International Refugee Organization Research Articles

Controlling Australian Immigration: Holocaust Survivors in the Post‐War Years

Recent studies of immigration have questioned assumptions about the effectiveness of government controls. In her work on illegal Jewish immigration to the United States, Libby Garland argues that official immigration quotas may not reflect actual numbers of immigrants and critiques historians for being too ready to take immigration laws at face value. Mae Ngai's work on the racialisation of “illegal aliens” in the United States also documents the failure of legislation to curb illegal immigration. Situating her study within this historiography, Sheila Fitzpatrick has re‐examined Australian measures that aimed to limit the entry of Holocaust survivors and concluded that the number of arrivals was substantially higher than previously recognised, in part because migrants and their sponsors found ways around restrictions. In substantiation, Fitzpatrick drew on the archives of the International Refugee Organization and the Australian Government, and the papers of the country's first Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell. This article revisits Fitzpatrick's sources, as well as the records of Jewish organisations she did not consult. It establishes that the Australian government effectively limited Jewish immigration and the estimates of earlier scholars were substantially correct.

Women in child search: a gendered view of post-World War II reconstruction

ABSTRACT One of the most crucial sections of the International Tracing Service, centralized and established in 1948, was the Child Search Branch (CSB), which had the emotionally and ethically complex task of assisting ‘unaccompanied children’ who were discovered in far larger numbers after 1945 than anyone had expected. This article examines the role of three women relief workers who ran the CSB in the post-war period: Eileen Blackey, Cornelia Heise and Eileen Davidson. Focusing mainly on these exemplary cases, the authors evaluate and centre the women’s leadership and decisions, showing how women who worked for the CSB played roles that subverted the general rule in the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and its successor organization, the International Refugee Organization (IRO), which was that women were directed into ‘feminine’ posts. Women who ran the CSB played senior roles in child search and welfare and the decisions they took had significant and crucial outcomes for children, although gendered assessments of ‘carer’ and ‘feminine’ roles in UNRRA/IRO more widely have thus far hidden their activities as a subject worthy of analysis. This article shows how gender affected the spheres of influence the women carved out as they contributed to post-war reconstruction and humanitarian aid.

Governance abhors a vacuum: The afterlives of major international organisations

International organisations have become increasingly contested resulting in worries about their decline and termination. While international organisation termination is indeed a regular event in international relations, this article shows that other institutions carry the legacy of terminated international organisations. We develop the novel concept of international organisation afterlife and suggest indicators to systematically assess it. Our analysis of 26 major terminated international organisations reveals legal-institutional and asset continuity in 21 cases. To further illustrate this point, the article zooms in on the afterlife of the International Institute of Agriculture in the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Refugee Organization in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the Western European Union in the European Union. In these three cases, international organisation afterlife inspired and structured the design of their successor institutions. While specific international organisations might be terminated, international cooperation therefore often lives on in other institutions.

From the Bottom Up

In this article special focus is given to the casefiles of Soviet Central Asian nationals as they relate to the Care and Maintenance program under the International Refugee Organization (IRO). While refugees are often portrayed as void of agency or remain invisible, incidentally, these minorities’ voices and narratives are underrepresented in history of displacement and refugeedom too. The available records of this small group of refugees or displaced persons (DPs) are helpful in capturing their agency through exploring the ways they were navigating through the process of claiming assistance and protection in their particular circumstances.

‘Plausible Enough’: The IRO and the Negotiation of Refugee Status After the Second World War

National Socialism, the Second World War, Stalinism, the expansion of the Soviet Union, and other political crises in Europe led to millions of people fleeing or being abducted in the 1930s and 1940s. The ‘European refugee problem’ led to the establishment of several international organizations. With the founding of the International Refugee Organization (IRO) in 1946, the concept of refugees changed. For the first time, those that had previously been inevitably labelled refugees – whether as groups or individuals – now had to apply for this status. I argue that refugee status was not simply granted or denied by the IRO, but rather negotiated between IRO officers and applicants, often via a protracted, multistage process. These negotiations were based on the applicants’ portrayal of their own personal history and not (only) an objective history itself. However, the question is not only whether people told the ‘truth’ or not; rather, the applicants’ individual ‘negotiation skills’ and individual perceptions of the IRO officers also played a decisive role. Whilst most current research looks at the actions and strategies of ethnic, religious, national, or social groups, I expand this perspective with a focus on individual negotiations of being recognized as a refugee or Displaced Person by the IRO.

