Refugee Studies Research Articles

From Forced Migration to Displacement?

Abstract Should the multi-disciplinary field of Forced Migration Studies (FMS) re-orient itself around the concept of “displacement”? This short intervention situates this question against the background of the transition from Refugee Studies to FMS, as well as external developments in the realm of protection. It draws attention to how the concept of displacement has become more central to both policy and academic discussion in FMS before considering what difference such a re-orientation might make conceptually, ethically, and politically. It concludes by suggesting that FMS might be conceived as standing between and across two larger fields of enquiry: Migration Studies and Displacement Studies.

High rates of probable PTSD among Ukrainian war refugees: the role of intolerance of uncertainty, loss of control and subsequent discrimination

ABSTRACT Background: Intolerance of uncertainty is a well-known predictor of post-traumatic stress symptoms following a traumatic event. At the same time, it is relatively unknown whether intolerance of uncertainty amplifies the effects of other adverse life events on PTSD symptoms among traumatized individuals. Objective: This article addresses this problem in a study of Ukrainian war refugees’ experiences with post-migration discrimination and powerlessness (loss of control). Method: 4972 forced immigrants from Ukraine took part in the study (90.2% women, Mage = 40.4, SD = 12.5) completing the PTSD-8 scale, measures of post-migration discrimination and loss of control experiences, and intolerance of uncertainty. Results: Almost half of respondents (47.5%) have probable PTSD. Regression analysis confirmed that war-related experiences, as well as intolerance of uncertainty, post-migration loss of control and experiences of discrimination were significant predictors of self-reported PTSD symptoms. Also, intolerance of uncertainty weakly moderated the effects of experienced discrimination and control deprivation on self-reported PTSD symptoms, so that the effects of adverse post-migration experiences were more pronounced among individuals high in intolerance of uncertainty. Conclusions: Understanding the effect of post-migration experiences on war refugees’ mental health is crucial for developing improved acculturation policies and fostering a supportive environment for forced migrants.

Narrative Space and the Figure of the Refugee in the Early Life Writing of Ocean Vuong

ABSTRACT This paper will read for the representation of space in the Vietnamese American author Ocean Vuong’s narrative essay “The Weight of Our Living: On Hope, Fire Escapes, and Visible Desperation”. The paper places Vuong’s text into conversation with theorists of narrative and architectural spaces – Yi-Fu Tuan, Umberto Eco, and Mikhail Bakhtin, among others – and draws on critical refugee studies to explore the representation of spaces and places in their relationship to Vuong’s account of refugee experience and trauma. In the essay’s manipulations of narrative space, meditations on architectural space, and engagements with theories of trauma, a spatial understanding of trauma emerges and comes to bear on first wave literary trauma theory, which the essay builds on and departs from with the suggestion that architectural space functions semiotically and is a medium of language by which topics socially and psychologically repressed can be “spoken” despite social taboos and prohibitions. Working against public discourse which reduces refugees to victims of trauma (in their country of origin) and beneficiaries of social uplift (in their resettlement country), Vuong critiques the discursive framing of the refugee as needful ward and perpetual other and works toward a means of speaking about personal experience that speaks back to dominant narratives about refugees.

“Livability” and “Ungratefulness”: A Refugee Critique of the Law and Humanitarianism

Critical refugee studies (CRS) conceptualizes refugees’ lived experience as a site of theory‐making and knowledge production with and for refugees. As co‐founders of the Critical Refugee Studies Collective (CRSC), and as scholars with refugee backgrounds, we theorize alongside our refugee partners to offer a refugee critique of refugee law and humanitarianism. Departing from the 1951 Refugee Convention definition of “refugee,” whose restrictive legal and historical framing cannot account for the complex conditions that displace human beings, we offer the concept of “livability” to name the mundane, creative, and fearless possibilities of living that undergird refugees’ claims to move audaciously. Furthermore, departing from humanitarian narratives that expect refugees to be forever thankful for having been rescued, we propose the concept of “ungratefulness” to describe refugee refusal to exhibit gratitude and deference for the space they have been allowed. Our critique emerged from sustained engagement with refugee partners through in‐person and virtual gatherings organized by the CRSC. Together, we argue that livability and ungratefulness constitute examples of “epistemic disobedience” of the colonial and unilateral knowledge production about refugees, as they call attention to distinctly discernible refugee agency and epistemology that break with the historically appointed role of refugees as seen entirely through a lens of precarity and gratitude.

