Resettlement Policy Research Articles

Influencing Factors of Peasant Households’ Willingness to Relocate to Concentrated Residences in Mountainous Areas: Evidence from Rural Southwest China

Relocating poor people in mountainous areas to centralized settlement sites is an important poverty alleviation policy implemented by China and a key measure to promote stable poverty alleviation and sustainable rural development for the poor. Based on the survey data of 405 peasant households in the Panxi Area in 2021, this study constructed a structural equation model (SEM) to explore the influencing factors of peasant households’ willingness to relocate to a concentrated residence. The results showed the following: (1) Of the 405 peasant households surveyed, 20.98% were unwilling to move to centralized resettlement sites, making it more difficult to carry out the relocation policy for poverty alleviation. (2) Living environment, living conditions, important social groups, the economic benefits, living benefits, and survival benefits brought by concentrated residences, governments, and the village committees significantly influenced the willingness to relocate to a concentrated residence. In contrast, agricultural income, ecological benefits, and value benefits brought by the concentrated residence had little effect on the willingness to relocate to a concentrated residence. (3) Land force, human force, cognitive force, and national force significantly positively affected the peasant households’ willingness to relocate to a concentrated residence. This study is of great significance in promoting the implementation of poverty alleviation and relocation policy, improving the efficiency of relocation and promoting the wellbeing of peasant households.

Belarusization in Russian Regions in the 1920s in Modern Russian Historiography

The article presents a historiographical review of publications on the policy of Belarusization carried out in the Russian regions in the 1920s. This work does not address the publications of Belarusian and foreign researchers on the practice of implementing the new Soviet national policy within the territorial borders of the Belarusian Republic. The main attention is paid to the three Russian provinces bordering Belarus – Pskov, Smolensk and Bryansk. At the same time, the eastern territories of the RSFSR – the Urals, Siberia, and the Far East, where Belarusians found themselves as a result of the resettlement policy, especially at the beginning of the 20th century during the Stolypin agrarian reform, were not ignored. Belarusization, as part of the general policy of Korenization, proclaimed in 1923 at the XII Congress of the Russian Communist Party (b), in modern research is closely linked to the need to show new principles and directions of Soviet national policy for the development of Belarusian statehood and culture in contrast to the all-out polonization carried out by the Pilsudski government in Western Ukrainian and Belarusian lands ceded to Poland by the Riga Peace Treaty of 1921. A significant role in this process was assigned to the expansion of the state borders of the BSSR at the expense of Russian territories, especially in 1924 and 1926. However, Belarusization did not find any real support from the local authorities, who considered Belarusians to be part of the Russian population until the end of the 1920s, as well as due to the significant self-Russification of the Belarusian population in the Russian regions that had already taken place by the middle of the decade. Formally, these tasks were constantly on the agenda of the party and Soviet authorities in the second half of the 1920s. But they have not received any significant practical implementation.

‘Resettlement is worthwhile for our children’s future’: reflections from the Stateless Rohingya refugees in Malaysia

Resettlement to a third country offers a durable solution for refugees who cannot integrate into their asylum or transit countries. While most studies focus on the experiences of refugees after their arrival in resettlement countries or on the political aspects of resettlement, fewer studies explore refugees’ perspectives prior to resettlement. This paper examines how Rohingyas in Malaysia view their resettlement opportunities. We collected qualitative micronarratives from 56 adult Rohingyas living in Malaysia between March and September 2019, to explore the complexities of their decision-making processes. The findings indicate that most Rohingyas aspire to resettle in another country to gain legal status or citizenship, providing a better future for their children, including access to education and healthcare. However, preferences among Rohingyas vary: while some are eager to resettle, others express a strong desire to return to their home country in Myanmar. Still, others wish to reunite with family in Myanmar or Bangladesh, and a significant minority are reluctant to resettle in non-Islamic countries, reflecting broader concerns about cultural and religious compatibility. This study highlights the varied resettlement preferences among Rohingyas, underscoring the need for resettlement policies to consider these diverse priorities to enhance the effectiveness of resettlement programs.

