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 No. 112

LERRN Event

Learn more and register here

Recent Publications and New Research

Istaiteyeh, Rasha (2020): The Impact of COVID-19 on Syrian Refugees in Jordan. World Refugee & Migration Council (WRMC). Research Paper. This report analyzes the economic implications of COVID-19 for the Jordanian economy, including its diverse economic sectors and, most importantly, on its levels of poverty and inequality. It also surveys Jordan’s policies toward Syrian refugees, including provision of Executive Summary 6 health, education and other essential services, as well as the impact on the livelihoods of Syrian refugees in Jordan. The report also considers the important question of whether present and future international assistance can mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the Jordanian economy and specifically on the ability of Jordan to continue hosting Syrian refugees

Fallah, B., Istaiteyeh, R., & Mansur, Y. (2021). Moving Beyond Humanitarian Assistance. World Refugee & Migration Council Research Report, September 2021.This study, conducted by three economists in the region — Belal Fallah, Rasha Istaiteyeh and Yusuf Mansur — analyzes the impact of Syrian refugees on Jordan’s economy and suggests ways that the international community can receive more international support. The first section of the study, written by Belal Fallah, analyzes the characteristics of Syrian refugees and their impact on the Jordanian economy. In the second section of the study, Rasha Istaiteyeh assesses the possibilities for Syrian refugees to find solutions for providing economic opportunities for Syrian refugees. Yusuf Mansur, in the third section of this report, begins by analyzing the international assistance received by Jordan from 2012–2019 and the impact of the Syrian refugees on aid inflows.

Khasalamwa-Mwandha, S. (2021). Local Integration as a Durable Solution? Negotiating Socioeconomic Spaces between Refugees and Host Communities in Rural Northern Uganda. Sustainability 13(19). With a growing number of displaced people, there is a need for robust approaches to coping with displacement. Uganda has a progressive refugee policy that promotes freedom of movement and the socioeconomic rights of the refugees. Specifically, refugees are often allocated land to settle and cultivate rural settlements, and the integrated social service provision facilitates interaction with host communities. However, there remain challenges in creating sustainable livelihoods for refugees in rural settlements. There exist significant tensions over shared resources such as land, water, woodlots, and grazing areas. Based on a survey of 416 households and key informant interviews with South Sudanese refugees in selected settlements in the Adjumani district, the paper highlights refugees’ access to social and economic spaces as critical pathways to sustainable livelihoods and integration. Uganda’s progressive policy expands the opportunity space; however, refugees still encounter significant barriers in accessing the socioeconomic spaces.

Reports, and Policy Briefs and Opinion Pieces

New Report: Intentional Connections for Welcoming Communities Improving Settlement for Privately Sponsored Refugees in Ontario through Settlement-Sponsor Collaboration. Allies for Refugee Integration, 2021. Allies for Refugee Integration has been about dreaming of a future where privately sponsored refugees have a consistent and smooth settlement journey in Canada. With the support of hundreds of stakeholders and dozens of partnerships. From 2018 to 2021, ARI and its partners focused on creating more welcoming communities for privately sponsored refugees. Project partners, OCASI and Refugee 613 had both observed gaps in knowledge, relationship and operations between private sponsors and the formal settlement sector; gaps that often become cracks that negatively affected the settlement journey of refugees. The aim of this report is to generate and test adjustments to the user experience for both settlement workers and sponsors, with the goal of improving access to support for refugees.

New Report: “I Didn’t Feel Like a Human in There” Immigration Detention in Canada and its Impact on Mental Healthv, Human Rights watch, 2021. Despite its reputation as a refugee-welcoming and multicultural country, Canada incarcerates thousands of people on immigration-related grounds every year, including people who are fleeing persecution, those seeking employment and a better life, and people who have lived in Canada since childhood. Figures from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) reveal that the number of immigration detainees incarcerated in Canada has increased every fiscal year between 2016-17 and 2019-20, peaking in fiscal year 2019-20 with a total of 8,825 people in immigration detention. For many detainees, not knowing how long they will be detained causes trauma, distress, and a sense of powerlessness. Detention can exacerbate existing psychosocial disabilities and frequently triggers new ones, including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress. The authors expose the mental health effects of the Canadian detention system and recommend the gradual abolition of Immigration detention in Canada. The report is available in a report format as well as a public education document.

 Petra Molnar, ‘Inside new refugee camp like a ‘prison’: Greece and other countries prioritize surveillance over human rights’, The Conversation. 28 September 2021. During her visit to Samos, Molnar was told about refugees being intercepted by Greek authorities without being given the opportunity to claim refugee protection or even speak to a lawyer. Without these opportunities, they are often returned to Turkey.This practice is known as “pushbacks” or “interceptions at sea,” where boats of people seeking refugee protection are returned to Turkish waters by Greek and European authorities without being allowed to claim asylum. This process is facilitated by various surveillance technologies. Read more.

Mandy Hughes, Barbara Rugendyke and Louise Whitaker, ‘‘It’s given me love’: connecting women from refugee backgrounds with communities through art’, The Conversation, 4 October 2021. Women from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Syria, Iraq and other countries are settling in regional Australian communities. Adjusting to life in a new home involves facing many challenges — but finding a sense of belonging can help the settlement process.For those who have experienced trauma, including women from refugee backgrounds, creative arts can enhance well-being, improve social connections and promote a sense of belonging. Connecting through creativity also builds bridges, addressing fears of newcomers and communities around refugee settlement. Read more.

 Robert Falconer, ‘Why Joe Biden should emulate Canada and go big on private refugee resettlement’, The Conversation, 12 October 2021. As attention turns from the evacuation of Afghanistan to the arrival of refugees, U.S. President Joe Biden has an opportunity for large-scale engagement of the American public in a deeply personal fashion. If Canada’s history is any indicator, the capacity of private American citizens to resettle refugees is large and untapped. It may even bridge the divide over immigration in the United States. Read more.

Caitlin Katsiaficas (2021). Investing in refugee talent. International Centre for Migration Policy Development. 13 October 2021. In the ’global race for talent,’ countries are seeking to attract the best and brightest – and often look to international students as a significant source of future talent. Meanwhile, universities, student groups, and other stakeholders are increasingly spearheading initiatives to support the enrolment of refugee students through scholarship and sponsorship programmes. This commentary argues that teaming up to thoughtfully incorporate international refugee students into European talent management initiatives can be a win-win. Read more.

New Blog: Cristiano d’Orsi, Analysing access to healthcare for refugees and migrants (“mixed migrants”) in South Africa and Kenya: protective laws and progressive policies clashing with daily reality, Refugee Law Initiative, October 18, 2021. In this blog, the author analyses whether discrimination is permitted, whether it happens anyway, and what could be done to combat intolerance against refugees and migrants in South Africa and Kenya in terms of their access to healthcare in these host countries. He chose these two countries because they are among the African countries with the longest history of hosting aliens. Read more.

Online Resources and Social Media

Watch virtual panel: research launch: thinking long-term about syrian refugees in jordan, lebanon and turkey (September 9, 2021), World Refugee and Migration Council. This panel discussion to launch the three reports and hear firsthand from the researchers about the economic impact of the refugees on the three countries and their recommendations for mobilizing additional international support.

Researching Internal Displacement: This platform connects researchers, practitioners, policymakers, students, artists and people from displacement-affected communities with cutting-edge research, analysis, creative materials and events on internal displacement. The site features working papers, blog posts, and many other resources to showcase and push forward new research. We welcome your contributions too!  

Internal Displacement, Conflict and Protection: This is a free six-week online training course that provides your staff, counterparts and the general public with a comprehensive introduction to key issues in this field. These resources respond to the UN High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement call to strengthen ‘effective use of internal displacement data and analysis’.  

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 No. 111

Recent Publications and New Research

Olivera Simic, ‘Locked in and locked out: A migrant woman’s reflection on life in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic‘, The Journal of International Women’s Studies, September 2021. This open access paper offers personal and lived experience reflections on life in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic. The author reflects on what it means for a migrant woman with a complex traumatic past to be indefinitely stranded. She also draws on experiences of other migrant women living in Australia during the pandemic. The reflection brings attention to personal narratives that contribute to the growing importance of women’s herstories. With this narrative, the author wants to pay tribute to migrant women’s lives and by using her own experiences as a case study to reflect on personal struggles that the COVID-19 pandemic triggered. The issues of trauma, forcible separation, and economic migration are explored.

Danisi, C, Dustin, M, Ferreira, N and Held, N (2021). Queering asylum in Europe: legal and social experiences of seeking international protection on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. IMISCOE Research Series. Springer, Cham. This two-volume open-access book offers a theoretically and empirically-grounded portrayal of the experiences of people claiming international protection in Europe on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity (SOGI). It shows how European asylum systems might and should treat asylum claims based on people’s SOGI in a fairer, more humane way. Through a combined comparative, interdisciplinary (socio-legal), human rights, feminist, queer and intersectional approach, this book examines not only the legal experiences of people claiming asylum on grounds of their SOGI, but also their social experiences outside the asylum decision-making framework.

