely appreciate your contributions to open-access research and encourage you to keep sharing all of your relevant work with us. It greatly enhances the content of the RRN Research Digest. Please reach out to us at rrndigest@yorku.ca with your submissions and ideas.

Sincerely,

The RRN Team

NEW RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS

Clark-Kazak, C. (2024). Forced migration in/to Canada: From colonization to refugee resettlement. McGill-Queen’s University Press. Forced migration shaped the creation of Canada as a settler state and is a defining feature of our contemporary national and global contexts. Many people in Canada have direct or indirect experiences of refugee resettlement and protection, trafficking, and environmental displacement. Offering a comprehensive resource in the growing field of migration studies, Forced Migration in/to Canada is a critical primer from multiple disciplinary perspectives. Researchers, practitioners, and knowledge keepers draw on documentary evidence and analysis to foreground lived experiences of

displacement and migration policies at the municipal, provincial, territorial, and federal levels. From the earliest instances of Indigenous displacement and settler colonialism, through Black enslavement, to statelessness, trafficking, and climate migration in today’s world, contributors show how migration, as a human phenomenon, is differentially shaped by intersecting identities and structures. Particularly novel are the specific insights into disability, race, class, social age, and gender identity. Situating Canada within broader international trends, norms, and structures – both today and historically – Forced Migration in/to Canada provides the tools we need to evaluate information we encounter in the news and from government officials, colleagues, and non-governmental organizations. It also proposes new areas for enquiry, discussion, research, advocacy, and action. This book is open-access to all readers.

Betts, A., Flinder Stierna, M., Omata, N., & Sterck, O. (2024). The economic lives of refugees. World Development. The economic lives of refugees are often viewed as relatively homogeneous, and sources of within-group variation remain largely unexplored. The authors describe the socio-economic diversity of refugees in one particular region: East Africa. Drawing upon first-hand quantitative and qualitative data collected in Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia (n = 8,996), the article systematically compares 12 refugee subpopulations living in seven refugee camps and the three capital cities. In order to identify sources of variation, they examine three main questions: (1) What variation is there in socio-economic outcomes? (2) What strategies and resources do refugees rely upon, and how do these vary? (3) How are opportunities and constraints shaped by differences in institutions and identity? Overall, it is shown that, although the economic lives of refugees have some distinguishing and common features, they are also heterogeneous by host country, urban/camp context, nationality, and household. The authors explain why describing and understanding sources of within-group variation matters for research and policy.

Scott-Smith, T. (2024). Fragments of home: Refugee housing and the politics of shelter. Stanford University Press. This book focuses on seven examples of emergency shelter, from Germany to Jordan, which emerged after the great “summer of migration” in 2015. Drawing on detailed ethnographic research into these shelters, the book reflects on their political implications and opens up much bigger questions about humanitarian action. By exploring how aid agencies and architects approached this basic human need, Tom Scott-Smith demonstrates how shelter has many elements that are hard to reconcile or combine; shelter is always partial and incomplete, producing mere fragments of home. Ultimately, he argues that current approaches to emergency shelter have led to destructive forms of paternalism and concludes that the principle of autonomy can offer a more fruitful approach to sensitive and inclusive housing.

Boucher, A. K. (2024). Migrant sexual precarity through the lens of workplace litigation. Gender, Work & Organization. Theories of precarity have emphasized workplace isolation, worker vulnerability and a lack of control over key features of work. Migration status has been viewed as an attribute that can exacerbate worker precarity, and sexual violence and bodily injury are viewed by feminist scholars as sources of such precarity as well. Nevertheless, how the interaction of workplace conditions, migration status, gender and sexual violence impact migrants needs more attention. The data collected for this project demonstrates that female migrants experience higher rates of sexual harassment, sexual assault, sexual servitude, and sex trafficking when compared with men. They are characterized qualitatively by key features that present a heightened form of sexual precarity when compared with citizens: misuse by employers of visa conditions, debt bondage, live-in arrangements, entrapment and slavery, and the combination of sexual violence with economic infringements such as wage theft and physical assault. Sexual precarity, this paper argues, should be viewed as an overlapping and reinforcing form of workplace precarity that has distinctly sexual and bodily dimensions.

Carlaw, J & Azahah, K. (2024). Pathways to permanence and immigration levels: A critical policy discourse analysis (CPDA) of struggles and limits to societal membership for migrants amidst and emerging from COVID-19 (2020-2022) in Canada. Toronto Metropolitan Centre for Immigration and Settlement (TCIMS) and CERC in Migration & Integration. In the documents examined in this paper, pathways discourses and proposals appear to have provided a way for actors with very different political and policy agendas to signal their commitments to immigrant and migrant rights without necessarily engaging in more inclusive structural change that would address the insecurity and labour and human rights violations experienced by many living under temporary or precarious statuses. For that reason, and because of the stakes of these debates, the gap between actors’ political and policy discourses demands sustained and intense scrutiny. As seen in recent government and opposition migration discourses, the growth of Canada’s migrant worker and precarious status population and the important substantive rights that accrue to those who achieve permanent residence mean that pathways discourses and policies granting access to permanent residence will continue to be of tremendous importance. The paper concludes with some reflections on post-2022 developments, including December 2023 statements by Canada’s Immigration Minister that a ‘broad and comprehensive’ regularization program is forthcoming and a significant decline in public support for current immigration levels.”

Chatty, D. (2024). Refuge in the levant and eastern Mediterranean: Spaces of containment or places of choice? Journal of Refugee Studies. After the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in 2003, the European Union became fixated on keeping refugees from the Middle East out of Europe. By 2015, with the mass influx of Syrians, Iraqis, and others, seeking safety across the Balkans, the European response was an extraordinary effort to push back and contain these displaced people within the Eastern Mediterranean region through physical barriers, bilateral agreements, and the establishment of refugee camps. This paper suggests that Europe’s efforts to keep displaced Syrians and Iraqis out of Europe were misguided. That is, contrary to what much of the European main media reported at the time, relatively few of those displaced Syrians and Iraqis had a strong desire to seek asylum in Europe. Rather, depending upon socio-economic and kinship networks, and historical ties developed over 500 years of Ottoman suzerainty, they preferred to remain in the region following long-established transnational socio-economic networks and kinship ties.

Sahin-Mencutek, Z., & Triandafyllidou, A. (2024). Coerced return: Formal policies, informal practices and migrants’ navigation. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 1–18. This article raises two questions: (1) how do formal policies and informal practices intersect in coercing returns of migrants without legal immigration status, refused asylum seekers and those unlikely to get asylum? (2) how do migrants at risk of return navigate the coercion they are exposed to? The paper also investigates how migrants exercise agency by contesting/resisting or complying with the return procedures. The article contributes to the scholarship on returns by unpacking formal and informal policy and practice dynamics and migrant agency. Empirically, the paper is based on observations and documentation of practices derived from field research and 97 interviews conducted with returnees from EU countries and Turkey to Albania, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan between 2018 and 2023.

van Reekum, R., & Schinkel, W. (2024). Instituting the global: The racial analytics of migration. Migration Studies, 12(3). In this article, the authors regard concepts of inclusion and exclusion as epistemological obstacles for a political (rather than a critical) analysis of migration. Working with the rich conceptual innovations and scientific and philosophical genealogies developed by Denise Ferreira Da Silva in Toward a Global Idea of Race, they seek to show how concepts of inclusion and exclusion, as well as equations between migration and mobility fortify what Da Silva has called ‘globality’ and ‘raciality’. They argue, today, the racial institution of the global operates to a large extent by way of the conceptual, classificatory and ocular practices that make up what is known as ‘migration’, which continues to be understood (falsely but constitutively) as cross-border mobility.

REPORTS AND POLICY BRIEFS

“Don’t tell me about your fear”: Elimination of longstanding safeguard leads to systematic violations of refugee law. (2024). Refugee International. As part of a June 2024 asylum ban rule, the Biden administration eliminated a safeguard that had been in place for nearly 30 years to protect people seeking asylum from being summarily deported without a chance to present their asylum claim. This provision, included in an Interim Final Rule (IFR) titled “Securing the Border” that went into effect immediately on June 5th, eradicates a key requirement for immigration officers to ask people arriving in the United States about their fear of return. In just two months, this change has had disastrous consequences. Based on countless interviews conducted by legal service organizations with asylum seekers impacted by this policy since it was implemented in June, immigration officials are failing to comply with U.S. and international refugee law and summarily deporting people who fear return without a screening on their asylum claim (referred to as a “credible fear interview,” or CFI). The effects of the new policy are detailed.

Engaging employers in growing refugee labor pathways. (2024). Migration Policy Institute. Refugee labour pathways, which focus on helping displaced people with in-demand skills access existing economic immigration channels, have attracted considerable attention in recent years. The appeal is two-fold: From a humanitarian perspective, they open additional opportunities for refugees and other displaced people to move to safety. From a labour market perspective, they offer access to an additional talent pool at a time when many employers are struggling to recruit qualified workers. Such programs now exist in several countries, with the largest in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Designed and implemented as a partnership between these countries’ governments and the nongovernmental organization Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB), these pathways aim to help jobseekers overcome obstacles that can be exacerbated by displacement, such as difficulty connecting with potential employers or providing identity or credential documentation. As these programs progress from the pilot stage, the central role employers play and their impact on efforts to achieve scale have gone largely unexplored. This first-of-its-kind report aims to fill this gap by examining employers’ experiences with recruiting displaced talent and ideas for program improvements. The analysis, conducted by MPI and drawing on unpublished TBB survey data on employer engagement, draws in part on consultations with employers, policymakers, and civil-society stakeholders.

​​Public opinion of climate migrants: Understanding what factors trigger anxiety or support. (2024). Migration Policy Institute. Climate change and extreme weather events are predicted to dramatically alter patterns of human mobility around the world. This poses an urgent policy question: How will receiving communities react to the arrival of people displaced by disasters and climate impacts? The degree of public support for newcomers can shape how policy responses are designed, implemented, and received by the public.

