Categories Of Refugees Research Articles

Credentials, Perpetual “Foreignness”, and Feeling out of Place: Three Stories of Resilience from Teachers of Refugee Background

This qualitative research project seeks to examine the obstacles faced by educators who come to the U.S. as refugees. The three participants in this study are from Iraq, Sudan, and Turkey. While there are similarities between them, there are also differences in terms of race, sex, and religion. While this work examines practical barriers, such as those related to credentialing, it also considers how these educators negotiate their identity in the workplace. Using labeling theory, the impact of the category of refugee and how that label impacts work life is interrogated. Partially as a result of the labels associated with being a refugee, findings indicate that, for educators from refugee backgrounds, there are significant barriers to credentialing, their knowledge and experience from outside of the U.S. is rarely taken seriously in many workplace environments, and, consequently, a lack of confidence can easily develop. Despite all of this, educators from refugee backgrounds often have extensive experience in education and can more easily connect to diverse student populations and their families. Suggestions for how best to expand the hiring of educators from refugee backgrounds are provided, as well as implications for future research.

Encountering the hostile environment: Recently arrived Afghan migrants in London

Following the dramatic evacuation from Kabul airport in August 2021, the UK government proclaimed its commitment to a ‘warm welcome’ for Afghans. In this paper we draw on original qualitative research to explore the emerging experiences of evacuees, and other recent arrivals, during their first year in London. Using the narratives of our Afghans participants, as well as insights from key stakeholders, we show how they navigated slow, opaque bureaucratic processes and lack of communication with official agencies. As a result of these lengthy processes, many thousands of evacuees remained in temporary hotel accommodation for protracted periods. Drawing on the concept of ‘everyday bordering’, we explore the extent to which Afghan resettlement policies are achieving their objectives. We consider how such policies are birthed within a punitive immigration system, which is designed to ‘wear down’ migrants in the UK, regardless of their reason for migration. Moreover, we argue that the ad hoc response of the Home Office and the Foreign Office has created ‘false distinctions’ between categories of Afghan refugees, reinforcing notions of ‘deserving’ versus ‘underserving’ migrants. This distinction allows the government to present itself as humanitarian, ‘rescuing’ people from Afghanistan, while simultaneously maintaining its commitment to the ‘hostile immigration environment’.

Xenophobia and Hate Speech towards Refugees on Social Media: Reinforcing Causes, Negative Effects, Defense and Response Mechanisms against That Speech

This study aims to recognize the possible role of social media in forming xenophobia and hate speech against Syrian refugees and to understand the reinforcing causes and negative effects of that speech on the refugees, as well as the refugees’ response mechanisms against that speech. A mixed approach was used in this study. In addition to a questionnaire tool that was used to collect data, focus group discussions were conducted to support the obtained data. The study used a statistically representative sample of Syrian refugees who live in Turkey and Jordan. The participants see the negative representation of their image via social media as leading to hatred towards them. The findings showed that there are some causes that reinforce xenophobic speech, such as otherization and demonization of refugees, by the negative representation and spreading of fake news on social media, which are published continuously. Moreover, gatekeepers have a role in promoting negative representation by approving xenophobic speech transmission without filtering or ethical control. The results also showed that the negative representation containing hate speech contributes to more negative effects on the refugees, such as psychological effects, as a sense of hatred towards refugees is created in the host country, and the effect of changing the feelings of the public from empathy to compassion fatigue concluding to hatred towards those refugees. Furthermore, the results showed that the Syrian refugees follow different defense mechanisms against xenophobia and hate speech against them published and circulated through social media platforms. The participants were divided into two main categories; the first one is those who prefer replying, not being silent, and defending the refugees, and the second category is those who prefer keeping silent. The first category of refugees stated that they do not accept keeping silent and they prefer to reply using logical, emotional, or defensive and offensive ways to bad comments against Syrian refugees in general. While the second category claimed that either they do not have time to reply or they sometimes agree that it was only a reaction to the behavior of some individual refugees. Some of them explained that they are afraid of being subjected to more bad comments and negative reactions against them. When they encounter aggressive comments and see that such views represent the majority, they prefer to keep silent to avoid being attacked. This is understood within the framework of the spiral of silence theory, where refugees hide their opinions, views, and preferences when they think that they fall within a minority group. They fear social isolation through social media.

