Mobility Of Refugees Research Articles

‘Do Like You Did in Aleppo’: Negotiating Space and Place Among Syrian Musicians in Istanbul

Abstract The experiences of displaced musicians and the socio-cultural practices connected to them are marginalized in the study of refugee movements—especially new ones like the Syrian refugee crisis—subordinated to explorations of economic and political structures affecting refugee mobility, structural integration into host communities and emergency settings like the refugee camp. Concurrently, explorations of identity, sentiments of belonging and the reimagining of homeland are common theoretical frameworks applied across the literature. I argue that studying the resettlement experience of refugee musicians can offer a fresh perspective on how identity, belonging and homemaking are renegotiated in displacement. I explore this argument through a particular case study of displaced Syrian musicians in Istanbul because of its transformation into a new cultural center for Syrians in Turkey. Through ethnographic fieldwork conducted with Syrian musicians in Istanbul during the summer of 2018, I reflect on how the unique experience of musicians can illuminate various conceptual frameworks related to agency, space and place.

Searching Refuge in Thailand or Brazil: Long-Distance Refugees and the Emergence of Global Asylum Hubs in Middle-Income Countries

Abstract Using UNHCR data, this article documents the diversification of asylum routes over the 1987–2017 period and its effects on the diversity of refugee populations in receiving countries. We coin a specific terminology, ‘local’, ‘regional’, and ‘global asylum hubs’ to characterize countries as being embedded in local, regional, or global refugee mobility networks. We show that only high-income countries were global asylum hubs up until the 1990s, but that a trend towards the diversification of asylum routes has created a number of global asylum hubs in middle-income countries since. These findings undermine the commonly held assumption that the reception of highly diverse refugee populations is a characteristic unique to high-income countries. We present two cases studies, from Thailand and from Brazil, to illustrate the radical diversity of refugee management models adopted by middle-income countries, which have become global refugee hubs, a situation that contrasts with the relative uniformity found in high-income countries.

A gravity analysis of refugee mobility using mobile phone data

The objective of this study consists in analyzing the determinants of the internal mobility of refugees in Turkey. We track down this mobility relying on geolocalized mobile phone calls data and bring these measures to a micro-founded gravity model in order to estimate the main drivers of refugee mobility across 26 regions in 2017. Our results show that the movements of refugees are sensitive to income differentials and contribute therefore to a more efficient allocation of labor across space. Comparing these findings with those of individuals with a non-refugee status, we find that refugees are more sensitive to variations of income at origin and to distance, while less responsive to changes in income at destination. These findings are robust to the way mobility is inferred from phone data and to the choice of the geographical unit of investigation. Further, we provide evidence against some alternative explanations of mobility such as the propensity to leave refugee camps, transit through Turkey, social magnet effects and sensitivity to agricultural business cycles.

A regimes-of-mobility-and-welfare approach: The impact of migration and welfare policies on transnational social support networks of older migrants in Australia

In this paper, I examine the implications of welfare and migration policies on transnational aged care arrangements of older migrants in Australia. The paper draws on the results of an ethnographical, biographical and network analytical study of transnational social support networks of older migrants in Perth. I present the developed typology of older migrants and their possibilities of transnational care through three case studies that exemplify each type, namely 'retirement migrant by choice', 'financial obstacles of traditional labour migrants', and 'mobility and welfare regime restrictions of refugees'. The case studies show, first, that the maintenance of social ties across national borders through which different forms of care are organised is constrained by the Australian mobility regime, where temporary migration schemes prevail and migration policies are increasingly restrictive. Second, transnational social support is affected by a welfare regime that is increasingly linked to the mobility regime, as the rights to social welfare and long-term care are often linked to citizenship. Third, inequalities in the possibilities of transnational care and inaccess to mobility are linked to migrants’ legal and socioeconomic status in the country of settlement and the position of their country of origin in the global geopolitical hierarchy. Based on these findings, I propose a 'regimes-of-mobility-and-welfare' approach for the study of transnational social support and family care, which considers the effects of ‘sedentary’ policies and the intertwinement of mobility and welfare regimes.