But public opinion is not always easy to predict, nor is it static or fixed. A review of polling and experimental data from around the world suggests that climate migration may trigger anxiety if accompanied by a sense of disorder, unfairness, or loss of control, but also that communities can rally to support large displaced populations, given the right conditions. Efforts to increase support for climate migrants often draw on common narratives—of urgency, of climate migrants’ victimhood, or of their ability to make positive contributions to climate action—but these all come with their own risks and trade-offs. This policy brief looks at what is known about public opinion of climate migrants, and what lessons can be gleaned from broader efforts to mitigate public anxiety and build welcoming communities in the context of rapid societal change. It reflects on how common narratives can create environments more or less welcoming of climate migrants, and how they shape the space policymakers have to think creatively about how to manage climate migration.

The Nuba mountains: A window into the Sudan crisis. (2024). Refugee International. Sudan is in the midst of a human rights and hunger crisis. Khartoum has been destroyed. Darfur is once again experiencing mass atrocities including possible genocide. Famine has already been declared in part of the country and is likely to spread. Nearly every part of the country and many neighbouring countries have been affected by the war, whether through direct violence, economic collapse accelerating food insecurity, or the arrival of refugees seeking safety and aid across borders. Amid this turmoil, the area of the Nuba mountains bordering South Sudan and long controlled by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N) has become a haven of relative security, but far from untouched. An estimated 700,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) have arrived in the Nuba mountains since the start of the war in April 2023. A poor rainy season last year and a plague of locusts had already increased food insecurity in the area. Now, a sharp increase in arrivals of displaced people from other parts of Sudan and the closure of trade routes to the north due to the conflict have exacerbated the challenges.

NEWS AND BLOG POSTS

Canada accepts 1,500 Nigerians seeking asylum in 15 months by Stephen Angbulu, August 25, 2024. Punch. Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board granted asylum to at least 1,467 Nigerians, who applied for refugee protection from January 2023 to March 2024. This brings the total number of accepted asylum claims filed by Nigerians to 11,370 from 2012 to Q1 2024, as shown by data from the Refugee Protection Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. The Board grants refugee protection in Canada if the Division satisfactorily confirms that an applicant or claimant meets the United Nations definition of a Convention refugee, “which has been incorporated into Canadian law, or that the applicant is a person in need of protection.”

Fewer migrants, greater danger: The impact of 2024’s crackdowns by Adam Isacson, August 29, 2024. WOLA. Migration to the U.S.-Mexico border has plummeted in 2024: this summer has seen some of the fewest migrant arrivals in four years. While this might suggest that migration is now “under control,” a closer look at the data reveals a stark humanitarian cost as enforcement policies grow more aggressive in the United States, Mexico, and further south. The numbers show that more migrants and asylum seekers are being denied protection, often bottlenecked along the route and preyed upon by criminal groups, while deaths on U.S. soil increase. The numbers contradict the narratives of hard-liners, like the state government of Texas, who insist that harsh crackdowns on protection-seeking migrants are effective. And they offer no evidence that the present migration decline will be long-lasting.

Fortress Europe: Migration flashpoints in an election year by Joanna Gill & Lin Taylor, August 29, 2024. Context. Rights campaigners warn that new policies from European governments to deter migration from Asian, African and Middle Eastern countries may shut out or even criminalise refugees, already facing growing hostility across the bloc. Amid significant gains by far-right parties in the European Parliament in a June election, more countries across the continent are imposing measures designed to respond to rising anti-immigration sentiment among voters, including Germany, Britain, and France.

Mani once sang of freedom in Afghanistan. Now, silenced, she’s desperate to escape. Will Australia help? by Shadi Khan Saif, September 2, 2024. The Guardian. In the final days of the Afghan republic – in defiance of a looming takeover by the Taliban – the Hazara journalist Mani sang revolutionary poems in public in Kabul about women, freedom and justice. Now she is on the run, waiting for the Australian government to grant her a humanitarian visa. It’s three years since Australia pulled its final troops out of Afghanistan. Their presence over two decades saw the country emerge from the ashes of civil war, embrace a relative peace and a fragile democracy before falling back into the darkness of fundamentalism under the Taliban. Now young women like Mani are bearing the brunt of this failed democratisation project. Like other Afghan women and their families, she is desperately seeking asylum in Australia – somewhere safe to live.

Mpox outbreak in Africa poses risks for refugees, displaced communities by Lisa Schlein, August 27, 2024. VOA. U.N. agencies warn that refugees and displaced communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other African countries infected with mpox are at particular risk of illness and death because of conditions under which they are forced to live. The World Health Organization says at least 42 suspected cases of mpox have been identified among the refugee population in DR Congo’s South Kivu Province, one of the regions hardest hit by the disease. Confirmed and suspected cases of the new clade 1b strain also have been recorded among refugee populations in the Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.

7 years after genocide, plight of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh is exacerbated by camp violence by Nasir Uddin, September 3, 2024. The Conversation. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya in Bangladesh marked the seven-year anniversary of displacement from their homes in neighbouring Myanmar on Aug. 25, 2024. It was a sombre occasion for the long-persecuted Myanmarese Muslim minority, who have faced dire living conditions while clustered into the world’s most crowded refugee camps. Since 2017, their status has been continually challenged by both intermittent hostility from within Bangladesh and an ongoing civil war in Myanmar, during which the military government has continued to crack down on the Rohingya’s homeland in Rakhine state.

EVENTS, RESOURCES, DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Asymmetrical sympathies: The global north’s response to protection seekers by The Migration Oxford Podcast. Why are some countries across the Global North more open and accepting towards refugees than others? How can asymmetrical sympathies and differential treatments be better understood? The welcoming response of European countries towards Ukrainian refugees from 2022 onwards has been marked by its strength and rapidity. This recent example recalls other moments of openness from past decades: the Western response to Kosovar refugees in 1999, or the response of some countries – including Germany and Canada – to Syrian refugees in 2015. Such responses are striking as they occurred simultaneously with restrictive policies enforced against other groups of protection seekers. How can we understand moments of openness towards refugees in countries of the Global North? Why do these responses favour some groups and not others? How can we understand asymmetrical sympathies and differential treatment in the response to various groups of protection seekers? This episode of The Migration Oxford Podcast explores these questions and more, in an effort to challenge the global responses to refugee crises and ask how we can make those responses more inclusive.

Fall 2024 belonging talks series on the theme, food, migration, and belonging: Sustainable practices for integrated communities by Clark University. This series presents the role of food and cooking in mobile homemaking and for creating sustainable societies. The different events are as follows: October 9, 12-1PM EST: “Culinary Sustainability as a Belonging and Resilience Practice for Refugees” (Dr. Susan Rottmann, Zeynap Yilmaz Hava and Nour Zanjer, Food and Migration Research Team, Ozyegin University, Istanbul, Turkey). November 13, 12-1PM EST: “From Memories to the Table: My Pontic Greek Family Journey” (Chef Panos Karafoulidis, Gastro Routes, Thessaloniki, Greece). November 20, 12-1PM EST: Presenting Oakland Bloom’s food business training and incubator program empowering refugee and immigrant chefs (Claudia Luz Suarez and Chef Nicole Garcia, Oakland Bloom, CA, USA).

Immigrant and refugee mental health project: Leadership course by The Immigrant and Refugee Mental Health Project. The Immigrant and Refugee Mental Health Project, funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, is offering a free, online course for leaders who are committed to understanding immigrant and refugee mental health and who lead staff working with immigrants and refugees in Canada. This includes organizations in the health, settlement and social service sectors. The course runs from September 16 – October 28, 2024, with an estimated time of 3 hours per lesson.

The RRN Research Digest provides a synopsis of recent research on refugee and forced migration issues from entities associated with the RRN and others.

You can download the digest in PDF format here: RRN Research Digest

Dear RRN Colleagues and Friends, 

As we conclude the 2023-2024 academic year, we will take a summer break and plan to return in September 2024. 

Thank you to our readers for your continued interest and support, and to our contributors for sharing your innovative refugee research with us! 

We look forward to continuing our knowledge mobilization efforts in the upcoming academic year and wish you a productive summer semester. 

Sincerely,

The RRN Team

NEW RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS

Bender, F. (2024). Border Abolitionism: Migrants’ Containment and the Genealogies of Struggles and Rescue by Martina Tazzioli. Journal of Refugee Studies. This book draws on earlier literature on abolitionism and brings it into conversation with the literature in migration studies. Doing so leads to a fruitful and surprising genesis of arguments. The author argues that border abolitionism is not about the abolition of borders, and should not be understood as the call for abolishing borders altogether, as is often associated with the ‘no border’ movement. Instead, in line with the ‘open borders’ literature, the book argues for a productive disintegration of border practices and institutions. It is not the administrative line that divides two territories that matters in the treatment of migrants (and their classification as such), but the practices and institutions that yield power, incarcerate, degrade, and kill.

Cascone, M., & Bonini, T. (2024). ‘Disconnecting from my smartphone is a privilege I do not have’: Mobile connection and disconnection practices among migrants and asylum seekers in three migrant reception centres of Sicily. New Media & Society. This article investigates online connection and disconnection practices among migrants and asylum seekers. It draws from an ethnography of three Sicilian reception centres that hosted migrants and asylum seekers between September and November 2020. The research shows that they cannot afford to practise typically Western, urban and elitist forms of disconnection; however, they, too, can practise specific forms of disconnection, paradoxically afforded by staying connected. The article aims to contextualize and situate disconnection studies within different social, political, cultural and geographic contexts.

Sallam, H. H. (2024). Holding the door slightly open: Germany’s migrants’ return intentions and realizations. International Migration, 62(3), 73-99. Return migration intentions are complex and are not necessarily followed by future return migration. This study compares successful return or repeated migration with self-declared return intentions. Moreover, return migration estimates are examined over this long-observed return window. This empirical analysis explores (1) whether return intentions eventually materialize, (2) whether they can eventually predict actual return behaviours and (3) whether the determinants of actual and predicted return based on intentions are similar. Overall, the results support the idea that migration intentions can predict actual return behaviour. While the underlying results show discrepancies in the predictors of return intentions and those of actual returns, they show emigration intentions as significant predictors of actual future emigration. Moreover, the findings suggest that life satisfaction significantly correlates with the individual intention to remigrate. Both effects are highly significant.

