Refugee Studies

New Beginnings: Insights of Government-Assisted Refugees in British Columbia into their settlement outcomes

by Dug Cubie

Published by the Immigrant Services Society of British Columbia, December 2006

This paper presents the findings of in-depth interviews with 152 refugees who arrived in British Columbia with the... more This paper presents the findings of in-depth interviews with 152 refugees who arrived in British Columbia with the support of the Canadian Government's Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP). The aim of the research was to interview 25% of all Government - Assisted Refugees from the top eight countries of origin who arrived in BC during the calendar years of 2003 and 2005, to obtain their views on their arrival and subsequent settlement outcomes, challenges and successes. The report provides feedback for service enhancements during a refugee's first six weeks in Canada, as well as identifying other issues of RAP policy and program consideration.The qualitative and quantitative data provides a snap-shot of refugees' own perceptions of their arrival and settlement in BC, by covering such areas as: pre-arrival orientation, arrival in Vancouver, initial RAP orientation, and subsequent housing, education, health, employment, English as a Second Language and social outcomes.

Narratives of identity, home, and return of Kosovarian refugees: Steps toward a postmodern sense of agency

by Marco Gemignani

Title The Causes, Character and Conduct of Armed Conflict, and the Effects on Civilian Populations, 1990-2010

by Olivier Schmitt

"Co-autored with Theo Farrell". UNHCR Legal and Protection Policy Research Series, n°26, April 2012

[Book review] Misselwitz, M. & Schlichte, K.: Politik der Unentschiedenheit: Die internationale Politik und ihr Umgang mit Kriegsflüchtlingen

by Erik Mohns

"Politics of Indecision: International Politics and its Approach to Refugees of War". Edited by Margarete Misselwitz and Klaus Schlichte. Bielefeld: transcript, 2010. Published in: Journal of Refugee Studies 25(1). 2012: 152-153.

Arteterapia: un enfoque psicosocial

by Margaret Hills de Zárate

Positive Energy: A Review of the Role of Artistic Activities in Refugee Camps

by Awet Andemicael

published by the United Nations High Commisisoner for Refugees Policy Development and Evaluation Service (UNHCR PDES)

Constructing the forced migrant and the politics of space and place-making

by Saskia Witteborn

Journal of Communication

Mobility is one of the defining concepts of globalization processes. For some migrants,
however, mobility is... more Mobility is one of the defining concepts of globalization processes. For some migrants,
however, mobility is restricted by international and national laws as well as sociopolitical
discourses, which regulate the migrant body and her ability to create social relations. Based
on interviews in asylum seeker accommodations in Germany, this study illustrates how
asylum seekers are spatially constructed and arrested through bureaucratic labeling and
assignment to heterotopias and as a discursive location of transience and difference. Those
processes freeze the forced migrant in place, in social and semiotic spaces, and position it
as a politicized discursive location. The positioning is indicative of monitoring the Other as
a symbol of threat to the nation in times of risk. Overall, the study illustrates the tensions
between transnational mobility and fixity and the intersections between globalization,
communication, social, legal, and political practice, and space/place-making.

Migration since World War I [up to the 21st Century]

by Mark Tolts

The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe / Online Edition, 2010

This article is a broad overview of migration processes among the Jewish populations of Poland, Romania, Hungary,... more This article is a broad overview of migration processes among the Jewish populations of Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic and Slovakia), Baltic States, the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation and the other European Successor States.

Une question de catégorie ? Politiques du mariage mixte entre Allemandes et Français.: France 1935-1940

by Aurélie Audeval

Tradition, Innovation, Fusion: Local articulations of global scapes of girl dance

by anna hickey-moody

MISTAKES IN IDENTITY: SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND CREDIBILITY IN THE ASYLUM PROCESS

by Michael Carl Budd

Coping with the Effects of War: Refugees in the Levant during the Bronze and Iron Ages.

by Aaron A. Burke

2012. In Disaster and Relief Management in Ancient Israel, Egypt and the Ancient Near East, edited by A. Berlejung, A. Bagg, and G. Lehmann. Forschungen zum Alten Testament, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen

http://www.mohr.de/en/theology/subject-areas/old-testament/buch/disaster-and-relief-management-katastrophen-und-ihre-bewaeltigung.html?tx_commerce_pi1%5BcatUid%5D=0&cHash=6120607e749e3781e8a0bf22f9a8ca3b

Crisis management in antiquity was a largely informal process. While ancient states could seek to mitigate crises,... more Crisis management in antiquity was a largely informal process. While ancient states could seek to mitigate crises, which they could foresee, such as preparing for war by storing supplies and weapons, training a standing, and meeting an opposing army in the field, there is no substantive evidence for the management of crises after their occurrence. Where states and even technological advances could seek to mitigate foreseeable crises, survival in the wake of crises appears largely the domain of individuals: priests supplicating on behalf of the state and individuals looking after their own households and relying on their own kinsmen. By its very nature, therefore, crisis management was in many respects the domain of choices made by individual households. Among the choices often facing individuals was moving to survive and thereby becoming refugees, individuals forced by circumstances to move to a new location whether for the short or long term. In this paper, I will suggest criteria for the identification of refugees in the ancient Near Eastern archaeological and historical record, the evidence for such population movements in the ancient Near East, and the emplacement strategies of refugees.

