The RRN Research Digest provides a synopsis of recent research on refugee and forced migration issues from entities associated with the RRN and others.
You can download the digest in PDF format here: RRN Research Digest
NEW RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS
Bose, P. (2024). Nexus dynamics: The impact of environmental vulnerabilities and climate change on refugee camps. Oxford Open Climate Change, 4(1). Climate change and forced migration are often thought about in terms of the sheer numbers of people who might be displaced by a transforming environment. Understanding the forces that produce, respond to and amplify such forced migration patterns requires a complex and nuanced view of them. Using Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh (Rohingya refugees), Dadaab in Kenya (Somali refugees) and Za’atari in Jordan (Syrian refugees), the author examines the ways that political, economic and ecological factors have driven the inhabitants to the camps, keep them vulnerable within them, and raise questions about both their and the camps’ respective futures.
Bose, P. S. (2024). Research with refugees: Working with ethnic community-based organizations. Geographical Review, 1–19. The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) has functioned as a partnership between the federal government and several non-profit partners for more than four decades. Yet resettlement is dependent on more than these obvious actors; it also includes states, municipalities, and a range of other organizations. In this paper, the author explores one part of the resettlement assemblage in the United States—ethnic community-based organizations (ECBOs)—from their own perspective as a researcher who has collaborated with one such entity over several years.
Brun, C., Alikhan, M. M., Jayatilaka, D., Chalkiadaki, E., & Erdal, M. B. The dynamic space of aid relations in protracted internal displacement: The case of Sri Lanka’s northern Muslims. Disasters, e12623. Aid relations in protracted displacement comprise a diversity of actors with different influences and involvement over time. Building on the case of Sri Lanka’s northern Muslim’s expulsion from the north of the country in 1990, this paper investigates the dynamic space of aid relations in their drawn-out internal displacement. The analysis incorporates angles and voices often overlooked in mainstream humanitarian studies, including internally displaced persons, hosts, and Middle Eastern aid funders. The authors argue that a long-term perspective and a variety of voices provide foundations for more productive engagement with localization in humanitarian action in protracted displacement crises.
Doğar, D. (2024). Unrecognizing Refugees: The Inadmissibility Scheme Replacing Article 1F Decisions in Canada. International Journal of Refugee Law. This article examines the interwoven relationship between article 1F (the exclusion provision) of the 1951 Refugee Convention and the inadmissibility scheme based on the grounds of security, violation of human or international rights, serious criminality, or organized criminality (SHSO) in Canada. Incorporating evidence from a literature review, case law, statistics, and interviews conducted with practitioners in Canada, this research demonstrates that Canada deliberately chooses to review the cases of refugee claimants about whom there are serious reasons to consider that they have committed grave crimes under the inadmissibility scheme rather than under article 1F. The authors argue that this shift from the exclusion provision to the inadmissibility scheme is problematic since using the broader SHSO grounds instead of article 1F violates Canada’s international obligations under the Refugee Convention.
Dromonis, T. (2024). Seeking Asylum: Building a Shareable World. Linda Leith Publishing. Human migration and the right to seek asylum from harm have been constants throughout the history of human existence. But only recently has Canada been forced to confront a global displacement crisis that much of the planet has long been dealing with. Seeking Asylum is a book about the plea for empathy, away of rethinking and reframing the conversation to emphasize both our common humanity and our moral and legal obligations to one another.
Soehl, T., Stolle, D., & Scott, C. (2023). The politics left behind: How pre-migration and migration experiences shape Syrian refugees’ interest in home-county politics. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 50(4), 914–935. This article explores which refugees are more likely to engage in home country politics. It focuses on two sets of factors: experiences of hardship in the context of emigration, transiting and settling to their destination country, and the ongoing social ties to family and friends left behind. Refugees in transit in their interim country with prior experiences of hardship back home are associated with less engagement in the political affairs of Syria. On the other hand, those who have a harder time settling into life in Canada tend to remain more interested in home-country politics. The findings highlight the unique pressures refugees face and the role these pressures may have on continued interest in the political affairs of their home country after migrating.
REPORTS AND POLICY BRIEFS
Diverging Paths: The Impacts of COVID-19 on Migration in the Middle East and North Africa. (2024). Migration Policy Institute. This report is part of a series of studies by MPI’s Task Force on Mobility and Borders during and after COVID-19 that explores opportunities to improve international coordination regarding border management during public-health crises. Other regional case studies in this series look at Asia and the Pacific, Europe, and South America. Thematic studies consider the role of digital health credentials in facilitating movement, the use of risk analysis to shape border policies, and the rise of remote work and “digital nomads.” A final capstone policy brief reflects on lessons for future public-health crises.
ICMPD Migration Outlook Eastern Europe and Central Asia 2024 Eight migration issues to look out for in 2024. (2024). International Centre for Migration Policy Development. This report identifies eight key trends and developments in Eastern Europe and Central Asia that will be high on the agenda of decision-makers and analysts alike. These include the large-scale displacement due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the decisive debate on the future of temporary protection for Ukrainian beneficiaries in Europe, and the precarity of the situation for Russian emigrants in non-EU host states and their attempts to reach the EU.
