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
Clark-Kazak, C. R. (2026). Age and immigration policy in Canada: Toward an equitable approach. UBC Press. Open access book*. Discrimination on the basis of age and family status is deeply embedded in Canadian immigration law and policy. How and why does age function as part of a broader system of border control? Age and Immigration Policy in Canada draws on archival research, case studies, and interviews with lawyers, former public servants, and settlement workers to unpack the explicit and implicit justification for age qualifications in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and regulations. Age and Immigration Policy in Canada advocates for a more equitable approach that reflects different migration experiences across the life course. This is an urgent call to bring immigration policy in line with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and rights-based international norms. *The digital version of this book is open access.
Skovdal, M., & Anderson, L. S. (Eds.). (2026). Continuity of Care for Forcibly Displaced Persons Living with Chronic Illness (1st, First Edition ed.). Bristol University Press. Open access book. When people are forced to flee their homes – due to armed conflict, persecution, or human rights violations – continuity of care for those living with chronic illnesses becomes a critical concern. Yet, across the full migratory journey – from displacement and transit, through resettlement, and into possible onward movement such as return or circular migration – access to consistent, appropriate healthcare is often disrupted or fragmented. Responding to the WHO’s global research agenda on health, migration, and displacement, this edited volume brings together international research spanning diverse geographical settings, chronic conditions, population groups, and methodological approaches. It offers evidence and insights from across the entire continuum of mobility, identifying different types of work or strategies that are central to the evolving needs of forcibly displaced people living with chronic diseases.
Dustin, M. (2025). Putting people in boxes: Iranian exiles and queer identities. Sexuality & Culture, 30(1), 1–18. Open access. Sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) are no longer uniformly viewed as stable and permanent individual attributes in academic and public discourse. Iran, and Iranian scholarship, has been an important site for this destabilisation. Postcolonial, feminist and queer theorists have mapped changes since the nineteenth century in how Iranian individuals and society perceive sexual and gender identities and behaviours, often attributing shifts in discourse to Iran’s engagement with Europe. Without overlooking the marginalisation and abuse of queer Iranians, this scholarship undermines simplistic Western narratives to create a more nuanced analysis of their experiences and related discourses. Meanwhile, and in contrast, in the broader field of refugee law and scholarship, homophobia and transphobia are now recognised as grounds for claiming asylum in Western refugee-receiving states, however the criteria for recognition assumes the stable conceptualisations of sexuality and gender identity that have been disrupted in other fields.
Motevali Zadeh Ardakani, A. (2026). Striving for forbidden education: narratives from recently arrived Afghan refugee women in regional Australia. Intercultural Education, 1–14. Open access. Afghan women’s right to education has been denied for decades. Despite some progress in the past two decades, education for women and girls has been restricted following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, with secondary schools and universities being shut down. While many Afghan women resettled in Western countries, little is known about the nuances of their lives pre- and post-resettlement. This qualitative study investigates how the lived experiences and challenges of Afghan refugee women shape their post-resettlement journeys in regional Australia. The findings highlight how these women navigated patriarchal structures and demonstrated resilience in pursuing education despite the persistent obstacles. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the educational challenges faced by Afghan refugee women and offers important implications for practice, policy, and research aimed at supporting their unique needs in Australia and similar resettlement contexts.
Saha, S. K., Hasan, M., Amin, M. B., & Bács, Z. (2026). Displacement due to riverbank erosion: A threat to education in Bangladesh. Progress in Disaster Science, 29, 100514. Open access. Riverbank erosion is a recurrent natural hazard in Bangladesh that causes large-scale displacement and poses a serious threat to human capital formation, particularly education. This study investigates the impact of erosion-induced displacement on schooling outcomes in erosion-prone communities along the Jamuna River using a mixed-methods approach. Distinct from existing studies that primarily emphasize income and livelihood losses, this research explicitly links environmental displacement to educational vulnerability. The findings highlight the importance of integrated disaster management, planned resettlement, and education-continuity policies in erosion-prone and deltaic regions.
REPORTS AND POLICY BRIEFS
Education on the edge: Access to education for conflict-displaced and migrant children along the Thailand-Myanmar Border. (2026). Save the Children. Access to education for children living in camps along the Thailand-Myanmar border has reached “breaking point” due to increased student numbers at a time of foreign aid cuts, Save the Children warned in a new report. Thailand has a long history of hosting refugees and migrants from neighbouring countries fleeing conflict, but children without identification documents have faced challenges in gaining admission to Thai schools and schools inside the camps which are heavily dependent on humanitarian aid. The report surveyed about 2,500 people including students, parents and teachers in Thailand between late 2025 and early 2026.
Budgeting for Asylum, Migration and Inclusion in Europe After 2027. (2026). ECRE. This policy paper analyses how the European Commission’s proposal for the Multiannual Financial Framework will impact EU funding for asylum in Europe. It focusses on the elements that will most likely determine how much money is spent on activities related to asylum, reception and inclusion, by whom and for which activities. The policy paper also includes specific recommendations to inform the negotiations on the legislative proposals.
How ICE Went Rogue. (2026). American Immigration Council. A brief analysis of the legal authorities governing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operations — and how they’re being undermined and violated by policy and practice. This analysis looks at six key areas where immigration agents’ powers have come under scrutiny: vehicle and street stops; entering a home; arrests; workplace enforcement; and the use of force.
Overlooking Lived Experiences: Access to Asylum & Canada’s Safe Third Country Agreement. (2026). Centre for Migration Studies. As access to asylum narrows in the United States, Canada’s continued reliance on the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) has drawn renewed attention. CMS affiliate and Law Professor Efrat Arbel traces STCA legal challenges from 2007 to 2023 to reveal how the courts erroneously focus on the way the law appears on the books, rather than how it operates on the ground.
