Refugee Flows Research Articles

Mathematical Models of Refugee Immigration and Recommendations of Policies

<p><span lang="EN-US">Over the past two years, <span>the refugee crisis resulted from the racial conflict, persecution, generalized violence and violations of human rights has forced an enormous </span>number of refugees to flee to Europe. Aiming to address the problem caused by the flow of refugees, we analyzed the actual procedure of their movement and divide it into three major stages. We designed the gathering model, the entering model, the transferring model, even the health and safety model. Finally, we used the models described above to complete our assigned tasks. Also we put forward seven major policy recommendations to the committee. We accompanied every policy with a straightforward explanation so that people without any technical background can easily understand our insights. The main strength of our model is that it can forecast the flow of immigration and provide meaningful suggestions policies for refugees. With the help of modern computing software, we can track the current tendency and make judges efficiently.</span></p>

Peculiarities of migration processes in Ukraine

After disintegration of the USSR there were created fifteen sovereign states on post-Soviet space. Therefore after proclamation of the independence of Ukraine, scales of migratory processes became significant, what caused spread of massive flows of refugees, repatriates, seekers of asylum etc. Contemporary migratory tendencies make a considerable influence on formation of national politics. Thus, under the conditions of globalization the main tendency in international relationships became migration of labour force. It is caused by different reasons, which become widely-spread both in Ukraine and in the world. Significant growth of intensity of international migration of labour resources on the whole territory of our state makes a great influence on its economic and social development. This causes the necessity to make a profound research of migratory processes in Ukraine. Every person and citizen has a right for freedom of movement. Given right is a basis of migratory law. External migration from Ukraine increased significantly from the moment of proclamation of independence of our state. Among its main reasons are considerable reduction of the level and quality of life of population at the beginning of 1990s, appearance of massive unemployment and herewith simplification of the procedure of exit abroad and change of the place of residence, which became a consequence of democratization of society. At present a big quantity of the citizens of Ukraine works abroad, what is first of all connected with the following important problems in Ukraine: absence of available market of housing, real possibilities of employment, high level of social protection, what leads to growth of unemployment, ineffective politics of employment. Ukrainians often move abroad primarily because of low profits, condition of quality of life, absence of employment. The main for today is provision of free movement for everyone, who is legally on the territory of Ukraine, and promotion to follow of other rights and freedoms of person and citizen.

Tightening the EU's External Borders: The Impact on Euro-Mediterranean Relations

In the past two years, the EU has been confronted with a massive flow of migrants and refugees across the Eastern and Central Mediterranean. To meet the challenge various efforts were made to reinforce the Union’s external borders, more precisely those of the Schengen Area. The measures introduced are bound to affect Euro-Mediterranean relations or, as the EU sees it, relations with its southern neighborhood. As I want to show in this paper, the results are mixed. Border tightening creates some new barriers between the Union and its neighbors but, as the EU soon realized, effective border management, whether on land or at sea, cannot be done alone. It requires some degree of cooperation with countries outside the Union. That can also entail a border opening. Migration policies often cut both ways – greater separation can be accompanied by new forms of proximity.