“(…) here I have freedom”—A study of refugees' and asylum seekers' legal consciousness in Greece: Self‐identity, human rights, and expectations from European Union law

AbstractThis paper adds to the existing knowledge on migration and the law by empirically exploring the legal consciousness of 33 refugees and asylum seekers in Greece, more specifically, by discussing how their experiences, self‐identity and expectations of the law inform their reactions to the restrictions imposed upon them. The findings suggest that (1) legal knowledge is acquired in the countries of origin and from contact with smugglers, other migrants, law enforcement agents and staff from NGOs; (2) this knowledge allows them to forge an identity as “rights‐bearers,” which (3) together with perceptions and expectations of human rights law and European Union policies on migration, (4) empower them to claim protection from the Greek state, and (5) legitimizes their actions, even if these sometimes involve subterfuge. Despite their particularly vulnerable positions, refugees and asylum seekers are, therefore, not mere passive receivers of state power, but also try to use the law to overcome adversity, in an almost game‐like fashion.

Language ability and virtual mental healthcare utilisation among immigrant and refugee youth: a population-based cohort study

Background and objectivesThe widespread adoption of virtual care during the pandemic may not have been uniform across populations, including among paediatric immigrants and refugees. We sought to examine the association...

What role for law in refugee studies? Towards a transdisciplinary agenda

Abstract Refugee law has historically formed an important part of refugee studies. Yet, in the past decades, the legal study of refugees has increasingly developed out of sync with refugee studies more generally. The purpose of this special issue is to help bridge the gap between refugee law and refugee studies and foster a broader transdisciplinary research agenda on law within refugee studies scholarship. The special issue serves two overarching purposes. The first is to exemplify and celebrate methodological heterodoxy in refugee law scholarship—deliberately foregrounding perspectives often marginalized within more mainstream legal scholarship. To this end, this issue presents a range of contributions that draw on methods and theories from different disciplines in the study of refugee law, including anthropology, history, psychology, political science, organization studies, and data science. Second, by anchoring this special issue in the Journal of Refugee Studies, we hope to convince the wider refugee studies community that empirical and interdisciplinary legal methods may provide new and important insights into some of the core debates on and long-standing challenges to refugee law.

Overlap and Interrelations Between (Im)mobility Motivations

Scholarship in Migration Studies and Forced Migration and Refugee Studies recognizes that migration and immobility can be the result of various, mixed motivations. Empirical work and conceptualizations of forced and “lifestyle” migration consider some of this complexity. Scholarship on immobility has also examined various, mixed motives. Finally, migration theory development has recently begun to incorporate various “non-economic” motivations, mainly into frameworks originally aimed at tackling economic/labor migrations, mainly integrating force and/or environmental factors. However, efforts to conceptualize and theorize on how and why motivations overlap or are interrelated (positively or negatively) are more scant, less explicit, and less systematic. In this paper, I provide a broad systematic taxonomy of migration and immobility motivation overlap and interrelation. First, I describe the six main (im)mobility motivations discussed in the literature—namely economic, labor-related, safety-related, environmental, family-related, and related to self-fulfillment—organizing them around the degree to which they are driven by extrinsic and/or intrinsic rewards and costs. Second, I provide a general typology of possible ways in (im)mobility motivations become “alternative” to and/or concurrent with each other, and how these instances operate at individual and/or population levels. Third, I examine how the different motivations fit within three important theories of micro-level decision-making in the literature, exploring different points of overlap and interrelation between mechanisms within and across analytical perspectives. I conclude discussing the potential implications of this motivation integration.

