This book presents experiences of women refugees in a variety of contexts across Asia and Africa and builds a framework to ensure robust and effective mechanisms to safeguard refugees' rights. It highlights the structural challenges that women who are forcibly displaced face and the inadequacies of the response of governments and other stakeholders, irrespective of the country of origin, ethnicity, and religion of the refugee community. This volume: Focuses on contemporary issues such as the Rohingya and the Syrian crisis. Brings first-person accounts of women refugees from Asia and Africa. Draws on an interdisciplinary approach to analyse a host of issues, including public policy, cultural norms, and economics of forced migration. Bringing together first-hand accounts from women refugees and interventions by activists, academics, journalists, filmmakers, humanitarian workers, and international law experts, this book will be a must read for scholars and researchers of migration and diaspora studies, development studies, sociology and social anthropology, and politics and public policy. It will be of special interest to NGOs, policymakers, and think tanks.

This edited volume examines the extent to which the various authorities and actors currently performing border management and expulsion-related tasks are subject to accountability mechanisms capable of delivering effective remedies and justice for abuses suffered by migrants and asylum seekers. Member states of the European Union and State Parties to the Council of Europe are under the obligation to establish complaint mechanisms allowing immigrants and/or asylum seekers to seek effective remedies in cases where their rights are violated. This book sheds light on the complaint bodies and procedures existing and available in Austria, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Poland, and Romania. It assesses their role in overseeing, investigating, and redressing cases of human rights violations deriving from violent border and immigration management practices, and expedited expulsion procedures. This book therefore provides an assessment of the practical, legal, and procedural challenges that affect the possibility to lodge complaints and access remedies for human rights violations suffered at the hands of the law enforcement authorities and other security actors operating at land, air, and sea borders, or participating in expulsions procedures - in particular, joint return flights. The volume will be of key interest to students, scholars, and practitioners working on human rights, migration and borders, international law, European law and security studies, EU politics, and more broadly, international relations.

This book provides an insightful analysis of recent developments in immigration, asylum and citizenship law in the broader social and political context. Written accessibly by an experienced practitioner, it critically examines the development of UK immigration control since the second world war, identifying and focusing on the grievous collateral damage being caused to the rule of law and to society. It examines the decline in standards of public administration, the secular failure to follow the rule of law, and the related issues of social corrosion and lack of democratic accountability. Speaking to academics, practitioners, policy makers and all those concerned about the impact of the hostile environment, it makes proposals for legal changes which prioritise social cohesion: a shared burden of proof, a simple regularisation scheme and clear path to citizenship, and details how these would operate in practice.

The Protections for Religious Rights is the first practitioner work to offer a full and systematic treatment of the law as it pertains to religious rights in the UK and abroad. A practical working aid to a sensitive and important area of increasing litigation and public debate, this text examines the applicable legal instruments, considers the current state of the law, and reviews domestic, comparative, and international case law to provide a comprehensive reference resource that informs on all matters of significance in this area. The protections for religious rights in the UK are rooted in international law and the English common law. Religious conflicts have arisen when communities have perceived that their religious rights have been targeted for suppression, or ignored. Despite international human rights instruments which are intended to protect such rights, many courts have adopted a narrow and restrictive approach towards these aspects. With practical evaluations of the relevant international instruments which inform domestic law in the UK, the important substantive areas of employment, education, family, and goods and services, are addressed specifically in dedicated chapters. Comparative perspectives are also considered in an extensive chapter offering global treatment of legislation and authorities, drawing on expertise from the United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia, India, Ireland, New Zealand, and Turkey. Other areas where protections for religious rights are engaged are addressed in a final chapter - including coverage of places of worship, criminal law, planning, charitable status, prisons, immigration, and animal rights - making this text a complete resource for all concerned or interested in this area of law. The text includes an appendix of selected materials for easy reference to relevant extracts from international treaties, constitutions and domestic statutes.

