New Journal Articles on Refugee Issues (weekly)

• The State and Violence Against Women in Peru: Intersecting Inequalities and Patriarchal Rule

  “This article builds on long-term research looking at violence against women in both war and peace, and recently gathered data regarding persistent failure to use policy as a tool to reduce such violence in Peru. The research shows that impunity and tolerance for violence against women persists despite a state that has actively intervened to eradicate such violence for some twenty years. Including the state as perpetrator of violence in the analysis of impunity helps understand the failure of policy and legislation. Moreover, the notion of patriarchy allows us to look at a historically shaped male-centered and sexist organization of state and society, and helps understand the ambiguities in contemporary policy and legislation.”

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Living on the Move: Mobility, Religion and Exclusion of Eastern European Migrants in Rural Scotland – Shubin – 2011 – Population, Space and Place – Wiley Online Library

  “The paper explores theoretical and practical issues related to spiritual mobility and engagement with Eastern European migrants in rural Scotland. Emerging mobile lifestyles create different patterns of living ‘on the move’, but the church and other rural institutions in Scotland often fail to attend to migrants’ affective relationships with existing immigrant communities, unpredictable travelling behaviour, and cross-border spiritual links. For this gap to be addressed, the paper develops a complex understanding of migrants living on the move. It suggests adding a spiritual element to the analysis of transnational mobilities and explores the ways in which constellations of mobility and religion generate more-than-corporeal dislocations (faith-based sensations), generate virtual movement (beyond rationality to the outside of knowing), and create new imaginations of the migrants’ place in the world. It argues that the spiritual can be seen as an important factor in producing new social worlds and overcoming the separations and division created by migrations. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.”

  tags: newjournalarticles

• ‘A Place to Stay in Pakistan’: Why Migrants Build Houses in their Country of Origin – Erdal – 2011 – Population, Space and Place – Wiley Online Library

  “Migrants’ houses are a common feature of many regions of emigration globally and are one manifestation of migrants’ transnational ties. This paper explores why migrants’ build houses in their country of origin, even when migrants are not planning to return. The paper aims to analyze migrants’ houses as relational places located in transnational social space. This is done through an analysis of the reasons for building migrants’ houses, which shows the significance of these houses as relational places, in practical and symbolic ways. This is supported by a transnational perspective that includes the different views on migrants’ houses among involved actors across transnational social space: the migrants, their relatives, the local communities the houses are built in, and societies where migrants have settled. The data for this paper consist of 45 semi-structured interviews with Pakistani migrants in Norway and non-migrant relatives in Pakistan, informal conversations with local Pakistanis, and analysis of media reports in Norway. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd”

  tags: newjournalarticles

• EconPapers: IMMIGRATION VERSUS OUTSOURCING: A DEVELOPING COUNTRY¡¯S VIEW

  “Abstract: This paper provides a comparative study between temporary immigration policy and product outsourcing process, from the low-income developing country¡¯s point of view, which is supply side constrained by the availability of skilled labour. A two-country general equilibrium model establishes an inverse relationship between temporary immigration quota and product outsourcing. Though temporary immigration quota enhances world welfare and the developed country welfare, its impact on welfare level of the developing country is uncertain. In the empirical part, a panel data analysis shows that real consumption level of a set of developing countries increases with an increase in product outsourcing, given an inverse relationship between product outsourcing and temporary immigration policy.”

  tags: newjournalarticles

• HIV Stigma and Depressive Symptoms are Related to Adherence and Virological Response to Antiretroviral Treatment Among Immigrant and Indigenous HIV Infected Patients – Springer

  “We compared adherence to cART and virological response between indigenous and immigrant HIV-infected patients in the Netherlands, and investigated if a possible difference was related to a difference in the psychosocial variables: HIV-stigma, quality-of-life, depression and beliefs about medications. Psychosocial variables were assessed using validated questionnaires administered during a face-to-face interview. Adherence was assessed trough pharmacy-refill monitoring. We assessed associations between psychosocial variables and non-adherence and having detectable plasma viral load using logistic regression analyses. Two-hundred-two patients participated of whom 112 (55%) were immigrants. Viral load was detectable in 6% of indigenous patients and in 15% of the immigrants (P < 0.01). In multivariate analyses, higher HIV-stigma and prior virological failure were associated with non-adherence, and depressive symptoms, prior virological failure and non-adherence with detectable viral load. Our findings suggest that HIV-stigma and depressive symptoms may be targets for interventions aimed at improving adherence and virological response among indigenous and immigrant HIV-infected patients."