Comparing Refugee Resettlement Services: A New Global Dataset and Typology

Abstract The number of countries participating in resettlement has increased substantially in recent years: since 2010, one-third of resettlement countries officially began offering permanent homes to refugees. The services provided to refugees upon resettlement are surprisingly distinct, even among countries with similar political and economic contexts. Despite the importance of these services, existing scholarship offers surprisingly little comparison of resettlement policies globally. To address this gap, this multi-method project analyses refugee resettlement services in 26 countries that are responsible for 99.9 per cent of all resettled refugees, from 1951 to present. The study introduces an original Global Resettlement Services dataset with 42 indicators that provide a current, reliable, and easily accessible overview of resettlement services in each country. Cluster analysis of these data helped to construct a typology that captures four distinct “types” of refugee resettlement: Limited Provision, Cultural Transition, Core Services, and Flexible Support. The typology provides a framework to help policy-makers, academics, and practitioners increase collaboration, design innovative programmes, and improve existing resettlement services. This study offers a comprehensive analysis of the different approaches to resettling refugees worldwide, with significant implications for advancing theory and improving global refugee resettlement policies.

Online News: Media Framing On Indonesia’s Capital City Relocation Policy

Objectives: The research aims to describe the position of the media in Indonesia in constructing an event using framing analysis. Methods: One of the framing analysis forms existing in communications research is that by Zhongdang Pan and Gerald M. Kosicki, which involves four major structures, namely, syntactic structures, script structures, thematic structures, and rhetorical structures. Framing analysis is a form of qualitative research. It particularly has relevance to the phenomenon of capital city relocation news reporting. Data were collected from online news reports by four media outlets, namely, Metro TV, CNN Indonesia, CNBC Indonesia, and Kompas TV. The news reports analyzed were set within the time frame between April of 2019 and January of 2022. All the online news reports pertaining to the capital city relocation were compared between the four media outlets to draw a conclusion as to how the media outlets positioned themselves in constructing the event under investigation. Results: The findings indicated that each television media outlet presented news on the capital city relocation policy in their respective fashions: Metro TV showed approval, CNBC Indonesia and CNN Indonesia did an inclination towards disapproval, and Kompas TV did a neutral view regarding the capital city relocation policy. Conclusions: The four media that were the object of research show that each media has a different agenda regarding events that occurred in Indonesia, especially the relocation of the capital city. These differences come from differences in motives, vision and mission, ideology, political affiliation and goals.

Community music, identity and belonging among Dutchies in Australia: Comparing assimilation to multiculturalism

AbstractThis article discusses variations in the experiences of Dutch identity and belonging to a music‐making group in the Dutch migrant community in Melbourne, Australia. It answers the research question “Which variations of ‘Dutch identity’ are there for the participants and how does music‐making relate to this?”. Feelings of identity and belonging are shaped by federal policies and micro‐interactions. This article builds on the concepts related to migrant identity and ethnomusicology in the context of two distinct federal integration policies: the White Australia policy (which is characterised by an assimilation policy) and multiculturalism. The findings showed that community music has the potential to bridge generational, gender and class differences. Multiculturalism, enabling the participants to meet and sing in Dutch, empowered them to explore their dual identity as Dutch Australians, intersecting with disability, racial differences, age and education level. This study improves our understanding of the impact of diverse emigration and immigration resettlement policies that form part of the complexities of diverse generations and backgrounds of the Dutch‐Australian diaspora.

Complicating “community” engagement: Reckoning with an elusive concept in climate-related planned relocation

As planned relocation becomes an increasingly utilized climate adaptation strategy, guidance for effective practice consistently emphasizes the importance of “community” engagement throughout relocation planning, decision-making, and implementation. Yet “community” is not a monolith operating in consensus, where engagement is achieved simply through the interaction of internal and external actors. To move beyond this binary paradigm where community engagement is a box to be checked, we offer a conceptual framework with three key questions for consideration for those operationalizing community engagement strategies in relocation policy and practice. 1) Who constitutes the community in planned relocation? 2) Who facilitates planned relocation? 3) What is meaningful community engagement? As part of this framework, we introduce the overlooked role of actors bridging community and facilitation worlds, here called intermediaries, and how they can enhance or hinder meaningful engagement. Finally, we explore novel approaches for researchers and practitioners to advance context-specific engagement before, during, and after climate-related relocation processes to promote genuine self-determination among those relocating.