Rapid Evaluation of the Ukraine Response. (2024). Government of Canada. This report presents the findings of the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) Rapid Evaluation of the Ukraine Response covering the period from March 2022 to March 2023. The summary of evaluation findings shows that the Ukraine Response has thus far been successful in facilitating the arrival of Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) holders to Canada and has experienced strong collaboration among partners and stakeholders. However, there were significant impacts on IRCC. The report identifies lessons learned and makes recommendation in four areas for IRCC to undertake in preparation for a future crisis.
Massari, A. (2024). Reframing Migration: The Use of Visual Communication by Government Institutions. Toronto Metropolitan University. This policy brief argues that visual communication – the transmission of information and ideas through visual elements, such as images, graphics, charts and other visual aids – has a pivotal role in shaping migrant and public perceptions and influencing policy decisions concerning migration. The brief draws on research on the visual representations produced by government migration institutions in Canada and Europe to demonstrate the need for governments to develop and adopt best practices in visual communication on migration.
NEWS AND BLOG POSTS
America has a good model for how to handle immigration: America by Abdallah Fayyad, March 1, 2024. Vox. The author argues that the United States immigration system is so dysfunctional that it might sometimes seem as though it has no redeeming features. Asylum seekers are left in legal limbo for years, and immigration courts face a growing backlog of cases — all while arrests of migrants at the southern border have reached a record high. But when it comes to addressing the current wave of migrants, many of whom are families and asylum seekers, American lawmakers do not need to look very far to find a model to emulate: the United States’ very own refugee resettlement program.
Food aid for Sudanese refugees in Chad could end next month, WFP says by Emma Farge, March 12, 2024. Reuters. According to the World Food Programme (WFP), food aid for hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees in Chad, some of whom are close to starvation, will be suspended next month without more funding. Since conflict broke out in Sudan nearly a year ago, more than half a million Sudanese refugees have fled to Chad across the long desert border and the country is now one of Africa’s main refugee hot spots with more than 1 million in total. But the WFP says it is struggling to feed them all and many are already skipping meals. Nearly half of Sudanese refugee children under five-years-old are suffering from severe anemia. The agency is urgently calling for $242 million to ensure ongoing support for the next six months.
How a new global consensus can provide true refuge to the displaced by Abraham D. Sofaer, March 14, 2024. The Hill. The huge increase in refugees worldwide is a major threat to public order. The author argues for a new consensus to deal with this crisis and preserve long-held principles governing humanitarian relief and national control of borders. That consensus would include providing refugees with permanent homes in communities of refuge that include access to employment, education and other aspects of normal life.
Madeline Gleeson & Theodore Konstadinides: The UK’s Rwanda policy and Lessons from Australia by Madeline Gleeson & Theodore Konstadinides, March 14, 2024. UK Constitutional Law Association. In November 2023, the Supreme Court of the UK dealt a critical blow to the government’s proposal to send certain asylum seekers to the Republic of Rwanda ruling that removal to Rwanda would be unlawful because that country was not, at the time, a ‘safe country’. The government moved swiftly to conclude a new treaty with Rwanda which seeks to render Rwanda ‘safe’ by establishing additional safeguards and guarantees. The authors question lawmakers’ claims that the Rwanda policy is analogous to Australia’s offshore processing policies and argue that given the extraordinary human toll of Australia’s offshore processing policies, they should not be replicated without full and accurate consideration of their risks and consequences.
Waves of Violence Storm Port-au-Prince in Haiti Further Displacing Thousands by Antoine Lemonnier, March 9, 2024. IOM UN Migration. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is deeply concerned by the uprising of violence since the end of February. IOM’s latest displacement tracking reveals that 15,000 people have been displaced within just one week, all of them having already experienced displacement. Ten displacement sites have been entirely emptied due to the successive waves of violence, leaving displaced families traumatized. Urgent needs include access to food, healthcare, water, and hygiene facilities, and psychological support. More than 160,000 people are currently displaced in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area.
EVENTS, RESOURCES, DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA
AUDIO: Calls for accelerate refugee resettlement by RN Breakfast. This podcast episode delves into the repercussions of Australia’s refugee policy, which has left hundreds of refugees in a state of limbo for years. While over a thousand people have been settled in the US and New Zealand, a large cohort of refugees and asylum seekers are still awaiting information about their fate.
Summer Course on Forced Migration: Exploring the intersections between forced migration and technology by Centre for Refugee Studies, York University. This year’s Summer Course is offered in collaboration with Osgoode Hall Law School’s Refugee Law Laboratory and will focus on research, policy, and practices at the intersections of forced migration and technology. The course will start off with an introductory day and a deep dive into the current state of play. To ensure a baseline level of knowledge for attendees, participants will receive an overview of major trends in forced migration as well as some of the vast array of technologies used for border enforcement, refugee adjudication, and the inspiring innovations by researchers, lawyers, and affected communities aimed at levelling the playing field. The course will take place at York University in Toronto, Ontario, from June 3-7, 2024.