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Prevalence of HIV Risk Behaviors among Undocument… [AIDS Behav. 2012] – PubMed – NCBI

  “Undocumented Central American immigrants in the United States are disproportionately affected by HIV infection. However, epidemiological data on sexual behaviors among undocumented women are sparse and the extent to which behaviors vary by duration of residence in the U.S.is largely unknown. In 2010, we used respondent driven sampling to conduct an HIV behavioral survey among Central American immigrant women residing in Houston, Texas without a valid U.S. visa or residency papers. Here we describe the prevalence of sexual risk behaviors and compare recent (5 years or less in the U.S.) and established immigrants (over 5 years in the U.S.) to elucidate changes in sexual risk behaviors over time. Our data suggest that recent immigrants have less stable sexual partnerships than established immigrants, as they are more likely to have multiple and concurrent sexual partnerships, as well as partnerships of shorter duration.”

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Does Generalized (Dis)Trust Travel? Examining the Impact of Cultural Heritage and Destination-Country Environment on Trust of Immigrants – Dinesen – 2012 – Political Psychology – Wiley Online Library

  “At least two contrasting perspectives on the roots of generalized trust exist: The cultural perspective emphasizing how trust is a stable trait passed on from one generation to the next through parental socialization, and the experiential perspective, which stresses that trust is subject to change with what we experience in the environment in which we live. Analyzing trust of immigrants is an effective way to contrast the two perspectives, as the cultural perspective predicts that immigrants’ level of trust will continue to reflect the level of trust of their home country, whereas the experiential perspective predicts that trust of immigrants will change according to the environment of the destination country. This article examines how first-generation immigrants from three low-trust countries of origin (Turkey, Poland, and Italy) are affected by migrating to high-trust countries in Northern Europe, which hold qualities conducive to trust. In contrast to earlier studies examining trust of immigrants, I build on one data set containing data on both migrants and nonmigrants from the same country of origin as well as on a wide range of relevant covariates of trust. Using the method of matching, the results of the analysis lend most support to the experiential perspective on trust as the destination-country context has a massive impact on trust of immigrants, who display significantly higher levels of trust than comparable respondents in their country of origin. The results are robust to limiting the destination-country context to only one country (Germany) and comparing migrants and nonmigrants responding in the same language.”

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Anti-Immigrant Propaganda by Radical Right Parties and the Intellectual Performance of Adolescents – Appel – 2012 – Political Psychology – Wiley Online Library

  “In recent years radical right political parties have become a substantial electoral force in many countries around the world. Based on the vision of a mono-ethnic state, anti-immigration is these parties’ core message. Connecting research on discrimination, social exclusion, and social identity threat, it was assumed that this anti-immigrant propaganda undermines the intellectual performance of immigrant adolescents. In an experiment conducted at Austrian schools, the intelligence test performance of adolescents with an immigration background decreased after they were exposed to radical right election posters whereas ethnic majority adolescents remained unaffected. The results further suggest that individuals with a strong ethnic minority identity are less vulnerable to the detrimental impact of the radical right propaganda.”

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Socio-Cultural Dispositions and Wellbeing of the Women Left Behind: A Case of Migrant Households in Nepal – Springer

  “The concept of wellbeing is gaining popularity in the study of quality of life and cultural significance of living. The paper aims to contribute to our understanding of objective and subjective wellbeing by exploring the perceptions of women left behind by out-migrating husbands on their quality of life in a transnational social field. The paper uses both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Its primary focus is on the life stories of the four women left behind by their migrant husbands, complementing by quantitative data obtained from a survey among 277 households. Taking an example from Nepal’s eastern terai, the paper shows that additional income from remittances has increased the objective wellbeing of the women left behind, but it may not have increased their subjective wellbeing. Hence, it is concluded that improved objective wellbeing of a woman does not necessarily translate into her (improved) subjective wellbeing. The subjective experiences are rather complex, multi-faceted and context specific depending on the family situation, socio-cultural disposition and prior economic situation of the actors involved.”

  tags: newjournalarticles

• The biopolitics of hospitality in Greece: Humanitarianism and the management of refugees – Rozakou – 2012 – American Ethnologist – Wiley Online Library