Picking ‘Low-Hanging Fruit’ While the Orchard Burns: the Costs of Policing Humanitarian Actors in Italy and Greece as a Strategy to Prevent Migrant Smuggling

Civil society organizations and individual volunteers were in many instances the first responders to the so-called ‘European humanitarian refugee crisis’. From 2015 onwards, they were celebrated by some as heroes. Meanwhile, during this same period, national and EU law enforcement agencies served to relabel civil society actors across a range of contexts as potential ‘migrant smugglers’–direct facilitators of conduits of irregular migrant flows, or a pull-factor by default through their services. The shift in rhetoric was met with a shift in policing practices: in Italy and Greece, among other EU member states, humanitarian acts were reframed from life-saving obligations to be met and commended, to administrative–and in some cases—criminal risks to be monitored, deterred and punished. This article builds on previous research to consider how since 2018, civil society actors in Italy and Greece have faced increasing demands and pressures for registration, coordination and financial transparency, and how these have profound repercussions on humanitarian and human rights work with, for and by refugees and other migrants. The article outlines four main opportunity costs of the policing of humanitarian actors as a strategy to prevent mobility of refugees and other migrants. Firstly, such measures pose a threat to civil society’s independence and impartiality from government interference; in doing so, they impact the efficiency of operations and disincentivize certain humanitarian actors from conducting life-saving work. Secondly, they have repercussions on trust between the law enforcement and civil society which may lessen the chances of migrants and those that serve them from sharing crucial information to stop and investigate ongoing violent crimes. Thirdly, this strategy leads to the politicization of the criminal justice system which undermines public faith in liberal democracy. Finally, resources channelled into investigating civil society actors funnel away resources from the focus on high-profile criminality. Given the pervasive human rights abuses committed against irregular migrants and asylum seekers, we argue that this misdirected policy equates to picking ‘low-hanging fruit’ while the orchard burns.

Tracing Asylum Journeys: Transnational Mobility of Non-European Refugees to Canada via Turkey by Uğur Yıldız

<i>Tracing Asylum Journeys: Transnational Mobility of Non-European Refugees to Canada via Turkey</i> by Uğur Yıldız

Refugees, Foreign Nationals, andWageni: Comparing African Responses to Somali Migration

Abstract:Host governments have responded to the migration of Somali refugees throughout Africa in recent decades in different ways. Kenyan policymakers have treated Somalis primarily as a security threat, imposing restrictions on them that especially target this group. In South Africa, where economic and political competition fuel xenophobia, Somalis are part of a larger foreign national population that is seen as having disproportionate economic influence. However, Somali Bantus have been welcomed in Tanzania, which granted them citizenship even as it limited the mobility and activities of other refugees. A comparative analysis suggests that the relative balance among security, economic, political, and normative considerations shapes the extent and scope of host government policies.

Subjective social status mobility and mental health of asylum seekers and refugees: Population-based, cross-sectional study in a German federal state

BackgroundAsylum seekers and refugees (ASR) experience substantial changes in subjective social status (SSS), pre and post migration, which may affect their mental health. However, the effect of SSS mobility on mental health among ASR has been underexplored so far. MethodsPopulation-based cross-sectional study among a random sample of 560 adult ASR living in 64 collective accommodation centres in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany. SSS in the country of origin before emigration and in Germany was assessed with a multi-lingual, adapted version of the MacArthur social ladder. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL), anxiety and depressive symptoms were measured as mental health outcomes. Generalized linear regression models were fitted to estimate associations between changes in SSS and each outcome. ResultsA perceived loss of three or more steps in SSS from origin to Germany (compared to no change) was associated with poorer scores in HRQoL (B, standardized coefficient = -2.679, standard error, se = 1.351, p = 0.047), with more depressive symptoms (B = 1.156, se = 0.389, p = 0.003) and anxiety (B = 0.971, se = 0.432, p = 0.025), in models adjusted for SSS in country of origin. The strength and direction of associations remained after adjusting for sex, age, education and time since arrival (HRQoL: B = -2.494, se = 1.351, p = 0.066; depression: B = 1.048, se = 0.393, p = 0.008; anxiety: B = 1.006, se = 0.438, p = 0.022). ConclusionASR experiencing downward SSS mobility present poorer mental health compared to those experiencing no change in SSS. Early integration efforts and intersectoral measures to counter social downward mobility could prevent poor mental health among ASR.