Sprenger, E. (2024). What makes us move, what makes us stay: The role of language and culture in Intra-EU mobility. Journal of International Migration and Integration. This article analyses the determinants of international migration flows within the European Union and focuses on the role of cultural and linguistic differences in explaining the size of these flows. For that purpose, a set of indicators of cultural distance, economic, demographic, geographical, political and network variables are controlled for using data from 28 member states of the EU over the period 1998–2018. Economic factors play an important role in examining migration flows, but economic differentials alone may be insufficient to explain the uneven real-life migration pattern in the EU. The results suggest strong evidence of the importance of linguistic distance in explaining the direction of migration flows across the EU.

Zhuang, Z. C. (2024). Suburban migration: Interrogating the intersections of Global Migration and suburban transformation. IMISCOE Research Series, 227–240. Suburbanization as a global phenomenon has presented multifaceted patterns of evolution and transformation in various contexts. Migrant settlements in suburban spaces add more complexities to suburbia by bringing diverse demographics, (inter)cultural practices, new built forms, and new meanings of space and community. This chapter draws on the migration-related suburbanization processes in different contexts and applies the theory of the production of space to cast light upon the narratives of everyday suburban life, diversity management, growth and development, policy and governance, and socio-spatial (in)equity and (in)justice.

REPORTS AND POLICY BRIEFS

Independent review of the humanitarian response to internal displacement. (2024). IASC. Internal displacement has risen dramatically since the United Nations (UN) first began to draw attention to this issue in 1992, when there were an estimated 24 million internally displaced persons (IDPs). Today, there are more than three times that number, with the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) reporting 71 million IDPs at the end of 2022 and millions more in 2023 due to several escalating conflicts and many large-scale disasters. Far from slowing, this trend is accelerating at an alarming rate, driven not only by conflict, generalized violence and sudden-onset disasters but also increasingly by water scarcity, drought and food insecurity due to climate change. Indeed, it is estimated that climate change could lead to over 200 million people moving within their borders by 2050. The forecast, therefore, suggests internal displacement on an ever-more worrying scale.

Report on the third global consultation on the health of refugees and migrants, Rabat, Morocco, 13-15 June 2023. (2024). World Health Organization. The Third Global Consultation on the Health of Refugees and Migrants in Rabat, Morocco, on 13–15 June 2023 led to the adoption of the Rabat Declaration. The purpose was to strengthen high-level political commitment to improve, protect and preserve the health and wellbeing of refugees, migrants and host communities. This report captures the summary of key points from this event, including the need for political commitment, and consideration of equity, inclusion, mainstreaming and accountability. Emphasis was placed on meaningful refugee and migrant participation, effective and equitable access to health care, tackling the social determinants of health and adopting data- and research-driven approaches.

Supporting Self-Sufficiency: Considerations for Refugees’ Transition out of Sponsorship and Complementary Pathways Programs. (2024). Migration Policy Institute. A growing number of countries are experimenting with and building humanitarian protection pathways that involve volunteers from receiving communities in supporting the welcome, settlement, and integration of refugees. These programs, which include different types of sponsorship, and labour and education complementary pathways, vary considerably in their design. A common challenge, often receiving insufficient attention, is how refugees  transition from these programs to independently navigating life in their new community and country. This MPI Europe issue brief identifies lessons learned about how program organizers and volunteers can best support refugees’ transition out of sponsorship and complementary pathways programs and toward longer-term integration. It highlights common obstacles to a smooth transition and promising practices, with examples from European, Canadian, and other programs.

Understanding the economics of human smuggling in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia. (2024). Mixed Migration Centre. This report explores the financial dimension of human smuggling across Southeast Asia, drawing insights from extensive 4Mi surveys conducted between December 2022 and August 2023. Focusing on the experiences of refugees and migrants from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Somalia, and Myanmar who engaged smugglers during their journeys, the report sheds light on how refugees and migrants finance their smuggling journey.

World Migration Report 2024. (2024). IOM UN Migration. The World Migration Report 2024, the twelfth in the world migration report series, has been produced to contribute to an increased understanding of migration worldwide. This new edition presents key data and information on migration and thematic chapters on highly topical migration issues. In most discussions on migration, the starting point is usually numbers. Understanding changes in scale, emerging trends, and shifting demographics related to global social and economic transformations, such as migration, help us make sense of our changing world and plan for the future. The current global estimate is that there were around 281 million international migrants in the world in 2020, which equates to 3.6 percent of the global population.

NEWS AND BLOG POSTS

As countries toughen anti-gay laws, ‘rainbow refugees’ seek asylum in Europe, May 16, 2024. France 24. Since Nigeria criminalizes same-sex relationships, Anthony fled a possible prison term and headed with her partner to Libya in 2014 and then Italy, where they both won asylum. Their claim? That they had a well-founded fear of anti-LGBTQ+ persecution back home. While many of the hundreds of thousands of migrants who arrive in Italy from Africa and the Mideast are escaping war, conflict and poverty, advocates say an increasing number are fleeing possible prison terms and death sentences in their home countries because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. And despite huge obstacles to win asylum on LGBTQ+ grounds, Anthony and her partner, Doris Ezuruike Chinonso, are proof that it can be done, even if the challenges remain significant for so-called “rainbow refugees” like them.

Brazil floods drive thousands from their homes by Felipe Souza, Fernando Otto, Ligia Guimarães & Luiz Antônio Araujo, May 11, 2024. BBC News. The flood has plunged much of the state capital, Porto Alegre into darkness, and damaged power and water treatment plants leaving most residents without drinking water. About 70,000 people are living in temporary shelters. Roselaine da Silva is one of them. She is staying in an evangelical church with her three children, one of whom has autism. Their two dogs are with them, but she says she has had to leave her two cats behind in her flooded Sarandi neighbourhood.

China Forcibly Returns 60 Refugees to North Korea by Lina Yoon, May 8, 2024. Human Rights Watch. The Chinese government forcibly returned about 60 North Korean refugees on April 26, putting them at grave risk of enforced disappearance, torture, sexual violence, wrongful imprisonment, forced labour, and execution. This round of forced returns came soon after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with China’s third-highest official, Zhao Leji, on April 13, seeking stronger bilateral ties. The meeting had raised concerns among North Koreans in exile and rights activists that China might speed up forced repatriations of North Koreans.

Detaining migrants in prisons violates human rights and risks abuses by Jessica Evans and Linda Mussell, April 25, 2024. The Conversation. The Canadian government recently proposed earmarking $325 million in the 2024 federal budget to upgrade federal immigration detention centres to hold more people. The budget also proposes to amend the law to allow federal prisons to be used to detain “high-risk” immigrants. The government’s decision comes after all Canadian provinces committed to ending their agreements with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to detain migrants in provincial jails. In 2022, British Columbia became the first province to announce it would end its agreement with CBSA, stating the practice conflicts with provincial, national and international human rights commitments.

Italy bans NGO planes from using airports close to migrant routes, May 8, 2024. Reuters. Italy said on Tuesday that planes used by charities to track migrant boats in difficulty would no longer be able to fly from airports on the islands of Sicily, Pantelleria and Lampedusa, which are close to the shipping routes. The decision, announced by the Italian Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC), will make it much harder for non-governmental groups like Sea Watch to use its small planes to scour the central Mediterranean for boats in need of rescue.

Protecting Syrian Refugees in Lebanon by Ammar Musarea, May 8, 2024. Fika Forum. Given the breakdown of the Lebanese state, Arab countries’ normalization with Assad, and the fragmentation of the Syrian opposition, it seems that the United States can step in to play a pivotal role in protecting Syrian refugees facing persecution. Immediately after the April announcement of the assassination of Pascal Sleiman—the Lebanese Forces coordinator—a wave of threats towards Lebanon’s Syrian refugee population swept through the country’s Christian communities. Moreover, there have been instances of Syrian refugees being beaten, evicted from homes and businesses, and even being kidnapped, as happened when unknown individuals intercepted a taxi carrying two Syrians on a road in North Bekaa and kidnapped them to an unknown location.

Starvation and Suicide: Refugees in Kenya Camps, May 6, 2024. Relief Web. The extreme cuts to food rations in Kakuma Refugee Camp and Kalobeyei Settlement in Kenya have led to deadly protests, suicides, and an inhumane situation for refugees seeking safety and protection. The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) is deeply disturbed by reports it received on the current situation in the camp, which has warehoused refugees for over three decades. USCRI received credible information from refugees in the camp detailing a dreadful reality following World Food Programme (WFP) cuts to food rations.

Win for Albanese government as high court rules indefinite detention legal in non-cooperation cases by Paul Karp and Luca Ittimani, May 10, 2024. The Guardian. Labour has won a major victory in the high court over the indefinite detention of non-citizens who refuse to cooperate with removal, but the win has put further in doubt its push for new deportation powers. Recently, the high court ruled detention is lawful in the case of ASF17, an Iranian asylum seeker who refused to cooperate with efforts to deport him because he “fears for his life” because he is bisexual, Christian and a Faili Kurd. The court unanimously held that detention is lawful if deportation were possible if the detainee cooperated in the undertaking of administrative processes necessary to facilitate their removal. The case was dismissed with costs.

EVENTS, RESOURCES, DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA

James Paterson on Australia’s immigration detention system – Australian politics podcast by The Guardian. This podcast includes a discussion between Guardian Australia’s political editor Karen Middleton and the shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson, about the government’s deportation bill. They also discuss immigration, relations with China and what might happen to home affairs under a Coalition government.

Why Chinese people are the latest boat arrivals by ABC News Daily. When a boat carrying Chinese men arrived in Western Australia last month it was unusual. Not only because it’s rare for boats to make it to the mainland but those on board are almost never from China. So why are Chinese nationals so desperate to get to Australia that they pay people smugglers? ABC reporter, Wing Kuang, tackles this issue in this podcast episode.

The RRN Research Digest provides a synopsis of recent research on refugee and forced migration issues from entities associated with the RRN and others.

You can download the digest in PDF format here: RRN Research Digest

NEW RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS

Bejan, R., & Glynn, T. (2024). “A Total Black Hole”: How COVID-19 Increased Bureaucratic Violence Against Refugees in Greece. Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees, 39(2), 1–18. Informed by participant observations and 10 interviews with civil society actors conducted in Athens in 2021 and 2022 at the height of the pandemic, this paper shows how the Greek state weaponized COVID-19 to further exclude refugees from society, deny asylum procedures, and reduce service provision for those awaiting the outcome of their asylum claims.