Exploring the obstruction and relief of land acquisition and relocation policy implementation based on the mutual adaptation model

Exploring the obstruction and relief of land acquisition and relocation policy implementation based on the mutual adaptation model

Resettlement Knowledge: The Expertise of Service Providers

Abstract Refugee resettlement is implemented by service providers who translate standardised policies into tangible services that meet the immediate needs of their diverse refugee clients on a daily basis. These service providers play a vital role in supporting newly arrived refugees, yet we know little about the work that resettlement entails. Considering prior research on the shortcomings of refugee resettlement policy along with scholarship on the dilemmas faced by street-level bureaucrats, this article sheds light on the role of professional expertise in carrying out this complex and dynamic programme of service provision. This article reveals how, alongside their formal prescribed duties of service management and administrative management, resettlement agency caseworkers also engage in the unofficial work of needs management and crisis management. To best support their refugee clients, caseworkers draw on specialised expertise that I call “resettlement knowledge.” Based on over 1,000 hours of ethnographic fieldwork in a resettlement agency in two cities in the United States and 102 interviews with refugees and service providers, this article illuminates the complexities of resettlement work, providing a nuanced representation of this occupation and the depth of unrecognised labour that states rely on for resettlement.

Understanding mobility and immobility choices in vulnerable coastal settlements: insights from southwest India

ABSTRACT This study explores the influence of social, environmental, governance, and other household factors on migration decision-making in hazard-affected coastal areas in southwest India. Through nearly 900 interviews with households residing in these vulnerable areas and with households that have migrated elsewhere, this paper analyses the determinants that influence the propensity for migration versus staying, as well as for voluntary immobility versus involuntary immobility. Logistic regression was used to distinguish significant factors. The results showed that governance factors and the extent of impact were the most influential in migration decision-making, while social and household factors were the most relevant in determining voluntary non-migrants. The decision to migrate was found to be strongly influenced by post-disaster rehabilitation assistance by the government, while the decision to stay was influenced by the kind of coastal protection measures that were in place. These insights have significant implications for migration and planned relocation policies and can be leveraged to design more effective interventions for both immobile and migrating populations.

Unlocking the tapestry of conservation: Navigating ecological resettlement policies in Nepal

Conservation initiatives involve a complex interplay of various ecological, socio-political, and economic factors. Ecological resettlement (ER), implemented within the context of nature conservation policies, stands as one of the most contested issues worldwide. This study aims to navigate the domain of ER policy in conservation through discursive institutionalism and a policy arrangement approach. Focusing on Nepal's conservation policy pathways over the last seven decades, we critically analyze policy ideas and narratives, trends, patterns of policy development, institutional arrangements, driving factors, and responses to contemporary ER policies. Methods involved a systematic literature review (n = 271), a comprehensive review of policy documents and project reports (n > 150), and expert interviews (n = 20). Over the past 50 years, >7600 households in Nepal have been displaced in the name of ER and are still persisting despite the rhetoric of participatory conservation. With changes in political regimes, conservation policy has shifted from a hunting-focused approach to landscape-level and transboundary conservation. Initially influenced by internal factors such as economic and political governance, conservation policies were later shaped by international conservation discourse. Also, the operational sphere of such policy ideas and narratives ˗ including actors, resources, discourses, and rules ˗ along with trends, priorities, institutional arrangements, and driving factors of ER policies, has changed over time. Further, the exclusion of deprived communities and the capture of conservation benefits by elites have undermined conservation values. This research stresses the importance of a judicious balance between people's welfare and nature's integrity, emphasizing community-based natural resource management models accredited to a conservation standard. We further urge the revision of displacement-oriented conservation policies to secure the rights of Indigenous people and traditional landholders, thereby ensuring conservation and sustainable development at both national and global levels.