The impact of liminal legal status on labor market experiences: a comparative study of Sudanese asylum seekers and refugees in Israel

ABSTRACT This article examines the labor market experiences of Sudanese forced migrants in Israel under prolonged temporary legal status. It underscores how regulatory and legal frameworks, particularly the mechanism of institutional ambiguity as a form of legal violence, shape migrants’ socioeconomic outcomes. Employing a mixed-methods approach and comparative analysis, the study adopts Menjívar’s, C. (2006. “Liminal legality: Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrants’ lives in the United States.” American Journal of Sociology 111 (4): 999–1037) concept of ‘liminal legality’ as an analytical lens to compare the experiences of asylum seekers and refugees. The findings reveal significant disparities between these two groups in employment patterns, wages, and exposure to exploitative working conditions, primarily driven by differences in legal status . Asylum seekers are disproportionately relegated to unskilled, precarious jobs at the bottom of the employment ladder, facing heightened vulnerability to exploitative working conditions. Refugees, despite their relatively ‘premium’ status, also encounter significant constraints in labor market participation, reflecting their confinement to the secondary labor market. By highlighting these disparities, this article advances our knowledge of how positions along the continuum of liminal legality shapes employment outcomes among forced migrants. It also contributes to the broader discourse on socio-political and legal barriers that hinder migrant integration.

Refugee sousveillance: observation and co-optation in The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives

Narratives are a matter of life and death for refugee subjects in the US. They are managed through a juridico-political process called Refugee Status Determination (RSD). Under the surveillant gaze of RSD, refugee subjects are forced to narrativize their lives using the language of persecution in exchange for state protection. This article contributes to critical refugee studies (CRS) scholarship which challenges the dehumanizing impacts of RSD’s surveillant gaze. Extending Vinh Nguyen’s concept of refugeetude, I develop a framework for refugee sousveillance. I define refugee sousveillance as the co-optation of refugee narratives such that they consciously defy the juridico-political surveillance of RSD towards a creative, open, coalitional future with other refugee subjects and marginalized groups. Refugee sousveillance applies bell hooks’ oppositional gaze (1992) and Browne’s (2015) dark sousveillance to refugeetude. Identifying a noteworthy collection of essays written by a coalition of elite refugee writers, I provide examples of refugee sousveillance as both process and product.

Double immobility: Syrian refugee women navigating the voluntary and forced marriage binary in Egypt

ABSTRACT Research on why women, especially racialized women, stay in undesirable relationships is scarce and often misses how intersecting inequalities affect their decisions and the wider range of consent and coercion. Syrian refugee women in Egypt, grappling with not just unwanted marriages but also displacement and uprooting are a case in point. Their limited cultural, social, and legal mobility complicates their decision-making and limits their options. I describe this compounded precarity as ‘double immobility’: immobility within the marriage and immobility within the country. A secondary displacement where this time they become ‘displaced in place’ (Lubkemann, S. C. 2008. “Involuntary Immobility: On a Theoretical Invisibility in Forced Migration Studies.” Journal of Refugee Studies 21 (4): 454–475). Drawing on qualitative interviews with Syrian refugee women in Egypt in 2017, I employ an intersectional lens to highlight the social, legal, and migratory locations of displaced women that exacerbate their predicament, prompting a re-evaluation of the binary views of force/voluntary and coercion/consent in discussions about entering, remaining, and exiting marriage. The paper offers a novel framework for understanding the intersection of gendered displacement and marital dynamics and contributes to the broader discussion within the sociology of gender, displacement, and marriage.

Walking a tightrope between policy and scholarship: reflections on integration principles in a hostile environment

ABSTRACT The term ‘integration’ has received considerable academic attention, much of it critical. Yet it continues to be widely used in policy and practice to capture the processes of change that occur following migration from one country to another. In an environment of increasing hostility and anti-migrant sentiment, we outline the process of working with the UK Home Office and a wide range of stakeholders to revise the original Home Office Indicators of Integration framework [Ager and Strang (2008). “Understanding Integration: A Conceptual Framework.” Journal of Refugee Studies 21: 166–191]. We directly engage with some of the key criticisms of integration by offering four core, co-developed principles: shared responsibility, context, multi-dimensionality and multi-directionality. We believe these principles cut through the institutional cultural bias of policymakers and offer a new framework for thinking about integration policy, practice and scholarship. Our work underlines the importance of scholars taking the opportunity to engage with policy and to present scientific evidence as a mechanism to confront hostile immigration practices and address the social injustices that usually accompany migration.