Refugee Migration Histories in a Meatpacking Town: Blurring the Line Between Primary and Secondary Migration

There is substantial movement of US refugee populations originating from Africa, Asia, and other parts of the world across all parts of the country, beyond large metropolitan areas and traditional immigration hubs. Counter to expectations that refugees would remain in a given resettlement location for a period of integration and support, many non-resettlement communities have attracted newcomer refugees. The dynamics of early movement of refugees blurs the line between initial resettlement and secondary migration. To study the timing and motivations for refugee secondary migration, we conducted structured quantitative interviews with 92 refugees in Greeley, Colorado. Like many other small agricultural cities across the USA (Marston et al. International Journal of Migration and Residential Mobility, 1(3), 253–268, 2016; Broadway Rural Sociology, 72(4), 560–582, 2007), Greeley has experienced an influx of refugees due to a shift in the meatpacking labor market from immigrant to refugee labor. This study adds to prior research documenting refugee secondary migration (e.g., Marks 2014; Hume and Hardwick Geographical Review, 95(2), 189–209, 2005; Weine et al. Family Process, 50(1), 27–46, 2011) with a larger study sample focused on gathering uniform accounts of refugee migration histories. Our data show that many refugees arrived in Greeley very soon after initial resettlement. Employment and social networks were a draw for most interviewees to move to Greeley; however, many who came for work had not yet found employment or were unemployed after leaving jobs at the meatpacking plant. These and other findings suggest the importance of research on refugee mobility. In an ever-globalizing world, the blurred line between primary and secondary migration necessitates preparation among American communities to maximize refugee integration.

EMDR Group Treatment of Children Refugees—A Field Study

Given the significant growth in the migration flow of refugees who are fleeing from persecution, terrorism, and war-torn countries to Europe, there is an urgent need for effective interventions for the treatment of this highly traumatized population. EMDR Integrative Group Treatment Protocol (EMDR-IGTP) was provided to 14 child refugees (7 females) in 2016 at a Turkey orphanage near the Syrian border which was housing adult and child Syrian refugees. Treatment was provided in three groups, one each for children aged 3–7 years, pre-adolescents aged 9–12, and adolescents aged 13–18 with three sessions provided to each group. Pre-treatment assessment with multiple measures was compromised by difficulties with translator availability and refugee mobility, resulting in high attrition. When the post-treatment assessment was conducted 45 days later, many refugees had already left the orphanage. The sparse character of the data matrix produced analyzable data for 8 children (mean age 11 ± 3; 4 females) on the Children's Revised Impact of Event Scale (CRIES). Statistical analysis showed a significant decrease in CRIES scores, reflecting a decrease in severity of posttraumatic symptoms.

Urban refugees in a ‘non-Convention’ city

This paper brings together literature from urban and refugee studies, aiming to contribute new theoretical insights about agency in the space of an urban assemblage to the study of the mundane mobility of refugees in Bangkok, Thailand. Drawing on empirical material gathered through qualitative interviews and ethnographic methodologies, the paper offers new insights into the daily struggles of refugees in a city located in a country that is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention. In particular, the Deleuzo-Guattarian concept of becoming as a transformative capacity, as well as the notion of distributed agency, are highlighted to raise awareness to the ambivalent, complex and ambiguous ways in which agency is expressed by urban refugees in a non-Convention city. The paper aspires to offer both new theoretical perspectives as well as novel empirical data to consider the agency of refugees who are criminalised in their host country due to a lack of legal recognition, contending that these particular urban conditions are precisely the reason for their situated, contingent and ambivalent agency.

MCDM-ECP: Multi Criteria Decision Making Method for Emergency Communication Protocol in Disaster Area Wireless Network

Disaster Area Wireless Networks (DAWNs) are widely deployed in natural or man-made disaster scenes, since the communication infrastructure may be completely destroyed by the disaster. This paper proposes a hybrid network architecture for DAWNs due to the mobility of first responders and refugees. Based on the link characterization of DAWNs, we choose four essential criteria and propose a multi-criteria decision-making method for emergency communication protocol (MCDM-ECP), which utilizes the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method to find the optimal next-hop node in DAWNs. Routing discovery and routing maintenance processes are included in the novel protocol. The simulation results show that MCDM-ECP performs better than other classical protocols both in energy consumption and packet received rate (PRR) for long-term emergency communications.