Chen, E. (2024). The 2021 UNHCR-IE SOGI global roundtable on protection and solutions for LGBTIQ+ people in forced displacement: Toward a new vision for LGBTIQ+ Refugee Protection. Journal of Refugee Studies. This field reflection critically examines how emerging international norms concerning forcibly displaced people of diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) were negotiated during the 2021 UNHCR-IE SOGI Global Roundtable on Protection and Solutions for LGBTIQ+ People in Forced Displacement. The author argues that the Roundtable was a crucial site of norm contestation on queer refugee intersectionality and inclusion within the global refugee policy regime, particularly among stakeholders grounded in two interconnected, mutually responsive policy ecosystems: (1) refugee rights and assistance and (2) LGBTIQ+ human rights. The author proposes several ways to effectively innovate the international norms that will impact LGBTIQ+ refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced people, and stateless people in coming years.

Karimi, A., Thompson, S., & Bucerius, S. M. (2024). National Assimilation and/or Cosmopolitan Transnationalism? Impending Transnationalism among the Upwardly Mobile Children of Refugees. Sociology. The authors explore educational and occupational attainments and transnational practices of second generation refugees in Canada. The data show upward mobility and an absence of contemporary transnational practices. However, the study finds that participants’ refugee background impacts their transnationalism, their parents’ forced departures as refugees and the ongoing violence in their origin-country lead to second-generation Somali-Canadians’ lack of transnationalism. Many, however, emphasize their desire to discover their origin-country in the future. As such, the authors argue that refugee background seems to push transnationalism into the future for the study participants.

Lenner, K. & Turner, L. (2024). ‘The Jordan Compact, Refugee Labour and the Limits of Indicator-oriented Formalisation.’ Development and Change, online first, pp. 1-29. This article explores initiatives to formalize refugees’ labour market participation. Despite many practitioners believing that formalization is a solution for improving the lives of marginalized workers, including refugees, the authors argue that in practice, it easily becomes an indicator-oriented exercise, where readily quantifiable targets are prioritized over substantive improvements. The article analyzes the trajectory of the Jordan Compact, a flagship initiative that brought together humanitarian, development, and labour actors to create ‘win-win’ solutions for Syrians and Jordanians. It traces how the Compact has made formalization an end in itself, with little regard for how much it benefits workers. The article demonstrates how indicators have shaped initiatives while undermining meaningful reform.  The authors advocate shifting the focus onto the individual and collective power of workers so that they can better realize the potential benefits of formalization.

Alcaraz, N., Ferrer, I., Abes, J. G., & Lorenzetti, L. (2021). Hiding for survival: Highlighting the lived experiences of precarity and labour abuse among Filipino non-status migrants in Canada. Journal of Human Rights and Social Work, 6(4), 256–267. This paper presents a case study on the experiences of non-status migrants seeking access to health, social, and community services. The findings highlight five case-based themes that centre on the (1) undocumented and hidden costs of striving for status, (2) aspirations to stay in Canada, (3) navigation through the everyday struggles to survive, (4) acts of selflessness and (5) resistance against the stigmatisation of being labelled a non-status migrant. This paper offers key recommendations for social work practitioners who engage in social justice and advocacy work alongside non-status migrants in Canada.

REPORTS AND POLICY BRIEFS

A decade of documenting migrant deaths: Data analysis and reflection on deaths during migration documented by IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, 2014-2023. (2024). Missing Migrants Project. This report sheds insights on MMP data to inform action to make migration safe for all. It starts with a brief overview of migrant deaths and disappearances documented in 2023, highlighting the increases in recorded fatalities across nearly all regions of the world. A holistic analysis of the last decade of MMP data is then presented, including the main countries of origin, causes of death, and demographic information of those who are known to have died. The report concludes with a discussion of the many data gaps and challenges of documenting deaths and disappearances during migration and calls for long-overdue action to ensure evidence-based policies and programmes are put in place to end migrant deaths.

Comparing national laws and policies addressing irregular migrants. (2024). MIrreM. Based on 20 countries across Europe, North America and North Africa, this report synthesizes key trends and patterns of national policy approaches toward migrant irregularity, highlighting commonalities and differences across various contexts. In particular, this report examines three key research questions: how have irregular migration policies evolved over time and in response to what; what pathways into and out of irregularity have these policies produced or aimed to address; and what challenges have hindered policy implementation. In doing so, the report aims to contextualize irregular migration policy changes, and  how such policies can channel migrants into or out of irregularity.

Heavy rainfall in East Africa forces thousands of refugees from their homes. (2024). UNHCR. Thousands of people, including refugees, continue to be caught up in the ongoing El Niño-triggered heavy rains and severe flooding sweeping across East Africa. In Kenya, nearly 20,000 people in the Dadaab refugee camps – which host over 380,000 refugees – have been displaced due to the rising water levels. Many of them are among those who arrived in the past couple of years after fleeing severe drought in neighbouring Somalia. Some 4,000 people are currently sheltering in six schools with facilities that have been extensively damaged. The others are staying with friends or relatives in other parts of the camp. Several latrines have collapsed, putting refugees at risk of deadly water-borne diseases.

UNHCR launches fund to shield refugees and other displaced people from climate shocks. (2024). UNHCR. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, launched the UNHCR Climate Resilience Fund, seeking to boost the protection of refugees and displaced communities who are most threatened by climate change. Contributions to the Fund will boost the reach and impact of UNHCR’s climate action, enabling the agency and its partners to commit to climate-related projects in countries where it is already responding to major conflict-related situations of forced displacement, such as Bangladesh, Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya and Mozambique.

World Migration Report. (2024). IOM UN Migration. The World Migration Report 2024 helps demystify the complexity of human mobility through evidence-based data and analysis by shedding It  light on longstanding trends and emerging challenges. The report highlights that international migration remains a driver of human development and economic growth, highlighted by a more than 650 per cent increase in international remittances from 2000 to 2022, rising from USD 128 billion to USD 831 billion. The growth continued despite predictions from many analysts that remittances would decrease substantially because of COVID-19. 

NEWS AND BLOG POSTS

Egypt hosts 300K registered Sudanese refugees: UNHCR by Noha El Tawil, April 21, 2024. Egypt Today. Since the outbreak of the civil war in Sudan on April 15, 2023, 8.2 million have been displaced, including 1.8 million who fled to neighbouring states, particularly Chad and Egypt. According to the UNHCR, over 500,000 crossed the borders into Egypt, primarily women and children. The commission’s bureaus in Cairo and Alexandria receive 2,000-3,000 refugees daily. Since the beginning of 2024, the commission has registered almost 100,000. As such, the number of Sudanese refugees registered with the UNHCR has hit 300,000 – jumping five-fold – making the total of registered refugees of various nationalities 570,000. Nevertheless, the number is expected to rise given that 2.3 million Sudanese are estimated to leave Sudan for neighbouring states by the end of 2024.

EU Refugee And Asylum Pact: Balancing Security And Human Rights In Europe by Fadi Jaloun, April 28, 2024. The Organization for World Peace. The recent approval of the EU Refugee and Asylum Pact by the European Parliament is a milestone in the EU’s continuous efforts to change its migration and refugee policies. This comprehensive reform, which has been in the works since 2015, aims to expedite asylum procedures, increase returns of irregular migrants, and establish a system of shared responsibility among EU member states. At its core, the deal includes many critical provisions aiming at speeding up the asylum process, improving irregular migrants’ returns, and imposing stronger pre-entry screening processes. This comprehensive strategy has received support from important political factions inside the European Parliament, notably the center-right European People’s Party Group (EPP) and the center-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D). The far-left denounces the agreement as a betrayal of European ideals and claims it puts political expediency before compassion and human decency.

‘Hiroshima-level casualties’ feared in final battle for North Darfur by Redmond Shannon, April 26, 2024. Global News. The veteran human rights investigator Nathaniel Raymond is monitoring the encirclement of the Sudanese city of El Fasher in almost-real-time, via high-resolution satellite images. The capital of the state of North Darfur could be about to fall to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its allies, as they fight against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in the country’s year-long civil war. Raymond told Global News he believes some RSF troops have made it inside the city limits. El Fasher is the last city still under SAF control in the vast eastern region of Darfur. It hosts hundreds of thousands of people who have fled violence elsewhere.

Operation Zufolo: Australia deployed a ‘charade’ to sustain indefinite immigration detention – it failed by Paul Karp, April 27, 2024. The Guardian. In July 2022, Australia’s immigration minister, Andrew Giles, was warned of legal “risks” associated with immigration detention and the need to show “concrete and robust steps” to deport non-citizens stuck in limbo. A task force within the Home Affairs Department had been set up to explore third-country options to resettle long-term detainees in immigration detention. Its existence was never publicized and references to it were redacted from documents released under freedom of information. However, in the high court on April 17 the Australian Border Force operation that succeeded the task force was revealed for the first time: Operation Zufolo.

Parliament passes bill declaring Rwanda safe – but can it really be called a law at all? by Joshua Jowitt, April 23, 2024. The Conversation. After months of deadlock, the House of Lords withdrew its opposition to the safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill, meaning it would become law upon receiving royal assent. This legislation declares in UK law that Rwanda is a safe country for the UK to send asylum seekers. Much has been written about the Rwanda plan’s practical (un)workability, high cost, and its perceived cruelty. However, one thing that may have been overlooked is a conceptual question: Are there problems with this law that mean it is not a real law at all?

Thousands of Refugees Flee Fighting in Southeastern Myanmar by Sebastian Strangio, April 22, 2024. The Diplomat. Several thousand people from Myanmar’s Kayin (Karen) State have crossed the border into Thailand to take refuge from escalating battles between Myanmar junta forces and ethnic Karen troops, according to Thai officials. Foreign Affairs Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said recently that the number of Myanmar refugees in Mae Sot had risen to around 3,000, as fighting flared across the border around the Myanmar city of Myawaddy. On April 10, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the armed wing of the Karen National Union, said that it had captured the last Myanmar military outpost in Myawaddy, along with allied People’s Defence Forces. However, the junta forces in the area did not surrender. Subsequently they retreated to the customs compound at the second of the two bridges linking the two countries across the Moei River, where they continue to hold out for reinforcements.