Anczyk, A., & Grzymała-Moszczyńska, H. (2021). The Psychology of Migration: facing cultural and religious diversity (pp. 1-103). Brill. This book forms an introduction into new or emerging discipline of “psychology of migration,” which is an interdisciplinary field of research, joining together diverse subfields of psychology (cultural psychology, social psychology, environmental psychology, health & clinical psychology, psychology of religion and spirituality) with anthropological, sociological and historical inquiry on migration processes (usually named “migration studies”).  

Derya Ozkul & Rita Jarrous (2021) How do refugees navigate the UNHCR’s bureaucracy? The role of rumours in accessing humanitarian aid and resettlement, Third World Quarterly.  In conflict situations, rapid changes can occur in the conditions in both host and home countries. In the context of such uncertainty, how do refugees navigate the bureaucratic apparatus of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to obtain humanitarian aid and resettlement? In this open access article, the authors carried out fieldwork in 2019 in Lebanon and found the UNHCR’s bureaucracy to be a ‘black box’ for refugees in relation to the provision of information on humanitarian aid and resettlement. In this context of limited information, they found that rumours – widely considered to be uncertain truths – contributed to shaping participants’ understanding of the UNHCR’s decisions on the provision of aid and resettlement. They highlight the interpretive aspect of rumours and argue that refugees engage in interpretive labour as a result of the unequal relationship between themselves and the UNHCR’s opaque bureaucracy and provision of information.

Silas W. Allard, Kristin E. Heyer, and Raj Nadella, eds. (2022). Christianity and the Law of Migration, Routledge. This collection brings together legal scholars and Christian theologians for an interdisciplinary conversation responding to the challenges of global migration. Gathering 14 leading scholars from both law and Christian theology, the book covers legal perspectives, theological perspectives, and key concepts in migration studies. In Part 1, scholars of migration law and policy discuss the legal landscape of migration at both the domestic and international level. In Part 2, Christian theologians, ethicists, and biblical scholars draw on the resources of the Christian tradition to think about migration. In Part 3, each chapter is co-authored by a scholar of law and a scholar of Christian theology, who bring their respective resources and perspectives into conversation on key themes within migration studies. 

Reports, Policy Briefs and Blogposts

[Brief] Less than a Lifeline: Challenges to the COVAX Humanitarian Buffer, Refugees international, September 20, 2021. The United States hosted a “Global COVID-19 Summit: Ending the Pandemic and Building Back Better” on the margins of this year’s United National General Assembly. Refugees International released “Less than a Lifeline: Challenges to the COVAX Humanitarian Buffer,” a brief outlining steps the major stakeholders in the global COVID-19 vaccination effort need to take to help ensure that the Humanitarian Buffer can get vaccines to the world’s most vulnerable populations.  

[Brief] The case for treating long-term urban IDPs as city residents, by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), September 2021. The briefing draws on the experiences of city mayors from six countries – Burkina Faso, Colombia, Honduras, Iraq, Somalia and Ukraine. They show that IDPs who flee to urban areas often stay for many years and are most likely to end up living in informal housing in low-income parts of the city. The report found international NGOs and multilateral agencies often side-step municipal authorities to work directly with IDPs and the communities hosting them to provide short-term, project-based assistance. This leaves local authorities without the technical and financial help to continue providing essential services to all residents, sometimes in situations where populations have multiplied many times over. 

[Report] Migration and vulnerability in the pandemic, Doctors of the World, June 2021. This report on migration and vulnerability during the pandemic in the UK was produced as part of the University of Birmingham Vulnerable Migrants’ Wellbeing Project led by Professor Jenny Phillimore and Laurence Lessary-Phillips (and funded by the Nuffield Foundation and ESRC IAA). The report, which shows significant unmet healthcare needs and deep digital divide in migrant patients during first wave of the pandemic, draws on Doctors of the World’s anonymized service users’ data at the height of the first wave of the pandemic.

[Opinion piece] Brazil’s Successful Refugee Policies: A Model for the World by Mariam Kazmi, Borgen Magazine, September 15, 2021. Although Brazil does not take in large amounts of refugees when compared to countries such as Turkey and Pakistan, its refugee population has been rapidly growing over the years. For example, the country hosted around 10,260 refugees in 2017. Brazil also has one of the largest refugee populations in Latin America. Such massive growth and responsibility forced Brazil’s government to take immediate and effective action that allows refugees to resettle in the country. Today, it is evident that Brazil’s successful refugee policies have had a positive impact on thousands of families over the years. Mariam Kazmi explores the features of this success.  

[Opinion piece] Wildfire and flood disasters are causing ‘climate migration’ within Canada, The conversation, September 20, 2021. The release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) sixth assessment report confirmed our worst fears about human-induced climate change. The report predicts a worst-case scenario of 4.5 C warming by 2100. Climate change is already affecting every region on earth and the changes are expected to be widespread, rapid and intensifying. The results of the IPCC assessment likely have many Canadians asking, what does this mean for Canada? Yvonnes Su, York University and CRS affiliate expands on this question.

Digital and Social Media

[Infographic] “No Safe Place”: Documenting the migration status and employment conditions of workers in Alberta’s meatpacking industry during the pandemic, Migrant Dignity Project – Report to the Community, by Bronwyn Bragg, August 2021. Check out CRS Postdoctoral researcher Dr. Bronwyn Bragg’s infographic along with a 6-page executive summary created with Action Dignity, a community organization in AB, a partner with Bragg and CRS Professor Jennifer Hyndman on a SSHRC PEG grant. The figures emphasize the remarkable number of racialized resettled former refugees working in the meatpacking industry in Alberta. They represent 2.5% of the Alberta population, but make up 18% of workers in meatpacking in often rural settings. Temporary Foreign Workers were also canvassed for the research at two of the biggest meatpacking plants in Southern AB.

[Podcast] Leaving Place, Restoring Home: Enhancing the Evidence Base on Planned Relocation Cases in the context of Hazards, Disasters, and Climate Change, March 2021. In this podcast, Kaldor Centre affiliates Erica Bower and Sanjula Weerasinghe discuss their latest report with Lauren Martin. The report, called ‘Leaving Place, Restoring Home’, was commissioned by the Kaldor Centre and the Platform on Disaster Displacement, with a global dataset of more than 300 planned relocation cases. 

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 No. 110

Recent Publications and New Research

Van Haren, I. (2021). Canada’s private sponsorship model represents a complementary pathway for refugee resettlement. Migration Information Source.  This article explains who can be sponsored in Canada’s Privately Sponsored Refugee (PSR) program, with a focus on how different types of sponsorship applications (including those supported by a Sponsorship Agreement Holder, Group of Five, or Community Sponsor) are assessed by government officials before sent overseas for processing. The article presents statistics on the number of applications approved in each PSR stream in the last ten years. The article also discusses a brief history of refugee resettlement to Canada and discusses how the selection process for refugees impacts integration outcomes, particularly when comparing refugees selected by the UNHCR versus those selected by Canadian sponsors.

Bryant, R., & Hatay, M. (2021). Performing Peace: Vernacular Reconciliation and the Diplomacy of Return in Cyprus. Journal of Refugee Studies, 34(1), p. 46–66. In the Cyprus conflict, more than 200,000 Cypriots were displaced between 1958 and 1974. However, lost in this standard narrative are the conflict’s other ‘Others’: the smaller Maronite, Armenian, Latin, and Roma populations, who also experienced displacement in the course of the conflict. This paper concerns the Maronite community’s struggle to remain or return to their historical lands in the island’s northwest. The authors examine the acts of everyday diplomacy that, over the past decade, have resulted in a revival of the largest Maronite village, removal of restrictions on their rights, and most recently, the partial withdrawal of the Turkish military from another Maronite village so that it may be reopened to settlement. The authors term these as ‘vernacular reconciliation’, ways of rebuilding coexistence that suspend questions of sovereignty that remain at the heart of the Cyprus impasse. They argue that this pragmatic approach calls on cultural knowledge of past patterns of coexistence through performances that, in turn, produce deeply felt senses of responsibility and patterns of reciprocity. 

Bradley, M. (2021) Joining the UN Family? Explaining the Evolution of IOM-UN Relations, Global Governance 27(2). The International Organization for Migration (IOM) became a related organization in the United Nations system in 2016, and has rebranded itself as the “UN Migration Agency.” This article examines the drivers and significance of IOM’s new relationship with the UN. It traces the evolution of the IOM-UN relationship, and the processes that led to IOM becoming a related organization. While some contend that IOM is still not part of the UN system, through an analysis of the status and political positioning of related organizations, this article demonstrates that, as a related organization, IOM is indeed now part of the UN system. It argues that IOM’s work with forced migrants in the humanitarian sector played a pivotal role in enabling this shift and considers its implications. 

