Indonesia and The International Refugee Crisis: The Politics of Refugee Protection

This article examines the politics of international refugee protection in Indonesia’s domestic contexts to better understand the discourse of security and protection within the context of Indonesia’s policies and practices in handling refugees This understanding is crucial to find insights relating to the protection gap in the Asia-Pacific region, as Indonesia holds a salient position in advancing the refugee protection regime in the region. Although Indonesia does not seem to employ a specific restrictive asylum and immigration policy as a filtering mechanism to prevent refugee flows from entering their territory, its anxiety and ambivalence to accommodate requests for protection from asylum seekers have characterized its approach towards refugee crises over time. Specifically, this essay analyzed the political discourse and practices in a specific social and political context by historically tracing the experiences of Indonesia in dealing with three refugee crises that took place in the region, namely the Indochinese refugee crisis, the Tampa incident, and the Rohingya humanitarian crisis. It will be argued that the contested discourse and practices of protection in the midst of continuing modulation of insecurity within states are the constitutive factor for the production of state’s approaches to protect refugees. This potentially affected the way states conduct their domestic and foreign policies in the attempt to affirm their national stance towards global refugee phenomena and to avoid greater responsibility without guaranteed cooperative behaviors and solidarity from other counterparts.

The Indochinese Refugee Movement and the Launch of Canada’s Private Sponsorship Program

Introduction to 32.2: Special IssueThe Indochinese Refugee Movement and the Launch of Canada’s Private Sponsorship ProgramGuest Editors: Michael J. Molloy and James C. Simeon

The Indochinese Refugee Movement: An Exploratory Case Study of the Windsor Experience

Following the fall of Saigon in 1975, thousands fled Indochina in small boats to attain political asylum in neighbouring countries. Canada played a leading role in the resettlement of thousands of Indochinese refugees, and a significant part of this national effort was led by the city of Windsor, Ontario. This article examines Windsor’s local efforts to sponsor and integrate Indochinese refugees into Canadian society. In late 1977, Windsor Mayor Bert Weeks established an ad hoc committee on Indochinese refugees. Together with volunteers from local faith communities and non-governmental organizations, the city created a vast resettlement network and assumed the sponsorship of several families, well before the wave of refugees arrived in 1979. As an exploratory work, this article provides evidence of Windsor’s pivotal role in shaping the Canadian response to the Indochinese refugee crisis and may challenge the national narrative that large Canadian cities led refugee resettlement efforts. This study is timely, as important lessons can be drawn from the Windsor experience.

The Indochinese Refugee Movement and the Subsequent Evolution of UNHCR and Canadian Resettlement Selection Policies and Practices

The Indochinese refugee movement cast a long shadow over subsequent resettlement operations. UNHCR has since asserted greater leadership, with resettlement becoming more individually focused and globally diverse, but also more complex. Canadian policy has also evolved to become increasingly focused on protection and supportive of UNHCR’s durable solution activities. This article seeks to compare UNHCR and Canadian resettlement selection policy and practice in place during the time of the Indochinese movement up to mid-2015. It highlights key elements in the evolution of UNHCR and Canadian resettlement policy and the factors behind them. It also identifies aspects of the Indochinese movement that are relevant to contemporary refugee policy.

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.