Refugees and Forced Migrants at the Crossroads: Forced Migration in a Changing World

2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Nassari
Keyword(s):  
Forced Migration ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
Changing World

scholarly journals Tragic and Heroic Moments in the Lives of Forced Migrants: Memories of Political Asylum-Seekers in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Refuge ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 63-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest A. Pineteh ◽  
Thecla N. Mulu
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Political Asylum ◽  
Discursive Space ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
Personal Accounts ◽  
At Home

This article examines the memories of a group of Cameroonian asylum-seekers in South Africa, analyzing personal accounts of memories of fear, suffering, and pain as well as resilience and heroism during their forced migration. The article argues that the legitimacy of applications for asylum often depends on accurate and consistent memories of specific life-threatening episodes at home and during migration. Drawing on theoretical conceptions such as construction of memory, autobiographical memory, and politics of storytelling, this article teases out how personal memories of asylum-seekers provide a discursive space to access and understand the asymmetries of seeking political asylum in post-apartheid South Africa.

scholarly journals Refugee Voices: Exploring the Border Zones between States and State Bureaucracies

Refuge ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawn Chatty
Keyword(s):  
Forced Migration ◽  
World Order ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Border Zones ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
Political Security ◽  
Policy Solutions

Settled people have been forced to move and nomads have been coerced into settling for as long as there has been history. Until the emergence of the Westphalian concept of the nation (where the state corresponded to the nation, groups of people united by language and culture), movement and mobility were largely recognized and accommodated. However, most contemporary academic disciplines as well as public institutions adopt a particular sedentist perspective on the nation-state. It is commonly recognized that people are displaced and move when political states collapse; they return when political security is restored. The liminal “state” outside the defined territory of the nation-state, where the displaced are found, is regarded as a threat to the world order.1 Predominant theory has been that people must be tied to territory, and thus the durable policy solutions advanced are frequently about resettlement. Reality does not support either current forced migration theory or humanitarian aid practices, however, and an epistemological change in thinking about forced migrants is urgently required. This means looking beyond the nationstate— the purview of most academic work in this area— and beyond traditional barriers between disciplines, to give cross-disciplinary attention to the self-expressions and experiences of forced migrants. Furthermore, the forced migrant creates a dilemma in how aesthetic expression is displayed, as their forms of expression cannot be squarely identified with one state or another. The dispossessed and displaced are changed by their experiences in the grey zones between states, and their migrations cannot be neatly catalogued as belonging to one state or culture.

scholarly journals Forced Migrants from Central Asia in Terms of Archival Documents (1991-2002): A Case Study of the Chelyabinsk Region

2021 ◽  
pp. 767-778
Author(s):  
Andrey A. Avdashkin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Ethnic Composition ◽  
Population Census ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
State Archive ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
Chelyabinsk Region ◽  
High Level

The article draws on the documents from the United State Archive of Chelyabinsk Region and the State Archive of the Russian Federation to examine forced migration from the former Soviet republics to the South Urals in 1991-2002. The choice of chronological framework is due to the fact that this period saw the peak of forced migration caused by the outflow from the military conflicts zones and due to the difficulties of post-socialist transit in the states of Central Asia. The 2002 Population Census allows the author to draw the balance of these processes and to identify the number of the region’s residents who arrived from the former Soviet Union republics between 1989 and 2002. The Chelyabinsk region is a part of the Russian-Kazakh frontier. After the collapse of the USSR and the reformatting of state borders, this borderland was an extended settlement area of the Russian-speaking population, mostly leaning towards moving from Kazakhstan. Due to a sufficiently high level of development, transport accessibility and low start-up opportunities for migrants, these border regions became one of the main places for receiving forced displacements from the Central Asian states, mostly Kazakhstan. In the current historiographical situation, a holistic reconstruction and detailing of these large-scale migrations requires a reliance on new historical sources. Archival documents of regional migration services contain valuable data on the number of forced migrants, their main areas of origin, socio-demographic characteristics, and other important parameters. The documents revealed in the fonds of the OGACHO and the GARF have showed that, at the initial stage, the backbone of migration flows was the Russian-speaking population from neighboring Kazakhstan, able-bodied, with a sufficiently high level of skills. This compensated for demographic losses due catastrophic growth of mortality and decline in birth rate. Thus, according to the migration service of the region, migration compensated for more than half of the total population loss, without any significant impact on its ethnic composition. At the same time, migrants encountered numerous difficulties in integrating into Russian society, which were rarely reflected in the specific documentation of state institutions. Many of the arrived, for various reasons, were not included in the forced migrants and refugees statistics due to numerous bureaucratic difficulties and an objective lack of resources for helping such a large number of people.