Tastsoglou, E., Petrinioti, X., & Karagiannopoulou, C. (2021). The Gender-Based Violence and Precarity Nexus: Asylum-Seeking Women in the Eastern Mediterranean. Frontiers in Human Dynamics, 3. The Gender-Based Violence and Precarity Nexus: Asylum-Seeking Women in the Eastern Mediterranean. Frontiers in Human Dynamics, 3. This paper derives from a larger study on gender-based violence and precarity in the forced migration journeys of asylum-seeking women transiting through the Eastern Mediterranean route and arriving in Greece, in the tumultuous, second decade of the 21st century. The authors discuss the opinions and information gathered through semi-structured interviews with twenty key informants: service providers, international and national NGOs staff, local government staff, and public officials. The findings locate the five points/loci in irregular cross-border movements and arrival at an EU member-state where precarity interweaves with gender-based violence. While adopting a feminist and intersectional approach, the analysis shows that violence and precarity are co-constituted and reinforce each other by undermining the citizenship status of asylum seekers and the inscription, on their bodies and lives, of unequal gendered social and institutional power relations.

Grayson, C.L. (2021). Children of the Camp: The Lives of Somali Youth Raised in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya. Berghahn Books. Based on in-depth fieldwork, this book explores the experience of Somalis who grew up in Kakuma refugee camp, in Kenya, and are now young adults. This original study carefully considers how young people perceive their living environment and how growing up in exile structures their view of the past and their country of origin, and the future and its possibilities. The introduction can be read here. If you would like to consider this book for possible course adoption, an electronic inspection copy can be requested here. 

Special Issue: Martel, A., Reilly-King, F., & Baruah, B. (Eds.). (2021). Next Generation of knowledge partnerships for global development. Canadian Journal of Development Studies / Revue canadienne d’études du développement,42(3), 253-273. The Next Generation programme, which underpins this special issue, presented an opportunity to address knowledge gaps in the current ecosystem of academic-civil society organization (CSO) collaborations, producing new research presented in this issue. Between 2016 and 2019, the NextGen Program sought to test and foster different ways and models of facilitating cross-sectoral collaboration between academics and CSOs in Canada. This special issue takes a reflexive approach to present key lessons and findings from cross-sectoral collaborations in the global development sector. Forced migration studies can draw on the lessons from the development studies to better nurture a conducive knowledge partnership ecosystem. 

Krause, U., & Segadlo, N. (2021). Conflict, Displacement … and Peace? Critical Review of Research Debates. Refugee Survey Quarterly. This article examines debates about conflict, displacement, and peace based on a semi-systematic review of research published between 1980 and 2020. The review leads to the identification of three main strands that are closely connected: the structural links outlining how conflicts contribute to displacements; the various prevailing risks of violence; and the individual and collective strategies of displaced people to cope with dangers and experiences, especially in host countries and regions. Despite this broad and still-growing body of literature, peace has been insufficiently addressed in debates thus far. Only a few studies attend to peace, and they mainly connect it to return to places of origin, peace(building) education by aid actors, or partly displaced people being potential destabilisers of peace processes. Hence, the roles of peace and displaced people’s practices to support peace constitute vital areas requiring further research going forwards. 

Reports, Policy Briefs and Blogposts

Final Report: York University Syria Response and Refugee Initiative (SRRI), by John Carlaw. Centre for Refugee Studies, York University. Sparked by the renewed interest in refugee sponsorship due to the crisis in Afghanistan, the CRS published the final report of York’s Syria Response and Refugee Initiative on its website. From Fall 2015 until the end of April 2019, the initiative led York’s participation in the Pan-GTA Ryerson University Lifeline Syria Challenge (RULSC) to sponsor Syrian refugees. In addition, it helped educate, mobilize and work with York students to promote awareness and become engaged in refugee issues on campus and with the wider community. In July 2019, the completed Final Report on the project included many lessons learned concerning refugee sponsorship and student engagement in the university context. It also included discussions and links to many of the activities and overall approaches taken.

Putting Home at the Heart of Refugee Resettlement, by Ray Silvius, Hani Ataan Al-Ubeady & Emily Halldorson, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, July 8, 2021. The culmination of a 5-year study based on interviews with recently arrived former refugees finds that securing good housing is a key part of successful settlement. However, a tight rental housing market, insufficient financial support, and a limited supply of public housing means many are barely making ends meet, making resettlement challenging. This report brings into focus the need for adequate housing in Winnipeg and how it positively contributes to the multitude of settlement needs in the first years after arrival. 

The road from refugee to resident: How working with displaced people can help create more inclusive and sustainable cities, by Lucy Earle. International Institute for Environment and Development. June 18, 2021. Internally displaced people (IDPs) is a less recognized population that shares many of the experiences of refugees. This article addresses how towns and cities could respond better to the arrival of IDP and refugee populations. The authors believe that working with refugees and IDPs can lead to more inclusive and sustainable cities. The choice for local, national, and international actors is to perpetuate uncertainty and exclusion or include displaced people in planning better and more sustainable urban futures for all. To conclude, the authors aim to provide some of the crucial data needed to take positive action. 

Report: After the Airlift: Protection for Afghan Refugees and Those Who Remain at Risk in Afghanistan, by Hardin Lang, Sarah Miller, Daphne Panayotatos, Yael Schacher, and Eric Schwartz. Refugees International, September 8, 2021. The execution of the troop withdrawal and the Taliban’s seizure of power has created substantial risks of severe reprisals for hundreds of thousands of Afghans. The situation inside Afghanistan remains highly unstable, and ongoing civil conflict is a real prospect. The Taliban have a long history of committing systematic, widespread, and egregious violations of human rights. Despite public statements suggesting a more moderate stance, there have been credible reports of grave violations of human rights by Taliban elements in recent weeks in many parts of Afghanistan. New risks come amidst an existing humanitarian crisis driven by conflict, drought, and the COVID-19 pandemic. And half of the population requires humanitarian aid. 

Digital and Social Media

New Podcast: Refuge, Launched by The Child and Youth Refugee Research Coalition (CYRRC) and hosted by Israel Ekanem of Halifax-based Ubuntu Media. This podcast brings together youth, researchers, and service providers to discuss critical issues affecting Canada’s refugee children, youth, and families. It offers a space for essential conversations across sectors, spaces, and people. In this podcast, guests delve into social integration, employment, mental health, language acquisition, and schooling for an in-depth look at how young refugees are settling in Canada. CYRRC hopes to appeal to service providers, educators, community groups, and anyone interested to learn more about supporting newcomers in Canada. 

Statelessness Case Law Database launched by the European Network on Statelessness. Stateless people often find themselves stranded on the margins of society, denied many of the fundamental rights that most people take for granted. The database aims to support legal practitioners, policy makers, institutions, researchers & civil society across Europe by providing a platform for comparative legal analysis and knowledge sharing. It is the first database to focus on case law addressing statelessness specifically. Moreover, it includes easy to search and filter case summaries from across Europe.  

Animation: The Story of Migration aims to tell the complex story of the relationship between migration and global inequalities. The animation, illustrated by Karrie Fransman, is based on a script written with Migration for Development and Equity’s (MIDEQ) partners in 11 countries in the Global South and challenges many of the ideas that currently dominate media representations of migration. The animation engages a wide range of audiences in MIDEQ’s work and highlights the importance of understanding global migration from the perspectives of those living and working in the Global South. The full animation can be found in six languages, English, Tamil, Portuguese, Malay, French and Mandarin, with more videos being released in the coming months.

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 No. 109

Recent Publications and New Research

Dennler, K.T. (2021). Uncertain future, unsettled present: suspending and embracing engagement with life among newcomers in Toronto, Canada. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. Canada’s current immigration policies are marked by growing reliance on temporary and conditional migration and increased processing times for immigration applications. More people spend long periods living in Canada with deportability and therefore uncertainty about the future. Based on qualitative research among newcomers in Toronto, Canada, this article examines the temporalities of living with uncertainty, attending to how experiences of and responses to uncertainty are dynamic across time. The article identifies two salient responses among research participants, either suspending or embracing engagement with life in Canada. Each of these responses entails risks, making both suspending and embracing difficult to sustain. This article shows that regimes of immigration control foreclose access to rights and supports based on formal immigration status and hollow out the value of permitted activities.

Khan, Adrian A. (2021).  Embodied circular migration: lived experiences of education and work of Nepalese children and youth. Journal of Youth Studies, 1-17. Research including trans-Himalayan children and youth experiences of circular migration is often amalgamated under broader migration discourses. From 22 semi-structured interviews and three focus group sessions with 22 trans-Himalayan children/youth, this paper examines intersections of embodiment, agency, and circular migration in Nepal through what this paper frames as embodied circular migration. The paper outlines how young people’s agency towards choosing to engage in circular migration for work, circumvented structural challenges of not having identity documents (citizenship/birth certificates) needed to legally work or pursue higher studies in Kathmandu.

Mousin, C.B. (2021). Constantine’s Legacy: Preserving Empire while Undermining International Law. In P. Slotte & J.D. Haskell (Eds.), Christianity and International Law (pp. 366-94). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Thou shall not return a refugee to persecution. Nation-states declared they had learned that critical lesson from the tragedy of the Holocaust by enacting international refugee conventions and protocols. Today, as refugees seek safety, they find fortress-like liberal democracies building walls of steel interlaced with legal strategies that undermine the international protections forged from the fires of the Holocaust. Consequently, refugees drown in the Mediterranean, die in the Mexico-United States desert, become detained in overcrowded refugee camps and unofficial street shelters, or become victims of criminal gangs. Nation-states have all too often abdicated their responsibility to refugees. This chapter explores this interlocking struggle between Christian hospitality toward the outsider and Christian refusal to offer that hospitality in support of national security.