Destination Elsewhere: Displaced Persons and Their Quest to Leave Postwar Europe by Ruth Balint

<i>Destination Elsewhere: Displaced Persons and Their Quest to Leave Postwar Europe</i> by Ruth Balint

КЕҢЕС ОДАҒЫНЫҢ БҰҰ –ДАҒЫ ӘСКЕРИ ТҰТҚЫНДАРДЫ РЕПАТРИАЦИЯЛАУ МӘСЕЛЕСІНЕ ҚАТЫСТЫ САЯСАТЫ

The article studies the activities of Soviet diplomats in relation to the repatriation of prisoners of war. During World War II, the leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition agreed to establish an international organization that would be responsible for international security. In the post-war period, the UN raised the issue of repatriation of refugees and prisoners of war to their native countries. However, at that time, the legal aspects and mechanisms for the return of prisoners of war were not fully developed. During the discussion of the provisions of the refugee charter in the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, the Soviet Union introduced an amendment to return all prisoners of war to their countries of origin. While Western countries proposed to separate political dissidents and those who do not want to repatriate in the recipient countries. At that time, the USSR had few supporters in the UN, so almost all of its initiatives on the issue of prisoners of war and refugees did not receive support. Therefore, the USSR voted against the Charter of the International Refugee Organization and refused to temporarily participate in the work of the Third Committee.

The Death of Major International Organizations: When Institutional Stickiness is not Enough

Abstract Major international organizations (IOs) are heavily contested, but they are rarely dissolved. Scholars have focused on their longevity, making institutional arguments about replacement costs and institutional assets as well as IO agency to adapt and resist challenges. This article analyzes the limits of institutional stickiness by focusing on outlier cases. While major IOs are dissolved at considerably lower rates than minor IOs, the article nevertheless identifies twenty-one cases where major IOs have died since 1815. These are tough cases as they do not conform to our institutionalist expectations. To better understand these rare but important events, the article provides case illustrations from the League of Nations and International Refugee Organization, which were dissolved due to their perceived underperformance and a disappearing demand for cooperation. These cases show the limits of the institutional theories of IO stickiness: sometimes member states find high replacement costs justified or consider assets as sunk costs, and IOs may lack agency to strategically respond. This article refines theories of institutional stickiness and contributes to the institutional theory of the life and death of IOs.

Rethinking the Postwar International Migration Regime from the Global South: Venezuela in a Global History of White Immigration

AbstractBetween 1947 and early 1952, the International Refugee Organization (IRO), which was established within the framework of the United Nations to “solve” the so-called European refugee problem after the end of the Second World War, resettled one million European refugees—victims of Nazism as well as East European refugees who escaped the Red Army—all over the world. The IRO's resettlement project is regarded as a blueprint for the establishment of the postwar international migration regime, and it was the predecessor of later initiatives such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).In this article I argue that the IRO's history as well as the history of the migration regime after the Second World War has, thus far, mainly been written from the perspective of U.S. American and European history. Northern nations are considered agents in this history, while southern countries are considered as passive “destinations.” In the case of Venezuela, the article argues that the Global South's active role in the migration regime must be taken into consideration to understand postwar migration. From the perspective of a connective approach to global history, it shows how Venezuela, as a political agent, was involved in shaping the migration regime; how it perceived itself as an agent within that regime; and how it intervened on a small scale to shape its form and function.

Forced Migration and Refugee Resettlement in the Long 1940s: An Introduction to Its Connected and Global History

AbstractWhen considering the wave of forced migrations during the Second World War in Europe and Asia, and the international and institutional responses thereof, we can speak about the 1940s as witnessing the birth of a global refugee resettlement regime. Organisations including the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), the International Refugee Organization (IRO), and eventually the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) placed refugee resettlement at the heart of constructing the postwar world order. This volume adopts a global optic to investigate the formation of this international resettlement regime in Europe and Asia, while also studying refugee camps and movements, agency of refugees and migrants, decision factors for resettlement, and the intellectual production of people on the move. A historicisation of the global resettlement regime of the long 1940s may well carry important political and ethical lessons for us today, if only to remind us of the connected fates of our common humanity, and the responsibilities we therefore bear towards our fellow human beings.

From POW to Cold War DP: A Global Microhistory of Former Yugoslav Soldiers in Occupied Germany, 1946–48

AbstractThere are still many historical blind spots in research on Europe's displaced persons (DPs) after the Second World War. In particular, there are relatively few studies that link microhistorical perspectives on repatriation and resettlement with global contexts. This essay addresses this gap, in empirical as well as methodological terms, by focusing on a group of DPs that hitherto has received little attention from scholars: former members of the Royal Yugoslav Army, whom the Nazis had taken to Germany as prisoners of war (POWs). Classified as DPs after 1945, they lived in camps administered by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and the International Refugee Organization (IRO). Under the circumstances, they continued to maintain military-like routines and fiercely refused repatriation. This was partly an expression of loyalty to the exiled Yugoslav king, Peter II. But it also mirrored the fears of DPs about—and resistance to the idea of—being returned to their homeland in the context of the early Cold War. Using the example of a DP camp in Bad Aibling (Upper Bavaria), this article connects Yugoslav DPs, Allied DP politics, and the interests of Tito's government, as well as the interventions of international relief agencies. It shows how some DPs adroitly subverted the international logic of DP self-governance as promoted by UNRRA. A global microhistory approach thus reveals how local actors and sites are shaped by, but also foundationally constitutive of, global regimes of migrational self-governance.