​​Why host country education for refugees isn’t a magical solution by Maha Shuyab, April 24, 2024. The New Humanitarian. UN agencies and global education initiatives appear to be converging on a consensus: Enrolling refugees in national education systems in host countries is the best way to bring schooling to the world’s growing refugee populations. The argument behind this policy seems sound at first: Most conflicts are protracted, so enrolling refugees in the educational system of the host country is more sustainable, is less time- and resource-consuming, and promotes cohesion between refugees and host populations. However, what looks good on paper does not always work in practice.

EVENTS, RESOURCES, DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Centre for Refugee Studies Summer Course on Forced Migration: Exploring the intersections between forced migration and technology. This hybrid event (online and at York University) takes place June 3-7, 2024. This year’s Summer Course is offered in collaboration with Osgoode Hall Law School’s Refugee Law Laboratory. It will focus on research, policy, and practices at the intersections of forced migration and technology. The course  provides an introduction, including on an overview of major trends in forced migration, and some of the vast array of technologies used for border enforcement, refugee adjudication, as well as inspiring innovations by researchers, lawyers, and affected communities to level the playing field. Two public keynotes with noted experts in the field will also bookend the course, one focusing on critical issues in race, gender, and technology, and the other providing a former private sector perspective. 

Race and Empire in Europe’s Borders by Beyond Eurocentrism Programme and ENAR. This all-day event will examine the interactions between border practices and the character of the EU, exploring how the new lines of inclusion/exclusion drawn in Europe’s peripheries and on distant shores inform the political identity of the EU. This event hosts several speakers delivering a series of panels, each with its own focus, and the event will end with a film-screening with director Q&A! This event takes place both in person and online on May 23, 2024, 10:30 AM to 5:30 PM BST.

What’s Unsaid | Migrants and refugees are easy political targets by The New Humanitarian.  This episode explores how every day, hundreds arrive at the Inzargai refugee registration centre in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, after a wave of mass expulsions by the Pakistani government that began last November. The situation at Inzargai camp is just one illustration of how governments around the world are weaponizing anti-refugee and anti-immigrant rhetoric. The hosts discuss how far-right parties and right-wing governments in post-Brexit Europe, as well as political parties and leaders in Argentina, Turkey, and the United States, continue to stir up xenophobia for political gain.

The RRN Research Digest provides a synopsis of recent research on refugee and forced migration issues from entities associated with the RRN and others.

You can download the digest in PDF format here: RRN Research Digest

NEW RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS

Bennani-Taylor, S., & Meer, N. (2024). Processing payments, enacting alterity: Financial Technology in the everyday lives of asylum seekers. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 50(10), 2384–2402. This article examines how the Asylum Support Enablement (ASPEN) card – a prepayment card provided to UK asylum seekers – enacts their alterity in ways that problematize the techno-optimist narrative of digital technologies as promoters of financial inclusion. First, the authors trace the migration of Prepaid Financial Services’ prepayment technology from the humanitarian context to its adoption in UK state practices, considering what this means for the mobility of policy norms inscribed in digital technologies. Second, building on the concept of ‘alterity processing’, they examine how the UK Home Office co-constructs asylum seekers as ‘deviant subjects’ and its bureaucratic entities as indispensable. Third, they analyze how this co-construction is used to justify asylum seekers’ exclusion from mainstream banking, rendering them dependent on the ASPEN card. Finally, they elucidate how the card’s surveillance, encoded rules, and induced precarity govern asylum seekers’ behaviours. The researchers thus demonstrate how financial technologies – as deployed across humanitarian and statist welfare contexts – engender new lines of marginalization and forms of social control.

Bernier, A., McCrimmon, A., Nsair, S., & Hans, H. (2024). Autism in the Context of Humanitarian Emergency: The Lived Experiences of Syrian Refugee Mothers of Children on the Autism Spectrum. Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees, 39(2), 1–21. This study explored the resettlement experiences of Syrian refugees accessing supports and services for their autistic children in Alberta, Canada. Using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA), in-depth interviews with three participants led to seven shared themes regarding parental experiences with the Syrian crisis, access to supports and services, barriers to resettlement, and sentiments regarding their resettlement. Findings are explained using migrant adaptation models to situate practice within a social justice orientation by understanding the perspectives of vulnerable migrant populations. Practical implications include ways to benefit refugees, imbue culture within the practice, inform policy initiatives, and highlight the importance of trauma-informed care.

D’Orsi, C. (2024). Fleeing a well-founded fear of persecution to be persecuted again? The case of LGBTIQ+ refugees and asylum seekers in Uganda. International Journal of Refugee Law. This work focuses on the legal promotion and protection of the rights of LGBTIQ+ asylum seekers and refugees in Uganda. Uganda’s treatment of LGBTIQ+ communities is one of the harshest in Africa, with the adoption of legal instruments criminalizing LGBTIQ+ people andsame-sex relations. Refugees have never been granted refugee status based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. The Ugandan Commissioner for Refugees systematically rejects asylum claims based solely on sexual orientation and/or gender identity. This article shows that, despite efforts by UNHCR and non-governmental organizations, Uganda remains a country hostile to LGBTIQ+ asylum seekers, forcing them to conduct a discreet life to avoid being penalized for their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. The ambiguous positions of African institutions, such as the African Union, do not help secure such people’s rights and protection. Serious changes are needed if Uganda is to adhere to human rights principles that safeguard the rights of LGBTIQ+ communities.

Gordon, S. L. (2024). South African attitudes towards refugee settlement: Examining the importance of threat perceptions. Journal of Refugee Studies. Compared to many other countries, South Africa has a liberal refugee settlement policy, but public hostility towards refugees in the country is a serious obstacle to refugee protection. To understand what is driving anti-refugee sentiment amongst the masses, this study investigates refugee settlement policy preferences in the post-apartheid nation. Data analysis showed a robust relationship between immigrant threat perceptions and policy preferences. This finding is consistent with integrated threat theory, highlighting the damaging effects of widespread negative stereotypes about immigrants in the country. Other notable drivers of attitudes identified include economic anxiety and religiosity. Subjective knowledge, by contrast, only had a weak effect on attitude formation. The study concludes by discussing future research opportunities on anti-refugee sentiment in an African context.

Ongwech, O. D., Schulz, P., & Erdem, Z. P. (2024). Recognizing the agency of forced migrants with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and sex characteristics. Journal of Refugee Studies. In recent years, scholarship and policy reports have slowly attended to the lived realities of forced migrants with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC). However, these emerging discourses are typically characterized by a violation-centric view that focuses on queer migrants’ vulnerabilities and experiences of victimization. Yet, what remains strikingly absent from existing research and advocacy engagement is how refugees with diverse SOGIESC across different settings also actively seek out services and build support networks; how they engage with their experiences on their own terms, resist violence, and exercise various forms of agency. In this field reflection, we emphasize the importance of recognizing how and under what conditions forced migrants with diverse SOGIESC exercise agency. We put forward illustrative examples based on field reflections of working with refugees with diverse SOGIESC, opening new perspectives for research, policy, and activism

REPORTS AND POLICY BRIEFS

Access, Power, Trust: Lessons from Humanitarian Aid in Protracted Displacement. (2024). PRIO. Ensuring accountability – from finance and bookkeeping to pervasive issues of transparency, trust and legitimacy – is central to the effectiveness of humanitarian aid. Considering a range of humanitarian actors, over the long internal displacement history of Muslims from northern Sri Lanka, we find that access, power, and trust are key to the success or failure of attempted accountability practices. Accountability-conducive relationships are based on dynamic and transparent interactions, and fostering these relationships necessitates recognizing, navigating, and challenging, pervasive asymmetries across contexts.

Return, Reintegration and Re-migration. (2024). OECD. Return migration has emerged as a critical policy concern for both destination and origin countries. While policy attention in destination countries has been focused on assisted voluntary return and reintegration (AVRR) programs, particularly for migrants with expulsion orders, these efforts represent only a fraction of broader return movements. This report analyzes the scope and characteristics of different categories of return migration. It draws on three workshops, held in Tunis, Rabat and Brussels, that discussed return migration in different contexts. It examines the multiple factors that influence migrants’ decisions to return to their countries of origin and their reintegration at home, including the role of family and community. The report emphasizes the pre-existing structures and networks of returning migrants in their origin countries and their role in supporting different types of return migrants. The report also looks at potential re-migration.

Supporting Self-Sufficiency: Considerations for Refugees’ Transition out of Sponsorship and Complementary Pathways Programs. (2024). Migration Policy Institute. A growing number of countries are experimenting with and building humanitarian protection pathways that involve volunteers from receiving communities in supporting the welcome, settlement, and integration of refugees. These programs include different types of sponsorship pathways and vary considerably in their design. However, a common challenge that often receives insufficient attention, is how refugees will transition out of these programs and independently navigate life in their new community and country. Getting this right matters for several reasons: A timely, well-structured, and clear transition strategy can facilitate a smooth end to program support, advance refugees’ self-sufficiency and integration, promote volunteer retention and social cohesion, and boost a program’s long-term sustainability. This MPI Europe issue brief identifies lessons learned about how program organizers and volunteers can best support refugees’ transition out of sponsorship and complementary pathways programs and toward longer-term integration. It highlights common obstacles to a smooth transition and  promising practices, with examples from European, Canadian, and other programs.

The State of Global Mobility in the Aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic. (2024). Migration Policy Institute. The robust recovery of migration and travel following the COVID-19 pandemic-induced slowdown has vividly highlighted the resilience of human mobility. Yet even as cross-border movement has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, it has also changed in notable ways. This report—a collaboration between the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and MPI—seeks to understand how the volume, composition, and distance of movements, as well as the terms under which people move, are changing in the aftermath of the pandemic. While existing data do not make it possible to sketch a full picture of mobility around the entire globe, this study brings together IOM flow monitoring data from different regions to examine the changing face of migration, both regular and irregular.

NEWS AND BLOG POSTS

Ghana accused of expelling Fulani asylum seekers from Burkina Faso by James Courtright, April 18, 2024. The New Humanitarian. While Ghana has welcomed thousands of Burkinabé refugees fleeing escalating jihadist violence across the border, Fulani rights groups allege that it has also been expelling ethnic Fulani asylum seekers, targeting a community unfairly accused of supporting the insurgency. Since early 2022, at least 15,000 Burkinabé have fled into northern Ghana, escaping an escalating conflict between the military, who are backed by armed civilian auxiliaries, and the two main jihadist groups – the al-Qaeda-linked JNIM, and so-called Islamic State. Across the Sahel, close to four million people have been displaced by the expanding conflict.