S.W. Allard. (2021). Hopelessly Practicing Law: Asylum Seekers, Advocates, and Hostile Jurisdictions. In P. Slotte & J.D. Haskell (Eds.), Christianity and International Law (pp. 366-94). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. What does it mean to practice public international law? This is a frequent topic of conversation for many who work with law students inspired to study the law and pursue legal vocations believing that peace, justice, and human rights may be best advanced through the international legal framework. However, as many students often discover, that framework can be deeply frustrating. From its heavily bureaucratic structure anchored in the United Nations (UN) system to the unresolved tension between individuals and states as actors in and beneficiaries of international law, public international law can often seem as much an obstacle as a means to their virtue. This chapter examines the ethic of praxis in public international law by examining an often-overlooked area of international legal practice: refugee and asylum law.

Costello, C., Foster, M., & McAdam, J. (Eds.). (2021). The Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law. Oxford University Press.  This handbook provides a state-of-the-art, comprehensive analysis of the field of international refugee law. It is global in scope, with ten chapters focusing on specific regions, including Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. It examines a wide range of legal instruments relevant to refugee protection, including international human rights law, international humanitarian law, international migration law, the law of the sea, and international and transnational criminal law. Finally, it critiques the status quo and sets the agenda for future academic research.

Reports, Policy Briefs and Blogposts

Report: From Silos to Solutions: Toward Sustainable and Equitable Hybrid Service Delivery in the Immigrant & Refugee-Serving Sector in Canada, by Jungzhou Liu, Cansu Dedeoglu & Marco Campana. AMSSA, Strengthening Diversity in BC. This final report of the Settlement Sector and Technology Task Group presents findings and insights generated through a comprehensive exploration of hybrid service delivery over six months in the immigrant settlement sector in Canada. The six main recommendations of the report are: develop a roadmap to support organizational digital transformation; establish a common and sector-wide vision for digital literacy; establish a hybrid settlement service delivery lead at IRCC; establish baseline sector competencies; establish a national sector capacity-building approach; and ensure sector nuances are taken into account.

Report: Intentional Connections for Welcoming Communities: Improving Settlement for Privately Sponsored Refugees in Ontario through Settlement-Sponsor Collaboration. Allies for Refugee Integration; a partnership of OCASI and Refugee 613, May, 2021. This final report explores the findings and recommendations from the pilots tested across Ontario to improve settlement-sponsor collaboration in support of privately sponsored refugees.

Policy Brief: Addressing the Legacy of Expedited Removal: Border Procedures and Alternatives for Reform By Yael Schacher, Refugee International, May 13, 2021. Expedited removal has been justified as a means to promote efficiency in asylum processing. Yet over the last decade, when large numbers of families have come to the border to seek refuge, expedited removal has proven highly inefficient. On February 2, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14010 on creating a comprehensive regional framework. The Order suggests implementing expedited removal in a more efficient way and respectful of due process. For reasons described in this brief, it is highly questionable that such a system will prove to be fair or even effective and workable. Thus, this issue brief suggests alternative ways the United States can have a fair and efficient system that better fulfills its obligation to provide access to protection at the border. A different reception system at the border is essential for a new, comprehensive, protection-oriented approach to migration from Central America.

Digital and Social Media

Inspirational Creative Practice: The Work of Artists after War and Violent Conflict (INSPIRE) is a research project that studies the role of artists and creative practice in and after violent conflict. The project is hosted by the Peace Research Institute in Oslo (PRIO) and connected to the PRIO Centre on Culture and Violent Conflict (CCC). Working with artists and activists in Myanmar and Sudan, and exiled artists in four European countries (France, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland), we explore what motivates those engaged in creative practice and how artistic expressions inspire others into action for social justice.

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 No. 108

Recent Publications and New Research

Hyndman, J., Reynolds, J., Yousuf, B., Purkey, A., Demoz, D. & Sherrell, K. (2021) Sustaining the Private Sponsorship of Resettled Refugees in Canada. Frontiers in Human Dynamics, (3). Based on an original qualitative study, this paper probes how voluntary sponsorship has been sustained over decades, despite the high personal and financial costs it entails, by analyzing the insights of those who have experienced sponsorship: former refugees who came through the program, long-term sponsors, key informants, and other community leaders. The authors argue that private refugee sponsorship is a community practice, a routine activity that is part of a collective commitment, a way of connecting local community actions to global politics of injustice and displacement. Furthermore, refugee newcomers, who land in Canada as permanent residents become part of the communities and society they stay in. Having left family members behind in refugee camps and cities of refuge, many become sponsors themselves. This phenomenon of ‘family linked’ sponsorship is a defining and sustaining feature of the program, motivating family members in Canada to team up with seasoned sponsors to ‘do more’.

d’Orsi, C. (2021). Migrant Smuggling in Africa: Challenges Yet to Be Overcome. African Journal of Legal Studies, 1–30. This paper focuses on the plight of the smuggling of migrants in Africa. Migrant smuggling has been documented along at least five major and several more minor routes in Africa. This study investigates whether current legislation and policies are effective in curbing the practice of smuggling in Africa. To evaluate the success rate of these measures, the author compares figures over recent years to establish whether there has been a decrease in the number of migrants smuggled throughout the various regions of the continent. The author argues that migration can be better managed, but it cannot be stopped. In this framework, in Africa, the current migration policies and cooperation efforts intended to eradicate the practice of smuggling of migrants have given mixed results.

Weima Y, Minca C. (2021). Closing Camps. Progress in Human Geography. Refugee camp geographies vary greatly; however, the most fleeting informal camps and decades-old institutional settlements have in common that they are meant to be temporary. While research on camps has been attentive to their spatialities, relatively little work has focused on closures. However, the authors consider the permanent possibility of closure as a constitutive element of life-in-the-camp. Closures, then, must be situated within the exclusionary landscapes in which states manage migrants’ custody, protection, and displacement. We accordingly present camp closures as manifestations of sovereign power and the study of camp afterlives as key to critical understandings of camp geographies.

Betts, A. (2021). The Wealth of Refugees: How Displaced People Can Build Economies. Oxford University Press. This book draws upon a decade of original qualitative and quantitative research to offer practical solutions. Focusing on refugees in camps and cities in Africa, it identifies approaches that can effectively improve the welfare of refugees, increase social cohesion between refugees and host communities, and reduce the need for onward migration. The book argues that the key lies in unlocking the potential contributions of refugees themselves. Refugees bring skills, talents, and aspirations and can be a benefit rather than a burden to receiving societies. Realizing this potential relies upon moving beyond a purely humanitarian focus to fully include refugees in host-country economies, build economic opportunities in refugee-hosting regions, and navigate the ambiguous politics of refugee protection.

Spencer, S., Charsley, K. (2021). Reframing ‘integration’: acknowledging and addressing five core critiques. Comparative Migration Studies, (9)18. Empirical and theoretical insights from the rich body of research on ‘integration’ in migration studies have increased recognition of its complexity. Among European scholars, however, there remains no consensus on how integration should be defined nor what the processes entail. Integration has, moreover, been the subject of powerful academic critiques, some decrying any further use of the concept. This paper argues that it is both necessary and possible to address each of the five core critiques on which recent criticism has focused: normativity; negative objectification of migrants as ‘other’; outdated imaginary of society; methodological nationalism; and a narrow focus on migrants in the factors shaping integration processes. The authors define integration and provide a revised heuristic model of the integration process and the ‘effectors’ shown to shape them and contribute to a constructive debate on how these challenges for empirical research can be overcome.

Reports, Policy Briefs and Blogposts

Report: Mosler Vidal, E. (2021). Leave No Migrant Behind: The 2030 Agenda and Data Disaggregation, International Organization for Migration (IOM), Geneva. In order to leave no one behind, migrants must be considered across efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Meanwhile, migrants are also key actors in sustainable development. Migrants around the world make vital contributions to help progress the SDGs, whether these focus on offering high-quality health care, boosting household income or increasing productivity in destination economies. The objective of this guide is to provide user-centric guidance on disaggregation of SDG indicators by migratory status. It is aimed at practitioners across governments, international organizations or other actors who work with migration and/or SDG data. The guide is intended to help practitioners at any stage of the disaggregation process.

Migrants forced to wait four years for benefits in Australian budget’s biggest cost-cutting measure by Paul Karp, May 11, 2021, The Guardian. New migrants to Australia will be forced to wait four years before they can access government benefits under a Coalition plan to save $671m. The cost-cutting measure will affect 13,200 future migrants and 45,000 families, with carers and parents to be hit the hardest, while $464.7m will go to expanding immigration detention

What’s behind the UK’s harsh post-Brexit asylum overhaul? By Andrew Connelly, May 11, 2021, The New Humanitarian. In March, the United Kingdom (UK) introduced more than 40 suggested changes to the country’s asylum rules. UNHCR states that, if implemented, the UK’s plan would undermine the 1951 Refugee Convention and the global refugee protection system. The changes ostensibly target “the business model of smugglers,” but favour refugees arriving through legal routes while punishing those who arrive through irregular routes. Rights groups point out that regular routes often do not exist for asylum seekers and they argue that the UK proposal is a “smokescreen” to create a restrictive asylum system.

