Refugee Crisis Research Articles

Authoritarian neoliberalism between Johnson and Jupiter: Declining legitimacy and the elevation of home affairs in post-Brexit Britain and Macron’s France

In the face of protracted stagnation following the global financial crisis, democratic governments who remain committed to neoliberalism are still required to secure popular support for their programmes. This article evaluates how this dilemma has presaged a shift in the relationship between governmental attempts to maintain neoliberal legitimacy and the imposition of authoritarian reforms. We argue that, in the aftermath of the 2015 refugee crisis, this shift has consisted of the elevation of home affairs policy and the advance of a ‘mutated’ politics of legitimation characterised by explicit forms of ‘othering’ and hostility towards the wider political system. Drawing on the examples of the UK and France, we show how this deepening authoritarianism has manifested along two interconnected axes: (1) increased police powers and suppression of protests and civil liberties; (2) enhanced border security and restrictions on citizenship. Contributing to scholarship on authoritarian neoliberalism, we argue that this elevation of home affairs not only augurs the intensification of authoritarianism, but also reveals how governments have utilised popular resistance to authoritarian reforms to generate new forms of reactionary ‘consent’.

Deconstructing the nexus between the influx of Rohingya refugees and the economy (Labor) in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

Over the past decade, refugee crises have dominated the headlines of social media on a daily basis. Millions of individuals have left their homes in pursuit of safety and a promising future. Examples like the Syrian civil conflict and the Rohingya exodus to Bangladesh stand out, and the number of such instances is exponentially increasing around the world. The latest addition to this crisis is the Ukraine-Russia war (February 2022), which has already displaced 14 million Ukrainian people. Different countries have hosted a large number of refugees, but this often brings about a very negative impact on the host communities. Various socio-economic and political crises arise due to the influx of refugees. This study focuses on the Rohingya refugees who have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh. Given their influx to Bangladesh, a developing and overcrowded country, the host community faces innumerable problems. In addition, this study explores other aspects especially, the labor market. Rohingya refugees receive support from donor organizations. Therefore, there is a question to ask. How do the refugees influence the economy of the host country? This study aims to find answers to this unexplored question. After the arrival of the Rohingya, this labor market has shrunk for local Bangladeshi women in the study area. The majority of impoverished women work roughly 3/4 of an hour in a particular household. Their daily earnings are less than $1 while they work on domestic chores. Thousands of national and foreign staff live in those areas that have brought a dramatic change in housing patterns. The influx of refugees also led to a decrease in wages and employment prospects for another segment of the Bangladeshi population, identified as the economically disadvantaged group.

Video Games as Awareness Raisers, Attitude Changers, and Agents of Social Change

The widespreadness of video games, particularly among digital natives, requires ongoing exploration of their profound effects. This study aligns with this need, investigating video games as possible tools for positive societal influence and exploring their potential to address sensitive social issues. Transportation theory underscores the transformative potential of video games, casting players as “travellers” who, traversing stages of reality dissolution, emotional connection, and altered return, present a pathway for attitude transformation. Participants (N=98) engaged with “Survival,” “Paper, Please,” and “Against All Odds” to explore the effectiveness of video games in addressing the refugee crisis, increasing awareness of the issue at hand, changing perceptions, and encouraging them to take action in real life. The study’s results align with integrated threat theory, revealing that immersive gaming experiences can induce significant changes in attitudes, decrease denial, and increase empathy. The results highlight the potential of video games to educate people about pressing global issues and invoke empathy without trivialising problems. Consequently, while this study extends the current body of knowledge, it offers some promising directions for further research to validate the affirmative impact of video games in this realm.

Victim or Threat? Shipwrecks, Terrorist Attacks, and Asylum Decisions in France

AbstractTragic events such as terrorist attacks have been shown to influence voters’ policy preferences, but less is known about whether such events also affect actual immigration policy. In this study, I bring new evidence to this question by examining whether migrant shipwrecks and terrorist attacks affected asylum decisions in France during the refugee crisis of 2015–16. I find that asylum officers were more likely to approve an individual's refugee application if a shipwreck has recently been in the news than they are otherwise. Yet they were less likely to grant refugee status to asylum seekers from Syria and Iraq after a terrorist attack. Together, these findings suggest that tragic events can affect immigration policy through their influence on asylum officers.