The Great Escape? Converging Refugee Crises in Tyre, Lebanon

This article analyses the convergence of two refugee crises, Palestine (1948–present) and Syria (2012–present), having brought old and new refugees into close, and sometimes, conflictual contact. While the former settled and gradually integrated with a view to return to Palestine, the new wave of self-settled refugees from Syria seek to migrate and resettle in Europe, having the means and opportunity to do so. Both staying and leaving involve processes of identity change from refugee to non-citizen resident and displaced (nāziḥīn). Drawing on field material from Tyre (South Lebanon), the article compares the plight of Palestinian refugees with that of the displaced refugees from Syria who settled in Tyre’s refugee camps and settlements and analyses where their trajectories intersect. For both groups, the only way to escape poverty, destitution, and discrimination is by emigrating, thus the article further contrasts escape and belonging as key features of refugee mobility and asylum migration.

Editor’s Note

Editor’s Note Rebecca Rovit, Associate Professor Michel de Certeau, in his writings on everyday life and spatial practices, specifically “Walking in the City,” articulates a rhetorics of walking, comparing it to pedestrian “speech acts,” which manifest themselves as a “spatial acting-out” of topographical place.1 For him, “walking as a space of enunciation” is like a performance act that functions as an utterance. Moreover, de Certeau suggests that space is a “practiced place,” where we transform street space through our enunciated embodiment. The relationship of place to space for de Certeau encompasses an ordered environment of what is “here,” not “there.”2 His analysis of rhetorical gestures, including quotidian practices of movement, reveals the power dynamics embedded in governmental institutions which organize and regulate urban space. The authors of the six articles featured in Volume XXXIII.1 similarly open discursive spaces of enunciation, inviting us to reflect upon a sampling of performance acts whose utterances alter or resist the physical space in which they occur. The essays also engage us in spectatorial and aural spaces, where we may acknowledge our own agency in the cultural, dramaturgical, and linguistic worlds they present. Phillip Zapkin, for example, proposes a model of tragedy from ancient Greece, in “Reading Two Greek Refugee Plays in the Season of the Syrian Refugee Crisis,” to suggest an emulative response we may bring to contemporary issues of refugee (im)mobility. The author’s focus on spatiality and enunciative acts in two plays recalls Agamben’s biopolitics, eliciting our ethical accountability to see in antiwar plays from centuries ago a democratic model for protecting today’s displaced. Warren Kluber centers antiwar “worlds” in his “Theatre of Operations / Operating Theatre: Militarist and Medical Theatrical Frames in Edward Bond’s Lear.” He examines the spectatorial relationship we may have with performances of the post-WWII playwright, whose theatricalized, martial backdrop to Lear urges us to recognize what being human is like in the age of war. In “Between Theory and Practice: Tracing Improvisation with British Muslim Youth,” Asif Majid calls attention to the creative spaces of “in-between” as he theorizes the social dimensions of his devised theatre practice in Manchester (UK), exploring how race, gender, and religion intersect within the liminal world of theatrical improvisation. Dramatic space intrigues Letizia Fusini as well, as she explores the post-exilic dramaturgy of Gao Xingjian in her article, “From Refuge to Prison: The Self as Tragic Space in Gao Xingjian’s Plays Between Life and Death and The Death Collector.” She positions “Self-as-Spatiality,” drawing on Sartre to highlight a “poetics of captivity” in which boundlessness and confinement coalesce. In “Ionesco’s Forgotten Plays: Meaning and Speech Acts in ‘The Niece-Wife’ and ‘Bedlam Galore,’” Jeremy Ekberg’s analysis of modernist dramaturgy focuses on linguistic and psychophysical spaces in Ionesco’s post-war short dramas. The author builds on the work of J. L. Austin [End Page 1] to reveal an ambiguous dramatic world in which speech acts figure predominantly, offering a perspective where performative utterances subvert and make meaning. Meaning-making, performance, and temporality also occupy Nicole Winsor in her “Comparative Modernist Performance Studies in the Context of the Postcolonial: A Not So Modest Reappraisal.” This essay extends a scholarly debate that began in the JDTC in our Fall 2016 issue, where Julia Walker and Glenn Odom proposed a new paradigm of Comparative Modernist Performance Studies. In our Spring 2017 issue, Aparna Dharwadker expanded this debate on pertinent issues related to postcolonial performance. Winsor now joins the discussion, locating geographic, temporal, and theoretical spaces in which to situate both articles. This final essay provides a fitting opening of discursive space for future issues of the journal. With this Volume XXXIII.1 I end my four-year term as Editor. For the past eight issues of the JDTC, I have had the privilege to work with many fine scholars, from the United States to the Pacific Rim, publishing their work in Theatre and Performance Studies, while enlisting the best reviewers I could find from a wide range of departments and international universities. I began my term in January 2015, making a transition to Editor from what had been a collective...