The Mapping of Argument on the Indonesian Capital City (IKN) Relocation Policy

The Mapping of Argument on the Indonesian Capital City (IKN) Relocation Policy

On the problems of education of national minorities in Kazakhstan in the 20s and 30s of the XXcentury (on the materials of Northern Kazakhstan)

The article is an analysis of the problem of education of national minorities in Kazakhstan in the 20–30 years of the XX centuries.The focus of the researchers is on the initial period of Soviet power, when the processes of modernization and national self-determination intensified in the country. The main trends in the creation of the school system of national minorities, such as the opening of national schools, national cultural and educa-tional institutions, training of national teaching staff are considered. The peculiarity of the ethnic structure of the population of Kazakhstan in the studied period was the diversity of its national composition as a result of the active resettlement policy of the Russian Empire and migration processes of the Soviet period. The au-thors also pay attention to regional peculiarities in the development of the school system in Kazakhstan.The specificity of Northern Kazakhstan was that the German, Ukrainian, and Tatar populations were represented to a greater extent here; accordingly, the provincial education authorities paid special attention to the creation of schools for these ethnic groups, the number of which was increasing every year. The authors dwell sepa-rately on the problems and difficulties encountered by local education authorities —the lack of educational literature in the native language, the lack of basic conditions for organizing educational activities for national minorities, weak teaching staff, and the lack of experience in carrying out effective work to solve these prob-lems. The main reasons for overcoming these difficulties were the great diversity and dispersion of the popuation of Kazakhstan, the peculiarities of its economic way of life, the colonial past, the lack of specialists in local authorities to solve the problems of national minorities, the lack of funds for the development of nation-al schools.

The production, distribution and attribution of risk: a conceptual framework to climate-related risk management from the perspective of Arraigo in Bogotá, Colombia

ABSTRACT This article offers a critical perspective on disaster risk management, arguing that the mainstream approaches are based on reductive epistemologies that constrain access to a dimension of knowledge, that not only fails to mitigate risk, it actually increases it. Re-examining the notion of underlying risk drivers, the study investigates risk through ontological and sociological approaches to define three different operations or risk dynamics: the production, distribution and attribution of risk. The framework outlined is based on a case study of Bogotá, Colombia, where the notion of «arraigo» has served to anchor the popular resistance to risk-related relocation policies, revealing historical constructions (risk production), preferences and exclusions embedded within knowledge systems (risk attribution), and spatial patterns of permissiveness, control and regulations, or asymmetries across the geographical space (risk distribution). This three-branched conceptual framework has practical implications, serving to integrate the underlying risk drivers into the knowledge and stewardship frames of action to respond to the political questions in disaster risk management and leverage their transformative potential as climate adaptation measures.

Destabilization of the Peasant Community during the years of Stolypin's agrarian reforms: a microhistorical overview

The objective of the article is to analyze the information found in the Ukrainian newspaper "Rada" regarding the resettlement and forced eviction of peasants from settlements in Uman County during the implementation of P. A. Stolypin's reform. This information sheds light on demographic changes and the moral values of peasant communities (rural communities). The research methodology combines general scientific, specialized historical, and interdisciplinary methods and tools of scientific analysis. The scientific novelty lies in the use of microhistorical approaches to expand anthropocentrism in the discussed topic, which may be considered well-studied when it comes to resettlement policy in the years 1906-1912. As for the issue of forced eviction by the decision of the rural community, the material presented in the article could serve as the starting point for a comprehensive study of this segment of peasant self-government activity. An element of novelty is the introduction of information into scientific circulation that complements local history and ethnographic studies. Conclusions. Between 1907 and 1912, the Ukrainian newspaper "Rada" published more than thirty notes about migration and forced evictions from rural communities in just one Uman County of the Kyiv Governorate. Systematizing such information personalizes the migration of Ukrainian peasantry during the Stolypin agrarian reforms, detailing general perceptions of resettlement policy, and revealing the risks and difficulties faced by the most active peasantry, which sought a better life but often fell victim to various fraudsters and the imperial authorities due to their naivety, trustfulness, and illiteracy. Systematization of information about forced evictions from rural communities by the decision of the rural community provided the opportunity to identify the reasons and mechanisms for such punishment. The reasons for eviction and the number sentenced to expulsion indicate the presence of crisis phenomena in the peasant society. The government's desire to resettle the most active peasants to remote regions of the empire and the spread of the practice of cleansing rural communities of politically undesirable and socially problematic elements did not yield the expected results: the subjugation and pacification of the peasantry.