Italy, Turkey and China in the Eastern Mediterranean: Implications for the EU

ABSTRACT The Eastern Mediterranean is undergoing rapid transformations, increasing its importance in current international affairs for four main reasons: i) the energy dimension and the discovery of natural gas fields; ii) the new geopolitical dynamics testing the balance of power between states; iii) the refugee crisis; and iv) the renewed presence of external great powers. In this framework, the article explores the role of Italy and Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean region with a focus on energy issues and the refugee crisis. It also analyses China’s growing influence in this region and in Italy in the context of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the implications of these policies for the European Union.

Worthy and Unworthy Refugees: Framing the Ukrainian and Syrian Refugee Crises in Elite American Newspapers

ABSTRACT This research comparatively examined coverage of the 2015 Syrian refugee crisis and 2022 Ukrainian refugee crisis in five elite American daily papers. The study employed quantitative content analysis and was guided by framing theory. Findings suggest that newspapers were more likely to humanize Ukrainian refugees than Syrian refugees, and to frame Syrian refugees as threats and aggressors. The paper discusses the implications of the findings in light of past research into anti-Muslim media discourse.

Anti-Immigrant Eurosceptic Worldview in Estonia: a Comparison of Russian-Speaking and Estonian-Speaking Communities

This article analyzes the transformation of the attitude of the Russian-speaking and Estonian-speaking communities of Estonia towards the reception of refugees from the 1990s until the present day. A comparison is made of the attitude towards immigrants of various origins (African, Asian, Ukrainian refugees, entrants from Russia) by ethnic Estonians with the perception of them by local Russian-speaking residents of this Baltic state. The author examines the reasons for the negative and positive perception of Estonians towards immigrants of various origins. It is noted that there is a direct connection between the current perception of immigrants in Estonia and the historical past of this country. The paper describes the sharp increase in Euroscepticism in Estonia after the start of the European migration crisis in 2015, as well as the serious joint opposition of the state’s authorities and its residents to the refugee distribution quotas imposed by the European Commission. In addition to the similarities in the approaches of the two largest communities on the issue of refugees, the author also identified a number of significant differences on this topic, which is sensitive for all Estonians. The paper concludes that the refugee crisis and anti-immigrant Eurosceptic worldview have largely united ethnic Russians and Estonians living in Estonia in the face of a “common threat”. It is also justified that the present warm and hospitable attitude of ethnic Estonians towards Ukrainian refugees in the medium term may be replaced by “fatigue” and apathy towards them.

Towards improving agility in public administration

In times of crises, such as the refugee crisis or the corona pandemic, the workload in public administrations increases because of the demands of citizens or short-term legal changes. In addition, there is an increasing need for digitalization or to be able to react flexibly to changes. Agile process models and agile practices are appropriate to overcome these challenges. The objective of this paper is to investigate how public administrations can measure their degree of agility to identify potential for improving it. The authors conducted a descriptive single-case study which included multiple units of analysis in a public administration in Germany. The case study was supported by their questionnaire for measuring the degree of agility. One outcome of this study is a conceptual framework that can be used to drive agile transformation in public administrations by continuously measuring agility. Therefore, a questionnaire for measuring agility at team level in public administrations has been developed. The application of the questionnaire in three teams provide insights into dysfunctionality in the interdisciplinary teams as well as optimization potential in terms of affinity to change. The adoption of agility in public administration is a challenge, given that resistance to change is still prevalent. A transformational change is a constant journey, and therefore, the measurement of progress plays an important role in the continuous improvement of an organization. The applied approach delivers high potential for improvement in terms of agility and provides interesting insights for both practitioners and academics.

Positum MGS Coaching Protocol in the Framework of Positive Group Psychotherapy Training for Specialists Working with Groups of Children and Adults Affected by War, Disasters and Refugee Crises: a Case Study

War brings destruction in the broader sense, forcing millions to flee their homes, and resulting in an increased burden of depression, anxiety, PTSD and other mental and behavioral disorders. This burden grows even more in the framework of pandemics and natural disasters, as social and protection services experience crisis of resources. Providing one-to-one mental health care is no longer feasible for masses of refugee and internally displaced children and adults who need support, and, as a result, the need to have increasing numbers of mental health specialists who intervene in groups becomes more and more emergent. The paper reviews the Positum MGS approach to work with groups of children and adults in refugee settings, and not only, suggests the ‘Positum MGS coaching protocol’ within the framework of group Positive Psychotherapy (PPT after Peseschkian, since 1977)TM. Empirically supported and demonstrated by a case in the paper, the protocol being applied by a Positum MGS trainer or team of trainers, during an in-person training of 4-5 days, helps trainees greatly in learning to use psychosocial transcultural games and related techniques as resilience-building tools with groups of children, adolescents or adults. Either in the position of PPT trainers, psychotherapists, consultants or students, the participants in a Positum MGS core training and coaching or PPT training at basic or master levels with a focus of working with groups, can be supported through the suggested coaching protocol and questions in line with the 5-stage consultation of PPT.