  Drawing on my research in refugee settings in Greece, I relate the biopolitics of humanitarianism with the Greek notion of “hospitality” and established cultural schemata of social relations. The dominant discourse on hospitality is reproduced in the humanitarian setting of a camp where asylum seekers are produced as worthy guests, placed in the middle ground between mere biological life and full social existence. Volunteers working with refugees on the street, by contrast, attempt to challenge biopolitical power through the reversal of hospitality, through which the refugee is symbolically reconstituted as a host (though a disputable one) and a political subject.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• The role of personal values and basic traits in perceptions of the consequences of immigration: A three-nation study – Vecchione – 2011 – British Journal of Psychology – Wiley Online Library

  Using data from Italy, Spain, and Germany (N= 1,569), this study investigated the role of basic values (universalism and security) and basic traits (openness and agreeableness) in predicting perceptions of the consequences of immigration. In line with Schwartz’s (1992) theory, we conceptualized security as having two distinct components, one concerned with safety of the self (personal security) and the other with harmony and stability of larger groups and of society (group security). Structural equation modelling revealed that universalism values underlie perceptions that immigration has positive consequences and group security values underlie perceptions that it has negative consequences. Personal security makes no unique, additional contribution. Multi-group analyses revealed that these associations are invariant across the three countries except for a stronger link between universalism and perceptions of the consequences of immigration in Spain. To examine whether values mediate relations of traits to perceptions of immigration, we used the five-factor model. Findings supported a full mediation model. Individuals’ traits of openness and agreeableness explained significant variance in security and universalism values. Basic values, in turn, explained perceptions of the consequences of immigration.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Immigration, inequality and diversity: socio-ethnic hierarchy and spatial organization in Athens, Greece

  This paper draws attention to the socio-spatial diversity of immigrant groups in Athens by investigating their changing hierarchical position in both society and space. The varying demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the immigrant population generate hierarchies of immigrant groups, which are reflected in intricate ways in the residential distribution of immigrants in the metropolitan area. Diversity seems to be interconnected with hierarchically unequal social positions, and these positions are in turn interconnected with the transformation of the spatial hierarchy in the Greek capital. This hierarchical diversity is expressed by a spatial typology of immigrants’ locations in Athens. The paper ultimately explores how this typology tends to alter the urban social ecology (in terms of socio-ethnic composition of distinct spatial clusters) and the urban structural dynamics (in terms of interactions between different ethnic and social groups) in an increasingly unequal city.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Work and settlement locations of immigrants: how are they connected? The case of the Oporto Metropolitan Area

  The research reported in this article aims to explain the residential and work location patterns of different groups of immigrants living in a particular metropolitan area, based on the following underlying causes: socio-spatial differentiation resulting from the characteristics of urban economies, the performance of housing and labour markets, spatial and socioeconomic/professional mobility, and immigrants’ own characteristics. Within this scope, census data are analysed and cartographically displayed, and classification trees are applied in order to understand the relationship between the residential and work locations of the different population groups and their respective demographic, economic and professional characteristics, on the one hand, and land occupation densities, on the other. Although this methodology is applied to the Oporto Metropolitan Area (Portugal), it can easily be used in other urban and metropolitan areas.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Inderscience Publishers

  Abstract: The aim of this study is to examine the issues and discourses – from written, documented sources – of ‘foreign women migrants’ in Cyprus. The study is a literature review discussing similarities and differences on the issues of foreign women immigrants in terms of regulations, stories and perceptions. The issue of labour exploitation is examined around three groups of women: domestic workers, sex workers and refugee women. Results suggest that the existing studies on migrant women workers on both sides of the island lack gender sensitivity and are generally limited to official reports, rather than the realities of the lives of women explored from feminist and gender studies’ perspective. The results of the study have important implications for academic institutions, researchers, government representatives, and journalists. This study provides an explanatory framework through which to examine and give meaning to the situation of migrant women in Cyprus who are recruited and subsequently exploited in low paying and low status jobs in the two dominant Cypriot communities in Cyprus.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Inderscience Publishers

  Abstract: This paper focuses on skilled migrants moving to and integrating in the Middle East. We provide a series of factors to help conceptualise this heterogeneous group. The paper looks at various types of skilled migration, mobility and integration as well as the challenges that individual migrants have faced. We argue that when thinking about migration and integration, it is important to appreciate multiple scales of analysis. We also highlight that although skilled migrants have confronted a number of migration and integration barriers, many have also experienced additional challenges on the basis of their identity.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Preemptive Strike: The Battle for Control Over Immigration Policy – An Examination of the Ninth and Tenth Circuits Split Over Federal and State Authority in Regulating Immigration by Jordan Jodre :: SSRN