Global Affordable Housing Shortages Can Harm Migrant Reception and Integration by Benedicta Solf, Lindsey Guerrero, and Selena Sherzad, March 20, 2024. Migration Policy Institute. The lack of affordable housing worldwide is becoming a global crisis. An estimated 1.6 billion people—one-fifth of humanity—lack access to adequate housing and basic services, according to the UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, and this number could rise to 3 billion by 2030. Over the last decade, housing prices have grown faster than incomes in most countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This article examines how the housing crisis affects refugees, other forcibly displaced people, and other types of migrants, including in their relations with host communities. While a rapid influx of new arrivals may contribute to cities’ shortage of homes, housing problems are often created by broader issues and are pre-existing. Yet the perception that vulnerable new arrivals are to blame for a dearth of affordable accommodation can create tensions with host communities as well as barriers to integration.

Human rights groups air concerns and personal testimonies on government migration bill by Evelyn Manfield, April 15, 2024. ABC News. The Australian federal government’s proposed changes to migration law are “entirely incompatible with human rights,” and the government should abandon its bill, human rights groups have told a Senate committee scrutinizing the legislation. Last month, the government introduced legislation which would allow it to jail people refusing to cooperate with deportation for between one and five years. The government has said the bill focuses on about 150 people currently in immigration detention, and avoiding deportation efforts.

Offshore Processing Offers False Hope for United Kingdom by Madeline Gleeson, April 22, 2024. Australian Institute of International Affairs. The influence of Australia’s deterrence-based asylum policy is spreading across Europe and the United Kingdom, with serious consequences for both human rights and the rule of law. Obstacles to the implementing “offshore processing,” in particular, might force States to refocus on their asylum processing capabilities. The prospect of “externalizing” asylum had long featured in European debates about refugee policy, and has received renewed attention since 2015 when record numbers of people began arriving in the region, fleeing conflict and persecution in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere. Australian-style “offshore processing” – that is, the forced removal of asylum seekers to other countries to have their protection claims processed there – has particularly piqued the interest of some governments.

Seeking asylum status, Chinese migrant in Colorado shares story by Alan Gionet, April 18, 2024. CBC News Colarado. The growing number of people coming into the United States from China over the southern border includes individuals coming to Colorado. However, they are not often seen and make few demands for services, making their arrival less well-known than migrants coming from places like Venezuela. “I think they’re leaving because China is becoming more and more authoritative,” said immigration attorney Margaret Choi. “I think it’s getting more and more restrictive. And they are not allowed to criticize the Chinese leadership or the Chinese policy.”

What is the UK’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda and how many could go? April 23, 2024. BBC News. The Rwanda bill was introduced to allow the scheme to go ahead after the Supreme Court ruled it was unlawful. The government said that any asylum seeker entering the UK “illegally” after January 1, 2022, from a safe country such as France, could be sent to Rwanda. They would have their asylum claims processed there, rather than in the UK. If successful, they could be granted refugee status and allowed to stay in the landlocked east-central African country. If not, they could apply to settle in Rwanda on other grounds, or seek asylum in another “safe third country.” No asylum seeker would be able to apply to return to the UK. Ministers say the plan will deter people from arriving in the UK on small boats across the English Channel.

EVENTS, RESOURCES, DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Migration Disrupted: How technological transformation is reshaping human mobility by Toronto Metropolitan University and Bridging Divides. This conference brings together an interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral group of researchers and leaders from Canadian and international civil society, business and government to reflect on the implications of the rapid development of ADTs for migrant integration in Canada and around the world. The kickoff panel on May 7, 2024 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM EDT, will ask how technological transformation will shape the future of migration in Canada, and our four plenary sessions on May 8 and 9 will engage four main themes: (1) Who belongs? How do ADTs impact migration, citizenship and democracy? (2) Help or hindrance? What potential do ADTs have to address the inequities of health care in Canada and around the world? (3) How can social and technological infrastructures shape the experience of migrant integration and foster inclusive cities? (4) What is technology’s promise for the future of migrant workers? This conference has both in-person and virtual options.   

Sharing Settlement and Integration Practices that Work by Pathways to Prosperity: Canada. Funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), P2P’s Promising Practices project highlights promising practices in immigrant settlement and integration with an empirical basis for their effectiveness. This includes video interviews of those who developed and are administering the practices, and briefs that highlight the key aspects of the practices that make them effective and innovative. To date, there are 46 videos and briefs for this purpose.

Trauma’s Children: Life in the shadow of massive loss by SBS Audio. It is well understood that survivors of war, genocide or abuse may pass on trauma to their descendants. For example, research into the experience of Holocaust survivor families suggests that transmission may even extend to grandchildren. What happens to the generations who come after violent histories? How can individuals and communities process and remember tragic events we did not witness? To explore these issues, this podcast episode interviews Linda Thai, a former child refugee from Vietnam who grew up in Australia and works as a somatic therapist based in Alaska. Linda is passionate about breaking the cycle of historical and intergenerational trauma and specialises in supporting the adult children of refugees and migrants. Hers is a compelling story of surviving displacement, post-traumatic resilience and transforming the legacy of ancestral grief.

The RRN Research Digest provides a synopsis of recent research on refugee and forced migration issues from entities associated with the RRN and others.

You can download the digest in PDF format here: RRN Research Digest

NEW RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS

Abdelaaty, L. (2024). “The greatest and most important human right”: Citizenship and bureaucratic indifference in refugee-UNHCR correspondence. Migration Politics, 3(1). This article examines how refugees advocate for themselves with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and what responses their communications produce. It analyzes letters sent by refugees in Kenya to UNHCR headquarters in Geneva between 1983 and 1994. The findings underline a disjuncture between refugees’ efforts to constitute themselves as political agents, and UNHCR’s insistence on viewing them as depoliticized subjects. UNHCR’s responses (or lack thereof) demonstrate the consequences of its insulation and bureaucratization.

Adhyaru, J. S., & Guchait, A. (2023). Working with Afghan evacuees: Field reflections on five useful supervision questions for crisis intervention workers. Journal of Refugee Studies, 37(1), 230–239. This field reflection is a reflective dialogue between a supervisor and supervisee focusing on work with Afghan evacuees undertaken by the Centre for Anxiety, Stress & Trauma within Central and Northwest London NHS Foundation Trust. This field reflection focuses on five themes that emerged between the supervisor and supervisee during clinical supervision. The themes are posed as questions that may help others working in the context of a humanitarian crisis to utilize supervision to effectively support both staff and the target population. The reflections conclude with recommendations on how supervision can support staff well-being and, in turn, offer a supportive service to people feeling their homeland in the context of war.

Atak, I., Asalya, S., & Zyfi, J. (2024). Vulnerability of asylum seekers and undocumented migrants in Toronto. Canadian Journal of Law and Society / Revue Canadienne Droit et Société, 1–22. This article examines the underlying structural elements contributing to the vulnerability experienced by asylum seekers and undocumented migrants across two critical domains: refugee eligibility examination and accessibility of essential social services, particularly healthcare. Drawing insights from fieldwork conducted in Toronto between 2020 and 2022, this article investigates how migrants navigate and perceive vulnerability encountered both at the front-end of the refugee status determination and while trying to access social services. It discusses the perspectives of key stakeholders, , shedding light on their experiences and insights regarding the challenges migrants face. Furthermore, this article critically evaluates Canada’s adherence to the principles articulated in the 2018 United Nations Global Compacts on Migration and Refugees concerning the mitigation of vulnerability among migrant populations.

Berding-Barwick, R., & McAreavey, R. (2023). Resilience and identities: The role of past, present and future in the lives of forced migrants. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 50(8), 1843–1861. This research highlights how individuals proactively make strategic choices and assume responsibility for their well-being – even if that depends on changing underlying structural issues. The authors show that, despite a hostile immigration environment, as found in the UK, individuals can act and adapt to their environment. However, this is limited to a degree. They demonstrate how time matters in personal resilience processes – both as a tactic for resilience for some and a disruptor of resilience for others.

Pettrachin, A., & Hadj Abdou, L. (2024). Beyond evidence-based policymaking? exploring knowledge formation and source effects in US migration policymaking. Policy Sciences, 57(1), 3–28. Several scholars have observed persistent gaps between policy responses to complex, ambiguous and politicized problems (such as migration, climate change and the recent Covid-19 pandemic) and evidence or ‘facts.’ While most existing explanations for this ‘evidence-policy gap’ in the migration policy field focus on knowledge availability and knowledge used by policymakers, this article shifts the focus to processes of knowledge formation, exploring the questions of what counts as ‘evidence’ for migration policymakers and what are the sources of information that shape their understandings of migration policy issues. The findings challenge scholarly claims about policymakers’ lack of access to evidence about migration. The authors also challenge claims that migration-related decision-making processes are irrational or merely driven by political interests.

van Tubergen, F., Kogan, I., Kosyakova, Y., & Pötzschke, S. (2023). Self-selection of Ukrainian refugees and displaced persons in Europe. Journal of Refugee Studies, 37(1), 72–96. The literature on migrants’ self-selection is focused on labour migrants, while little is known about refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). The researchers contribute to this scant literature by (1) examining a broad set of factors that could determine self-selection, (2) contrasting self-selection profiles of refugees and IDPs, and (3) comparing self-selection profiles of refugees across countries. Specifically, they compare the self-selection profiles of Ukrainian refugees and IDPs with stayers in the months directly following the Russian full-scale invasion in February 2022. The authors draw on unique, cross-nationally comparative data from the OneUA project. The authors found systematic empirical patterns of self-selection related to people’s region of origin, family status, and individual-level characteristics.

REPORTS AND POLICY BRIEFS

ICMPD Migration Outlook Mediterranean 2024 Eight migration issues to look out for in 2024. (2024). International Centre for Migration Policy Development. This report discusses 8 key migration issues expected in 2024, such as the upward trend of migratory pressure, new waves of refugees from Sudan, the securitization of migration narratives and policies, and the modernization of migration governance.