Being a guest – perspectives of an extended hospitality approach

Purpose This paper aims to deduce and present an extended hospitality approach. In developed countries, hospitality is increasingly linked to tourism; in times of migration and increased refugee flows, the accompanying social, economic and political determining factors play a more prominent role, necessitating a new view of hospitality. This study aims to extend the domain of tourism in hospitality by including aspects related to asylum seekers and to combine it with topics regarding welcome culture, service quality and relational quality. The paper explores the question concerning whether, and in which ways, the various sectors may learn from each other. Design/methodology/approach To expand this new research area and to take the exploratory nature of the research aim into consideration, a qualitative approach was chosen. Fourteen qualitative interviews with experts from the tourism and industry sectors and organizations linked with asylum seekers were conducted; the interviewees were chosen by purposeful sampling, according to knowledge and diversity criteria. GABEK was used as a qualitative research strategy, which involves theories of a phenomenological and linguistic nature. This method allows for a more holistic approach to the complex nature of the topic through the collection of perceptions resulting from open qualitative interviews and a keyword-based analysis. Findings The paper presents a model for an extended hospitality approach, as hospitality should not be limited to its connection with tourism matters. Refugees as well as tourists rely on the friendliness and the welcoming nature (hereafter: “welcome culture”) of a host country. The tourism industry can stand to improve its unconditional hospitality toward refugees — the comprehension and understanding of different cultures and values is an important aspect of welcoming new arrivals in the local surroundings, be they tourists, migrants or refugees. Research limitations/implications As stated above, a qualitative research approach was chosen with the intent to open the research field toward an extended hospitality approach. Therefore, future research must focus on testing the results for application in a more general context. The study was also limited insofar as the conduction of research took place in Bavaria alone. Practical implications As stated above, a qualitative research approach was chosen with the intent to open the research field toward an extended hospitality approach. Therefore, future research must focus on testing the results for application in a more general context. The study was also limited insofar as the conduction of research took place in Bavaria alone. Originality/value This paper combines different access points to hospitality in a new form.

Europe’s Leadership Deficit

The European Project is currently experiencing the most serious crisis in its sixty year existence. Past crises have produced transformational leaders who used them to build more Europe. Today transformational leadership at the European level has been replaced with transactional and laissez faire leaders and is being challenged by charismatic populist ‘strong men’ who oppose more Europe. The structure of the EU, the rise of new media, the large flows of immigrants and refugees combined with economic stagnation and the decline of traditional ideologies have undermined the ability of leaders to shape effective policies. Emerging leaders will be grounded in the nation state and in a more Gaullist Europe.

The Paradox of Docket Control: Empowering Judges, Frustrating Refugees

This article focuses on the gradual expansion of docket control mechanisms in refugee (or asylum) law proceedings in Germany. It shows that granting judges more and more control over their asylum dockets was a central policy tool repeatedly employed by German politicians over the decades in the hope that it would stem the flow of refugees into the courts and ultimately make it easier (and faster) to deport failed claimants. Politicians were much more willing to limit access to asylum appeals than to appeals in general administrative law, illustrating how the pressure to come up with solutions for the flood of asylum applications overcame established norms for maintaining equal access to the courts for all claimants. Surprisingly, the Constitutional Court remained largely unaffected by these efforts except for a paradigm shift that occurred with the amendment of the constitutional asylum provision in 1993.

The Leverage of the Gatekeeper: Power and Interdependence in the Migration Nexus between the EU and Turkey

In March 2016, the European Union and Turkey reached an agreement seeking to end the refugee flows from Turkey to Greece. This agreement is the outcome of a bargaining process in which Turkey gained considerable leverage from its position as a ‘gatekeeper’ situated between Syria and an increasingly ‘immigration-averse’ and securitised EU. More importantly, this bargaining process might have broader implications for the EU and its relations with its periphery, since Turkey has progressively reversed the asymmetries of power by demonstrating the indispensability of its continued commitment to act as gatekeeper vis-à-vis an increasingly fragmented and anxious EU.

Conflict-induced IDPs and the Spread of Conflict

Recent scholarship has found evidence that refugee flows may inadvertently contribute to the spread of conflict across borders. Little is known, however, about the spatial diffusion of conflict within a state’s borders and what role internal displacement plays in such a dynamic. This question is of relevance because of the particular marginalization of internally displaced persons, which make them at risk of predation and militarization by armed groups. Drawing on a novel global data set on internal displacement, we evaluate this question and find evidence for a similar mechanism leading to conflict spread operating at the domestic level.

Private Sponsorship: Complementary or Conflicting Interests?

Canada’s Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program commenced before the Indochinese refugee flow began, and it has continued for almost 40 years since it subsided. Although conceived of as a complementary partnership, private sponsorship plays out more as a tug-of-war between the conflicting interests of government and sponsors over selection control and numbers. While guided by additionality, sponsors have been confronted with administrative and regulatory changes that challenge them to do more with less, and the fear that overall Canadian resettlement will reduce if their efforts are not expanded. A federal election and change of government in October 2015 may have reset government-sponsor relations but highlights the vulnerability and interpretative malleability of the program. With the pillars of the Indochinese and now Syrian resettlement efforts bookending the analysis, the article provides a historical and contextual understanding of recent changes to private sponsorship and the tensions and conflicting interests in maintaining a voluntary program premised on the resettlement of additional refugees.