  From its inception, the United States has had a difficult and dichotomous relationship with immigration and the subsequent questions of citizenry and legality that it renders. Today has proven to be no different. Parties both for and against the expansion or exclusion of the United States’ current immigration policy continue to battle one another to a stalemate during every election cycle, impeding the other’s abilities to enact change. It is this perpetual inaction by the federal government that has led numerous state governments, in their individual capacities, to enact legislation intended to either supplement or enhance current federal statutes and regulations related to immigration. This paper focuses primarily on the recent conflicting opinions issued by the Ninth and Tenth Circuits, determining whether state legislatures are preempted from imposing their own illegal immigration penalties by revoking the licenses of businesses that knowingly hire illegal aliens as employees. This split between the Ninth and Tenth Circuits remains an untenable point of contention and must be resolved. The Supreme Court recently granted certiorari to hear an appeal of the Ninth Circuit decision later this coming year, but this paper will demonstrate that the Ninth Circuit was correct to conclude that states may impose separate civil sanctions upon employers who violate immigration statutes, and in doing so will not hinder, supersede, or preempt federal sovereignty.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Protecting Those Who Go Beyond the Law: Contemplating Refugee Status for Individuals Who Challenge Oppression Through Resistance by Amar Khoday :: SSRN

  A discrete phenomenon has been emerging within the practice of refugee law whereby individuals who engage in acts of resistance waged against oppression in their countries of nationality have either been granted asylum or have had their actions recognized as forms of political opinion making them eligible for asylum. Through an examination of the decisions of administrative adjudicators and appellate judges in various jurisdictions, this article argues that three significant observations emerge from such case law. First, the decisions demonstrate the capacity of individuals to challenge injustices and oppression through an interpretation of applicable legal and ethical principles followed by their enforcement. These decisions also illustrate the capacity of individuals to act as transformative human agents within the international legal system, even if incapable of being recognized as full legal persons under international law. Second, the decisions represent an important legitimization of and support for such acts of resistance, even if implicit. Third, granting asylum to individuals who have engaged in resistance also challenges a deeply ingrained tendency to view refugees as idealized and/or hapless victims who have been attacked for some immutable characteristic, rather than those who take albeit provocative but justified actions and who as a consequence face victimization.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Muslim women in the western media: Foucault, agency, governmentality and ethics

  This article compares the ways in which Saba Mahmood’s The Politics of Piety (2005) and Cressida Heyes’ Self-Transformations: Foucault, Ethics, and Normalization (2007), unlike current governmentality studies, employ the later Foucault’s ethical theory. By explaining the theoretical framework of the ‘middle’ Foucault (governmentality and agency) and the ‘later’ Foucault (ethics and agency) and then comparing Mahmood and Heyes’ use of Foucault’s work, it is argued that Mahmood and Heyes’ analyses, though thought-provoking and incisive, overlook aspects of Foucault’s later work, ultimately preventing them from offering productive ‘feminist strategies’. The author seeks to link this discussion to contemporary debates and analyses of agency, freedom and Muslim women in the media. The article concludes with an assessment of how Foucauldian feminist perspectives might be drawn on to establish effective ‘cross-cultural feminist strategies’, and closes by presenting a case of a cross-cultural media strategy aimed at countering the stereotypical images of Muslim women in the media.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Patterns of Immigrant Political Participation: Explaining Differences in Types of Political Participation between Immigrants and the Majority Population in Western Europe

  This article explores differences in the pattern of political participation between immigrants and the majority population in Western Europe. Using data from the European Social Survey, I find that for immigrants the pattern of political participation is less distinct, that is, participation types are more strongly related than for the majority population; and that this cannot be explained by differences in levels of resources and engagement, but by differences in the importance of mobilization and by the amount of time spent in the new country of residence. This indicates that the explanatory mechanisms operate differently for immigrants than the majority, impacting not only on the decision on whether not to participate, but also on how. These findings are important, not only for what they tell us about the process of political integration, but also for how we study political participation more broadly.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• ‘Hunkering Down’ in Multi-Ethnic Neighbourhoods? The Effects of Ethnic Diversity on Dimensions of Social Cohesion