The curious case of seemingly incurious children

English-language teachers are increasingly recognizing the pedagogical value of using children’s literature that authentically represents diverse multilingual learners, including children who have sought refuge. This study analyses representations of children who have experienced displacement and sought refuge in picture books. Framed by a critical multicultural perspective of children’s literature, critical refugee studies and critical race theory, the study investigates how children’s emotions and agency are represented in focal stories. Our findings suggest that, contrary to the complex intellectual and emotional ways children and youth process displacement, picture books about seeking refuge tend to represent child protagonists as incurious about why they are forced to flee. Such representations construct legally scripted narratives associated with refugee status that normalize war and violence. These narratives ultimately mask colonialism, imperialism and racism that contribute to refugee flight around the world. We discuss how policies for seeking refuge influence picture books and invite educators to critically evaluate literature for their classrooms, directly engage families to foreground generative perspectives and develop comprehensive multilingual environments that affirm learners’ agency

The slow violence of waiting in the unmaking of public housing

ABSTRACT While the unmaking of public housing in the US and the subsequent displacement of residents is a widely studied phenomenon, this intervention aims to bring awareness to an absence of waiting in our reading of urban displacement. The literature on waiting, coming mostly from forced migration and refugee studies, has so far not been applied to the case of persons displaced from their homes in US cities. This contribution critically reflects current debates on temporalities in urban redevelopment and aims to thoroughly engage with waiting as an integral part of displacement to flesh out the slow violence and power-geometries of home-unmaking. To illustrate the importance of waiting for urban geography, this intervention briefly discusses the redevelopment of a public housing project in Washington, DC. Five years after the demolition of the project, it is still a brownfield, with its residents scattered across the city, even though they were promised that they could return. The residents thus struggle to inhabit the liminal spaces they are in, while they battle the uncertainty and arbitrariness of waiting to return to their homes.

A Retrospective Longitudinal Study of Refugees With Eosinophilia at an Academic Center in the United States From 2015 to 2020.

Refugees to the United States frequently have parasitic infections. If untreated, parasites can cause severe complications. The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence, management, and outcomes of eosinophilia as a biomarker for parasites. We conducted a retrospective longitudinal chart review of consecutive refugees attending 3 refugee clinics in Rhode Island that manage the health care of all pediatric and adult refugees. Among 812 refugees who met inclusion criteria, 147 (18.1%) had eosinophilia upon arrival and almost half had ≥1 symptom. The rates and severity of eosinophilia in those with predeparture presumptive treatment records who did (112/115, 97.4%) or did not (488/498, 98.0%) receive predeparture antiparasitic treatment were similar. All refugees with eosinophilia had ≥1 parasitic test in the United States. The most common attributable parasites were Schistosoma and Strongyloides stercoralis. Overall, parasites were detected in 63 (42.9%) of 147 refugees with eosinophilia by either stool testing, serology, or blood smear, but testing was inconsistent and likely underestimated true incidence. Only some of the identified parasites typically cause eosinophilia. Forty-five (30.6%) refugees with eosinophilia received antiparasitics in the United States. Of 81 (55.1%) individuals who had repeat blood tests, eosinophilia had resolved in 52 (64.2%). Five individuals (3.4%) had alternative diagnoses, including eczema, myelofibrosis, and drug allergy. Our findings support Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations to screen for eosinophilia in newly arrived refugees. Follow-up after 3-6 months is critical to confirm resolution of residual eosinophilia, which frequently occurs after effective predeparture treatment or if eosinophilia persists, to diagnose active parasitic infections.

More than a number: Exploring the impact of age(ing) on refugees’ experiences of arrival

Abstract Age(ing) as an intersectional category has seen only limited attention in refugee studies so far. Although research exists on the living situation and vulnerabilities of specific age groups, conceptual perspectives on how age(ing), as a factor of difference, plays out in refugees’ experiences of flight and arrival has been explored to a lesser extent. Drawing on qualitative research with fifty-three refugees who arrived in Germany since 2015 this contribution explores refugees’ experiences of arrival and their interrelation with their life courses. The analysis follows an intersectional life course perspective to unpack arrival experiences through the dimensions of key life events and their timing; locally and globally linked lives; categories of difference; as well as systems of domination and refugees’ agency. The contribution closes by proposing three conceptual considerations about how a focus on age(ing) can enhance a nuanced understanding of forced migrants’ living experiences.