Distinguishing Different Categories of Migrants, Refugees, and Muslims in the Aftermath of the 2015-2016 Refugee “Crisis.” The Case of the Island of Kos (Greece)

This paper discusses local perceptions of different categories of migrants, refugees, and Muslims on the island of Kos in the aftermath of the 2015-2016 refugee “crisis.” It investigates how the presence of historical and earlier migrant and Muslim communities has facilitated the acceptance of new groups of Muslim migrants. It also reflects on how the arrival of new groups of Muslim migrants has affected the self-perception and perception of earlier and established Muslim communities. Methodologically, the paper is based on secondary sources, field research, and interviews conducted by the author on the island of Kos in June 2018.

Solo Living outside Home: Case of Ukrainian Migrants

The article considers such a category of migrants as solo refugees. The author substantiates the need to study this category of refugees from the economic, political, and psychological points of view. Solo migrants face several specific challenges. So, the purpose of this article is to characterize and describe the life strategies used by refugees who find themselves abroad in the status of solo refugees. The study is a pilot study and was conducted using the method of semi-structured interviews. The interviews were divided into main thematic blocks that consider the history of the decision to leave the country; the process of adaptation in a new country and the main difficulties; the process of organizing work; daily and communicative aspects of life, as well as emotional self-awareness; vision of life prospects. Two main categories of solo refugees were distinguished: those who have decided to stay in host countries for a long time and those who are in a «suspended» state. Features of each of these two strategies have been outlined. The possibilities for further research of this category of refugees were also outlined.

European Union’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum: Enhancing the Legal Protection of Refugees and Asylum Seekers or Restoring the Old Paradigm?

Summary In this article, I seek to examine how the legal and political changes introduced by the European Union’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum enhance the legal protection of refugees and asylum seekers fleeing to the EU territory across the central Mediterranean migration route. Empirically drawing on the discourse of the European Commission representatives and the discourse around the new Pact on Migration and Asylum, I will engage in analyzing the EU’s human-focused narrative about migration management that the Pact promotes. The emphasis is put on how the dominant legal categories, in particular the category of refugee, are (re)constructed and the purposes such re-articulation has for the rights of the people on the move. Situating the study into critical legal theoretical framework, my aim is to demonstrate that although the EU’s new narrative acknowledges migrants’ vulnerable position, persons in need of international protection are simultaneously put into the discursive frame of irregularity – the same discourse the EU is vehemently fighting against. Hence, due to the conceptual ambivalence of the legal identities, under the new Pact, the persons legally entitled to protection will find it more difficult to claim their right to safe asylum in the EU.

Political Obligations of Refugees

AbstractIn the literature on refugees, scholars generally focus on obligations that states have toward refugees, but do not address obligations refugees themselves bear to their new countries. While this situation has been remedied to some extent in recent literature, scholars have not provided an adequate explanation why these obligations hold. We explore the moral basis of refugees’ obligations, with special attention to the need to extend traditional principles of political obligation to address it. We consider two categories of refugees. Obligations of “settled refugees,” who attempt to integrate into new societies, are largely encompassed by traditional Westphalian norms of state–citizen relationships and grounded in consent and fair play. Refugees in camps exist farther outside of the traditional Westphalian categories. Most notable for them are divided political obligations—stemming from the divided nature of camp governance—grounded mainly by principles of fair play and natural duties of justice.

Migrants and Refugees

A negative impact on public safety and security caused by the massive presence of different categories of migrants and refugees in Bosnia and Herzegovina is considered a source of instability for the last several years. Current migration management approaches in Bosnia and Herzegovina seem to be ineffective and causing direct impacts on security in local communities. Frequent violations of basic human rights and freedoms of migrants often causing adverse responses against public safety in local communities. Securitization of migrations in Bosnia and Herzegovina becomes a legitimate approach by different organizational levels and further leading to the humanitarian crisis of unprecedented scale. It is necessary to change the current approach in Bosnia and Herzegovina to improve the migration management process in local communities ensuring minimal impacts on public safety and security. The unified, organized, and effective approach in establishing migrant transit centers based on humanitarian principles might bring many benefits to local communities. Overall positive effects of such solution might abolish any financial constraint argued by local authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Comparative analysis of different migrations strategies implemented in Turkey and Greece suggests that the migration crisis approach should be highly coordinated and, to a certain level, centralized to prevent negative implications on public security.