  Putnam (2007) claims that in ethnically diverse neighbourhoods, residents of all ethnic groups tend to ‘hunker down’. Solidarity and trust are lower, mutual help and cooperation rarer, and friends fewer. Various studies in the United States found a clear correlation between diversity and cohesion, and also for many different dimensions of social cohesion. Whether this finding also holds in other (European) settings is the subject of hot and unresolved debate. Specifically, this article addresses the question of whether living in an ethnically diverse setting has negative consequences for social cohesion in the Netherlands as well. Previous studies on the Netherlands remained inconclusive. We examine how this lack of consensus can be explained. To further the debate, this article pulls apart various contexts and various dimensions of social cohesion. This article examines the relationship between ethnic diversity (in socio-graphically defined neighbourhoods) and four dimensions of social cohesion (trust, informal help, voluntary work, and neighbourhood contacts) for the 50 largest cities in the Netherlands. We conclude that the Putnam hypothesis holds only to a limited extent in the Dutch context. The only aspect on which ethnic diversity has a negative effect is the degree of contact in the neighbourhood.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Psychosocial Factors of Migration: Adaptation and Application of the Health Belief Model – Groenewold – 2012 – International Migration – Wiley Online Library

  Psychosocial factors influencing behaviour play a central role in health research but seem under-explored in migration research. This is unfortunate because these factors, which include knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, intentions and personality traits, provide essential and potentially effective handles for linking migration and migrant-integration policies. We demonstrate that the health belief model (HBM) conceptualization of behavioural intentions contributes constructs that can further our understanding of migration intentions, thereby broadening the foundations for migration policies. We adapt the HBM to migration behaviour and then test it empirically by using survey data on international migration from West Africa and the Mediterranean region to the European Union. The results confirm that indicators of “perceived threat to living conditions”, “perceived benefits” and “perceived barriers to migration”, “cues to action” and “self-efficacy” contribute considerably to the explanation of migration intentions. We conclude that psychosocial factors deserve greater prominence in migration theories and empirical research, and we recommend that migration surveys consider this framework to identify relevant indicators of psychosocial factors of international migration and develop appropriate survey questions to measure them.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Homelessness abroad: “Place utility” in the narratives of the Polish homeless in Brussels – Mostowska – 2012 – International Migration – Wiley Online Library

  Among different groups of Poles in Brussels there are an estimated twenty thousand Polish migrants performing undocumented work. The presence of homeless Poles in Brussels indicates the vulnerability of some of the European labour migrants. The article is based on fieldwork conducted amongst Polish people sleeping rough in Brussels in 2008 and 2009. Most of the homeless informants were construction workers, who lost their living quarters due to seasonal unemployment, alcohol problems, illness or other incidents. In the article I analyse their narratives using Julian Wolpert’s concept of “place utility” to confront the way they talk about their adaptation to the environment with the risks and opportunities they attach to staying in Brussels and their possible return migration to Poland. I present four types of homeless migrants and their different situations and survival strategies. The analysis includes their perception of life in Brussels and Poland. The narratives of most of them seem to share the perception of Poland’s lower “anticipated place utility” in comparison with Brussels. The decision not to return to Poland minimizes the perceived risks and uncertainty. It avoids psychological strains, such as feelings of shame, frustration and confronting their families and friends. Living on the streets of Brussels seems “optimal” to them, under the circumstances. This example shows that economically unsuccessful migrations cannot be easily terminated; that the risks and profits are not equally distributed across family members; and that the different rationalities of all the actors and their self-limitations should also be taken into account. Further studies of homelessness among working immigrants may contribute to a better understanding of some of the migration phenomena.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• The Experience of Labour Emigration in the Life of Married Women: The Case of Podlasie, Poland – Cieślińska – 2012 – International Migration – Wiley Online Library

  In this paper, I focus on the experiences of female labour migrants, looking particularly at the emigration of married women from a region with a long-established culture of emigration, in the context of the accession of Poland to the European Union. The paper is empirical in its content and is based mainly on emigration stories and narratives recorded in the form of biography or autobiography. I discuss different stages of the migration process – the decision to migrate; the experience of migration (in particular, with reference to its impact on families, both abroad and at home), and also the consequences of migration for Polish society, particularly with reference to family cohesion and changing gender roles.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates: Trafficking Victims? – Vlieger – 2012 – International Migration – Wiley Online Library

  This paper is a response to R. Jureidini’s “Trafficking and contract migrant workers in the Middle East”, published in International Migration. Jureidini discusses the difficulty of establishing whether migrant domestic workers are victims of trafficking. He discusses the questions of (i) whether trafficking can be determined ex post or whether it must also be ex ante, and (ii) whether there must be a proven intent to engage in trafficking. On the basis of data concerning domestic workers in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, I argue that they often are victims of trafficking. In these two countries, forced confinement and exploitation do not concern individual cases, but standard labour conditions. Agents in the countries of origin regularly misinform or even deceive domestic workers, while agents in the countries of destination actively stimulate confinement and exploitation. Furthermore, the lack of prosecution of traffickers is not caused by legal obscurities, but by societal issues. The paper concludes with some policy suggestions to better address the issue of trafficking.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• The Determinants of Human Trafficking: A US Case Study – Jac-Kucharski – 2012 – International Migration – Wiley Online Library

