Refugee Return Migration: Return Migration from Sweden to Chile, Iran and Poland 1973 1996

In this paper, return migration from Sweden to three sourcesof refugee immigration is analysed, with a focus on the effectof political change in 1990. Chilean immigrants reacted morestrongly to political liberalization in the home country thanPolish immigrants did, primarily due to more favourable economiccircumstances in Chile compared to Poland in the 1990s. In fact,the increase in Polish return migration propensity after 1990is not statistically different from the Iranian increase, inspite of the absence of political liberalization in Iran. Thereare significant cohort differences within the Chilean group,indicating an element of economically motivated migration withinthe last waves of Chilean refugee immigration in the late 1980s.Hence, successful implementation of schemes of voluntary returnmigration for refugees will not only be dependent on an improvedpolitical situation in the source country, but will also behighly dependent on economic circumstances.     

Researching Refugee Youth in the Middle East: Reflections on the Importance of Comparative Research

This paper reflects on the value of comparative anthropologicalresearch with refugee youth. It examines a participatory researchprogramme in eight field sites in the Middle East and NorthAfrica. While recognizing the importance of the specific socio-politicaland cultural context of the different field sites, it has beenpossible to uncover similarities among refugee youth that wouldhave been missed were it not for the exercise in comparison.What emerges from these findings, within research contexts whichwere viewed, by some, as unique and thus not comparable, arethematic similarities. Characteristic of many young people livingin situations of prolonged forced migration are issues of multipleand conflicting identities and ambivalence to transgressed places;activism; and engagement in activities independent of existinghumanitarian aid structures. Thus it can be seen that comparativestudies can draw out the features and qualities which transcendborders, local cultures and the humanitarian aid regime to displaythe traits in common among refugee youth.     

Stories as Lived Experience: Narratives in Forced Migration Research

Stories are part of everyday life and constitute means for actorsto express and negotiate experience. For researchers, they providea site to examine the meanings people, individually or collectively,ascribe to lived experience. Narratives are not transparentrenditions of ‘truth’ but reflect a dynamic interplaybetween life, experience and story. Placed in their wider socio-politicaland cultural contexts, stories can provide insights into howforced migrants seek to make sense of displacement and violence,re-establish identity in ruptured life courses and communities,or bear witness to violence and repression. The researcher mustpay particular attention to his/her own role in the productionof narrative data and the representation of lived experienceas text.     

Forced Migration Studies: Could We Agree Just to 'Date'?

This essay questions the soundness of a scholarly shift awayfrom ‘refugee studies’ in favour of ‘forcedmigration studies’. It contends, first, that subsumingrefugee studies into the broader framework of forced migrationstudies may result in a failure to take account of the specificityof the refugee's circumstances which are defined not just bymovement to avoid the risk of harm, but by underlying socialdisfranchisement coupled with the unqualified ability of theinternational community to respond to their needs. Second, itargues that forced ‘migration’ (rather than, forexample, forced ‘migrant’) studies encourages afocus on a phenomenon rather than on the personal predicaments,needs, challenges, and rights of refugees themselves. It maythus contribute to a lack of criticality in relation to policieswhich subordinate refugee autonomy to the pursuit of more systemicconcerns. The first concern is illustrated by reference to theemergence of the ‘internally displaced persons’category, the second by reference to the determination to findand mandate ‘durable solutions’ to forced migration,including to the movement of refugees.     

20世纪上半叶国际性难民组织与难民保护考察

1950年的联合国难民署、1951年的《难民公约》及1967年修订的《难民地位公约议定书》从制度与法律上对难民进行保护,是当今国际难民保护机制的核心角色。它是在两次世界大战前后成立的国际性难民组织的难民保护实践基础上建立和发展起来的。实际上,当今国际难民保护机制与早期难民组织提供难民保护面临的困境大体相似。本文通过考察20世纪上半叶成立的4个国际性的难民组织在难民保护上所起到的作用,并试图分析其局限性,以期为我们考察当今国际难民保护机制的持久性与它延续的可能性提供历史的与国际关系的分析视角。     

The Rise of the Far Right in Europe and the Refugee Crisis

The rise of the far right in Europe has captured the attention of the international community in recent years.Its specific features are:an unprecedentedly strong influence,an obvious trend towards the moderate line,horizontal collaboration to expand its reach,and a very adept use of social media networks.The refugee crisis has given the far right an historical opportunity.The rise has also had a profound effect on European politics;it has deepened the political divide inside EU member states,and shaken up the traditional political values and the foundation of the union.The rise of the far right will likely not change Europe's political landscape,but problems of EU governance over its handling of the refugee crisis cannot be ignored.     