From Vulnerability to Empowerment: Critical Reflections on Canada’s Engagement with Refugee Policy

The making and implementation of global policy are prominent areas of activity for the global refugee regime, with a specific focus on policy relating to the categories of vulnerable refugees. Recent collective efforts globally have highlighted the importance of meaningfully including refugees themselves; and a discursive shift away from the language of vulnerability towards that of empowerment in policy making, and humanitarian assistance. Despite this, efforts to implement these commitments have largely been unsuccessful, raising questions about how refugees are engaged in these processes, and in what ways the label of vulnerable continues to influence the making and implementation of global refugee policy. Using the case of Canada’s engagement with the global refugee regime, and with refugee women in particular, this article argues that the continued framing of refugee women as vulnerable has impeded progress, and that for transformative policy to be realized, refugee women must be seen as actors with capacity to participate, and must be included in all processes of policy making, implementation and evaluation. A feminist geopolitical framework is presented as a way to decenter states and institutions in favor of centering the individual embodied experiences of refugee women in global refugee policy making. By doing so, empowerment can be realized in policy and practice.

Cervical Cancer Screening by Refugee Category in a Refugee Health Primary Care Clinic in Calgary, Canada, 2011–2016

Newly arrived refugees and refugee claimants experience low cervical cancer screening (CCS) rates in Canada. We investigated CCS at a dedicated refugee clinic. We completed a retrospective cohort study among patients at the Mosaic Refugee Health Clinic in Calgary, Canada, between 2011 and 2016. We investigated CCS offers and completion by refugee category. We then used multivariable logistic regression to estimate the association of CCS screening and refugee category, accounting for sociodemographic and clinical factors. We included 812 refugees. Most were married (71%) and had limited English proficiency (57%). Overall, 88% and 77% of patients were offered and completed screening, respectively. Compared to government assisted refugees, privately sponsored refugees completed CCS more often (OR 1.60, 95% CI [1.02–2.49]). A dedicated refugee clinic may provide effective CCS to newly arrived refugees irrespective of refugee category, insurance status or other barriers.

Os planos municipais de integração de refugiados em Portugal (2015-2022)

The local ambit has been identified as an important factor for the success of the migrant integration process. This importance was recognized at the political level, in such a way that some municipalities approved integration plans, although these are characterized by the almost absence of mentions to the situation of refugees. Following the influx of refugees to Europe in 2015 and the relocation process of which Portugal was part, followed by a larger program to host resettled refugees, plans for the integration of refugees emerged in some municipalities and, in other cases, the refugee category emerged in the renewed plans. The purpose of this article is to carry out a comparative analysis of local policies for the integration of refugees developed by Portuguese municipalities, investigating the way in which the refugee category is incorporated into the integration plans and in what terms the adopted measures incorporate the specificities associated with their social integration. This study is exploratory and is based on documentary sources, namely the municipal plans for the integration of immigrants and refugees submitted in 2015-2017, 2018-2020 and 2020-2022.

The everyday erosion of refugee claims: Representations of the Rohingya in Thailand

ABSTRACT Scholars have described the increasing fragmentation of categories like ‘refugee’ as part of efforts to reduce refugees’ access to protection. The proliferation of categories such as economic migrants, humanitarian migrants, and transit migrants generally emerge from top-down, policy-driven migration management paradigms, efforts by traditional resettlement countries to restrict opportunities for forced migrants to seek asylum. Here, I argue for a cultural geographic approach to understanding the everyday work of representations as contributing to the erosion of categories like ‘refugee’ from the bottom-up as well. Despite widespread international agreement about the unfolding crisis in Myanmar and the exodus of Rohingya refugees, interlocutors in Thailand consistently doubted the legitimacy of Rohingya refugees’ claims. Through three vignettes that take place in Thailand, I explore how Rohingya refugees become characterized as ‘different’ from other regional refugee groups. Rohingya refugees are represented through three overarching narratives that question the legitimacy of their refugee claims: through the wrong imaginaries, in the wrong places, and using the wrong strategies. By demanding comparisons with fictional, ideal refugees; cementing ties between refugee status, race and religion; and strategically positioning refugee status as a legal tactic, I argue that these representations further the everyday erosion of the meaning and usefulness of the category of refugee.

‘Min Al-Mukhayyam’ (‘From the Camp’)

This article examines the implications of long-term encampment and exile for the meaning of Palestinian identity amongst refugees. It shows how the conditions of Palestinian camps in Jordan function as a key marker of social difference between refugees of the camps and the city. Whereas camp refugees see the hardships of camp life as conditions to be confronted, urban refugees take them as constitutive features of a socially distinct refugee. As I argue, the distinctions between camp and city refugees illustrate how the refugee category and the humanitarian camp exceed the ideology and function of humanitarianism. They demonstrate how, in protracted refugee situations, the refugee label and the historical context of the camp can become socially significant and contested features of identity.