Knowledge production in refugee studies from the South: Theorization of refugee labour in the literature on Turkey

Abstract This article explores the case of the migration studies industry in Turkey, which has flourished over the past decade, through an examination of knowledge production on refugee labour. Focusing on research about Syrian refugees’ labour and employment in Turkey between 2012 and 2018, the article discusses the ways in which refugee labour is articulated and studied to provide ground for a wider critique of migration-related knowledge production. This study aims to reflexively question academic outputs by (1) exploring the conceptual frames used broadly in research on refugee labour, and (2) developing an overview of the literature on Turkey with a focus on this topic. Through the case of the literature on refugee labour in Turkey, we explore the underlying political economy premises of migration research. This case serves as an example to argue that knowledge produced in a Southern context is mainly incorporated as case studies despite attempts to advance theoretical discussions, highlighting a North–South hierarchization of knowledge.

Coloniality and Refugee Education in the United States

In this paper, we demonstrate the ways in which the schooling of refugee youth in the United States reflects ongoing coloniality in education. Drawing on data collected in a case study, conducted between 2013 and 2016, as part of a larger ongoing ethnography of a Southwest United States District school’s response to refugee students, we show how the enactment of policies, pedagogies, and practices within schools reinforce the government’s control over refugee students and their families. In schools, the students are kept out of certain school spaces, marginalized in remedial courses, and denied academic opportunities and integrated support services. Using empirical data, we demonstrate how the restriction of the students’ movement in and around schools is embedded within the larger limitations embedded in coloniality and assimilation. We situate our analysis within the tensions and interactions between coloniality, assimilation, and neoliberalism as articulated in studies within anthropology and sociology, migration studies, critical refugee studies, and cultural studies. We conclude with a call for the decolonization of education and offer a practical starting point in refugee education.

"Nobody does checkups back there": A qualitative study of refugees' healthcare needs in the United States from stakeholders' perspectives.

The number of refugees globally grew to 35.3 million in 2022, and many refugees are exposed to various health risks along their migration journey. As a result, they may arrive in host communities with numerous health issues, including communicable diseases and chronic and mental health conditions. Navigating the healthcare system in a host country proves to be a significant challenge for them, leading to delayed care. This qualitative study explored the convolute healthcare needs of refugees in the United States by soliciting insights from stakeholders involved in refugee resettlement and healthcare. In-depth interviews were conducted with fifteen stakeholders who work closely with refugees, including healthcare providers, cultural/clinical health navigators supporting refugees, staff from refugee resettlement agencies and governmental entities, and researchers studying refugee health. Following informed consent, interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and imported into MAXQDA 2022 (VERBI Software) for thematic analysis. The results revealed key themes, including the heterogeneity of refugee populations, limited awareness of preventive healthcare, high prevalence and suboptimal management of chronic conditions, complexity of the healthcare system, lack of follow-up, and language barriers. Further research is warranted concerning the long-term health of refugee populations in the United States. Additionally, more tailored programs involving peer educators are recommended to support refugee communities in navigating the complex healthcare system in the host country.

Reading Refugee/(Im)Migrant Education Diffractively: Transdisciplinary Exploration of Matters That Matter and Matter That Matters in Refugee/(Im)Migrant Education

This paper is a conceptual exploration and diffractive reading of refugee/(im)migrant education through multiple lenses, including data-driven decision making, critical refugee studies, new materialism and critical feminist and posthumanist studies, and trans theorizations such as Black trans feminism. After a brief introduction to “the field” of refugee/(im)migrant education, the paper turns to diffractive readings of refugee/(im)migrant education as means of exploring what is the matter, as in the material and discursive substance, in refugee/(im)migrant education, and why and how (including when, where, and by whom) does that matter come to matter? The paper concludes with discoveries, or findings, from this diffractive, transdisciplinary exploration and considerations for educators, policymakers, researchers, activists, and other actors (co)constituting and “becoming with” refugee/(im)migrant education.