Has the war in Ukraine changed Europeans’ preferences on refugee policy? Evidence from a panel experiment in Germany, Hungary and Poland

ABSTRACT The Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 resulted in the largest refugee crisis in Europe since WWII. Using a unique panel conjoint experiment on refugee policy preferences carried out in Germany, Poland and Hungary just before and after the onset of the war in Ukraine, we show a heterogenous response to the influx of refugees from Ukraine across the three countries: no change of policy preferences in Germany, moderate change in Hungary and a significant change in Poland. Our results have direct implications for the development of a common EU asylum policy, as even though the countries persistently diverge on the preferred mode of asylum seekers’ allocation, with Germans favouring relocation and Poland and Hungary the status quo, the results highlight the scope for consensus rooted in shared preference for the asylum seekers’ unrestricted access to the labour market. This dimension consistently emerges as the most important policy dimension in all three countries before and after the outbreak of war.

The Refugee Crisis in Europe: An Analysis of the EU’s Response and Its Impact on Member States

The refugee crisis in Europe has been a pressing issue for several years now, with millions of people fleeing conflict, persecution and poverty in their home countries. The European Union (EU) has been at the forefront of efforts to address the crisis, with member states grappling with the challenge of providing a haven for refugees while also dealing with large-scale migration political, economic and social implications domestically. The article will clarify these problems.

Left authoritarianism and positional shifts of populist parties in Central and Eastern Europe

ABSTRACT The key to understanding the emergence of left authoritarianism in Central and Eastern Europe lies in how populist parties alter their policy positions during times of crises. In response to the refugee crisis of 2015, these parties adopt extreme stances on cultural issues. Interestingly, the same parties did not appear to modify their economic policy positions when confronted with the financial crisis of 2008. The case studies of Lithuania and Hungary presented in this article add that the success of these shifts depends on party competition, the electoral system, corruption scandals, and political actors' commitment to voter- party linkage.

A closer look at the international health regulations capacities in Lebanon: a mixed method study

BackgroundLebanon ratified the International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005) in 2007, and since then, it has been facing complex political deadlocks, financial deterioration, and infectious disease emergencies. We aimed to understand the IHR capacities’ scores of Lebanon in comparison to other countries, the IHR milestones and activities in Lebanon, the challenges of maintaining the IHR capacities, the refugee crisis's impact on the development of these capacities; and the possible recommendations to support the IHR performance in Lebanon.MethodsWe used a mixed-method design. The study combined the use of secondary data analysis of the 2020 State Party Self-Assessment Annual Report (SPAR) submissions and qualitative design using semi-structured interviews with key informants. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine key informants. The analysis of the data generated was based on inductive thematic analysis.ResultsAccording to SPAR, Lebanon had levels of 4 out of 5 (≤ 80%) in 2020 in the prevention, detection, response, enabling functions, and operational readiness capacities, pertaining that the country was functionally capable of dealing with various events at the national and subnational levels. Lebanon scored more than its neighboring countries, Syria, and Jordan, which have similar contexts of economic crises, emergencies, and refugee waves. Despite this high level of commitment to meeting IHR capacities, the qualitative findings demonstrated several gaps in IHR performance as resource shortage, governance, and political challenges. The study also showed contradictory results regarding the impact of refugees on IHR capacities. Some key informants agreed that the Syrian crisis had a positive impact, while others suggested the opposite. Whether refugees interfere with IHR development is still an area that needs further investigation.ConclusionThe study shows that urgent interventions are needed to strengthen the implementation of the IHR capacities in Lebanon. The study recommends 1) reconsidering the weight given to IHR capacities; 2) promoting governance to strengthen IHR compliance; 3) strengthening the multisectoral coordination mechanisms; 4) reinforcing risk communication strategies constantly; 5) mobilizing and advancing human resources at the central and sub-national levels; 6) ensuring sustainable financing; 7) integrating refugees and displaced persons in IHR framework and its assessment tools; 8) acknowledging risk mapping as a pre-requisite to a successful response; and 9) strengthening research on IHR capacities in Lebanon.