Quarterly Mixed Migration Update: Asia and the Pacific, Quarter 4, 2025. (2026). Mixed Migration Centre. The core countries of focus for this region are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Australia. Depending on the quarterly trends more attention may be given to any of the countries over the rest.
NEWS AND BLOG POSTS
Darfur genocide findings, extra aid cut deaths, and lofty Board of Peace promises: The Cheat Sheet, February 20, 2026. The New Humanitarian. This article provides a weekly account of humanitarian news, trends, and developments from around the globe.
Deportation as gendered violence: Afghan women’s experiences at the Iran-Afghanistan border by Neela Hassan, February 23, 2026. Border Criminologies: University of Oxford Law Faculty. Since Iran began cracking down on undocumented Afghan migrants in 2024, women have found themselves at the sharp end of their hostile border policies. A qualitative analysis of 40 publications from humanitarian and human rights organisations found that women faced heightened vulnerabilities during detention and deportation, reflecting serious violations of international refugee and human rights law that expose women to severe forms of violence and abuse.
Development-Induced Displacement of Indigenous Communities in Ecuador by Natasha Chávez, February 5, 2026. Researching Internal Displacement. This article examines how large-scale mining and oil extraction in Ecuador’s Amazon systematically displaces Indigenous communities through “dispossessive engineered migration.” Analyzing displacement at the Mirador and San Carlos Panantza mines and in Yasuní National Park, the piece shows how over 1,200 Indigenous People have been removed from ancestral territories through militarised evictions, manipulated consultation processes, and environmental degradation that makes land uninhabitable. The article argues that displacement is not an unintended consequence, but a deliberate strategy driven by state and corporate interests, effectively treating Indigenous Territories as disposable assets. The piece calls for demilitarising development projects, enforcing Free, Prior and Informed Consent as binding law rather than bureaucratic formality, reforming compensation frameworks to account for cultural loss, and strengthening Indigenous leadership in development decisions.
When ICE sweeps a community, public health pays a price – and recovery will likely take years by Nicole L. Novak & William D. Lopez, February 18, 2026. The Conversation. The Trump administration announced on Feb. 12, 2026, that it is ending Operation Metro Surge, its deployment of more than 3,000 federal immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis, St. Paul and the surrounding metro area. Federal officials say some agents will remain in the area and have vowed that similar immigration sweeps are coming soon to other U.S. cities. As public health researchers who have been documenting the health impacts of immigration enforcement for over 10 years, these immigration sweeps can be seen as public health emergencies.
EVENTS, RESOURCES, DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA
CRS Seminar: New Pathways, Old Challenges? Navigating Labour Mobility for Skilled Refugees. Centre for Refugee Studies, York University. This panel brings together scholars and practitioners to critically examine the burgeoning landscape of labour mobility pathways for refugees and displaced people. The discussion will cover empirical findings from Australia, a global overview of the program, its genesis and debates in its current implementation, and a gendered analysis of the experiences of women skilled refugees in Canada. This 90-minute session will provide a nuanced and multi-scalar understanding of how these pathways are shaping the future of refugee protection. Speakers include Dr. Jeff Crisp, Dr. Louise Olliff, Dr. Gemechu Abeshu, Sarah Walder, and Dr. Zvezda Vankova. It is a virtual event on March 12, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM ET.
MOEBIUS seminar, “Sovereignty ordering migrations inside European borders. Uses v. ethics. MOEBIUS. The seminar will feature a lecture by Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, Professor of Law and Director of the Center of Excellence for Global Mobility Law at the University of Copenhagen. His talk will focus on the theme, “Free Movement vs External Border Control? Reframing Schengen as Legal Infrastructure.” This is an online event on March 13, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m, CET.
Podcast episode: Rethinking Humanitarianism | Burnout in the aid sector and how to respond. The New Humanitarian. With guests Javid Abdelmoneim, Nancy Nyambura, and Gemma Houldey, this episode is about the burnout humanitarians face. They work long hours in difficult environments – often separated from family, while facing serious safety risks. They’re trying to help people in the worst moments of their lives. In the middle of today’s funding crisis, they’re also deciding who gets aid and who does not. The participants talk about what’s driving high rates of burnout, how people can identify it and take action, and what organisations must do to better help their staff.
The 2026 Baptista Lecture: Crude Tactics: Venezuela, the U.S. and the Future of Resource Sovereignty in the Americas. CERLAC. At dawn on January 3, 2026, U.S. forces carried out a dramatic military operation in Caracas, capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and flying them to New York to face charges including narcoterrorism and weapons offenses. The raid marked the culmination of months of escalating U.S. military pressure and strikes. Yet in the immediate aftermath, much of Maduro’s government remains in place, and, despite early signs of tension, appears to be aligning with U.S. demands over oil and economic policy. This extraordinary moment has sparked urgent questions about the future—and the past—of Venezuela and its relationship with the United States: What became of chavismo after ruling for a quarter century? Are we witnessing a new form of “regime change” or a return to old patterns of U.S. imperialism? And, crucially, what are the prospects for a just, democratic future for Venezuelans when the nation’s sovereignty itself seems in question? Join Professor Alejandro Velasco, historian of modern Venezuela at New York University, for a deep examination of the historical forces that shaped Venezuela’s present and the larger regional and global implications of this pivotal moment. This event is on March 11, 2026, 5:30 PM ET, at Kaneff Tower Room 519, Keele Campus | York University.