Digital and Social Media

12-week long Certificate Course on the Rohingya Crisis hosted by Center for Peace Studies (CPS) under South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG) of North South University (NSU) in partnership with the Human Rights Practice Program at the University of Arizona, starting on June 19, 2021. This course will help participants better understand the Rohingya crisis, gain knowledge on the context and geopolitics around the crisis, and critically analyze the national, bilateral, regional and global politics and policies related to the crisis. If you are a student or professional (teachers, diplomats, journalists, NGO workers, etc.) and would like to expand your knowledge about the Rohingya crisis and seek careers in the humanitarian/ development field, learn more here.

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 No. 107

Recent Publications and New Research

Biorklund Belliveau, L., & Ferguson, R. (2021). Normalising the Exceptional: The Use of Temporary Protection in Transit Countries to Externalise Borders and Responsibilities. Geopolitics, 1-31. Temporary protection is increasingly presented as a ‘novel approach’ to displaced people that have crossed an international border as it can provide a level of protection and access to basic social services for a defined period. This paper calls into question the objectives of such measures by highlighting the geopolitical context in which they operate. The authors argue that while temporary arrangements, particularly in so-called ‘transit’ countries, may address the humanitarian needs of displaced people, they also embed precarity and temporality into protection norms. Combined with policies that externalize migration management, they risk normalising the exclusion of individuals from avenues to permanent protection in a country that they feel safe.

Papadopoulos, R.K. (2021). Involuntary Dislocation. Home, Trauma, Resilience and Adversity-Activated Development. London and New York: Routledge. This book identifies involuntary dislocation as a distinct phenomenon, challenging existing assumptions and established positions, and explores its linguistic, historical, and cultural contexts. The author elaborates on key themes, including home, identity, nostalgic disorientation, the victim, and trauma, providing an in-depth understanding of each contributing factor while emphasizing the human experience throughout. This book concludes by articulating an approach to conceptualizing and working with people who have experienced adversities engendered by involuntary dislocation, and with a reflection on the language of repair and renewal.

Bakardjieva, M. (2020). “Say It Loud, Say It Clear…”: Concerting solidarity in the Canadian Refugees Welcome Movement (2015–2016). Canadian Review of Sociology, 57(4), 632–655. This article reports the results of a multimethod case study that seeks to explain how collective action frames emerged in the Canadian Refugees Welcome Movement context. The author explores which actors were involved in their articulation, how they generated a following and collective action, and the humanitarian and political effect. The focus is on the discursive processes of construction of solidarity across differences as they unfolded in the social media environment. The author argues that the Facebook event pages calling for rallies in support of Syrian refugees served as a discursive space that helped transform the moral shock experienced by members of distinct communities into the construction of solidarity and collective action across differences.

Tastsoglou, E. (2021). Twenty-First Century “New” Greek Transnational Migration to Canada. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 1-14. This article derives from a qualitative study of the “new” migration from Greece to Canada, resulting from a severe socioeconomic crisis in Greece. Starting from the migration narratives of 20 “new” Greek migrants in Halifax and Toronto, this research focuses on how the “new” migrants make and carry out the decision to leave and immigrate to Canada. A heuristic use and reconceptualized understanding of the classic “push-pull” model, in conjunction with a transnational migration perspective, allows mapping out, through rich qualitative data, the structure—agency articulation in the “out-of-Greece-and-into-Canada” mobility of 21st century “new” Greek migrants.

Reports, Policy Briefs and Blogposts

Issue Brief: A Crisis of Care: Sexual and Reproductive Health Competes for Attention Amid Conflict and Displacement in Mali, Devon Cone and Alexander Lamarche, April 15, 2021, Refugees International. National healthcare systems rarely prioritize sexual and reproductive health (SRH), posing a challenge for women and girls worldwide, including in Mali. There, nearly a decade of conflict has created a protracted humanitarian crisis, decimating the healthcare system and limiting the availability of SRH services. Meanwhile, political uncertainty following a coup in August 2020 has focused international efforts on addressing security and stabilization, at the expense of humanitarian needs. The lack of donor funding has exacerbated the situation, including the dearth of SRH services. The challenges are particularly pressing for women and girls who have been forcibly displaced by conflict and instability.

Expert report: Access to Documents by Eritrean Refugees in the Context of Family Reunification, Sara Palacios Arapiles and Daniel R. Mekonnen, Equal Rights Beyond Borders and the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP). This report is concerned with challenges experienced by Eritrean refugees in Europe in the context of family reunification processes, specifically those relating to strict documentary requirements demanded by some EU Member States, in particular Germany. The report shows that these requirements often hinder the effectiveness of the right to family reunification. Further, such requirements pose unnecessary risks, often placing Eritrean refugees, and their relatives in Eritrea, at serious risk.

Recognizing the role of religious groups in refugee sponsorship by Geoffrey Cameron, Policy Options, March 31, 2021. This article outlines the key role of religious groups in private refugee sponsorship in Canada. The author briefly explains how Canada developed private refugee sponsorship; at the centre of this story is the creative and humanitarian role played by religious groups and coalitions. Religious groups continue to be leading actors within Canada’s resettlement programs, and the government must recognize their role to understand Canada’s humanitarian potential.

Digital and Social Media

RRN Webinar Series: Localizing Knowledge Production: Shifting power in forced migration studies, In collaboration with the Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN), April 20, 2021. Drawing on the results of a review of forced displacement research centres based in the global South and interviews with their directors, the speakers discussed ways to shift from focusing on research partnerships to an approach that supports the localization of knowledge production in refugee and forced migration studies. View the recording here.

LERRN-IDRC Webinar: Forced displacement and health in the context of the pandemic: Localized responses to COVID- 19’s impact on refugees, IDPs, and communities living in chronic displacement – May 20, 2021, 9:00-10:30AM. This webinar will examine what the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic reveals about how health systems respond to the health needs of the forcibly displaced and how social, cultural and economic factors and power relations shape responses. Drawing on lessons from Bangladesh, Syria, and Palestine, it will consider how localized actors and approaches can identify areas of innovation to improve access and health outcomes for refugees, IDPs and other forcibly displaced people. Learn more and register here.

Resource: Ethical Considerations in Research with People in Situations of Forced Migration, Canadian Council for Refugees. Your Rights in Research page on the CCR website has been updated to include the following languages:

•  Your rights in research (Arabic)
•  Your rights in research (Spanish)
•  Your rights in research (Somali)
•  Your rights in research (Pashto)
•  Your rights in research (Swahili)
•  Your rights in research (Farsi)
•  Your rights in research (Dari) – corrected version

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 No. 106

Recent Publications and New Research

Tosh, S.R., Berg, U.D., & León, K.S. (2021). Migrant Detention and COVID-19: Pandemic Responses in Four New Jersey Detention Centers. Journal on Migration and Human Security. This article examines the relationship between COVID-19 and processes of migrant detention and deportation through a case study of New Jersey — an early epicenter of the pandemic and part of the broader New York City metro area. Drawing on publicly available reports and in-depth interviews with wardens, immigration lawyers, advocates, and former detainees, the authors describe the initial COVID-19 response in four detention facilities in New Jersey. The findings suggest that migrant detention and deportation present distinct challenges that undermine attempts to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Bottomley, B. (2021) NGO strategies for sex and gender-based violence protection and accountability in long-term displacement settings: Reviewing women’s participation in humanitarian programmes in Dadaab refugee complex [Working paper]. This article addresses the intersection between non-governmental organization (NGO) protection strategies for sex and gender-based violence in long-term displacement settings and recent discourse on humanitarian accountability practice. The author concludes that NGOs must adopt a more comprehensive system of gender mainstreaming across the humanitarian sector, to ensure that participatory approaches to protection from sex and gender-based violence in long-term displacement settings prioritise gender equality as a substantive objective.

Masterson, D., & Yasenov, V. (2019). Does halting refugee resettlement reduce crime? Evidence from the United States refugee ban.  American Political Science Review, 1-8. Many countries have reduced refugee admissions in recent years, in part due to fears that refugees and asylum seekers increase crime rates and pose a national security risk. Existing research presents ambiguous expectations about the consequences of refugee resettlement on crime. The authors leverage a natural experiment in the United States, where an Executive Order by the president in January 2017 halted refugee resettlement. This policy change was sudden and significant—it resulted in the lowest number of refugees resettled on US soil since 1977 and a 66% drop in resettlement from 2016 to 2017. The findings suggest that there is no discernible effect on the county-level property or violent crime rates.

Schammann, H., Gluns, D., Heimann, C., et. al. (2021). Defining and transforming local migration policies: A conceptual approach backed by evidence from Germany. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. This article explores the factors that drive municipalities to become active in the field of migration and migration-related diversity. Based on qualitative data from 126 German municipalities, this article proposes a new conceptual framework that allows for larger-scale comparisons and enables theory building on policy (in)activity at the local level. The authors discuss various theoretical approaches and empirical findings from the literature by using a heuristic of four categories of factors: institutional framework (e.g. competencies, discretionary spaces, multilevel governance), structural conditions (e.g. urbanity/rurality, socioeconomic conditions); local discourses (i.e. narratives creating a local space of possibilities), and local key actors (e.g. mayors, street-level bureaucrats).  