Spatialising the Refugee Camp

by Adam Ramadan

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers

Political Themes in the Reformation of John Calvin

by James Mitchell

“The Art of Exile”.

by Safdar Ahmed

Published in Literature and Aesthetics, Vol. 21, June 2011, 10-18.

The Contemporary International Law Status of the Right to Receive Asylum

by William Worster

Clearly a state has a right to expel aliens generally, and a state has a right to grant asylum to aliens, but the... more Clearly a state has a right to expel aliens generally, and a state has a right to grant asylum to aliens, but the question is whether an individual has a right to asylum opposable to the state’s right to expel. In the literature, it is commonly understood that no such right exists. Treaty obligations discussing a “right to asylum” are understood in various ways, generally not to provide for a right to receive asylum but apply for it. However, the past few decades have shown a growth in conventions addressing asylum, especially, but not limited to, the European context. With refugee flows being an inherently international concern with a need for durable solutions, increasingly refugees are being assimilated to refugee-seekers. States are reacting or anticipating these issues by adopting domestic rights to asylum, at least for individuals qualifying as refugees. These trends suggest an evolving international consensus on opinio juris and state practice that refugees must receive asylum. Thus, it appears that the right to asylum for refugees exists under
customary international law.

The paper will proceed broadly in two sections viewing the issue from different perspectives. In the first section, the paper will begin by examining the “right to asylum” from the perspective of
the states, the authors of the Refugee Convention and similar agreements. The paper will conclude that the “right to asylum” in those agreements is directed at states, not individuals. In essence, states have a right vis-à-vis other states to grant asylum to aliens and not have that act be viewed as hostile.

However, this right of the state does not necessarily exclude a right of individuals to receive asylum if convention or customary international law also demand it. Accordingly, the second section examines the right of the individual to receive asylum. In the first sub-section, the author looks at conventional law and in the following sub-sections he looks at customary international
law, specifically state practice and opinio juris. In the conclusion, the author argues that, although there is a state right to grant asylum, there is also an individual right to receive it in certain circumstances. This conclusion is based on widespread and consistent practice granting asylum as an obligatory consequence of refuge.

’Dangerous Shortcuts’: Representations of LGBT Refugees in the Post-9/11 Canadian Press

by Alan Wong

Jenicek, Ainsley, Edward Lee, and Alan Wong. “’Dangerous Shortcuts’: Representations of LGBT Refugees in the Post-9/11 Canadian Press”. Canadian Journal of Communications 34.4 (2009): 635-658. Print

Canadian newspapers are a principal source of information on refugees claiming asylum in Canada on the basis of... more Canadian newspapers are a principal source of information on refugees claiming asylum in Canada on the basis of persecution for their sexual orientation. Many articles rely on culturally racist and classist stereotypes of sexual minorities to demonstrate claimants’ legitimacy. Refugees’ stories are further deployed as “mediating agents” to confirm Canada’s “superiority” over other regions, particularly those identified as Islamic. To determine what thematic constructions are most prevalent among Canadian news sources, the authors conducted a critical discourse analysis (CDA) and secondary textual analysis of articles culled from five Canadian English-language newspapers, employing critical race and queer theories as framing devices.

Keywords: Post-colonialism; Multiculturalism; Feminist/Gender; Newspapers; Rhetoric

Refugees as People: The Portrayal of Refugees in American Human Interest Stories

by Sarah Steimel

Published in Journal of Refugee Studies (2010)

This study combines discourse analysis and narrative analysis (Yin 2007) to examine top US newspapers’ coverage... more
This study combines discourse analysis and narrative analysis (Yin 2007) to examine top US newspapers’ coverage of refugees in American human interest stories. I find that the refugees are presented (a) as prior victims; (b) as in search of the American Dream; and (c) as unable to achieve the American Dream. As
human-interest features, the stories provide a largely positive portrayal of individual refugees and their families. However, the human interest stories also depict refugees as current victims of the American economic crisis; deeply frustrated by their inability to achieve the American Dream. Together these discourses represent a narrative of escape, hope, and then harsh reality for refugees in America’s current economic climate

Dialectic Tensions Experienced by Resettled Sudanese Refugees in Mediating Organization

by Sarah Steimel

Published in the International Journal of Communication (2010)

An increasing number of global migrants are refugees who have fled religious, racial, ethnic, or other political... more An increasing number of global migrants are refugees who have fled religious, racial, ethnic, or other political persecution. As these refugee populations have grown, governmental and nonprofit organizations have emerged to help mediate the resettlement experience. The current study explores the dialectical tensions Sudanese refugees face in communicating with the organizations designed to make their resettlement successful. Five Sudanese refugees participated in semistructured interviews about their experiences communicating with mediating organizations. Four dialectical tensions emerged from participants’ stories about their communication in and with mediating organizations: (a) dissemination and dialogue, (b) emancipation and control,
(c) empowerment and oppression, and (d) integration and separation. Taken as a totality, these challenges both replicate and extend existing organizational empowerment research.

Refugees: Homeless by Definition

by Melissa Phillips

in 'Parity' Magazine, publication of the Council to Homeless Persons in a special issue on "Refugees ... the New Homeless'