Dangerous lessons

Contemporary research on the international diffusion of civil conflict privileges physical, proximity-based variables like conflict spillover and refugee flows. I argue that the international diffusion of civil strife can occur through a learning mechanism, and that this phenomenon may occur on a worldwide basis. Individuals most likely to rebel, or proto-rebels, may learn about the utility of rebellion before mobilizing and violently challenging the state. Such international learning therefore occurs during the pre-conflict process. International sources by which proto-rebels learn include active, ongoing civil wars, as well as revolutionary governments that have been founded by rebels victorious in past wars. Revolutionary governments radically shock the international system, teaching proto-rebels about the possible benefits to be gained from violently challenging the state. In order to test these assertions, I undertake empirical analyses using militant organization data that capture the year in which rebel movements first emerge, during the period 1968–2001. I then explore the spatial and temporal relationships between rebel movement emergence, civil conflict, and revolutionary regimes, using the country-year as my unit of analysis. I further examine how these relationships are attenuated by cultural and regime-type similarity. I find, in line with the literature, that active civil conflicts generally inspire rebel mobilization only in directly neighboring states, while revolutionary regimes established after rebel victories are associated with mobilization on a global basis. I conclude that proto-rebels learn and take inspiration from some global sources of information, and that significant analytical utility is to be gained by focusing on revolutionary regimes established as a result of rebel victories, as well as mobilization in the pre-conflict process.

The Future of Global Governance: Fragmentation May Be Inevitable and Creative

Does global governance have future? What kind of future? Far reaching changes to architecture of global governance, especially emergence of new actors, agents, and forms of governance, make these questions moot and timely. The big multilateral around which postwar system of global governance was initially anchored are no longer only game or actors in global governance. The of global governance entails emergence of a patchwork of international that are different in their character (organizations, regimes, and implicit norms), their constituencies (public and private), their spatial scope (from bilateral to global), and their subject matter (from specific policy fields to universal concerns). (1) There has been proliferation of regional and plurilateral arrangements, initiatives led by private sector and transnational social movements, and various forms of partnership involving government, private, and civil society actors. Their effects are especially felt on prominence, authority, and legitimacy of global multilateral that have been bedrock of postwar global governance system. This has produced confusion, uncertainty, and anxiety over future of global governance among its traditional advocates. At most optimistic end, some see this fragmentation as producing suboptimal or good enough global governance. (2) Others view it in starkly negative terms. Daniel Plesch and Thomas Weiss lament the global sprawl of networks and informal institutions as serious challenge to postwar big multilaterals, especially UN, that need strengthening. They warn of dangers of a misplaced enthusiasm for ad hoc and informal pluralism rather than for more formal and systematic multilateralism, without which and their citizens will not reap benefits of trade and globalization, discover nonviolent ways to meet security challenges, or address environmental degradation. (3) Such debate is healthy. But dominated as it is by scholars and policymakers from West, it also masks quintessential Western anxiety about future of liberal international order. After all, traditional system of global governance led by big Western powers and big multilaterals suited power and purpose of United States and West. A fragmented system of global governance means more pluralization and erosion of dominance of US and Western governments of that order. I argue that fragmentation is inevitable and may even be creative because it reflects broader forces of change in world politics. To elaborate, world today is culturally and politically diverse, yet more interconnected and interdependent. Its main players--both makers and breakers of order--are not just states and great powers but also international and regional bodies, nonstate groups, corporations, and people's movements and networks. Challenges to security and well-being of states and societies defy national boundaries. These changes not only challenge era of big multilaterals, they also do not fit traditional description of world. The notion of multipolarity is outdated. It was basically derived from pre-World War II Europe and connoted geopolitical centrality of Western great powers. Today, actors in world politics are much more varied. Moreover, nature of interdependence is more broad based. Interdependence during prewar European multipolar system was largely trade based and eurocentric. The rest of world was actually in relationship of dependence with Europe. Today, interdependence is global, complex, and broad based, comprising not only trade but also finance and production networks. Furthermore, interdependence today is not just an economic phenomenon. The various issue areas that are central to global governance today--such as climate change, refugee flows, pandemics, and human rights abuses--are precisely what add scope, depth, and complexity to nature of global interdependence. …