Reports, Policy Briefs and Blogposts

Supporting Canada’s COVID-19 Resilience and Recovery Through Robust Immigration Policy and Programs by Victoria Esses, An RSC Policy Briefing, March 2021. This report provides recommendations for action by the federal and provincial/territorial governments designed to optimize immigration to Canada. Broadly, these include a public education program on immigration, expanded pathways to permanence for temporary residents, targeted policies and programs that address the needs of vulnerable permanent and temporary resident groups and special consideration of Francophone immigration.

The Humanitarian Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Venezuelans in Peru, One Year In by Rachel Schmidtke & Anatali Oquendo Lorduy. Refugees International, April 2021. This report bears witness to the lives and challenges of Venezuelans in Peru, surviving displacement and the pandemic. The authors recommend concrete steps to alleviate the obstacles facing Venezuelans in Peru. Specifically, for the Government of Peru to expand legal residency for Venezuelans; for Peruvian civil society to increase their own outreach and collaboration with Venezuelan-led groups; and the Peruvian government and international donors to commit to vaccinating Venezuelans alongside Peruvians.  

The Human Rights Situation of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, China, Report of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. House of Common – Canada, March 2021. This report is divided into three chapters. Chapter one provides a historical overview of the Uyghurs, including their presence in Xinjiang (formerly known as East Turkestan), the Government of the PRC’s evolving approach to the region, and the link with its increasingly violent efforts to repress Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims. Chapter two outlines the different ways in which the Government of the PRC is repressing Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang. Finally, Chapter three outlines why the Subcommittee is confident that the treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang meets the definition of genocide under the Genocide Convention. It also considers Canada’s international obligations under the convention and addresses crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.

Accountability to Affected Populations in Displacement Contexts and During the Covid-19 Pandemic by Diana Martin. Refugee Law Initiative (School of Advanced Study, University of London) in collaboration with the International Rescue Committee, London, 2021. During the pandemic, the RLI has undertaken a real-time evaluation of the impact of Covid-19 on IRC Uganda’s humanitarian response and accountability to affected populations. While the report focuses on IRC Uganda’s application of Client Responsiveness during the Covid-19 pandemic, key findings and lessons are relevant and applicable to other IRC country programs, as well as other humanitarian organizations. The report shows how humanitarian organizations can be accountable to the communities they serve even during a pandemic when engagement between humanitarian staff and affected populations is heavily restricted due to lockdown regulations.

Gruber, M. & Zupan, K. (Eds.) (2021): Report on existing integration-political goals, programs and strategies in the European Union and the MATILDE countries and rural regions.This reportpresents an overview of existing integration-political goals, programs and strategies at different governance levels: the European Union level, the national level represented by the ten MATILDE countries – Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom, the regional level analyses based on the MATILDE rural case study regions, as well as the local level of these ten countries. Hence, this report aims to analyze the desired goals and guiding principles in the governance of migration and integration politics. The chapters include historical highlights since the 1990s impacting the further development of integration political goals and strategies.

It’s Time to Recognize Climate Refugees by Keith Lema. International Policy Digest, April 6, 2021. Through a flurry of executive action and appointments in his first 100 days, President Biden is restoring U.S. leadership on both climate change and refugee resettlement. Addressing climate change today will save lives, property, and money in the long run. Accepting more refugees will enhance America’s moral leadership while reinvigorating American communities with new, hardworking members. The author argues that President Biden should go further: He should recognize that climate change drives the need for refugee resettlement.

Digital and Social Media

RRN webinar recording: Emerging BHER Scholars: Establishing a Refugee Research Agenda in Dadaab. March 31, 2021. The speakers in this webinar addressed the importance of ongoing research in and on Dadaab. The overarching theme was the barriers to inclusivity in education in the Dadaab refugee camp, and was addressed by Dadaab scholars with specific reference to their research in progress.

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 No. 105

RRN Webinar Series:

Localizing Knowledge Production: 

Shifting power in forced migration studies

In collaboration with the Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN)
April 20, 2021 | 10:00 EST

Register here

Drawing on the results of a review of forced displacement research centres based in the global South and interviews with the directors of these centres, this webinar encourages a shift from focusing on research partnerships to an approach that supports the localization of knowledge production in refugee and forced migration studies. The speakers invite us to consider an approach that changes the structures of knowledge production through tackling issues such as funding management of Global South-led research, transfer of power to researchers in the South, a recognition of the diverse forms of knowledge and knowledge production, and an appreciation for the diverse understandings of success and impact across contexts.

Guest speakers:

James Milner, Associate Professor of Political Science at Carleton University and Director of LERRN: The Local Engagement Refugee Research Network.

Richa Shivakoti, Senior Research Associate at the Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Migration and Integration.

Amanda Coffie, Research Fellow at the Legon Center for International Affairs and Diplomacy, University of Ghana.

Roula El-Rifai, Senior Program Specialist with the Democratic and Inclusive Governance Division at Canada’s International Development Research Centre – IDRC.

Recent Publications and New Research

Sanctuary cities in Canada: practices, needs and policies, Building Migrant Resilience in Cities (BMRC), York University, April 6, 2021. This project aimed to better understand the formal practices and informal approaches associated with ‘sanctuary city’ and ‘access without fear’ policies across Canada.  It explored the approaches taken by several cities to address the needs of residents living without immigration status or with precarious status. Because immigrant-serving organizations engage directly with these populations, the research explored how these organizations assessed city efforts and their needs and preferences for municipal policy changes to better support these residents.

Francesca Esposito et. al. (2021). “Yes, But Somebody Has to Help Them, somehow:” Looking at the Italian Detention Field through the Eyes of Professional Nonstate Actors. International Migration Review. Although migration-related detention has increased worldwide, little is known about life inside detention centers for undocumented migrants. Building on 34 months of fieldwork, this article examines Rome’s detention center, including the lived experiences of center staff and the external civil-society actors working in and with the center. It discusses the emotional, ethical, and political challenges these professional actors face in their everyday work and relationships with detainees. It sheds light on life in detention and the intersections between humanitarian and security logics in this setting. In doing so, the authors problematize the idea that “humanizing detention” can be a solution for change.

Didier Ruedin (ed.) (2021). Decision-Making under Uncertainty: African Migrants in the Spotlight“, Social Inclusions (open access journal), Volume 9, Issue 1 (2021). This thematic issue examines decision-making questions under limited (and contradictory) information, focusing on migration decisions. Migrants are far from a homogenous population, but they commonly use narratives as heuristics. The authors observe much agency among migrants to pursue migration plans, with migration decisions best understood as chains of multiple decisions rather than simple push-pull or two-step models.

Silverman, S. J., & Kaytaz, E. S. (2020). Examining the ‘National Risk Assessment for Detention process: an intersectional analysis of detaining ‘dangerousness’ in Canada. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 1-17. This article concerns the NRAD, a 2-page ‘risk analysis’ PDF used by CBSA to sort arrested immigrants into medium- or high-risk categories. CBSA officers use it precisely to determine whether to incarcerate someone in a provincial prison or at an immigration holding centre. Like many algorithmic tools, the NRAD appears scientific and objective, but it is affixing a sticky label of dangerousness to racialized immigrants that is very difficult to dislodge. The authors argue that the NRAD creates and further embeds ‘hybrid knowledges of risk’ about immigrants, criminality, race and gender. Importantly, these pieces of knowledge did not arrive out of the blue; rather, the NRAD and its logics are nested in an arc of penalisation contingent upon the 1994 shooting of ViVi Leimonis in a midtown Toronto cafe that locals may remember. The NRAD thus links immigration, gender, racialisation, dangerousness, and crime. The NRAD normalizes incarceration for certain non-citizens, reflecting and reinforcing negative, racialized, and gendered ideas about riskiness.

Reports, Policy Briefs and Blogposts

Calgary Refugee Resettlement: January 1, 2020 – December 31, 2020, Calgary Catholic Immigration Society (CCIS), Released: February 2021. This report captures the numbers and composition of the refugees who arrived in Calgary during 2020. The document also includes the executive summary of Calgary’s COVID-19 response for the vulnerable newcomer population.

One Year Later: Unmasking COVID-19, by Grace Barakat & Brenda Spotton-Visano, Islamic Relief Canada & York University, March 17, 2021.  Islamic Relief Canada, in partnership with York University, has released a new research report. This report reveals that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated economic inequalities in Canada. Marginalized groups, especially BIPOC, women and low-income people, have experienced the highest percentages of illness contraction, job losses and economic hardships. The research indicates that the long-term effects on these vulnerable groups will include: an increase in poverty; SME closures; household debt and mortgage defaults; precarious housing, evictions and food insecurity; and unemployment in specific industries experiencing shutdowns. 