Evaluating the Ecological Restoration Effectiveness of Poverty Alleviation Relocation through Carbon Storage Analysis: Insights from Karst Regions

The Poverty Alleviation Relocation (PAR) policy is widely regarded as an effective approach for breaking the cycle of ecological vulnerability and poverty. However, quantitative research on the ecological restoration effectiveness of PAR lacks sufficient experimental data support. This study focuses on the karst region and employs analysis methods such as volume-derived biomass and correlation analysis to evaluate the impact of PAR on carbon storage in forest ecosystems using on-site experimental data. The objective is to enhance and broaden the research framework for assessing PAR’s ecological restoration effectiveness. The findings reveal that, compared to the pre-PAR implementation period in 2015, the study area experienced an 8.16% increase in forest land area and a 6.57% increase in carbon storage after six years of PAR implementation in 2021. Following PAR implementation, carbon storage in the stone desertification area surged by 14.31%, indicating a significant correlation between PAR households and carbon storage variables. In the karst area, carbon storage increased by 4.34%, exhibiting a significant correlation between the two variables. Conversely, in the non-karst area, carbon storage rose by 5.01%, but no significant correlation was observed between the variables. Furthermore, post-PAR implementation, there is a discernible trend of stronger carbon storage enhancement with increasing distance from the relocated PAR households.

Imperial Policy of Resettlement in the North Caucasus and Muhajirism of the Highlanders in the second half of the 19th century: Main Stages and Consequences for the Region

Imperial Policy of Resettlement in the North Caucasus and Muhajirism of the Highlanders in the second half of the 19th century: Main Stages and Consequences for the Region

Caring citizens: Refugee families, welfare, and affective equality

AbstractThe United States resettles refugees as humanitarian‐aid recipients and authorizes them to work so that they may achieve immediate self‐sufficiency. Current and former refugees, who utilize public assistance, must engage in a work activity or risk losing their benefits eligibility. Is employment the right activity for them? Workfare poses challenges for families with young children. When primary caregivers (typically mothers) transition into the formal labor force, they face constraints on their capacity to determine their child's care and on the timing of their physical separations from that child. The employment focus of both workfare and resettlement policies reflects a neoliberal ideal of citizens as workers, unencumbered by partners or dependents. I utilize the concept of affective equality from Kathleen Lynch's Care and Capitalism to consider the institutional disregard of people's relational and moral needs in refugee resettlement programs. Based on research in western New York among Karen and Karenni refugees from Myanmar, this article examines how families contend with resettlement and workfare constraints on their capacity to care. I describe how interlocutors' families manage affective inequalities by constructing and utilizing family networks who nurture a care ethic focused on familial needs like the provision of kin‐based care.

Developing a Measurement Framework for Ethiopian Dry Port Sustainability: An Empirical Study

Developing a Measurement Framework for Ethiopian Dry Port Sustainability: An Empirical Study

Inclusion trajectories of resettled refugees in Germany

Resettlement policies and practices are supposed to allow the most vulnerable per-sons to settle permanently in Germany. In the mixed-method research project In-clusiveRE, we used an integrative literature review, a telephone survey, and quali-tative in-depth interviews to examine the extent to which Germany provides inclu-sive pathways for resettled refugees with and without disabilities. Using an intersec-tional lens, we analysed how structural contexts and public discourses shape (in)equality processes and, consequently, the subjects' self-positioning and coping strategies. Our article focuses on the results of the telephone survey. Knowledge about resettlement pathways in Germany is limited and almost exclu-sively provided by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. In our study, 51 people who resettled in Germany gave feedback on their experiences of the first few months in their new communities. The interviewees faced considerable diffi-culties and barriers: family ties with relatives already living in Germany are consid-ered in 43% of the cases; access to language-appropriate support services is poor, with 12% of participants reporting no access to any kind of support; and in some instances, bureaucratic barriers limit rapid access to residence permits and social benefits. Due to the absence of inclusive structures in the communities, resettled families have to rely on their individual resources and skills. Hence, based on the survey results, we suggested more rights- and needs-based arrival conditions in Germany that will enable resettled refugees with diverse abilities to settle and par-ticipate in their new residence.