CONCEPTUAL PRINCIPLES OF RESEARCH OF THE PROBLEMS OF ADAPTATION AND INTEGRATION OF MUSLIM FEMALE REFUGEES IN GERMANY

The article is devoted to the processes of Muslim women fleeing to Germany. In the article, the authors consider the Muslim women fleeing to Germany in conditions of increased conflict in their countries of origin as a separate type of refugees. An attempt has been made to characterize the psycho-social condition of refugee women who arrived in Germany and to determine their qualitative and quantitative characteristics. The authors paid attention to what factors affect their involvement in society. Our study has proved that refugees are a separate component of German society because they directly affect the demographic and socio-economic situation in Germany. Ensuring the stable and effective socio-economic development of Germany with the involvement of all categories of the population is directly related to the implementation of public policy. The study of the gender aspects of refugees may help to identify key issues, the solution of which will facilitate the rapid adaptation and integration of Muslim refugees in German society, and, in prospect, to actively involve them in the development of German society.The results of the study helped in the analysis of the integration and adaptation processes of Muslim refugees as a separate part of refugees. Women refugees are a more vulnerable category of refugees, so they can be easily manipulated and abused. Identifying problems during integration may help to improve mechanisms for the protection of refugees and asylum seekers.In this article, the authors focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the reception and adaptation of refugees, as well as the establishment of new rules to meet the basic needs of refugees in shelters, the lack of which is unsanitary norms and the impossibility of distancing. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the decision-making process and refugee reception procedures, so the analysis of the challenges points to weaknesses in human rights mechanisms for refugees.

Проблемні питання біженців та шукачів притулку в Україні та визначення реальних шляхів їх подолання

Research has shown that it is impossible to effectively address the serious threats facing a small number of the most vulnerable refugees in Ukraine. It has been stated that the asylum system in Ukraine still needs significant improvements. The situation does not offer sufficient protection against expulsion and does not provide asylum seekers with the opportunity to consider their applications within a sufficiently effective and fair process. It is substantiated that the Law of Ukraine «On Refugees and Persons in Need of Additional or Temporary Protection» of July 8, 2011 № 3671-VI defines the procedure for regulating public relations in the field of recognition of a person as a refugee, a person in need of additional or temporary protection, loss and deprivation status, as well as establishing the legal status of refugees and persons in need of additional protection and who have been granted temporary protection in Ukraine. It has been proven that Ukraine cannot be considered a safe third country on the grounds of the Law of Ukraine «On Refugees and Persons in Need of Additional or Temporary Protection», and the asylum system in Ukraine still needs significant improvements despite significant progress. It is determined that in Ukraine the receipt of assistance and services by foreigners directly depends on their migration status. The issue of direct political refugees is considered. There is no definition of the category of political refugees in the national legislation. It is proved that it can be done on the basis of general norms of domestic legislation. It is substantiated that the main form of providing protection to foreign citizens in Ukraine is their recognition as either refugees or persons in need of additional protection. At the same time, circumstances that deprive a person of the right to obtain refugee status may, in particular, be punishable by criminal penalties and economic or social reasons. It is proved that there are a number of urgent problems that need to be solved until Ukraine significantly changes its legislation and the practice of detaining asylum seekers and migrants, for example: employment; reforming the migration service of Ukraine; Ukraine's inability to provide full-fledged asylum to migrants; the problem of involuntary return (expulsion or deportation) of asylum seekers to the countries of their origin; unmotivated arbitrary non-admission of foreigners to the territory of Ukraine by the bodies of the State Border Guard Service; the problem of unregulated migration of foreigners to Ukraine and through Ukraine; lack of language skills and ignorance of the legislation of Ukraine; lack of equipped premises for resettlement of asylum seekers who are in the procedure; recognition of persons who are in institutions of temporary detention and others.

