Abstract
Resettlement and humanitarian admission programs claim to target ‘particularly vulnerable’, or ‘the most vulnerable’ refugees. If the limited spots of such programs are indeed foreseen for particularly vulnerable groups and individuals, as resettlement actors claim, how is vulnerability defined in policies and put into practice at the frontline? Taking European states’ recent admission programs under the EU-Turkey statement as an example, and focusing on Germany as an admission country, this research note sheds light on this question. Drawing on document analysis, and original fieldwork insights, we show that on paper and in practice vulnerability as a policy category designates some social groups as per se more vulnerable than others, rather than accounting for contingent reasons of vulnerability. In policy documents, the operational definition of vulnerability and its relation to other criteria remain largely undefined. In selection practices, additional criteria curtail a purely vulnerability-based selection, exacerbate existing or create new vulnerabilities in their own right. We conclude that, in the absence of clear definitions, resettlement and humanitarian admission programs’ declared focus on the most vulnerable remains a discretionary promise, with limited possibilities of political and legal scrutiny.
Highlights
Resettlement and humanitarian admission programs claim to target ‘ vulnerable’, or ‘the most vulnerable’ refugees
Usually together with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), admission states in the Global North select a given number of refugees from countries of refuge and grant them legal and safe access to their territories and membership. Access to this form of protection is scarce: worldwide, “less than one percent of all refugees are resettled each year”. If these limited spots are foreseen for vulnerable groups and individuals, as resettlement actors claim, how is vulnerability defined in policies and put into practice at the frontline? Taking the European Union’s (EU) refugee admission programs under the EU-Turkey statement as an example and focusing on Germany as an admission state, this brief research report sheds light on the question of how vulnerability is defined in policies and assessed at the frontline
The empirical insights presented in this brief research report are based on two larger research projects, one looking at the concept of vulnerability in EU Admission Policy, the other one examining categorization practices in Germany’s humanitarian admission programs from Turkey and Lebanon
Summary
Resettlement and humanitarian admission programs claim to target ‘ vulnerable’, or ‘the most vulnerable’ refugees. Humanitarian admission programs are similar to resettlement but only provide a temporary residence status as they are often established more ad hoc and in reaction to concrete crisis situations In both programs, usually together with the UNHCR, admission states in the Global North select a given number of refugees from countries of refuge and grant them legal and safe access to their territories and membership. Usually together with the UNHCR, admission states in the Global North select a given number of refugees from countries of refuge and grant them legal and safe access to their territories and membership Access to this form of protection is scarce: worldwide, “less than one percent of all refugees are resettled each year” (ibid.).
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