Whither the Refugees? International Organisations and “Solutions” to Displacement, 1921–1960

Abstract Achieving “durable solutions” is a central goal of the contemporary refugee regime. Durable solutions are often equated with three routes to resolving displacement—voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement—and the concept is closely tied to ideas about permanency, protection, and the rectification of refugees’ legal limbo. Despite its contemporary prominence, the genealogy of the concept of durable solutions has not been fully considered. Accordingly, this article traces the origins of the concept of durable solutions for refugees from 1921 to 1960, examining how such solutions have been framed in international law and through the work of a key set of international organisations: the League of Nations, the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, the International Refugee Organization, the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. By historicising durable solutions discourse as it evolved in the inter-war, immediate post-Second World War and early Cold War eras, and analysing how different international organisations have understood the “refugee problem” and solutions to it, this article promotes critical (re)engagement with the very notion of durable solutions, and demonstrates how the contemporary trinity of voluntary repatriation, local integration, and resettlement emerged from earlier approaches shaped by geo-political and legal considerations tied to particular groups of refugees.

The topic of restitution in UN-Documentation following WW II

Based on an examination of the relevant UN-Documentation, this report identifies four notable instances of the topic of restitutions and reparations for victims of the Third Reich appearing as a topic of interest for UN bodies: the provisions made in the interest of refugees as part of the Paris Agreement, the discussion surrounding the draft of the Genocide Convention, as well as the legislative involvement of the International Refugee Organization (IRO) and the Secretary General of the UN (Sec-Gen) in the (later) Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). The funds created by the Paris Agreement are, probably, of the least interest, since they were conceived more as immediate relief than as individualized reparation. The discussion surrounding the Genocide Convention is interesting from a historical standpoint, as it attests an early and acute awareness of the underlying issues. However, any discussion addressing the restitution and reparation of victims of genocide did not find its way into the Convention. The involvement of the IRO with the Office of the Military Government for Germany, United States (OMGUS) and the FRG, which resulted in the drafting of specific laws on the matters of restitution and reparation, is perhaps the most interesting of the instances noted here. Potentially, the IRO played a significant role in the move towards restitution during the short years of its existence. Further investigations based on sources other than UN Documentation could reveal the extent to which the IRO was materially involved in the drafting of specific laws. The efforts of the Sec-Gen towards the reparation of victims of “medical” experimentation provides great insight into the process by which one such issue was discovered and addressed within the UN at the time. Beyond that, this is an instance in which there is a deeper understanding of the specific involvement of a UN-body with German reparatory legislation. In this case, it amounted to bringing up the issue and urging appropriate action without much involvement in the particulars of the resulting measures. Overall, it should be summarized that there was no consolidated or systematic effort towards the restitution of victims of the Third Reich on the parts of the UN. Rather, the issue appeared and reappeared with some frequency and only in certain cases did the UN take action.

Defining the ‘best interests’ of children during the post-1945 transformations in Europe

After World War II, the welfare workers of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and International Refugee Organization took care of refugee children in post-war Germany and assisted them in returning to their home countries. This article analyses the changes in welfare workers’ decisions about the future of unaccompanied displaced children of presumably Ukrainian origin in the light of the post-1945 transformations. It explores the relationship of transformations in the humanitarian approach to child resettlement with geopolitical ruptures between the former Allies after 1945. It aims to demonstrate that by 1947, welfare workers’ preconceived notion that the ‘best interests’ of Ukrainian children were served by reconnecting them with family and homeland, wherever possible, had given way in the face of political transformations that welfare workers confronted on the ground during the transition from war to peace. Despite their deep commitment to restoring children to their national and familial roots, they soon began to consider that allowing Ukrainian refugee children to emigrate was better for them than their repatriation to Soviet Ukraine.

Migration of Jewish “Displaced Persons” from Europe to Australia after the Second World War: Revisiting the Question of Discrimination and Numbers1

Post‐war Jewish immigration from Europe to Australia has been much discussed in the scholarship, primarily with reference to the question of discriminatory (anti‐semitic) intention on the part of the Australian government and the Department of Immigration bureaucracy. The assumption has often been made that the existence of discriminatory policy and practices necessarily led to a reduction in the number of Jewish migrants entering Australia. Using new data on Jewish entrants under the Mass Resettlement programme (1947–51) and under individual sponsorship on landing permits, as well as material from the archives of the International Refugee Organization which administered the Mass Resettlement programme, this article revisits the related questions of discriminatory intentions and quantitative outcomes, concluding that discriminatory intent, while stimulating evasive strategies of resistance on the part of individuals and institutions, does not necessarily result in significant reduction in the rate of entry of the migrants who are the object of discrimination.