This book presents a critical analysis of the concept of 'adequate housing'. While the concept of adequate housing is used largely as a normative standard in the protection of housing rights and in the implementation of housing policies, its apparent objectivity and universality have never been questioned by political and legal theory. This book analyses and challenges the understanding of this term in law and politics by investigating its relationship with the idea of 'home'. 'It is necessary to provide them with adequate housing!' It is very common to hear this phrase when dealing with housing poverty, especially in relation to migrants, minorities, indigenous and other subaltern groups are concerned. But what does "adequate housing" mean? This book tackles this issue by proposing a critical analysis of this concept and of its use in the development of housing policies addressing the subaltern group par excellence in Europe, Roma. In so doing, it focuses on the lives of Roma and Sinti in Italy who have been the target of inclusion policies. Highlighting the emotional connection to housing, and dismantling some of the most 'common sense' ideas about Roma, it offers a radical revision of how social justice in the housing sector might be refigured. This book will be invaluable for scholars and students working on relevant themes in socio and critical legal studies, sociology, human rights, urban studies, human geography and Romani studies

In contrast to the claim that refugee law has been a key in guaranteeing a space of protection for refugees, this book argues that law has been instrumental in eliminating spaces of protection, not just from one's persecutors but also from the grasp of sovereign power. By uncovering certain fundamental aspects of asylum as practised in the past and in present day social movements, namely its concern with defining space rather than people and its role as a space of resistance or otherness to sovereign law, this book demonstrates that asylum has historically been antagonistic to law and vice versa. In contrast, twentieth-century refugee law was constructed precisely to ensure the effective management and control over the movements of forced migrants. To illustrate the complex ways in which these two paradigms - asylum and refugee law - interact with one another, this book examines their historical development and concludes with in-depth studies of the Sanctuary Movement in the United States and the Sans-Papiers of France. The book will appeal to researchers and students of refugee law and refugee studies; legal and political philosophy; ancient, medieval and modern legal history; and sociology of political movements.

This book is based on a conference on the future of the European asylum policy at Erasmus School of Law in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. After a challenge set by the Dutch State Secretary for Justice, Ms Nebahat Albayrak, the contributions to this book focus on human rights aspects of the European asylum policy and the way the EU Member States need to cooperate in the future in order to reach results. The authors are scholars, policy makers and representatives of NGOs. In this way, many different aspects of the problems are put forward. In the introduction and the conclusion the editors evaluate the results of this broad cooperation. Valuable for academics, practitioners, policymakers and NGO's involved with European asylum policy issues.

"What part of illegal don't you understand?" This oft-repeated slogan from immigration restrictionists illustrates the contentious quality of the immigration reform debate in the United States: a debate that has raged on unresolved since at least 1986 when our immigration system was last reformed. This impasse is due, in large part, to widespread misinformation about immigration. This short and accessible textbook takes a critical perspective on immigration law and policy, arguing that immigrant "illegality" is itself produced by law, with tremendous consequences for individuals and families. Across six chapters that examine the conceptual, historical, economic, global, legal, and racial dimensions of immigration to the United States, Prieto argues that illegal immigration is a problem of policy, not people. History and cutting-edge social science data guide an analysis of the actual, empirical impact of immigration on U.S. society. By debunking myths about immigration, the reader is invited to form their own opinion on the basis of fact and in light of the unequal treatment different immigrant groups have received since the nation's founding. Myth and Reality in the U.S. Immigration Debate synthesizes key lessons from the fields of sociology, law and society, history, economics and critical race studies in a digestible and engaging format. This text will serve as an introduction to the study of immigration and a primer for those who wish to engage in a sober and compassionate conversation about immigrants and immigration in the United States.

