Tools for Anticipating Asylum Denials: An Application to Afghan Refugees in Pakistan, 1997-2001

The growing tendency toward non-compliance with internationalobligations to refugees requires UNHCR to make contingency plansfor asylum denials. Making such plans calls for tools, suchas game theory and confrontation analysis, that link non-compliancein refugee asylum with the configuration of interests for asylumand donor countries in a potential crisis. We illustrate suchtools in a case study of Afghan refugees in Pakistan in 1997–2001,which generated asylum denials by Pakistan ranging from briefborder closings to threats of mass refoulement, linked to thewithholding of assistance by the United States and other donors.We also consider the prospects for using these tools to informcontingency planning for an impending crisis.     

A Profile of Poverty for Palestinian Refugees in Jordan: the Case of Zarqa and Sukhneh Camps

This is one of few known studies on poverty and poverty relatedissues among Palestinian refugees in Jordan. The camp refugeehouseholds identified in this research represent concrete manifestationsof the ways in which the political and historical legacy translatesinto economic hardship today. Poverty among the refugees inJordan represents a legacy of the refugees’ inabilityto generate sufficient income in order to provide for themselvesthe ‘minimum basic needs’. Therefore, poverty shouldbe understood not only in terms of the social and economic circumstancesof Palestinian camp refugees but also as a particular consequenceof various policies pursued by the state over the past fivedecades, including the Jordanization of public and militarysectors of employment, the provision of public services, andwage determination policy. In this context, the paper examinesthe causes of poverty and considers how various ‘implicit’policies contribute towards luring and ‘locking’a large number of camp refugees in poverty.     

'I Find Myself as Someone Who is in the Forest': Urban Refugees as Agents of Social Change in Kampala, Uganda

An in-depth investigation of the Kampala Urban Refugee Children'sEducation Centre (KURCEC), a refugee-initiated community-basedorganization in Uganda, allows for detailed exploration of thelivelihood strategies employed by urban refugees in the sphereof education and of the ways in which these strategies can promoteself-reliance and individual and community development in urbansituations. Urban refugees' development of KURCEC challengesperceived notions of refugees as burdens or as passive recipientsin a system that fosters dependency and shows that they areagents of social change within their own and their host communities.The focus on what works in the midst of crisis, desperation,and uncertainty is a deliberate attempt to promote researchand policy-setting that is forward-looking and productive ratherthan reactionary and regressive in the context of new developmentsin policy and practice relating to urban refugees worldwide.     

Urban Refugees in Nairobi: Problems of Protection, Mechanisms of Survival, and Possibilities for Integration

This article examines the legal status and economic livelihoodsof refugees in Nairobi, focusing on Somalis, the largest urbanpopulation residing in the city. The results of the study challengethe Government of Kenya's (GOK) official position and the popularlocal perception that refugees are an economic burden, and showinstead that these urban refugees are economically self-sufficient.Despite this economic independence, conditions for most refugeesin Nairobi are extremely difficult. Urban refugees live largelywithout material assistance or legal protection from the GOKor UNHCR, are vulnerable to police arrest at any time and facehigh levels of xenophobia from the local population. By highlightingrefugee self-sufficiency in Nairobi, this article lends supportto the idea of local integration as a viable, durable solutionto their situation of protracted exile.     

Sharing the Burden: The Role of Government and NGOs in Protecting and Providing for Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Japan

This article examines the background to Japan's current refugeerecognition and protection regime in the thematic context ofburden-sharing. It considers recent legislative reforms andthe role of local NGOs with the aim of setting Japan's domesticprotection framework against the background of its internationallegal obligations. The analysis suggests that the policy andpractices of the Japanese government have resulted in the exclusionof many who seek to enter the country and that for those in-countrythere is inadequate state social and welfare provision. Thearticle questions whether Japan's significant financial contributioncan adequately discharge its international burden-sharing responsibilitiesand argues that the government has effectively shifted responsibilityfor protection and support to local NGOs. It concludes thatwithout further changes burden-shifting and not burden-sharingwill remain a predominant feature of Japan's approach to protectingand providing for asylum seekers and refugees in Japan.     

Buufis amongst Somalis in Dadaab: the Transnational and Historical Logics behind Resettlement Dreams

The Somali word buufis is commonly used in the Kenyan refugeecamps of Dadaab, referring to a person's dream of resettlement.It is an ambiguous phenomenon, bringing hope and remittancesinto the camps but also removing investments from the regionand, when the dream cannot be reached, sometimes having adversepsychological effects. Buufis is triggered by the fact that,due to transnational flows of remittances and information, refugeesin remote camps like Dadaab can compare their lives in the campsto those of others elsewhere. This illustrates how the opportunities,constraints, hopes and dreams that refugees experience locallyare often determined by transnational factors. Whereas the resettlementdreams analysed in this article are thus likely to occur inother contexts as well, it is argued that they are more intenseand elaborate amongst refugee communities with a strong cultureof migration, like the Somalis.     