Keys to the City 2024: Ending refugee homelessness in London. (2024). Refugee Council. Homelessness and destitution among newly recognized refugees in London are on the rise. This growing crisis is a result of systemic failure – the process refugees face while transitioning through the so-called ‘move-on’ period is dysfunctional by design, and discriminatory in delivery. This report presents their  latest data and analysis showing a dramatic rise in homelessness for newly recognized refugees, based on Government data for England and figures from their own Private Rented Scheme. The report sets out recommendations for the next Mayor of London and for the Government on how to solve the crisis of destitution and homelessness among newly recognized refugees.

Neglected in the Jungle: Inadequate Protection and Assistance for Migrants and Asylum Seekers Crossing the Darién Gap. (2024). This report, part of a series of Human Rights Watch reports on migration via the Darién Gap, focuses on Colombia’s and Panama’s responses to migration across their border. It identifies specific shortcomings in their efforts to protect and assist these people—including those at higher risk, such as unaccompanied children—as well as to investigate abuses against them. The report provides concrete recommendations to the governments of Colombia and Panama on addressing these shortcomings and to donor governments, the United Nations and regional bodies, and humanitarian organizations on how to support and cooperate with Colombia and Panama in these efforts.

Supporting Immigrant and Refugee Families through Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Services. (2024). Migration Policy Institute. This issue brief highlights the importance of Infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) services for immigrant and refugee families as well as gaps in IECMH promotion, prevention, screening, and treatment that affect these families. The brief also identifies opportunities for policymakers and practitioners to improve access to IECMH services for this population.

NEWS AND BLOG POSTS

IOM report: 1 in 3 migrant deaths occurs in transit while fleeing conflict. (2024). United Nations. The UN migration agency reported that one in three migrant deaths happens while people flee conflict,. More than two in three migrants whose deaths have been documented remain unidentified. Last year was the deadliest on record, with 8,541 migrant victims. Nearly 60 per cent of deaths were linked to drowning. So far in 2024, the trends are similar. Along the Mediterranean Sea route alone – while arrivals this year are significantly lower (16,818) compared to the same period in 2023 (26,984) – the number of deaths is nearly as high as before, with 956 registered since 1 January.

Kaldor Centre statement on new migration bill, March 26, 2024. Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law. The Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law has serious concerns about the scope and ramifications of the Migration Amendment (Removal and Other Measures) Bill 2024, which was rushed into Parliament today. It gives the Minister extraordinarily broad and ill-defined powers which would make a person’s failure to cooperate with the government’s efforts to remove them a criminal offence, expand the Minister’s powers to reverse protection findings, and see entire countries subject to travel bans, prohibiting their citizens from coming to Australia for holidays, work or education – in an attempt to pressure those countries to accept forced returns.

Myanmar Asylum Seeker Crisis Needs a Humane and Regional Solution by Perry Q. Wood, April 1, 2024. The Diplomat. Another capsized boat leading to more tragedy and death at sea. This time it is Rohingya fleeing either persecution in Myanmar or unlivable conditions in makeshift camps outside the country.  Seventy deaths and counting from the latest incident alone. The trendline for Rohingya escaping on boats to head for places like Indonesia or Australia is showing a marked increase in numbers. From 2021 to 2023, the United Nations recorded a 441 percent increase in “irregular movements” of Rohingyas seeking to escape places like Kutupalong, the world’s largest refugee camp, in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

Toogdag 2023 Blog Series: The Verb ‘Enjoy’ in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its Application in Africa by Cristiano D’Orsi, April 9, 2024. Human Rights Here. The right to ‘enjoy’ asylum primarily means the opportunity for refugees to benefit from the rights that are listed in the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. This contribution investigates whether the right of ‘enjoying asylum’ has been translated into the African continent through the appropriate international, regional, sub-regional and domestic legal instruments. The relevance of this investigation is to understand whether and to what extent refugees hosted by the African countries can ‘enjoy’ the rights derived from their legal status of refugees.  

UNHCR urges immediate action amid heightened risks for displaced in eastern DR Congo. (2024). The UN Refugee Agency. The UNHCR Refugee Agency, is raising the alarm as ongoing violence in eastern areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) reaches a devastating level. Two years of cyclical conflict in the North Kivu territories of Rutshuru and Masisi have forced over 1.3 million people to flee their homes within the DRC, leading to a total of 5.7 million people becoming internally displaced across North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces. Since violent clashes enveloped the town of Sake, in Masisi territory, on 7 February, almost 300,000 people have arrived in the city of Goma and its surroundings, swelling spontaneous and official displacement sites as they desperately seek shelter from indiscriminate bombing and other human rights abuses.

Weekly U.S.-Mexico Border Update: Mexico crackdown, no spring migration increase, Texas, Guatemala by Adam Isacson, March 29, 2024. Washington Office on Latin America. Migration at the U.S.-Mexico border usually increases in springtime. That is not happening in 2024, although numbers are up in Mexico and further south. Increased Mexican government operations to block or hinder migrants are a central reason. Especially striking is migration from Venezuela, which has plummeted at the U.S. border and moved largely to ports of entry. It is unclear why Venezuelan migration has dropped more steeply than that from other nations.

What is behind the suicides of LGBTQ+ people in refugee camps in the Netherlands? by Holod Media and Anastasia Pestova, March 30, 2024. Global Voices. In mid-January, it was reported that Antonina Babkina, a transgender girl from Russia who had been granted asylum, committed suicide in the Netherlands. This marks at least the fourth reported case of suicide among Russian-speaking refugees in the country over the past year. According to Sandro Kortekaas, a spokesperson for the Dutch organization LGBTQ Asylum Support, all suicide cases have one thing in common: the victims did not receive psychological support on time. Kortekaas said, “Most refugees come from countries with a huge number of problems. Ideally, there should be a medical evaluation upon their arrival in the Netherlands and another before the refugee interview.”

EVENTS, RESOURCES, DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Practical and Compassionate Alternatives to Detention: Catalyst Lecture and Workshop by Exeter Research Networks. Working with the Detention Forum, a network of over 50 NGOs across the UK challenging the use of immigration detention, the Universities of Exeter and Leeds are holding a lecture and workshop on the growing evidence base from projects in the UK and internationally suggesting that there is a more effective, compassionate and cheaper alternative available. This evidence base includes two Home Office funded pilot projects. This lecture will examine this alternative case management model in the community, and how it presents a compelling case for a new operating model for the UK’s asylum and immigration system. This online event will be on April 23, 2024 from 8:30 AM EDT – 10:00 AM EDT.

Scholars of Excellence Workshop – The “integration business”: A radical critique on migration, development and reception services by Toronto Metropolitan University. The workshop is organized into two panels. The first focuses on the local aspects of this migration industry in both border areas and settlement locations, critically analyzing the ways locals, settled migrants and recently arrived asylum seekers, refugees or migrants become entangled in forms of service provision that extract capital and constitute multi-scalar processes of governance. The second panel expands this critical perspective by engaging with the broader policy and political discourses on migration and development. Contributors to both panels seek to unmask the processes of capital accumulation that underlie the regulation of mobility, territory, social life and political subjectivities. This hybrid event takes place on April 23, 2024 from 9:30 AM EDT – 4:00 PM EDT.

The RRN Research Digest provides a synopsis of recent research on refugee and forced migration issues from entities associated with the RRN and others.

You can download the digest in PDF format here: RRN Research Digest

NEW RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS

Abou-Ismail, R., Gronfeldt, B., & Marinthe, G. (2024b). Defensive National Identity relates to support for collective violence, in contrast to secure national identity, in a sample of displaced Syrian diaspora members. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 99, 101954. This paper examines whether national identities in Syrian diaspora members shape attitudes towards the regime at home. The authors contrast national narcissism (i.e., defensive national identity), an exaggerated belief in one’s national ingroup’s greatness, and national identification (i.e., secure national identity), a feeling of belonging to the nation and evaluating it positively, as differential predictors of collective violence beliefs. The findings suggest that a defensive national identity was related to support for upward (i.e., violence targeted at regime leaders) and diffuse (i.e., violence targeted at regime supporters) collective violence.

Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik, P. (2023). Perspectives of flow and place: Rethinking notions of migration and mobility in policy-making. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 50(6), 1299–1316. Why do some migration policies cause controversial debates while others are barely noticed? And why do migration policies consistently fail to meet their stated objectives? This paper argues that identifying the underlying perspective that informs migration policy-making can be a productive tool to answer these questions. The author starts by reviewing notions of ‘migration’ and ‘mobility’ used in political and scholarly discourse and argues that the ways of differentiating between the two entail not only biases related to norms of sedentariness or social hierarchies, but also blind spots for how states and individuals perceive cross-border movements. As an alternative, the author proposes to conceptualize ‘migration’ and ‘mobility’ as categories reflecting perspectives that either normalize sedentariness and fixed borders or movement and fluidity.

Tagliacozzo, S., Pisacane, L., & Kilkey, M. (2023). A system-thinking approach for Migration Studies: An introduction. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 50(5), 1099–1117. Migration studies first took up a systems perspective in the 1970s to explain migration flows and their dynamics over time. Over the last decades, the dominant discourse and analysis in migration studies have remained constrained within the limits of the ‘migration system.’ While the influence of the ‘wider environment’ on the migration system has been recognized, what the elements of the wider environment are, and their mechanisms of influence remain poorly articulated. Through eight innovative contributions, this Special Issue seeks to contribute, first, to unpacking the elements (i.e. the other systems) that constitute the ‘wider environment’ with which the components of the migration system (e.g. migrants, sending and receiving communities, institutions, policies, etc.) interact, and secondly, to disentangling the mutual influences between the migration system and this wider environment.

Vankova, Z. (2023). Refugee labour mobility to the EU: A tool contributing to fairer sharing of responsibilities in the context of forced displacement? Refugee Survey Quarterly, 43(1), 53–73. A significant shortcoming of work-based pathways is that, in most cases, they do not lead directly to a durable solution but rather offer “a journey to a durable solution” on the basis of temporary residence permits. By comparing the different approaches applied to Ukrainian and Syrian refugees in the European Union, this article concludes that refugee labour mobility in its current state has the potential to contribute to fairer responsibility sharing only cumulatively with other durable solutions and complementary pathways, and when it provides admission facilitation coupled with a fast and clear path to permanent residence or legal mechanisms, ensuring possibilities for extension of residence rights and legality of stay.