Abandoned Refugee Vehicles “In the Middle of Nowhere”

Vehicles abandoned by multinational refugees during the winter 2015–2016 in northern Finnish Lapland’s border checkpoints represent an offshoot of the ongoing global refugee crisis on the so-called “Arctic Route” to Europe via Russia. In the summer 2016 this material reminder of refugee mobility vanished almost totally, as the vehicles were auctioned in a show for promoting Lapland tourism. This photo-essay highlights and discusses some of the manifold aspects connected to this flow of refugees, including, for instance, the ethical concerns of trivializing refugee issues intertwined with a host of global larger-scale matters, or using their material heritage for stimulating recreational mobility in these marginalized northern regions.

Who takes advantage of mobility? Exploring the nexus between refugees’ movement, livelihoods and socioeconomic status in West Africa

This article explores the nexus between mobility, livelihoods, and socioeconomic status of refugees in the Buduburam refugee settlement in Ghana. Currently, refugee livelihoods are increasingly characterized by multi-directional movement and multi-locality, coupled with complex social networks. Given the relative freedom of movement for refugees in Ghana and the subregion, certain groups in Buduburam were engaged in mobile livelihoods, including cross-border trading of cell phones, used clothing, and jewelery across West Africa. Given these ‘glorious’ examples, promoting refugees’ movement is seen by the UN refugee regime as an important means of enabling their access to sustainable livelihoods in the subregion. However, this research reveals that mobile refugee entrepreneurs were predominantly well-to-do individuals with a robust asset profile, primarily because engaging in mobile economic strategies requires substantial resources. Conversely, for the majority of ‘ordinary’ refugees, these kinds of mobile livelihoods were not feasible due to a lack of access to the necessary capital or assets; rather, these poorer refugees survived by combining sedentary subsistence within the settlement. Given the different degrees of access to mobility, the article highlights the risks of over-emphasizing mobility as a panacea for refugees’ economic plights.

Vocational identity development among unaccompanied refugee minors

This study examined educational aspirations and vocational identity formation among unaccompanied refugees in Norway. In Phase 1 we employed questionnaire data from 918 unaccompanied refugees to investigate the effects of demographic information, pre-migration trauma, mental health and acculturation-related factors on their educational aspirations. In Phase 2, data from Identity Status Interviews (ISI) with 29 participants was analyzed to obtain information about vocational identity status distribution and to examine core themes and contextual factors underlying their vocational choices. The findings from Phase 1 showed that none of the theoretically and empirically based included variables had a significant effect on their aspirations. Moreover, the overall regression model was non-significant. We discussed these findings in relation to the strong motivation among unaccompanied minors to create better lives for themselves than they could have in the countries they fled from, irrespective of their traumatic experiences and mental health problems. In Phase 2 the most important themes emerging from the ISIs revolved around age, time, and economics. The remedial education to bridge the pre-flight gap in formal education meant that the unaccompanied refugee youth entered upper secondary school at substantially older ages than their classmates. Their older ages then led them to prioritize economic considerations in making vocational choices, since the support from the Child Welfare Services is discontinued when they reach the age of majority. Consequently, most of them chose short vocational paths toward earning a living, rather than complex roads that led to the realization of their own long-term aspirations. This may have limited the social mobility of unaccompanied refugees.

Laurent Lardeux , Retours d’exil. Ethnographie des rapatriements de réfugiés en Afrique centrale , Paris, Éditions EHESS, Cas de figure, 2015, 255 p.