The Microphysics of Participation in Refugee Research

This paper examines the involvement of refugees in the productionand reproduction of knowledge of which they are ultimately meantto be beneficiaries. By using examples from research with CentralAmerican refugees and Rwandan displaced children, it considersforced migrants’ roles as participants in research, theirposition in ‘participatory’ research, and the representationof refugees’ voices in refugee-centred research. Poweris intimately connected to the diverse ways in which participationunfolds, and the last part of the paper examines refugees’participation in research in terms of ‘power that circulates’(Foucault) to show that they are not more or less powerful butvehicles for the circulation of power, simultaneously undergoingand exercising it.     

Containing the Refugee Crisis: How the EU Turned the Balkans and Turkey into an EU Borderland

The events that took place during the 2015-16 refugee crisis in the southeastern EU region boosted unprecedented bordering processes. Borders were reinforced and extended and a costly and difficult deal with Turkey was undertaken; the western Balkans were turned into a vast buffer zone made up of multiple buffer states with fences of all types and sizes; while Greece was ring-fenced and to this day struggles to manage thousands of refugees stranded in camps all over its territory. By seeking to contain the refugee flows, the EU turned its southeastern region into a fortified EU borderland.     

In Search of 'Invisible' Actors: Barriers to Access in Refugee Research

The paper traces the early history of refugee research and showshow, from originally being prime movers in the research, refugeestoday have largely been reduced to invisibility. In the South,access to refugees held in camps is controlled by local governmentbureaucracies and by lead agencies, and may be severely restrictedor completely denied; in the North, refugees held in detentioncentres are equally difficult to access and even more disempowered.Examples are given of studies carried out in Sierra Leone, Sudan,Egypt, Kenya, Greece and the Former Soviet Union. The paperalso considers barriers to disseminating refugee research, andconcludes that now more than ever the duty of the researcheris to speak on behalf of refugees.     

The Leverage of the Gatekeeper: Power and Interdependence in the Migration Nexus between the EU and Turkey

In March 2016, the European Union and Turkey reached an agreement seeking to end the refugee flows from Turkey to Greece. This agreement is the outcome of a bargaining process in which Turkey gained considerable leverage from its position as a ‘gatekeeper’ situated between Syria and an increasingly ‘immigration-averse’ and securitised EU. More importantly, this bargaining process might have broader implications for the EU and its relations with its periphery, since Turkey has progressively reversed the asymmetries of power by demonstrating the indispensability of its continued commitment to act as gatekeeper vis-à-vis an increasingly fragmented and anxious EU.     

'No! I'm Not a Refugee!' The Poetics of Be-Longing among Young Oromos in Toronto

This paper presents some findings from an empirical study carriedout with young Oromos living in Toronto. To capture the complexitiesof negotiating be-longing, the paper offers dispersal–affinity—anew conceptual framework empirically grounded in an innovativemethodological design. Using participants' narratives in theempirical material, the paper contests the dualism created betweenessentialist and constructionist perspectives. It employs dispersal–affinityto explore participants' understandings of ‘the refugee’and the wider processes of refugeeization and refugee be-longing.Findings suggest that be-longing is a project of selfhood thatis both fixed and constantly shifting. It is argued that be-longingis constructed from the same movements of selfhood within andthrough social relationships. Young Oromos employ both essentialistand constructionist discourses to weave multiple layers of fixedand mobile be-longing. Implications for refugee studies arediscussed wherein dispersal–affinity is offered to criticallyengage the recent debate on ‘deceit and trickery’among refugees.     