  Human trafficking is a global problem. In this paper, I seek to find the determinants of international human trafficking by using the US as a case study. Previous studies have drawn primarily from the migration literature, proposing hypotheses that focus on economic factors, the level of democracy and other “push” factors in the countries of origin that create incentives for individuals to migrate. However, we know that international human trafficking is an involuntary form of migration and may be influenced by additional factors. I hypothesize that factors that influence the cost–benefit calculation of the trafficker determine the volume of human trafficking, in addition to the factors that affect the size of the pool of trafficking victims. I test my theory using the negative binomial regression model. My results indicate that while income inequality within a country and poor protection of women’s rights are likely to produce a specific pool of victims, it is the reduction of operational costs for the trafficker that increases the number of individuals who are trafficked.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Children and Families Seeking Asylum in Northern Norway: Living Conditions and Mental Health – Lauritzen – 2012 – International Migration – Wiley Online Library

  The mental health of children seeking asylum and their families is a somewhat neglected area of research. Research on refugee children and children living with adversities suggests that environmental factors are crucial in preventing mental health problems. In this study, we aim to identify central environmental conditions that affect the mental health of children living with their families at governmental asylum processing centres in northern Norway. This study has a qualitative design, and is based on 11 focus group interviews with the staff at asylum processing centres. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed focusing on important risk and protective factors for mental health problems presented by the informants. The results highlighted time spent at asylum centres and the parent’s mental health as the most important risk factors. Schooling, activities, general living conditions and poor economy were also seen as crucial. The findings suggest that these children are indeed vulnerable, and at high risk of developing mental health problems. Their rights are, however, open to local interpretations, and they fall between two stools; their right to proper health care, and national and international immigration policies.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• States’ Obligations under Human Rights Law towards Victims of Trafficking in Human Beings: Positive Developments in Positive Obligations

  A number of rulings by international human rights tribunals, made in the last few years, elucidate the nature of states’ obligations with regard to the prohibition on slavery, forced labour and servitude. In particular, these decisions help to clarify the extent to which trafficking in human beings is covered by the prohibition, as well as elaborating the scope of states’ positive obligations towards those who have been trafficked or are at risk of being trafficked. The author discusses the significance of these decisions and relates them to earlier rulings of the War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia relating to enslavement.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Institutionalizing Statelessness: The Revocation of Residency Rights of Palestinians in East Jerusalem

  This article examines the methods by which Israel institutionalizes statelessness among Palestinians from East Jerusalem through national citizenship and entry laws. Through the lens of the international legal framework, notably the right to a nationality, the prohibition on the arbitrary deprivation of nationality, and the antidiscrimination principle, the article focuses on three policies under which Palestinian East Jerusalemites are rendered stateless: the ‘center of life’ policy, the application and waiting period requirement for children applying for temporary and permanent residency, and the implementation of the ‘loyalty oath’ for non-Jews seeking citizenship through naturalization. Then, after describing the impact of the policies on the individuals and families affected, as well as on other states, the article lays out the primary ways in which the policies violate international legal obligations and principles, namely, the arbitrary deprivation of rights and the antidiscrimination principle. Finally, while mindful of the sovereign right of states to implement citizenship laws, the article concludes by prescribing ways in which the international statelessness protection framework might be strengthened and reformulated into a preventative model to ensure that Palestinian East Jerusalemites maintain their legal connection to their city of birth and are not rendered stateless – the status of the rightless.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Uganda’s Invocation of Cessation Regarding its Rwandan Refugee Caseload: Lessons for International Protection