Leaving Place, Restoring Home Enhancing The Evidence Base On Planned Relocation Cases In The Context Of Hazards, Disasters, And Climate Change, By Erica Bower & Sanjula Weerasinghe, Kaldore centre, March 2021. This report, undertaken according to the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD) 2019-2022 Strategy and Workplan, seeks to enhance the evidence base on planned relocation cases undertaken within countries. It provides: (1) a global dataset of 308 cases of planned relocation identified from English-language peer-reviewed scholarly articles and grey literature; and (2) an analysis of characteristics across 34 of the identified cases. These two related outputs serve as a foundation for future efforts to augment knowledge and data on planned relocation and promote approaches to policy and practice that mitigate risk and protect people from harm.

Popp, Karoline (2021) “No more Morias?’ Origins, challenges and prospects of the hot spots on the Greek islands” SVR-Policy Brief, Berlin. This new policy brief by the Expert Council on Integration and Migration explores the factors underlying the situation in the hotspots. In addition to the effects of the EU-Turkey Statement, the policy brief examines the shortcomings of the Greek administrative system and the European context, particularly the lack of responsibility-sharing on asylum among EU member states. The analysis identifies several structural causes for the situation in the hotspots. To address these, national and European actors need to create additional capacities, accelerate asylum procedures and systematically relieve the hotspots through relocations to mainland Greece and other EU countries. The EU should consider these lessons learned in its negotiations on the new Pact on Migration and Asylum, including on the use of border procedures in the future. On 12 April 2021, a webinar on the theme of “No more Morias? Past and future of the hotspot approach at Europe’s border”, will be held to discuss the policy brief’s key findings and their implications.

Kordel, S. & Membretti, A. (Eds.) (2020): Classification of MATILDE regions. Spatial Specificities and Third Country Nationals Distribution, MATILDE Deliverable 2.1. This report provides an overview of the immigration processes in European rural and mountain areas, i.e., labour, forced, student, family and amenity/lifestyle migration. For this purpose, the report presents a literature review of migration studies from various social sciences disciplines. It further reveals the prevailing immigration processes, including a diachronic perspective and the framework for the description of MATILDE regions based on socio-economic, socio-demographic and territorial indicators. Finally, MATILDE regions in Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom are portrayed in terms of immigration of Third-Country Nationals and spatial characteristics. In conclusion, patterns of immigration of TCNs to MATILDE countries and regions are classified in light of broader structural transformations.

Baglioni, S., Caputo, M.L., Laine, J. & Membretti, A. (Eds.) (2021): The impact of social and economic policies on migrants in Europe, MATILDE Deliverable 3.1 and 4.1. This document presents the impact assessments of a range of policies on Third Country Nationals’ interaction with the social and economic structure of the remote and rural areas in the MATILDE countries – Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and in the United Kingdom. Each report includes a systematic gathering of information on existing policies that have a direct/indirect impact on migrants’ interaction with the social-economic structure of remote and rural areas. A meta-analysis/literature review on the existing literature/research has been carried out for each country. Each report includes an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the policies and services explored through semi-structured interviews. Finally, the conclusions also provide an inventory of good practices.

A Year of Racist Attacks: Anti-Asian racism across Canada one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, by Justin Kong, Jessica Ip, Celia Huang & Kennes Lin, Chinese Canadian National Council – Toronto Chapter, March 23, 2021. From March 10th, 2020 to February 28th, 2021, 1150 cases of racist attacks from across Canada were reportedNee on their web platforms with 835 cases reported on covidracism.ca, and 315 cases reported to elimin8hate.org. Data analysis was conducted using data up to December 31st, 2020. 40% and 44% of racist attacks and incidents were reported from Ontario and British Columbia, respectively. Individuals who reported an incident in Chinese were much more likely to report suffering from emotional distress (34% more likely) and experiencing physical assault (100% more likely) than those who reported an incident in English. Learn more by reading the full report.

Digital and Social Media

RRN webinar recording: Emerging BHER Scholars: Establishing a Refugee Research Agenda in Dadaab. March 31, 2021. The speakers in this webinar addressed the importance of ongoing research in and on Dadaab. The overarching theme was the barriers to inclusivity in education in the Dadaab refugee camp, and was addressed by Dadaab scholars with specific reference to their research in progress.

International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade Event: “Still We Rise”. This online cultural event took place on March 25th, 2021 as part of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, included musical and spoken word input from a diverse range of people. It also included a live 20-minute discussion with a Q&A with a prominent personality related to the theme, “Ending slavery’s legacy of racism: a global imperative for justice.” The event was co-organized by the United Nations Department of Global Communications, UNESCO and UNFPA. Musicians included Peter Gabriel, Yo-Yo Ma and Angélique Kidjo. Canadian participants included The Hon. Jean Augustine and Webster.

Pathways to Prosperity 2021 Virtual Workshop Series, April 13-27 Schedule. In January 2021, the new Pathways to Prosperity Virtual Workshop Series was launched. The series includes up to two virtual workshops a week over several months on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:00 – 2:15 PM EST. The P2P 2021 Workshop Series runs until April 27, 2021. T The information is updated regularly.

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 No. 104

Emerging BHER Scholars: Establishing a Refugee Research Agenda in the Dadaab Refugee Camp

Building upon Appadurai’s argument that “Research is a specialized name for a generalized capacity to make disciplined inquiries into those things we need to know, but do not know yet…. [and that research] is the capacity to systematically increase the horizons of one’s current knowledge, in relation to some task, goal, or aspiration” (Appadurai, 2013), the four speakers address the importance of ongoing research in and on Dadaab. Barriers to inclusivity in education in the Dadaab refugee camps is the overall topic of this panel and is addressed by Dadaab scholars with specific reference to their research in progress.

Appadurai, Arjun (2013) The Future as Cultural Fact: Essays on the Global Condition.

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://yorku.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEsduurrz4tHNBNMVwGxzZU3LdvAFhhIgSN

Recent Publications and New Research

Melnyk, G., & Parker, C. (Eds.). (2021). Finding Refuge in Canada: Narratives of Dislocation. AU Press.  [Open access]. This book is available as a free resource at aupress.ca. It gathers the voices of refugees who have come to Canada and encountered varying kinds of reception. Their stories confront dominant public discourse about Canada as a benevolent country and move the reader beyond sensationalized headlines that often focus only on numbers and statistics.  

Mental health and psychosocial support, data and displacement, missing migrants. Forced Migration Review 66 (FMR), March 2021[Open access]. FMR 66 includes three features. In the Mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) feature, authors debate initiatives and challenges, advocating for strengthened collaboration and new ways of thinking. The Data and displacement feature examines recent advances in gathering and using data. Finally, the Missing migrants feature explores initiatives to improve data gathering and sharing, identification of remains, and assistance for families left behind. 

Molly Fee. 2021. Lives stalled: the costs of waiting for refugee resettlement. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. Online first. Available [Open access] working paper here. This paper examines the context of waiting for Iranian religious minorities who must first travel to Vienna, Austria to apply for resettlement to the U.S. Drawing on theories of waiting, the author demonstrates how uncertainty and the passage of time shape refugees’ experience in transit contexts. While in Vienna, refugees endure months of compulsory idle waiting, free from persecution yet unable to begin the long-term process of settling in a new country. The author argues that the duration of stay and life conditions in transit can have significant consequences for refugees. Even when waiting is temporary and remedied by eventual resettlement, time spent in transit carries material, emotional, and physical costs.

Mole, R. C. (Ed.). (2021). Queer Migration and Asylum in Europe. UCL Press [Open access]. This book brings together scholars from politics, sociology, urban studies, anthropology and law to analyse how and why queer individuals migrate to or seek asylum in Europe, as well as the legal, social and political frameworks they are forced to navigate to feel at home or to regularise their status in the destination societies. The subjects covered include LGBTQ Latino migrants’ relationship with queer and diasporic spaces in London; diasporic consciousness of queer Polish, Russian and Brazilian migrants in Berlin; the role of the Council of Europe in shaping legal and policy frameworks relating to queer migration and asylum; the challenges facing bisexual asylum seekers; queer asylum and homonationalism in the Netherlands; and the role of space, faith and LGBTQ organisations in Germany, Italy, the UK and France in supporting queer asylum seekers.

Mwanri, L., & Mude, W. (2021). Alcohol, other drugs use and mental health among African migrant youths in South Australia. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(4), 1534 [Open access]. The paper reports perspectives about alcohol and other drug (AOD) use and mental health among African migrant and refugee youths in South Australia. African migrant and refugee youths revealed challenging stressors, including cultural, socioeconomic, living conditions, and pre- and post-migration factors that contribute to mental health problems and the use of AOD in their new country. The findings highlight the need to understand these social and cultural contexts to improve mental health services and help reduce the use of AOD, which, when problematic, can influence the health and integration experiences of these populations.

Lea-Maria Löbel & Jannes Jacobsen  (2021) Waiting for kin: A longitudinal study of family reunification and refugee mental health in Germany. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies [Open access].  Reunification in hosting communities is difficult, as governments limit institutional family reunifications and the individual journey of kin is dangerous and often illegal. For refugees, having family abroad, especially in danger, is mentally distressing. Additionally, reuniting with family members can be a source of support in the new environment. This paper investigates the association between family reunifications and refugee mental health in a random sample of refugees in Germany (N = 6610), the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees 2016–2018.