Somali Community Organizations in London and Toronto: Collaboration and Effectiveness

This article considers the high number of Somali community organizationsin both London and Toronto. Drawing on interviews in both locationswith Somali women refugees and discussions with those involvedin their resettlement, evidence shows that many Somalis continueto feel marginalized in terms of service provision and thatcollective representation is limited, despite the high numberof specifically Somali organizations that exist. Through a comparisonof the Somali community organizations in London and Toronto,this article highlights factors which have inhibited the developmentof a united, collaborative Somali voice. Contributory factorsare shown to derive partly from the persistent clan dynamicsamong Somalis and the solutions Somalis find, and partly fromfailings in service and funding provision. It is argued that,in the Somali case, exclusionary dynamics undermine the roleof community organizations in rebuilding community and belongingand providing a safe and empowering setting in which individualsand communities may regain confidence and begin the processof integration within the receiving society.     

1976年以来东帝汶的非常规死亡人口与难民

1975年东帝汶发生内战，随后印尼入侵并在当地展开高压统治20余年。根据拙文中的人口变化曲线图，印尼占领期间东帝汶出现了大批非常规的“失踪人口”，主要分为死亡人口和难民两部分。印尼官方并没有对此进行过系统的调查，其公布的当地人口总数也笼统地把1980年后迁移至东帝汶的印尼人包含在内，妨碍了国际社会调查与还原东帝汶在印尼统治期间出现大批非常规死亡人口的历史。     

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.     

Settling Like a State: Acehnese Refugees in Vancouver

In Canada, the phenomenon of urban refugees is largely an expressionof state-managed practices, not spontaneous migration and settlement.This study focuses on the distinctly North American, and specificallyCanadian, experiences of pre-meditated, state-planned, government-managedmigration and settlement for urban refugees from the Aceh regionof Indonesia to Vancouver, British Columbia in 2004. It exploreswhy and how these refugees came to Vancouver; the state policydecision that located all of them in one city; and how theyhave fared in acquiring official language proficiency and employment.Whereas many refugees move to urban centres to enhance educationaland employment opportunities, this study illustrates the obstaclesto accessing both in Vancouver. Despite full legal status andaccess to employment sanctioned by the host state, there isno guarantee that refugees will have an easier time creatinglivelihoods under dramatically new conditions. The analysisis based on research conducted between January and August 2005during which a survey of housing, employment, and income issueswas conducted with 70 of the 104 Acehnese refugees who had relocatedto Vancouver since February 2004. In addition, a one-day, three-partseries of focus groups was held during which 47 members of theAcehnese community took part. Discussions centred on three keymoments during their migration: (1) while in Malaysian detentioncamps; (2) upon arrival in Vancouver, British Columbia; and(3) during the first year of settlement in the city, to ascertaincommon settlement experiences, policy implications, and theshort-term ‘success’ of the resettlement.     

'Spying for Hitler' and 'Working for Bin Laden': Comparative Australian Discourses on Refugees

This paper argues that the complexity of recent debates about‘illegal’ refugee arrivals in Australia, held sincethe prominent MV Tampa incident of August 2001, might be betterunderstood by placing them in a comparative historical context.Towards this end, an investigation of previous debates on thesubject of Jewish refugees in Australia prior to the SecondWorld War is suggested. Such an exploration reveals a seeminglyidiosyncratic ‘Australian’ slant towards refugeesthat demonstrates a subtle process of marginalization and exclusionbased on notions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’refugees. Such an approach further demonstrates the contradictoryattitudes of immigrant societies towards refugees notwithstandingthe cultural pluralism supposedly inherent in their outlooks.     

泰缅边境的缅甸难民问题

泰缅边境的缅甸难民问题已存在30年之久,目前仍未得到妥善解决。大量缅甸难民长期滞留在泰国境内,对泰国造成巨大负面影响的同时,也为泰北地方经济的发展贡献不菲。虽然缅甸的民主转型为缅甸难民问题的解决带来了希望,但难民问题已经发展到了不再是单纯的缅甸内政问题,难民问题的影响已经扩散至周边国家和地区,其最终解决仍需时日。     

Employment Niches for Recent Refugees: Segmented Labour Market in Twenty-first Century Australia