Migration and Human Displacement in the Context of Climate change: Reflections on the Category of Climate Refugees

Migration and Human Displacement in the Context of Climate change: Reflections on the Category of Climate Refugees

The End of Human Rights Dynamism? Judgments of the ECtHR on ‘Hot Returns’ and Humanitarian Visas as a Focal Point of Contemporary European Asylum Law and Policy

Abstract Two controversial rulings of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) deserve global attention, since they declined to scrutinize on human rights grounds the prevalent move towards enhanced border controls and externalization practices that define European asylum law and policy at this juncture. In ND and NT, judges deemed the Spanish policy of ‘hot returns’, without access to basic procedural guarantees, of those climbing border fences to be compatible with human rights. A few weeks later, the Grand Chamber thwarted enduring hopes for judicial innovation in MN when it reasserted a ‘primarily territorial’ understanding of State jurisdiction and declared inadmissible the claim of a Syrian family from the war-torn town of Aleppo to a humanitarian visa. While the decision on humanitarian visas means that ‘non-arrival’ policies cannot usually be challenged, critical inspection of the ND and NT judgment displays a confounding combination of restrictive arguments and dynamic elements beneath the surface of a seemingly clear-cut outcome. This lack of judicial precision, which was bound to cause heated debate about the practical implications of the judgment, reflects the basic tension between the prohibition of refoulement and the absence of a right to asylum in classic accounts of international refugee law. It will be argued that the judicial vindication of the Spanish ‘hot returns’ policy does not call into question non-refoulement obligations; it aims at identifying graded procedural standards for different categories of refugees and migrants. By contrast, the novel insistence on the abstract availability of legal channels of entry presents itself as a humanitarian fig leaf for the acceptance of strict control practices. At an intermediate level of abstraction, the two rulings mark a watershed moment, indicating the provisional endpoint of an impressive period of interpretative dynamism on the part of the ECtHR, which has played a critical role in the progressive evolution of international refugee and human rights law over the past three decades. Experts in asylum law who have become accustomed to supranational courts advancing the position of individuals will benefit from the insights of constitutional theory and the social sciences to rationalize why the former vigour has given way to a period of hesitation and potential standstill, at least in Europe. This analysis employs the perspective of strategic litigation to discuss contextual factors hindering the continued dynamism of human rights jurisprudence in Europe at this juncture.

Greece’s Discriminatory Migrant Regime: Volunteers, Informal Street-Level Bureaucrats, and Moral Rationalities

AbstractIn the aftermath of Europe’s 2015 so-called refugee ‘crisis’, tens of thousands of border crossers remain stuck in Greece aided by an array of humanitarian workers, government employees, and volunteers. Drawing on previous scholarship about street-level bureaucracy, I discuss the work of informal volunteers in Athens and Lesvos, where they continue to aid border crossers attain entitlements and rights. Based on 10 months of ethnographic research conducted from 2017 to 2018, this article explores how volunteers within the humanitarian landscape of Greece sought to enact their ethical principles within governance regimes that categorized border crossers in restrictive and at times harmful ways. I show how the struggle to assist border crossers in effect transformed volunteers into informal street-level bureaucrats, who drew on a range of tactics that simultaneously reproduced and subverted the policy categories of refugee or vulnerable person. This article argues that rather than facilitating administrative care of border crossers, these categories were in fact a political battleground upon which volunteers struggled to pursue their moral rationalities despite an exclusionary governance regime.

Liberation Nation? Queer Refugees, Homonationalism and the Canadian Necropolitical State

Abstract This paper presents an overview of the Canadian state’s refugee determination processes for persons lodging asylum claims in Canada on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity expression (SOGIE). Canada has an international reputation for being a welcoming nation to SOGIE (as well as other categories of) refugees, a reputation that is much promoted by the Canadian government and mainstream media. However, in my ethnographic research with SOGIE refugee claimants navigating the Canadian refugee determination process, I reveal that claimants must quickly learn how to construct an ‘authentically’ gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender narrative that meets refugee adjudicators’ standards of credibility, or risk being identified as a ‘fake’ refugee, and thus face incarceration and/or deportation. I argue that sexuality now forms a crucial component of the nation-state’s gate-keeping apparatus, with uneven effects for queer migrants.

Serin Alheto v. Zamestnik-Predsedatel Na Darzhavna Agentsia Za Bezhantsite (C.J.E.U.)

On July 25, 2018, the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) released its judgment on the case of Alheto, concerning an application for international protection lodged in a European Union (EU) member state by a distinct category of refugees, namely Palestinians registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In dealing with the particular status accorded to such persons, the Court opined that a Palestinian who is registered with UNRWA is excluded from refugee status in the EU, so long as the protection from the UN ad hoc agency is effective, which is ascertained through a full and ex nunc examination of the facts and points of law.