Reports, policy briefs and Blogposts

Select US Immigration and Refugee Policy Resources.  CMS Research. March 11, 2021. Over the last five years, the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) has produced and published a series of reports, articles, and special collections of papers – primarily in its Journal on Migration and Human Security (JMHS) – that are devoted to reform of US immigration and refugee protection policies. CMS would like to make these resources broadly available as the Biden administration, Congress, states, and localities consider ways to reform the nation’s immigration, refugee, and integration laws and policies. CMS has also built a webpage that tracks Biden-era immigration and refugee protection developments. 

Leveraging networks to overcome displacement: Urban internally displaced persons in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Caitlin Katsiaficas, Carolien Jacobs & Martin Wagner (2021). TRAFIG policy brief no. 2. Based on empirical research in Bukavu, eastern DRC, this policy brief explores how left largely on their own, IDPs are proactively seeking their own solutions, including tapping into their networks to unlock opportunities. It also highlights the need for policies and practices that support urban IDPs by helping them nurture and leverage their networks. It suggests some ways in which humanitarian and development actors might do so.

Doing No Harm in Lebanon: The Need for an Aid Paradigm Shift by Sahar Atrache. Refugees International. March 4, 2021. This report details the current state of crisis in Lebanon that has pushed hundreds of thousands into misery. The report calls for a new and innovative aid approach that could help the country get on the right course while protecting the most vulnerable among Lebanese and refugees from the dire consequences of the humanitarian and health crisis.

Settlement Sector and Technology Task Group Preliminary Report (2020). The Settlement Sector and Technology Task Group (coordinated by AMSSA, reporting to IRCC’s National Settlement and Integration Council (NSIC). February 2, 2021. This report focuses on the future of how the immigrant and refugee-serving sector delivers services to newcomers and communities. The Task Group’s work includes looking at infrastructure, privacy issues (e.g., advice and protocols on how to safeguard information), professional development for staff, including digital literacy and addressing the digital divide among newcomers and our communities.

Latest Asylum Trends – 2020 Overview, European Asylum Support Office (EASO), February 18, 2021. The visualisation included in this report provides an overview of the key indicators regarding international protection in the EU+ in the past 25 months. The size of the different circles in the countries of origin is proportional to the volume of applications lodged in EU+ countries; the colour of the circle reflects the recognition rate at first instance (blue – high, red – low). The shade of the country reflects the stock of pending cases at the end of the selected year. By clicking on a circle, the evolution of these key indicators for the citizenship selected is displayed in the lower panel.

Biden on immigration: The first six weeks, by Susan F Martin, Cambridge Blog, March 16, 2021. Professor Susan Martin discusses Biden’s immigration policy in the first 6 weeks in light of her book “A Nation of Immigrants – 2nd edition” which has just been released.

Opinion: No amount of detention is safe for a child. Here are better solutions for migrant kids by Rachel Pearson. The Washington Post. March 4, 2021. The author, a pediatrician and humanities researcher at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, shares alternative solutions.

Digital and social media

Watch: Climate Change and Forced Displacement: During this panel discussion hosted by the World Refugee and Migration Council, experts engaged in a north-south dialogue to address managed retreat, the role of local community adaptation in the absence of national action, refugee designation for climate causes, and the multifaceted characteristics of climate displacement.

Watch: International Women’s Day: To celebrate International Women’s Day, the co-founders the Global Independent Refugee Women Leaders (GIRWL) met on March 10 to talk about one year of refugee women-led achievements. 

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 No. 103

Learn more and Register here

Recent Publications and New Research

Abdelaaty, L. (2021). Discrimination and Delegation: Explaining State Responses to Refugees, Oxford University Press. What explains state responses to the refugees they receive?  This book identifies two puzzling patterns: states open their borders to some refugee groups while blocking others (discrimination), and several countries have given the UN control of asylum procedures on their territory (delegation). The book develops a two-part theoretical framework in which policymakers in refugee-receiving countries weigh international and domestic concerns to explain these patterns. The book then substantiates this argument with a three-stage research design, which combines statistical analysis of asylum admissions worldwide, country case studies of Egypt and Turkey, and content analysis of parliamentary proceedings in Kenya. Learn more here. (not open access, but may use promo code ASFLYQ6 to save 30%)

Roßkopf, R., & Heilmann, K. (eds.) (2021). International Social Work and Forced Migration: Developments in African, Arab and European Countries, Verlag Barbara Budric. This book focuses on Social Work with refugees in African, Middle East and European countries. Published as a follow-up to the ‘International Social Work Week’ in Würzburg/Germany with professionals and experts from all over the globe, this book intends to share insights into country-specific developments, challenges and potentials of Social Work in forced migration contexts. The objectives are to map Social Work in this field of action across several countries, to bring into sharper focus an International Social Work in forced migration contexts and help connect Social Work scholars and experts around the globe. Learn more here and read some selections here.

Averhed, Y. (2020). The breathing space or impact of temporary protection on integration from the perspective of refugees. School of Advanced Study, University of London.  In July 2016, the Swedish government adopted temporary legislative changes to the asylum regulation in force, significantly limiting the possibility of being granted a permanent residence permit. The government presented the temporary law as an incentive for the immigrants to focus on employment, leading to permanent residence. This study explores the impact of temporary protection on labour market integration and social inclusion from refugees’ and subsidiary protection holders’ perspectives. The data was collected through focus groups and in-depth face-to-face interviews with both temporary and permanent protection holders. The main conclusion is that temporary residence hinders the labour market integration of refugees and subsidiary protection holders from a long-term perspective, potentially leading to higher levels of social exclusion. Read here.

BMRC Research Digest: Assessment of the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Gatineau: The role of the local context and resources (March 1, 2021), Building Migrant Resilience in the City (BMRC), York University. Since 2019, this study documents the resettlement of Syrian refugees and the factors that fostered or hindered their resilience and, therefore, their integration by taking into account the context of Gatineau, a medium-sized city located next to a larger city, Ottawa, where English predominates. The factors considered are the human resources that accompanied refugees (professionals, sponsors, civil society) and the policies and services they had access to. This digest examines their role in the resettlement trajectories related to housing, francization, employment, socialization and long-term settlement. Download the DigestDownload the digest here.

Reports, policy briefs and Blogposts

How President Biden Can Make His Commitment to Refugees a Reality, by Susan Martin, February 19, 2021, Center for Migration Studies. In an Executive Order signed on February 3, 2021, President Joe Biden promised a thorough review of the US refugee admissions program and the Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) under which Afghans and Iraqis, endangered by their association with the US government, are admitted. He also announced that the United States would resettle 125,000 refugees in Fiscal Year 2022 and consult with Congress to increase this year’s admissions quota as a down payment. These promises offer hope to thousands of refugees who have been awaiting resettlement, often for years and still more often in precarious settings. However, fulfilling this promise will not come easily. The new administration has limited time to rebuild a program that the Trump administration sought to destroy. Read more here.

Too much, too little water: Addressing climate risks, no-analog threats and migration in Peru by Jonas Bergmann et al. (January, 2021), Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Policy Brief Series Issue 1 – Vol. 6. Based on a systematic review of the literature and expert interviews, this policy brief assesses available scientific evidence on the nexus between climate risks and migration in Peru. It discusses the necessity to understand climate migration patterns and improve planning and policies in the short term to the mid-term, given several “no-analog threats” – that is, those with unprecedented, large impacts – that could occur towards the end of the century. Recent policy developments in the country, such as the National Plan of Action on Climate Migration and the National Adaptation Plan (NAP), can break new ground in addressing these challenges. Download the issue

Canadian Council for Refugees (2021). Your right in research: An information sheet for people taking part in forced migration research. Taking part in research projects may give respondents a chance to be heard, but it can also be inconvenient, cost time or money, and make respondents feel physically or emotionally uncomfortable. This information sheet explains key terms and outlines the rights of individuals who participate in forced migration research; it is available in eight languages. All documents (Guidelines, Executive Summary, and Rights in Research documents) are available on the CCR website here.

What Comes Next Now that Colombia Has Taken a Historic Step on Migration? By Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan and Diego Chaves-González. (February 2021) Migration Policy Institute. Colombian President Iván Duque’s announcement that all Venezuelans in Colombia will receive a ten-year protection status represents a bold, first-of-its-kind move in Latin America. It is “the most important humanitarian gesture” in the region in decades, as one UN official termed it. Read more here.

Digital and social media

RRN webinar recording: Ethics of Witnessing: Method as Intervention in Forced Migration Studies, Guest speaker: Professor Nergis Canefe. This webinar focuses on capitalizing the scholar’s responsibility as a witness, maximizing the potential and benefits for institutional and social change, and tracing and teaching an ethics of witnessing in its most adequate and resonant forms. Professor Canefe (PhD & SJD) is a Turkish-Canadian scholar of public international law, comparative politics, forced migration studies and critical human rights. This presentation is of particular interest to emerging scholars and teachers of research and its potential impact.  Watch recording here.

Pathways to Prosperity, The Future of Immigration and Re-settlement in Canada. 2021 Virtual Workshop Series – March Schedule. The series includes up to two virtual workshops a week over the course of several months on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:00 – 2:15 PM (EST). The complete workshop series schedule is available here [please use Google Chrome to avoid technical issues].