Intent to Destroy: The Genocidal Impact of Forced Migration in Darfur, Sudan

The conflict in Darfur is now nearly three years old. Hundredsof thousands of civilians have been killed and millions moreremain unable to return to their homes, living the barest ofexistences in remote and often under-stocked and under-protectedcamps. Displaced populations are subject to malnutrition, diseaseand ongoing violence. Rape and other forms of sexual violenceremain a tool for instilling fear and controlling the civilianpopulation. Yet international will to protect and assist thevictims of the conflict remains weak, with governments and worldbodies bogged down debating the definition of genocide and theproper venues for eventual tribunals. This paper will examinewhether or not the conflict in Darfur does indeed amount togenocide, including a discussion of the role of forced displacementin reaching such a determination. It then looks at the 2005findings of the United Nations-sponsored International Commissionof Inquiry and discusses some of the reasons behind the internationalreluctance to reach a determination of genocide in the region.Lastly, it addresses the constructiveness of the genocide labelin the context of Darfur, and presents options for moving forwardwith a protection agenda regardless of what the conflict iscalled.     

Protracted Refugee Situations: Parallel Health Systems and Planning for the Integration of Services

The international community typically responds to refugee situationsby establishing ‘care and maintenance’ programmesspecifically for refugees. Limited resources may also be directedto hosting communities, but donors often channel the bulk offunding through UNHCR and its implementing partner NGOs, whoin turn create service delivery structures that are operatedin parallel to local structures. Although there may be causefor this approach in a short-term emergency phase, particularlyif the host country systems are very weak, this eventually becomesfinancially problematic if refugees continue to live in exilefor years at a time. In the short term, it can also engenderan inequitable and inefficient use of scarce resources. Thispaper traces the evolution and impact of implementing refugeehealth services in parallel to local systems using observationsfrom Uganda, and offers Quality Design as a model for planningthe local integration of services.     

A Game Changer in EU-Turkey Relations: The Opportunities and Pitfalls of Migration Policy

ABSTRACT

The mass migration from Syria has been a major turning point and an important ‘game changer’ in EU-Turkey relations, as it marks a watershed in immigration and asylum between two periods: from 1999 to 2011 and from 2011 to the present. During the first period, the EU was one of the driving forces of change in Turkey’s immigration and asylum policy, along with significant migration movements from the Middle East. Although EU demands were largely implemented due to the country’s changing migration profile, there was also ongoing resistance and reluctance towards the EU, thus a certain degree of conditionality. With the Syrian mass migration in 2011, however, and in particular the so-called ‘European refugee crisis’ in 2015, Turkey started to use migration as a foreign policy tool with which to oppose EU conditionality.     

全球化视野下的女性跨国流动——以1978年以来中国女性迁移东南亚为中心

国际移民女性化（the feminization of migration）成为全球化时代国际人口迁移活动的一个重要表现与特征。改革开放以来，中国女性的跨国迁移活动日益活跃，并呈现出移民目的地全球化、移民结构多元化、移民方式多样化的特征。本文以中国女性迁移东南亚为中心，考察并分析了中国女性新移民迁移东南亚的结构与类型、存在的问题与影响，指出重视中国女性移民浪潮中的问题与负面影响，对维护中国女性跨国迁移的正常秩序，促进中国与东南亚民间交流的发展以及推动中国与东南亚关系发展都有积极的意义。     

More Labels, Fewer Refugees: Remaking the Refugee Label in an Era of Globalization

This paper revisits the concept of refugee labelling I elaboratednearly two decades ago. In radically different conditions, thecontemporary relevance and utility of the concept are re-examinedand re-established. Formulated at a time of regionally contained,mass refugee migration in the south during the late 1970s andearly 1980s, the paper argues that the concept still offersvital insights into the impacts of institutional and bureaucraticpower on the lives of refugees in a globalized era of transnationalsocial transformations, mixed migration flows, and the continuingpresence of large scale refugee migration. The core of the paperargues that the ‘convenient images’ of refugees,labelled within a co-opting humanitarian discourse in the past,have been displaced by a fractioning of the label which is drivenby the need to manage globalized processes and patterns of migrationand forced migration in particular. The paper re-evaluates theconcept using the three original axioms—forming, transformingand politicizing the label ‘refugee’. The core argumentis that in the contemporary era: a) the formation of the refugeelabel reflects causes and patterns of forced migration whichare much more complex than in the past, contrasting with anessentially homogeneous connotation in the past; b) respondingto this complexity, the refugee label is transformed by an institutional‘fractioning’ in order to manage the new migration;c) governments, rather than NGOs as in the past, are the pre-eminentagency in the contemporary processes of transforming the refugeelabel, a process driven by northern interests; d) the refugeelabel has become politicized by the reproduction of institutionalfractioning and by embedding the wider political discourse ofresistance to migrants and refugees.