Head lice in progress: what could/should be done—a report on an in vivo and in vitro field study

Head lice infections are a growing problem in the light of increasing migration of large population as well as the increasing current refugee flows and concomitant poor hygienic conditions. These infections are associated with a significantly reduced quality of life and frequent medical consultations. The approved drugs for the treatment of head lice infections have some disadvantages in the treatment despite their good efficacy. In addition to irritant-toxic substances that can cause adverse reactions in patients, a partial development of resistance has occurred and a double application is necessary to achieve adequate efficacy. For this reason, we have decided to test a product without the aforementioned treatment drawbacks. We examined the effect of Licener® on the head lice treatment through individual therapy trials. We identified 65 patients with head lice infections for the treatment with Licener®. All patients were treated with Licener® and visited for a period of 2weeks. Successfully treated patients had no relapses. Against the background of this study and based on the observations of our applications, we expect that Licener® could enhance considerably the therapeutic options for the treatment of head lice infections, as an alternative to classical products.

Refugees and rivals: The international dynamics of refugee flows

Intra-state violence in Syria, Myanmar, Sudan and other locales has generated an unprecedented level of refugee movement. Although extant scholarship has examined the origins of refugee flows and t...

One-sided Violence in Refugee-hosting Areas

Previous research demonstrates that refugee populations can threaten the security of receiving countries. This study, in contrast, seeks to examine the physical security challenges refugees face in host states. It utilizes a new, geographically referenced data set on subcountry refugee demographics to test the hypothesis that locations home to larger refugee populations are more likely to experience one-sided attacks by conflict actors. Results demonstrate that refugee accommodation is a significant predictor of one-sided violence in Africa. In particular, combatants commit significantly more acts of violence against civilians in locations home to larger numbers of self-settled refugees compared to other locations. These findings suggest that scholars and practitioners account for possible dangers presented by refugee flows and threats to refugees simultaneously.

Médecins Sans Frontières moves to protect refugee healthcare

As Medecins Sans Frontieres spurned all European Union (EU) funding for its projects world wide after a series of cynical EU-country moves to choke inward refugee flow, South African activists in Johannesburg this June protested the proposed stiffening of local refugee laws.

Rechazo a los refugiados: políticas de los estados para combatir los flujos de refugiados y responsabilidad de proteger

<p>El propósito del artículo es analizar las políticas que están siendo desarrolladas por los Estados para contener o rechazar los flujos de migrantes que tocan su puerta en busca de refugio. En el intento de encontrar una solución a este problema, se examina la posibilidad de hacer uso de los pilares de la responsabilidad de proteger para que la comunidad internacional sea capaz de concentrarse en aquellas situaciones que originan los flujos de refugiados y, de esta manera, parar con las violaciones a los derechos humanos, que los refugiados tengan un retorno seguro y mejorar la calidad de vida de la población afectada, para que ya no esté obligada al éxodo. El método de abordaje es el deductivo, es decir, la aplicación de principios a casos particulares. El artículo muestra cómo las políticas de los Estados están siendo diseñadas para impedir el ingreso de refugiados en sus territorios.</p>

Health at the borders: Bayesian multilevel analysis of women's malnutrition determinants in Ethiopia