  The invocation of Clause 1C(5) of the Refugee Convention 1951, the ceased circumstances cessation clause, is a site of negotiation between the legal principles that underpin the international refugee protection regime and the practical constraints of international politics. On 13 May 2010, a Tripartite Commission, composed of the governments of Uganda and Rwanda and UNHCR, issued a joint communiqué announcing that, on 31 December 2011, the Government of Uganda will apply the cessation clause to its Rwandan caseload. This article contends that the practice of cessation as it is unfolding in the Uganda-Rwanda context does not satisfy the substantive and procedural legal requirements of the ceased circumstances cessation clause, as elaborated by UNHCR’s Guidelines on International Protection: Cessation of Refugee Status under Article 1C(5) and (6) of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. Rather, cessation is being utilized prematurely as a tool to end a protracted refugee situation, in a way that risks further undermining the integrity of the refugee protection system. In particular, Uganda’s creation of a situation of ‘constructive cessation’ demonstrates the challenges in reconciling the individualized evaluation of persecution with the invocation of cessation for a group; the principles of non-refoulement with the surrogate character of the international protection system; and ongoing protection objectives with the search for durable solutions.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Invisible Refugees and/or Overlapping Refugeedom? Protecting Sahrawis and Palestinians Displaced by the 2011 Libyan Uprising

  This article examines the experiences of two North African and Middle Eastern refugee populations (Sahrawis and Palestinians) affected by the 2011 conflict in Libya who have remained largely invisible to the international community. The challenges that they have faced since the outbreak of violence in February 2011, and the nature of international responses to these challenges, highlight a range of interconnected issues on both conceptual and practical dimensions. After outlining the scale and nature of the internal and international displacement arising from the 2011 conflict, and the history of these refugees’ presence in Libya, the article explores whether Sahrawis and Palestinians can be categorised and conceptualised as ‘refugees’ in Libya, given their ‘voluntary’ migration to the country for educational and/or employment purposes. Drawing on a number of historical examples of protection activities by UNHCR for Sahrawi and Palestinian ‘refugee-migrants’, the article explores the potential applicability of a framework that highlights ‘overlapping refugeedoms’ without negating refugees’ agency. Given that neither population has a ‘country of origin’ or effective diplomatic protection, the article then explores which state and non-state actors could be considered to be responsible for their protection in this conflict situation. Finally, analysing the ‘solutions’ promoted for Sahrawi and Palestinian refugees in this context leads to an assessment of whether such responses can be considered to offer effective protection to these populations. Ultimately, the article examines a range of protection gaps that emerge from these groups’ experiences during the 2011 North African uprisings, arguing in favour of a critical assessment of the protection mechanisms in place to support refugees who ‘voluntarily’ migrate for economic and educational purposes. Such an evaluation is particularly important given policy-makers’ increasing interest in presenting mobility as a ‘fourth durable solution’.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Introductory Note to the Amman Summary Conclusions on International Cooperation to Share Burdens and Responsibilities

  International cooperation is a grounding principle of the international refugee regime, flowing from the international scope and nature of refugee challenges. The need for international cooperation is referred to in the Preamble of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 Convention) as well as other regional and international instruments governing refugee protection. International cooperation, including burden and responsibility sharing, has also been a core component of a significant number of General Assembly Resolutions and UNHCR Executive Committee Conclusions. Together these instruments indicate that States are to address refugee problems collectively, sharing responsibilities to balance the burdens.

  Despite its importance, however, the international refugee protection regime offers no agreed indicators for how cooperation is to be concretized in practice. There have been a number of previous successful examples of cooperation, but improvements are not being made across the board, nor through a coherent global framework.

  UNHCR has repeatedly drawn attention to the unequal distribution of refugee protection responsibilities; as well as the fact that the generosity of many refugee host countries places demands on them that are disproportionate to the resources at their disposal. …

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Expert Meeting on International Cooperation to Share Burdens and Responsibilities

  The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) convened an Expert Meeting on International Cooperation to Share Burdens and Responsibilities in Amman, Jordan, on 27 and 28 June 2011.

  This expert meeting is one in a series of events organized to mark the 60th anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.1 Participants included 23 experts drawn from governments, non-governmental organizations, policy institutes, academia and international organizations. A discussion paper was prepared by UNHCR.2

  Building on the conclusions of the 2010 High Commissioner’s Dialogue on Protection Challenges: ‘Protection Gaps and Responses’ (‘High Commissioner’s Dialogue’),3 the purpose of this expert meeting was to explore ways in which international cooperation to address refugee challenges could be enhanced. In particular, the development of a framework on international cooperation, consisting of a set of understandings and an operational toolbox was considered. As a starting point, and in order to provide a foundation for this framework, the focus was on taking stock of existing cooperative arrangements to develop a better understanding of their elements and lessons learned.

  These Summary Conclusions do not necessarily represent the individual views of participants or UNHCR, but reflect broadly the themes and understandings emerging from the discussion.