Counting ‘China’ Russians: Building a Dataset of Russian Migration from China to Australia, 1946–54

This article sets out the process involved in building a dataset of ‘China’ Russians who, doubly displaced by first the Bolshevik Revolution and then the Communist takeover of China, arrived in Australia from 1946 to 1954. It has been difficult to build a profile of this group because Australian statistical data did not generally draw a distinction between those Russians who arrived from China and those who arrived from Europe as Displaced Persons. This article details the methods used to identify these arrivals, provides a preliminary discussion of the two main groups who arrived within this period (those who were part of a group who were transported to Tubabao, Philippines by the International Refugee Organisation, and those who came directly from China via individual sponsorship), and makes the case that constructing a dataset can assist in drawing attention to, rather than obscuring, individual lives.

Reckoning with refugeedom: refugee voices in modern history

ABSTRACT This article outlines an agenda to relocate refugees to the centre of historical enquiry by recovering and analysing their voices, in the form of letters and petitions sent to authorities within the refugee regime. We adopt a comparative approach by using evidence from four distinct incarnations of the refugee regime: the League of Nations in interwar Europe; the early post-1945 era represented by the International Refugee Organization (IRO); the era of the newly established Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); and the quarter century following Partition in India, specifically its impact in West Bengal. The article demonstrates how refugees’ voices were shaped by the social, cultural and administrative contexts within which they wrote, and that understanding these contexts can help us see why refugees framed their claims in particular ways. The article suggests that Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of ‘polyphony’ provides a means of understanding how refugees understood their predicament and engaged with the refugee regime from often contradictory and ambiguous viewpoints.

Refugee Participation Revisited: The Contributions of Refugees to Early International Refugee Law and Policy

Abstract This article challenges the assumption that until relatively recently refugees or persons with lived refugee experience have not been involved in the development of international refugee law and policy. By drawing on primary source material – including the preparatory work for international legal instruments such as the 1933 Convention relating to the International Status of Refugees and the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, along with the operational work of the League of Nations, the International Refugee Organization and the early years of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees – this article argues that refugees and persons with lived refugee experience exercised significant influence and thought-leadership in the development of international refugee law and policymaking during the foundational years between 1921 and 1955. These contributions to the development of international refugee law and policy are significant because they not only reorient our understanding of the ways in which international law and policy pertaining to refugees has been developed and negotiated to date, but also because they provide a practical example of how refugees can more meaningfully be included in the creation of laws and policies that affect them going forward.

Bordering and Repatriation: Displaced Unaccompanied Children from the Polish–Ukrainian Borderland after World War II

ABSTRACT After the end of World War II, the welfare workers of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and, from 1947, the International Refugee Organization (IRO) took care of displaced children and helped them to return to their home countries. This paper explores how the post-war controversies between the Soviet and Anglo-American governments and (re)bordering of the Polish–Soviet borderland changed the welfare workers’ approach to interpret belonging of unaccompanied displaced children of presumably Ukrainian origin. In the winter of 1945 the region of Eastern Poland was annexed by the Soviet Union. In the summer of 1945, British and American officials declared that they refused to recognize the acquisition of these territories by the Soviet Union. In result, the repatriation of unaccompanied Ukrainian children who originally came from this borderland became the subjects of intense controversy between the former Allies. The welfare workers used the fact of these children's belonging to the Polish–Soviet borderland as an argument against their repatriation to the Soviet Union. By looking into the social dimension of bordering processes, this article suggests that the UNRRA's and IRO's social workers redefined the border between the two countries in their daily work.

“I feel I am at the stage now of really learning something”: Esma Banner, Post‐Second World War Migration Worker and Photographer

Australian woman Esma Banner (1910–2001) was a keen amateur photographer who worked for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and the International Refugee Organisation (IRO) between 1945 and 1951. While posted in Germany, Banner kept a diary, wrote over 100 letters to her family, kept official reports, took photographs and collected art and craft by Displaced Persons (DP). In particular, photography and family were important to her. She said in a letter home: “You are all always in my thoughts – every picture I take is for you”.This article primarily focuses on visual materials in Esma Banner's personal papers. Banner's collection substantially documents her professional relief work with UNRRA and the IRO, and through this, her interactions with other relief workers as well as displaced children and adults can be seen. Here Banner's photographs and albums are read alongside published materials, letters and diaries to reveal a range of political, personal and gendered understandings of post‐Second World War reconstruction work. The material also provides some insights into the experiences of forcibly displaced children and adults. Banner's photographs are used to reflect upon the place of visual and personal sources in writing histories of post‐Second World War reconstruction.