‘Tangled times’: Central American refugee perspectives on the long Cold War*

ABSTRACT Between the 1970s and 1990s, state-led violence drove one-quarter of El Salvador’s population—most of them peasants—into exile. Studies of this phenomenon often adopt a bureaucratic, top-down approach, treating it as an anomaly, a problem to be solved by international leaders. Adopting a transnational social historical approach allows us to see this Cold War-era ‘refugee crisis’ as the peasants saw it—as part of much longer historical patterns of dispossession and resistance. This article traces their displacement narratives over thirty years. Drawing from two decades of work with displaced Salvadorans, public and private archives, and oral histories, it first brings to light how Salvadorans threaded together Spanish colonialists, Salvadoran oligarchs, US imperialists, and international humanitarian organizations into a noose of destructive outside interests. It then explores how, rather than submit to conventional portrayals of refugees as pawns or passive victims, Salvadorans identified as citizen-activists who harnessed displacement as an opportunity to continue progressing toward long-standing goals of building a more just and equitable world. Finally, the article moves to the present, as former refugees purposefully excavate the 1980s crisis to expose the roots of current mass migrations. The street gang wars that trigger today’s flights are nothing new, peasants argue; they are a living legacy of the Cold War. By emphasizing the past/present and local/global nexuses, these narratives recast the Cold War in terms of actors, causes, consequences, and chronology, while also demonstrating the value of looking beyond violence to consider the dreams of—and movements toward—a better tomorrow.

Welfare chauvinism in times of crises: The impact of the radical right political discourse

This article examines the impact of the radical right political discourse on welfare chauvinistic attitudes over time. Using data from two rounds of the European Social Survey (2008/09 and 2016/17), the Comparative Political Data Set and the Manifesto Project for 17 European countries, our analyses show that radical right mobilization and the salience of political rhetoric framed on cultural diversity and immigration issues have a significant positive effect on welfare chauvinist attitudes. Although in the years after the Great Recession and the refugee crisis, welfare chauvinism remained fairly stable among the general European public, the influence of radical right mobilization and negative political discourse on welfare chauvinism has significantly increased. Furthermore, we find that when radical right parties become stronger and the political rhetoric regarding cultural diversity and immigration becomes more salient, differences in welfare chauvinist attitudes between people with different political affiliations become more polarized. These results contribute to a broader understanding of the mechanisms underlying welfare chauvinistic attitudes and mark the importance of the inclusion of political factors in studies on welfare chauvinism.

Refugee fiction as world-literature: Rethinking registration in the contemporary refugee novel

ABSTRACT The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees #IBelong campaign reinforces the importance of national belonging in crisis resolution. However, both the “refugee crisis” and world-literature complicate this classification of belonging. Whilst research into refugee fiction is abundant, readings of refugee fiction as world-literature are sparse. This paper re-examines the impact of the “refugee crisis” on classifications of belonging, arguing that a reading of refugee fiction through the Warwick Research Collective’s definition of world-literature enables an understanding of the systems and forces underlying the crisis. Synthesizing the work of the Warwick Research Collective, Hannah Arendt, and Judith Butler, it explores contemporary social (rather than national) belonging in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West, enabling a critique of the United Nations-led assignment of rights in the contemporary world. Through reading registration in refugee fiction, we can re-examine literature’s role in crisis, critiquing contemporary responses to the “refugee crisis”, and contributing alternative approaches based on collective belonging.

When the past repeats itself: narrating refugee children’s stories in Rabih Alameddine’s The Wrong End of the Telescope

ABSTRACT This paper examines Lebanese-American novelist Rabih Alameddine’s representations of the hardships and difficulties that refugee children encounter as they flee their homelands, sometimes as unaccompanied minors. Set on the Greek island of Lesbos during the 2015–2016 refugee crisis, Alameddine’s The Wrong End of the Telescope (2021) depicts the sufferings of refugee children, and simultaneously draws on mythological events to underline their miseries and anguishes in contemporary times. By juxtaposing contemporary stories of refugee children with those of children and young people from classical literature, such as Icarus and Arion, Alameddine’s narrative attempts to document these stories and save them from oblivion. As the narrator, Dr Mina Simpson, relates the events she witnesses during her sojourn in Lesbos, she becomes aware of her position as a person who once went through similar experiences of deprivation and dislocation. In this sense, The Wrong End of the Telescope critiques and exposes anti-immigration policies implemented by European countries to curb the influx of immigrants and asylum-seekers from the Middle East. Employing a postcolonial perspective, this paper highlights how Alameddine’s novel links the contemporary refugee crisis to Europe’s colonial past and shows how the Mediterranean has become a cemetery for children and young people who aspire to better living conditions.