Zangiabadi, S., Alghalyini, B., Zoubi, F., & Tamim, H. (2024). Effect of food insecurity on depression, anxiety, and stress among resettled Syrian refugees in Ontario. PLOS Global Public Health, 4(3). Food insecurity has been linked to adverse health outcomes, particularly among vulnerable populations such as refugees. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of food insecurity and its association with depression, anxiety, and stress among resettled Syrian refugee parents in Ontario. Results of the multiple linear regression analysis showed that food insecurity was significantly associated with higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. The authors conclude that implementing effective government interventions and frameworks is essential to reduce food insecurity among resettled Syrian refugees to ultimately improve their mental health outcomes and overall well-being.

REPORTS AND POLICY BRIEFS

Converging Crises: The Impacts of COVID-19 on Migration in South America. (2024). Migration Policy Institute. During the onset of COVID-19, many countries were already grappling with increased demands on their regularization, integration, and broader social welfare systems. This report is part of a series of studies by MPI’s Task Force on Mobility and Borders during and after COVID-19 that explores opportunities to improve international coordination regarding border management during public health crises. Other regional case studies in this series look at Asia, the Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Thematic studies consider the role of digital health credentials in facilitating movement, using risk analysis to shape border policies, and the rise of remote work and “digital nomads.” A final capstone policy brief reflects on lessons for future public health emergencies.

Coordination Breakdown: The Impacts of COVID-19 on Migration in Europe. (2024). Migration Policy Institute. Despite many advantages (e.g., robust coordinating institutions and existing freedom of movement agreement, etc.), the onset of COVID-19 largely halted movement both within and from outside the European Union, with heavy consequences for societies and economies across the bloc. This report is part of a series of studies by MPI’s Task Force on Mobility and Borders during and after COVID-19 that explores opportunities to improve international coordination regarding border management during public health crises.

Diverging Paths: The Impacts of COVID-19 on Migration in the Middle East and North Africa. (2024). Migration Policy Institute. The shutdown of mobility at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic had drastic effects on movement throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Migrant workers comprise much of the workforce in Arab Gulf states, Jordan, and Lebanon, and many lost their jobs and returned to their countries of origin. Tourism and travel, which represent a sizeable share of GDP for many countries, largely halted. And border closures stranded irregular migrants along many major routes. This report is part of a series of studies by MPI’s Task Force on Mobility and Borders during and after COVID-19 that explores opportunities to improve international coordination regarding border management during public-health crises.

Mobility Shutdown: The Impacts of COVID-19 on Migration in Asia and the Pacific. (2024). Migration Policy Institute. Governments in Asia and the Pacific imposed some of the strictest and longest-lasting limits on human mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic, triggering a collapse in migration, stranding migrants abroad for months, and prompting mass returns that strained health and reintegration systems. But the region also kept COVID-19 cases and deaths relatively low for the first two years. This report is part of a series of studies by MPI’s Task Force on Mobility and Borders during and after COVID-19 that explores opportunities to improve international coordination regarding border management during public-health crises. Other regional case studies in this series look at Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and South America. Thematic studies consider the role of digital health credentials in facilitating movement, the use of risk analysis to shape border policies, and the rise of remote work and “digital nomads.” A final capstone issue brief reflects on lessons for future public-health emergencies. This series includes three other regional case studies that follow.

Shehada, R., Al-Ali, A., Jeroudia, M., Taleb, H., Ghanem, H. and Dajani, D. (2024). Refugees in Jordan: a data-driven approach for change. IIED, London. Jordan hosts a large number of refugees. Many have lived in Jordan for decades but still struggle to create fulfilling lives. This briefing reports on a project that supported refugee communities to generate data about their challenges and agree on their priorities for creating better futures. Refugees identified a complex web of restrictions relating to their legal status and requirements for personal identification as a significant obstacle to leading full lives. They called for humanitarian organizations and Jordan’s government to offer more opportunities for refugees, so that they can use their skills to contribute to the country’s economy. They also called for agencies and government to engage more fully with refugee communities in planning for refugees, and to provide paths towards long-term residency security that allows them to build new lives.

The Mobility Key: Realizing the Potential of Refugee Travel Documents. (2024). Migration Policy Institute. Governments are increasingly experimenting with new mobility pathways for refugees, beyond traditional resettlement operations. These include complementary pathways that connect refugees with work or study opportunities in a country other than the one in which they first sought safety—expanding their future prospects while easing pressure on top refugee-hosting countries. This policy brief—part of the Beyond Territorial Asylum: Making Protection Work in a Bordered World initiative led by MPI and the Robert Bosch Stiftung—outlines the different types of travel documents that can facilitate refugees’ movement and key barriers to acquiring and using them. It also identifies steps that countries of asylum, transit, and destination, along with donors and international organizations, can take to overcome these challenges.

UNHCR issues new guidance on international refugee protection for Haitians. (2024). UNHCR. Amidst Haiti’s rapidly deteriorating security, human rights and humanitarian situation, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has issued new legal guidance to ensure that international refugee protection is provided for Haitians who need it. Indiscriminate gang violence in Haiti has led to an alarming escalation of human rights violations and large-scale internal displacement. Nearly half of the country’s 11.4 million people require humanitarian assistance. UNHCR’s new guidance aims to assist States with their assessment of asylum claims in light of the stark realities facing Haitians today.

NEWS AND BLOG POSTS

Armed groups continue terror campaign across Burkina Faso. March 21, 2024. United Nations. Large parts of Burkina Faso are being terrorized by armed groups, and the rampant insecurity is “beyond alarming,” said the UN human rights chief on Thursday following a brief visit to the country. High Commissioner Volker Türk said, from the capital Ouagadougou, that his local office had been “engaging intensely with the authorities, civil society actors, human rights defenders, UN partners and others on many of the multifaceted human rights challenges” the country faces following a coup in January 2022 that saw Captain Ibrahim Traoré assume power.

Canada needs a national strategy for homeless refugee claimants by Christina Clark-Kazak, March 31, 2024. The Conversation. One year after the federal government closed Roxham Road, refugee claims in Canada continue to increase: there were 143,785 in 2023 compared to 91,730 in 2022. The surprise announcement in March 2023 to modify Canada’s Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States was touted as a way to “better manage access to the refugee system.” Instead, the past year has seen deaths at irregular crossings, increased asylum claims at airports (not covered by the modified agreement) and soaring refugee claimant homelessness across Canada.

Thailand: The forgotten tragedy of 50 Uighur refugee by Valentin Cebron, March 18, 2024. La Croix International. In Thailand, some 50 Uighurs who escaped the oppressive Chinese government have been languishing in detention centers for over a decade, in flagrant disregard of international law, reports by several NGOs. If deported to China, “it is clear they would face torture,” says Robertson. Their prolonged imprisonment, as refugees in transit, violates international human rights standards. According to HRW, Thailand is caught between the United States and China, opting not to take a stand and thereby keeping the 50 Uighurs in appalling conditions.

Weeping, weak and soaked, dozens of Rohingya refugees rescued after night on hull of capsized boat by Reza Saifullah and Edna Tarigan, March 21, 2024. The Associated Press. An Indonesian search and rescue ship on Thursday located a capsized wooden boat that had been carrying dozens of Rohingya Muslim refugees, and began pulling survivors who had been standing on its hull to safety. An AP photographer reported that 10 people were taken aboard local fishing boats and the Indonesian craft saved another 59. Men, women and children, weak and soaked from the night’s rain, wept as the rescue operation got underway and people were taken aboard a rubber dinghy to the rescue boat. There were contradictory reports about whether anyone had died in the accident, with survivors saying many who had been aboard when the boat departed from Bangladesh were still unaccounted for, but authorities insisted everyone had been rescued.

Why refugee ration cuts in Uganda risk long-term social damage by Maja Simonsen Nilsen, Emmanuel Viga, Eria Serwajja, and Hilde Refstie, March 18, 2024. The New Humanitarian. Refugees in Uganda are turning to increasingly desperate measures to support themselves and their families following drastic reductions in humanitarian aid. However, the current  research suggests the worst effects of these cuts are yet to be seen, as refugee social networks buckle under pressure to fill the gaps left by aid agencies. Uganda’s open-border policies and refugee self-reliance model have earned international acclaim. However, a surge in refugee numbers and major cuts in humanitarian funding are pushing the country’s response efforts to the brink. Increasingly threadbare aid budgets mean many of the 1.5 million refugees in the country – one of the world’s largest refugee-hosting nations – are receiving less than 40% of their basic survival rations, while others are getting less or nothing at all.

EVENTS, RESOURCES, DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Change Agents: Overcoming the employment stumbling block facing many migrants by SBS News. While it is common to hear about society’s high achievers, there are others acting as role models of change. Resumes and cover letters are required for most job applications in Australia. However,  overseas, in some countries, this is a less common practice. In this episode of Change Agents, the hosts meet a woman helping refugees and immigrants navigate the Australian job market for the first time.

Continuing Conversations 6: REUK Showcase by Refugee Education UK. Are you working on a refugee education project in Europe? Perhaps as a teacher, developing an educational programme for refugees in your school or through your NGO – or as a researcher looking at refugees’ access to university or non-formal educational settings? Would you like to meet others working in this field in a friendly and collaborative environment? This is an online networking event hosted by the Hub for Education for Refugees in Europe (HERE) at the University of Nottingham, UK. Building on HERE’s inaugural conference in 2022 and our previous five ‘Continuing Conversations’ events in 2023, this session seeks to foster further connections among the growing HERE Network and continue our critical conversations around support for refugee learners across Europe. This online event takes place on April 22nd, 2024, 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM EDT.

The Refocus: An Online Summer Forced Migration in Africa Workshop Series by the Refugee Law Initiative, University of London; the Centre for Migration Studies, University of Ghana; the African Centre for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand; and the African Academy of Migration Research (AAMR). This workshop series facilitates the development of knowledge and critical thinking on forced migration and protection issues in Africa, as well as the training of early career and emerging scholars. The Series takes a hybrid approach to participation. If participants are interested in attending the Refocus Series as a summer school, it will be necessary to join all 4 sessions and then produce a written submission on a topic related to this year’s theme. Alternatively, participants are welcome to simply attend all four sessions or attend specific ones. Both forms of participation are free and open to all. The event will take place every Wednesday in April 2024.