Laurent Lardeux, Retours d'exil. Ethnographie des rapatriements de refugies en Afrique central [Returns from exile: an study of refugee repatriation in Central Africa] Paris, EHESS, Cas de figure, 2015, 256 p.A stimulating book, this ethnographic study of refugee repatriation in Central Africa - or rather of refugee mobility and settlement in places of refuge, followed by resettlement in similar places in country of departure. Lardeux not only traces itineraries of refugees from Democratic Republic of Congo to Congo-Brazaville and Central Africa, then back to DRC; he attaches importance to relations that develop between trajectories, refugee careers and institutional policies, primarily those of UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).Laurent Lardeux followed refugees and repatriated refugees from Congo basin from 2005 to 2010, literally moving alongside them through urban and rural spaces they lived in. As shown by a map at beginning of book, he covered distances between Kinshasa and Libreville, Yaounde, Bangui and Brazzaville three times, each journey lasting six to seven months; points that were either close or far for persons leaving RDC in early 2000s. The violence of war raging in that country at time forced as many as 2 million persons to flee; peak of exodus was in 2002. Lardeux judiciously chooses to start his fieldwork in 2005, year UNHCR's repatriation operation got underway.He first describes UNHCR policy in this connection, particularly how it changed over period studied. Under pressure from state governments, institution shifted its emphasis from receiving refugees in asylum zones or facilities and guiding and assisting them to promoting voluntary and assisting in that. Lardeux describes UNHCR practices, which began with encouragement and incentives, then switched to constraint as refugee aid in receiving country diminished, becoming aid for to and reception in departure country. While voluntary nature of repatriation is repeatedly asserted in UNHCR texts, that notion proved extremely malleable; border between free consent and forced was an indistinct one. The policies implemented did contain incentives, attractive conditions for voluntary return, but they also counted on negative incentives of outstaying one's welcome in country of exile, reductions in humanitarian aid and being poorly protected in reception zones. To underscore these ambiguities, author speaks of (in)voluntary repatriation.But what of trajectory and migrant career diversity? Forced displacement generates singular trajectories whose determinants are many. The author distinguishes between the time of exile and the time of return and provides a particularly rich description of practical determinants and types of social relationships that develop as well as their impact on migrants' trajectories.He first describes processes by which social and economic relations are established in exile. …

The Analysis of Factors Affecting the Residential Mobility of Afghan Immigrants Residing in Mashhad (Case Study: Municipality Regions 4, 5 and 6)

&lt;p class="a"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;The settlement of the immigrants, especially foreign immigrants in different cities and city areas has a major influence in shaping and changing socio-spatial structure of these areas. Mashhad has been the target of a large number of Afghan refugees in the past decades (160 thousand people). The initial settlement of immigrants in marginal areas of the city and residential mobility in the early settlement has obvious consequences on the social and spatial structure of different areas targeted by the immigrants. This study aimed to analyze the factors affecting the residential mobility of Afghan refugees residing in districts 4, 5 and 6 of Mashhad- Iran. The research was a survey type and the required data were gathered by field studies using questionnaires and library. The results of this study suggests that a major portion Afghan immigrant (86%) have been settled at the beginning of their arrival to Mashhad in marginal areas and slums including, Golshahr, Panj-tan, Ghaleh Sakhteman and Tollab. In the initial settlement of immigrants in the mentioned places factors such as proximity to fellow coreligionists and affordable rental housing prices are crucial. In terms of residential mobility, 45.7% of immigrant families have changed their location at least once in Mashhad. The highest residential mobility has taken place in the Golshahr areas (28.1%) and Panj-tan (28.1%). Family residential mobility between regions existed in smaller and restricted scale. The stated reasons and motives in relation to residential mobility of immigrants are different in the later stages after primary residence. Generally the factors of insecurity and lack of resources and utilities, improved financial condition and ability to buy a better house, ethnics and religion inconsonance and the tenant conditions are among the reasons stated by the refugees for changing their residence.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Refugees as Gamblers: Eritreans Seeking to Migrate Through Italy

ABSTRACTAlthough the Dublin Regulation aims to prevent secondary movements within Europe, refugee flows from Italy toward northern Europe persist. Existing literature has investigated the relationship between refugee flows, policies, and other macro socioeconomic and cultural factors but the individual decision making underlying refugee mobility is relatively unexplored. Based on my ethnographic research, this article investigates how Eritrean refugees in Italy decide to move toward other European countries. It will be argued that refugees' decisions can be analyzed by using conceptual tools borrowed from the study of gambling and that they tend to be little (if at all) affected by policy constraints.