SCHOOL LEADERS’ PERCEPTIONS ON BARRIERS FOR CREATING INCLUSIVE INTERCULTURAL ENVIRONMENTS AND POTENTIAL GENERATIVE AI BENEFITS

Greek schools have been progressively challenged by the diversification of student demographics during the past decade. The European refugee crisis after 2015 has triggered immense needs to create inclusive intercultural school environments for disabled students whose first language and cultural backgrounds differ from the dominant Greek middle-class students in mainstream schools. School leaders play a vital role in creating inclusive schοols that respect race, culture, ability, class, family background, and linguistic diversity. Social justice leadership constitutes an integral part of inclusive intercultural education, yet works exploring school leaders’ struggles in engaging in this type of leadership in Greece are scarce. This work gives voice to women educational leaders in Greece and investigates the barriers they encounter in providing appropriate education to migrant students with disabilities. Moreover, it explores school leaders’ perceptions of how generative AI applications can potentially be used to minimize these barriers.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0078/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Community resilience in response to humanitarian and refugee crisis caused by Russian invasion of Ukraine – a case study of Polish border communities

Since this study aim is to analyze the role of community resilience in response to crisis and uncertainty, two cases of community responses to an unprecedented refugee and humanitarian crisis caused by Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24th February 2022 made by two Polish border communities from two corners of Poland, one in northeast, in a borderland area referred to as Suwałki Gap and second in southeast, in Biecz, referred to as “Little Cracow” have been studied. The main objective of this study is to gain knowledge of one of core dimensions of community resilience, namely agency which enhances adaptability on both individual and collective level, often referred to as the locus of control [Inglehart, Welzel 2009] as well as a pillar of community resilience and crucial element in the proactive phase of crisis cycle management, civil preparedness defined as the ability to sustain functions vital to society, ensuring basic supply and the State’s capacity to act in a crisis situation [Zekulic et al. 2017 in: Civil-Military Copperation Center of Excellence Info Sheet 2024] to see if they have enhanced community resilience in this response. For this purpose, on site and in person qualitative interviews have been conducted with research participants, from two interview groups of volunteers and community members who were privately and professionally involved in this response, namely in helping Ukrainian refugees arriving to Poland. The results demonstrate that refugee and humanitarian crisis caused by the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine triggered communities’ agency to act and kept them united by the same aim – to respond to this unprecedented crisis by helping Ukrainian refugees. Those practical and hands-on experiences of both communities in response to crisis by helping another human being in need, very often and especially in the first weeks of the invasion, bottom-up and individually, with the use of all kinds of, often ad hoc, means, methods and various solutions, provide a solid civil preparedness ground on which community resilience could be built and strengthened. Key words: crisis and uncertainty, community resilience, agency, civil preparedness

(Non-)Institutional Manifestations of Migrant Infrastructures for Refugees in Rural Greece

The year 2015 was a turning point for the migration and asylum system in the EU and Greece.Almost 900,000 migrants and refugees crossed Turkey’s land and sea borders on their way to Europe. Theso-called ‘migration and refugee crisis’ dominated the academic and political discourse and provokeddifferent reactions from local communities, civil society and long-time resident migrants. Especially in ruralareas, the newly arriving refugees triggered different reactions from the local population. At the sametime, accommodating the refugees and facilitating their integration into rural localities created additionalinfrastructure needs. Drawing on the theoretical discussion on migrant infrastructures’ and ‘arrivalinfrastructures’, the main objective of this paper is to discuss the different manifestations of migrantinfrastructures in rural communities, in Western Greece in particular. The paper draws on a recentempirical study conducted in the framework of a project that explored territorial inequalities and the linkswith different forms of mobility in both urban (Attiki Region) and rural areas of Greece (Western GreeceRegion). While the discussion on arrival infrastructures mainly relates to urban settings, in this paperwe argue that the rural context informs and enriches the debate, allowing to be considered in termsof non-fixed assemblages of institutional (formal) and non-institutional (informal) arrangements that fulfilboth tangible and less tangible needs and requirements. Forging better links between the migrationinfrastructures approach and the formulation of imaginaries and characteristics of wellbeing will enablea better understanding of refugee agency, and one more informed by social theory.