  Part A summarizes some preliminary understandings of the concept of ‘international cooperation’. Part B brings together common elements and lessons learned from past cooperative arrangements to address different refugee situations. Part C recommends some initial elements that could make up a framework on international cooperation. Part D provides input regarding the role of UNHCR in cooperative arrangements. To capture the richness of the discussion in the four working groups, a summary report is provided in Annex I.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Introductory Note to the Djibouti Summary Conclusions on Refugees and Asylum-Seekers in Distress at Sea

  The phenomenon of people taking to the sea in search of safety, refuge, or simply better economic conditions is not new. More recently, international attention has focused on the movement of Somalis and Ethiopians across the Gulf of Aden, increasing numbers of sea arrivals in Australia, and the outflow of people from North Africa to Europe. But beyond these situations, irregular maritime movements involving migrants as well as refugees are a reality in all regions of the world. The vessels used for the journey are frequently overcrowded, unseaworthy and not necessarily commanded by professional seamen. Distress at sea situations are common, raising grave humanitarian concerns for those involved. Search and rescue operations, disembarkation, processing and the identification of solutions for rescued refugees and migrants without documentation, are recurring challenges for States, international organizations and the shipping industry.

  UNHCR devoted the last of the series of expert meetings organized to mark the 60th anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees to the theme: ‘Refugees and Asylum-Seekers in Distress at Sea – how best to respond?’ 1 Building on the conclusions of the Expert Meeting on International Cooperation to Share Burdens and Responsibilities in Amman, Jordan, in …

  tags: newjournalarticles

• ‘It was the Most Beautiful Country I have Ever Seen’: The Role of Somali Narratives in Adapting to a New Country

  Refugees are known to use narrative and draw on their memories of a homeland when displaced or in exile, in order to re-affirm their identities, and build a life in the new country. Nevertheless, little is known about how Somali refugees distinctively construct narratives in a new land as a means of coping in the present. In analysing narratives of Somali refugees who attended educational events in Melbourne, Australia, we examined stories and memories as they relate to adapting to the new country. Drawing on a qualitative, mainly in-depth interview-based study with Somali parents and key informants, we argue that a collective re-imagining of Somali society is key to the way people go about coping and managing current change. Despite experiencing the intense social disruption of civil war, idyllic stories of past family and community life are told, providing both a contrast to disconnection, individualism and risk in Australia, as well as a thread back to a mythical Somalia. We argue that the particular narrative constructions put forward by participants are an important form of agency, counterbalancing narratives of oppressed refugees in a new country.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• Patterns of Immigrant Political Participation: Explaining Differences in Types of Political Participation between Immigrants and the Majority Population in Western Europe

  This article explores differences in the pattern of political participation between immigrants and the majority population in Western Europe. Using data from the European Social Survey, I find that for immigrants the pattern of political participation is less distinct, that is, participation types are more strongly related than for the majority population; and that this cannot be explained by differences in levels of resources and engagement, but by differences in the importance of mobilization and by the amount of time spent in the new country of residence. This indicates that the explanatory mechanisms operate differently for immigrants than the majority, impacting not only on the decision on whether not to participate, but also on how. These findings are important, not only for what they tell us about the process of political integration, but also for how we study political participation more broadly.

  tags: newjournalarticles

• ‘Hunkering Down’ in Multi-Ethnic Neighbourhoods? The Effects of Ethnic Diversity on Dimensions of Social Cohesion

  Putnam (2007) claims that in ethnically diverse neighbourhoods, residents of all ethnic groups tend to ‘hunker down’. Solidarity and trust are lower, mutual help and cooperation rarer, and friends fewer. Various studies in the United States found a clear correlation between diversity and cohesion, and also for many different dimensions of social cohesion. Whether this finding also holds in other (European) settings is the subject of hot and unresolved debate. Specifically, this article addresses the question of whether living in an ethnically diverse setting has negative consequences for social cohesion in the Netherlands as well. Previous studies on the Netherlands remained inconclusive. We examine how this lack of consensus can be explained. To further the debate, this article pulls apart various contexts and various dimensions of social cohesion. This article examines the relationship between ethnic diversity (in socio-graphically defined neighbourhoods) and four dimensions of social cohesion (trust, informal help, voluntary work, and neighbourhood contacts) for the 50 largest cities in the Netherlands. We conclude that the Putnam hypothesis holds only to a limited extent in the Dutch context. The only aspect on which ethnic diversity has a negative effect is the degree of contact in the neighbourhood.

  tags: newjournalarticles

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