"What part of illegal don't you understand?" This oft-repeated slogan from immigration restrictionists illustrates the contentious quality of the immigration reform debate in the United States: a debate that has raged on unresolved since at least 1986 when our immigration system was last reformed. This impasse is due, in large part, to widespread misinformation about immigration. This short and accessible textbook takes a critical perspective on immigration law and policy, arguing that immigrant "illegality" is itself produced by law, with tremendous consequences for individuals and families. Across six chapters that examine the conceptual, historical, economic, global, legal, and racial dimensions of immigration to the United States, Prieto argues that illegal immigration is a problem of policy, not people. History and cutting-edge social science data guide an analysis of the actual, empirical impact of immigration on U.S. society. By debunking myths about immigration, the reader is invited to form their own opinion on the basis of fact and in light of the unequal treatment different immigrant groups have received since the nation's founding. Myth and Reality in the U.S. Immigration Debate synthesizes key lessons from the fields of sociology, law and society, history, economics and critical race studies in a digestible and engaging format. This text will serve as an introduction to the study of immigration and a primer for those who wish to engage in a sober and compassionate conversation about immigrants and immigration in the United States.

This book provides a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of Mobility Partnerships and their consequences for third countries. Mobility partnerships between the EU and third countries are usually viewed as reflecting asymmetric power relations where development aid, trade relations and visa policies are made conditional upon the cooperation by third countries with an EU agenda of migration control. This book argues that three main factors condition the relevance of Mobility Partnerships: the state of relations between EU Member States and a third country, and in particular, the role of postcolonial ties; the power of negotiation of a third country, which is linked to its geopolitical importance for the EU; and its administrative capacity, which is understood as the capacity of a state to define and implement policies and to legislate and enforce the law. The work combines a comparative legal analysis of the development of the legal and policy frameworks in the cases of Morocco and Cape Verde with an empirical study of the implementation of Mobility Partnerships' projects. The analysis demonstrates that Mobility Partnerships, despite their non-binding nature, have legal and policy relevance for these third countries with regard to the regulation of migration, asylum, human trafficking and even labour law. As such, this book makes a contribution to the understanding of the interplay between the interests of EU, Member State and third country actors in the implementation of the Mobility Partnerships. The book will be a key resource for academics and students focusing on Migration Law, EU Studies, Geopolitics and African Studies. The empirical approach will also appeal to policy-makers, international organisation representatives and NGOs.

This book explores the ambit of the notion of persecution in international law and its relevance in the current geopolitical context, more specifically for refugee women. The work analyses different models for interpreting the notion of persecution in international refugee law through a comparative lens. In particular, a feminist approach to refugee law is adopted to determine to what extent the notion of persecution can apply to gender related forms of violence and what are the challenges in doing so. It proposes an interpretive model that would encourage decision makers to interpret the notion of persecution in a manner that is sufficiently protective and relevant to the profiles of refugees in the 21st century, most particularly to refugee women. The book will be of interest to academics and students in the field of public international law, international human rights law, international humanitarian law, immigration law, European law, and refugee law as well as those working in the areas of international relations.

Undocumented immigrant postsecondary students face myriad challenges while pursuing a college education. Garcia focuses on the experiences of nine students attending a public comprehensive postsecondary institution in California to assess how different types of social capital help students pursue a college education. She demonstrates how students were wholly or partly reliant on various types of social capital accessed before and during matriculation. Three of the major findings are: institutional agents were instrumental in developing students' social capital, family- and peer-based social capital was important to students' matriculation, and perceptions about immigration status affected students' matriculation and social capital development.

This book examines the link between refugee protection, duration of risk and residency rights. It focuses on two main issues of importance to current state practice: the use of temporary forms of refugee status and residency and the legal criteria for cessation of refugee status under Article 1C(5) of the 1951 Refugee Convention. In analysing this issue, this book canvasses debates which are pertinent to many other contentious areas of refugee law, including the relationship between the refugee definition and complementary protection, application of the Refugee Convention in situations of armed conflict, and the role of non-state bodies as actors of protection. It also illustrates some of the central problems with the way in which the 1951 Refugee Convention is implemented domestically in key asylum host states. The arguments put forward in this book have particular significance for the return of asylum seekers and refugees to situations of ongoing conflict and post-conflict situations and is therefore highly pertinent to the future development of international refugee law.