Environmentally Forced Migration and Human Rights

2019 ◽  
pp. 336-362
Author(s):  
J. M. M. van der Vliet-Bakker
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Minimum Standards ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Specific Category ◽  
Forced Migrants

In an era of accelerating environmental degradation, a growing number of people will be affected by its effects. Some of those people will be forced to migrate, both internally and cross-border. Under current international law, those people are not recognized as a specific category entitled to protection. Many protection gaps in international law can be identified for these ‘environmentally forced migrants'. Human rights law can fill some of those gaps by offering minimum standards of treatment, procedural protection or complementary protection. This chapter systematically assesses these possibilities.

18. Human Rights and Forced Migration

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gil Loescher
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
International Community ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Internal Displacement ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
International Refugee Regime

This chapter examines the link between human rights and forced migration. It first considers the human rights problems confronting forced migrants both during their flight and during their time in exile before discussing the differing definitions accorded refugees today as well as the difficulty in coming up with a widely accepted definition. It then explores the roles and functions of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the international refugee regime. It also uses the case study of Myanmar to illustrate many of the human rights features of a protracted refugee and internal displacement crisis. Finally, it describes how the international community might respond to new and emerging challenges in forced migration and world politics, and better adapt to the ongoing tension between the power and interests of states and upholding refugee rights.

The digital gift and aspirational mobility

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 754-769 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saskia Witteborn
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Media Analysis ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
Migrant Groups

This article discusses aspirational mobility and the digital gift in the context of forced migration in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It illustrates how gifting a mobile device and data enhances the aspirational mobility of forced migrants and intervenes into political codes, which promote social and technological isolation. Through the example of fieldwork with forced migrants and social media analysis, the article shows how participation, self-presentation, and social control were encouraged through the object and data gift. The migrants amplified their aspirational mobility by participating in urban life, presenting themselves in digital space, and maintaining romantic sociality with members of other marginalized migrant groups. The article elaborates on previous notions of technology as expanding social worlds for forced migrants while also highlighting the potential of technology for social control between migrant groups. The article also points to the potential dangers of social media use by asylum seekers for refugee status determination.

Statelessness in the EU Framework for International Protection

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gábor Gyulai
Keyword(s):  
Forced Migration ◽  
European Policy ◽  
Member States ◽  
International Protection ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Dignified Life

Abstract Every year Europe faces the arrival of thousands of stateless migrants in search of a more dignified life. Most of them are in need of protection. In most EU member states, statelessness is predominantly a migratory phenomenon and often linked to forced migration. Yet, statelessness has to-date not been part of mainstream European policy discussions on international protection. Consequently, statelessness frequently remains a hidden phenomenon in the EU, making persons without a nationality invisible and living on the margins of society. This article examines the EU framework for international protection and the forms of protection stateless forced migrants can currently count on in the Union.

scholarly journals Displacements of Memory

Refuge ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-17
Author(s):  
Philip Marfleet
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
First Century ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Nation State ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
Modern Era

The experiences of refugees—their “voices” and memories—have routinely been excluded from the historical record. With rare exceptions, refugees are absent from mainstream history: although specific episodes of forced migration may be carefully recorded and even celebrated in national histories, most refugee movements are ignored and their participants silenced. This article examines the practice of exclusion and its implications for historical research and for the study of forced migration. It considers experiences of refugees from the early modern era until the twenty-first century, mobilizing examples from Europe, the Americas, and South Asia, and offering comparative observations. It examines relationships between forced migrants and institutions of the nation-state, and the meanings of exclusion within ideologies of national belonging. It considers remedial measures and their implications for current efforts to ensure refugee voices are heard and understood.

scholarly journals “Citizens without Borders”?: Discussions of Transnationalism and Forced Migrants at the Ninth Conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration, São Paulo, Brazil, January 2005

Refuge ◽  
2006 ◽  
pp. 94-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Collyer
Keyword(s):  
International Association ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
Global North ◽  
Durable Solutions ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
Transnational Activities ◽  
Directing Attention ◽  
Made In

The significance of transnational perspectives at the ninth conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) marks a key change in the development of work on both forced migration and migrant transnationalism. A transnational perspective highlights significant policy interventions that can be made in the search for durable solutions to refugee displacement; most significantly, recognizing that a refugee’s community may be spread on a global scale, yet is nonetheless significant in supporting their own efforts to overcome the difficulties of their situation. It is equally important, however, to recognize that transnational activites do not always support pluralistic solutions to conflict. The transnational engagements of forced migrants also challenge a number of assumptions of existing transnational perspectives by directing attention to forms of exchanges and communication that do not necessariy involve the movements of people. Interest in transnational activities is currently concentrated amongst researchers working in the wealthier countries of the global North. Further work may determine if alternative perspectives are more appropriate for research based in the South.

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