A survey of three refugee groups (ex-Yugoslavs, black Africansand people from the Middle East) in Western Australia indicatesthat the recent humanitarian arrivals are concentrated in labourmarket niches such as cleaning services, care of the aged, meatprocessing, taxi driving, security and building. Apart fromthe building industry, these employment niches are situatedin the ‘secondary labour market’ comprising low-statusand low-paid jobs that locals avoid. This article identifiesseveral interrelated mechanisms through which the recent Australianrefugee intake has been relegated to undesirable jobs: non-recognitionof qualifications as a systemic barrier, discrimination on thebasis of race and cultural difference by employers, ‘ethnic-pathintegration’ and the lack of mainstream social networksthat could assist in the job search, and the recent ‘regionalsponsored migration scheme’ through which the governmenttries to address the shortage of low-skilled labour in depopulatingcountry areas. The data show massive loss of occupational statusamong our respondents and confirm the existence of the segmentedlabour market, where racially and culturally visible migrantsare allocated the bottom jobs regardless of their ‘humancapital’. Changes in the nature of the segmented labourmarket in the increasingly mobile global workforce are analysed.Some of these insights are drawn from two other research projectson Bosnian and Afghan refugees in Australia undertaken by theauthors.     

在华印支难民与国际合作:一种历史的分析与思考

在华印支难民既是国际印支难民的重要组成部分,也有其自身特殊性。他们主要是中国与越南关系恶化之后越南反华排华的结果,中国政府一开始是以难侨来对待他们,1979年之后才主要从难民的角度进行处理。中国与国际社会在印支难民问题上积极合作,包括与联合国难民署的友好合作,以及与日本、澳大利亚和老挝等国家在印支难民外流、自愿遣返等问题上的双边合作。这些历史经验为近年来关于中国难民立法与政策的相关争论提供一些有意义的思考。     

Marginalization in Urban Spaces of the Global South: Urban Refugees in Cairo

The paper explores the marginalization of Sudanese refugeesin Cairo, arguing that although socially, economically, culturallyand politically marginalized, refugees participate and contributeto the transformation of urban spaces in Cairo, as they do elsewherein the developing world. The paper finds that in terms of legalsecurity and livelihood coping strategies, there is little differencebetween those refugees with legal status and those residingillegally in Egypt. Despite social exclusion and lack of accessto rights and services, some Sudanese refugees balance risksand costs of marginalization to advance their livelihoods. Ingeneral, in the context of lack of full integration possibilitiesin Egypt and inadequate assistance provided by the United NationsHigh Commissioner for Refugees Office and international andlocal organizations and faith-based institutions, refugees comeup with creative ways of managing their livelihoods, contributingboth economically and culturally to the host society. In thiscontext, refugees are seen as social agents, rather than aneconomic burden for the host country.     

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.     

Is a Human Security Approach Possible? Compatibility between the Strategies of Protection and Empowerment

This article explores the delivery of strategies for human security,protection and empowerment, using as case study the UN AssistanceMission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) during 2002 and 2003. This UNoperation took place in the context of the international interventionsin Afghanistan and was a direct consequence of the US-led waron terror and the post-conflict state-building process whichensued. It was tasked to address the immediate human insecurity.The analysis of this mission highlights the pertinent issueswhich relate to the development of an effective human securityapproach and which apply to UN operations in general. It isvital, in this respect, to examine the compatibility betweenthe strategies of protection and empowerment, as human securitynow forms a central value of UN operations. This exploration,in turn, questions the distinct role of the UN in dealing withhuman insecurity in post-conflict situations.     

Refugees,Economic Capacity,and Host State Repression*

Does hosting refugees affect state repression? While there have been numerous studies that examine the link between refugees and the spread of civil and international conflict, an examination of the systematic links between refugees and repression is lacking. We contend that researchers are missing a crucial link, as the dissent-repression nexus is crucial to understanding the development of armed conflict. Drawing upon logics of the relationship between refugees and the spread of conflict as well as economic capacity, we argue that increased numbers of refugees lead to increased repression. We contend that willingness to increase repression when hosting refugees is in part conditional on a host state’s economic capacity. We argue that, on the whole, the greater the population of refugees in a host state, repression becomes more likely. That said, we argue that increased economic capacity will moderate this relationship. We find empirical support for both predictions.     

Hearts, as well as Minds: Wellbeing and Illness among Greek Cypriot Refugees

Recently the psycho-social health of refugees has rightly receivedemphasis, but the physical health of long-term refugees warrantssimilar attention. This paper uses qualitative and quantitativedata on informant-reported health outcomes for two Greek Cypriotvillage cohorts, one displaced, the other not displaced. Supplementarydata from a national diabetes prevalence study confirmed a possiblelink between refugee status and greater probability of cardiovascularillness. Depressive illness also seemed higher among the refugeevillage cohort. But it is not only the illness of some of theserefugees, but their surviving this, and the comparative wellnessof others which is important, compared with the ‘demographicshock’ victims of post-socialist Europe, 1989–1995.The paper suggests why the Greek Cypriots have done rather betterin health terms than the post-socialists of Eastern Europe,1989–1995, but argues that refugees in failing statesmay have much worse health outcomes.