BackgroundWomen's malnutrition, particularly undernutrition, remains an important public health challenge in Ethiopia. Although various studies examined the levels and determinants of women's nutritional status, the influence of living close to an international border on women's nutrition has not been investigated. Yet, Ethiopian borders are regularly affected by conflict and refugee flows, which might ultimately impact health.ObjectiveTo investigate the impact of living close to borders in the nutritional status of women in Ethiopia, while considering other important covariates.DesignOur analysis was based on the body mass index (BMI) of 6,334 adult women aged 20–49 years, obtained from the 2011 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS). A Bayesian multilevel multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to capture the clustered structure of the data and the possible correlation that may exist within and between clusters.ResultsAfter controlling for potential confounders, women living close to borders (i.e. ≤100 km) in Ethiopia were 59% more likely to be underweight (posterior odds ratio [OR]=1.59; 95% credible interval [CrI]: 1.32–1.90) than their counterparts living far from the borders. This result was robust to different choices of border delineation (i.e. ≤50, ≤75, ≤125, and ≤150 km). Women from poor families, those who have no access to improved toilets, reside in lowland areas, and are Muslim, were independently associated with underweight. In contrast, more wealth, higher education, older age, access to improved toilets, being married, and living in urban or lowlands were independently associated with overweight.ConclusionsThe problem of undernutrition among women in Ethiopia is most worrisome in the border areas. Targeted interventions to improve nutritional status in these areas, such as improved access to sanitation, economic and livelihood support, are recommended.

The More Things Change … Developments in German Practices towards Asylum Seekers and Recognised Refugees

In recent decades Germany has passed laws expanding the rights of existing labour migrants and formalising channels for new economic migration, heralding for many a turn in the country's approach to immigration. Is this gradual shift towards greater acceptance reflected in Germany's treatment of asylum seekers? The 2005 Immigration Act added new grounds for asylum, and has been cited to suggest an affirmative answer, and a 2014 Asylum Compromise expanded the rights of asylum seekers. More extensive analysis of refugee migration trends and recent attitudes and laws shows, however, that Germany has maintained a deterrent-based approach to asylum seekers and continued to increase restrictions. Laws have also weakened the boundary between recognised refugees and asylum seekers, long held in law and public opinion. Some restrictive policies are limited by domestic and EU court cases and local implementation. In a time of historically large refugee flows, Germany is actively developing new policies and practices to reduce the numbers of asylum seekers. The solution to resolving the challenge of asylum may, however, be outside the ability of any one country.

Meanings of Independence and Manifestations of Neoliberal Nationalism during the ‘Refugee Crisis’ in Central and Eastern Europe

The Eastern European political and para-political responses to the ‘refugee crisis’ demonstrate a schism between the ‘old’ and the ‘new Europe’. Hostile attitudes reveal how unresolved post-imperial pasts currently manifest themselves in a seeming inability to show solidarity and empathy for the human suffering of others. To address this question critically, I utilize the notion of ‘independence’ to disentangle the specific neoliberal political mentality that has developed in the Central and Eastern European region, along with a variety of ethno-nationalisms which relive their own past wounds. In countries which have wiped away almost all reminders of their socialist past, solidarity and collectivity are not widely subscribed-to values. Apart from the immediate need to act alongside other European countries and help to accommodate current refugee flows, the Eastern Bloc has a long and necessary journey ahead. This is to negotiate and address their own social and cultural pluralities, which have been deliberately ignored in the rush to join the club of the worlds’ wealthiest democracies in the EU. During this formally accelerated political process, insufficient attention has been paid to social transformations in these new EU countries, including their reluctance to take in and accommodate new migrants and refugees.

Os Refugiados no Brasil e as Organizações não Governamentais

Neste século o fluxo de refugiados e imigrantes tornar-se-á a questão central para o Direito Internacional dos Direitos Humanos. O Brasil, que começou recentemente a receber um fluxo maior de refugiados, é uma opção importante para eles em razão de sua legislação benevolente. No entanto, o Estado brasileiro ainda é relutante quanto ao impacto das recentes levas de refugiados que entram no país sem receber o devido apoio posteriormente. Esta pesquisa dedutiva, na modalidade histórica, pretende analisar o papel pioneiro das ONGs de direitos humanos responsáveis por informar e apoiar os refugiados, oferecendo visibilidade ao tema.