Through the Refugee Act of 1980, the United States offers the prospect of safety to people who flee to America to escape rape, torture, and even death in their native countries. In order to be granted asylum, however, an applicant must prove to an asylum officer or immigration judge that she has a well-founded fear of persecution in her homeland. The chance of winning asylum should have little if anything to do with the personality of the official to whom a case is randomly assigned, but in a ground-breaking and shocking study, Jaya Ramji-Nogales, Andrew I. Schoenholtz, and Philip G. Schrag learned that life-or-death asylum decisions are too frequently influenced by random factors relating to the decision makers. In many cases, the most important moment in an asylum case is the instant in which a clerk randomly assigns the application to an adjudicator. The system, in its current state, is like a game of chance.

Refugee Roulette is the first analysis of decisions at all four levels of the asylum adjudication process: the Department of Homeland Security, the immigration courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the United States Courts of Appeals. The data reveal tremendous disparities in asylum approval rates, even when different adjudicators in the same office each considered large numbers of applications from nationals of the same country. After providing a thorough empirical analysis, the authors make recommendations for future reform. Original essays by eight scholars and policy makers then discuss the authors' research and recommendations

Contributors: Bruce Einhorn, Steven Legomsky, Audrey Macklin, M. Margaret McKeown, Allegra McLeod, Carrie Menkel-Meadow, Margaret Taylor, and Robert Thomas.

Migration policing experiments such as boat turn-backs and offshore refugee processing have been criticised as unlawful and have been characterised as exceptional. Policing Undocumented Migrants explores the extraordinarily routine, powerful, and above all lawful practices engaged in policing status within state territory. This book reveals how the everyday violence of migration law is activated by making people 'illegal'. It explains how undocumented migrants are marginalised through the broad discretion underpinning existing frameworks of legal responsibility for migration policing. Drawing on interviews with people with lived experience of undocumented status within Australia, perspectives from advocates, detailed analysis of legislation, case law and policy, this book provides an in-depth account of the experiences and legal regulation of undocumented migrants within Australia. Case studies of street policing, immigration raids, transitions in legal status such as release from immigration detention, and character based visa determination challenge conventional binaries in migration analysis between the citizen and non-citizen and between lawful and unlawful status. By showing the organised and central role of discretionary legal authority in policing status, this book proposes a new perspective through which responsibility for migration legal practices can be better understood and evaluated. Policing Undocumented Migrants will be of interest to scholars and practitioners working in the areas of criminology, criminal law, immigration law and border studies.

This new book (CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY STUDENT UNION INTERNATIONAL 2003-2004: INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS' STRUGGLE FOR REPRESENTATION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM) by Christian Kim is very interesting. The struggles of international students at Cambridge University and in the context of the United Kingdom come alive for the reader. There are many important documents and articles included in the book that makes this a historical document in its own right. Christian Kim's book points out the inadequacies of Cambridge University to deal with the influx of international students and their needs. Furthermore, this book exposes the underhanded policies of the British New Labour government. It would not be a surprise if this book becomes an important impetus for change in the United Kingdom. It seems that Christian Kim desires nothing more than positive change for the benefit of international students. This book is more than a recounting of the valiant struggles of international students, particularly in light of the onerous $500 Visa Renewal Fee that the British New Labour government struck on international students while they were away for the summer vacation. This book is a heart-warming account of the positivity of the human spirit to take on a big unfair power even when the odds are stacked against them. There are a lot of pictures in the book that make events come alive.

Unaccompanied minor migrants are underage migrants, who for various reasons leave their country and are separated from their parents or legal/customary guardians. Some of them live entirely by themselves, while others join their relatives or other adults in a foreign country. The concept of the best interests of a child is widely applied in international, national legal documents and several guidelines and often pertains to unaccompanied minor migrants given that they are separated from parents, who are not able to exercise their basic parental responsibilities. This book takes an in-depth look at the issues surrounding the best interests of the child in relation to unaccompanied minor migrants drawing on social, legal and political sciences in order to understand children's rights not only as a matter of positive law but mainly as a social practice depending on personal biographies, community histories and social relations of power. The book tackles the interpretation of the rights of the child and the best interests principle in the case of unaccompanied minor migrants in Europe at political, legal and practical levels. In its first part the book considers theoretical aspects of children's rights and the best interests of the child in relation to unaccompanied minor migrants. Adopting a critical approach to the implementation of the Convention of Rights of a Child authors nevertheless confirm its relevance for protecting minor migrants' rights in practice. Authors deconstruct power relations residing within the discourses of children's rights and best interests, demonstrating that these rights are constructed and decided upon by those in power who make decisions on behalf of those who do not possess authority. Authors further on explore normative and methodological aspects of Article 3 of the Convention on the Rights of a Child and its relevance for asylum and migration legislation. The second part of the book goes on to examine the actual legal framework related to unaccompanied minor migrants and implementation of children's' rights and their best interests in the reception, protection, asylum and return procedures. The case studies are based on from the empirical research, on interviews with key experts and unaccompanied minor migrants in Austria, France, Slovenia and United Kingdom. Examining age assessment procedures, unaccompanied minors' survivals strategies and their everyday life in reception centres the contributors point to the discrepancy between the states' obligations to take the best interest of the child into account when dealing with unaccompanied minor migrants, and the lack of formal procedures of best interest determination in practice. The chapters expose weaknesses and failures of institutionalized systems in selected European countries in dealing with unaccompanied children and young people on the move.

The central concern of this book is to find answers to fundamental questions about the British asylum system and how it operates. Based on ethnographic research over a two-year period, the work follows and analyses numerous asylum appeals through the British courts. It draws on myriad interviews with individuals and a thorough examination of many state and non-state organizations to understand how the system works. While the organization of the book reflects the formal asylum process, a focus on specific legal appeals reveals the 'political' factors at play as different institutions and actors seek to influence judicial decision-making and overturn/uphold official asylum policy. The final chapter draws on the author's ethnographic findings of the UK's 'asylum field' to re-examine research on the Refugee Determination System in the US, Canada and Australia which has narrowly focused on judicial decision-making. It argues that analysis of Refugee Determination Systems must be situated and studied as part of a wider, political, semi-autonomous 'asylum field' which needs to be better understood. Providing an in-depth ethnographic study of a national asylum system and of immigration law and practice, the book will be an invaluable resource for academics, researchers and policy-makers in the UK and beyond working in this highly topical area.

This book explores the increasing concern over the extent to which those suffering from forced cross-border displacement as a result of environmental change are protected under international human rights law. Formally they are not entitled to admission or stay in a third state country, a situation that has been identified as an international "legal protection gap". The book seeks to provide answers to two basic questions: whether and to what extent existing international law protects cross-border environmental displacement, and whether and how existing formalized regional complementary protection standards can interpretively solidify and conceptualize protection for cross-border environmental displacement. The discussion outlines that the protection of the human person is not only an ex post facto obligation of states, but must be increasingly seen as an ex ante one. The analysis further suggests that the European Union regionally orientated protection regime can help states to consolidate an evolving protection paradigm of proactive and reactive measures being erected at the international level. It can also narrow the identified legal protection gaps. In so doing, it helps states to reconceptualise protection as a holistic and dynamic enterprise. This book will be of great interest to academics in law, political science and human rights, policy makers and civil society organisations both at national and international level.

The conditions for non-EU migrant workers to gain legal entry to Britain, France, and Germany are at the same time similar and quite different. To explain this variation this book compares the fine-grained legal categories for migrant workers in each country, and examines the interaction of economic, social, and cultural rationales in determining migrant legality. Rather than investigating the failure of borders to keep unauthorized migrants out, the author highlights the different policies of each country as "border-drawing" actions. Policymakers draw lines between different migrant groups, and between migrants and citizens, through considerations of both their economic utility and skills, but also their places of origin and prospects for social integration. Overall, migrant worker legality is arranged against the backdrop of the specific vision each country has of itself in an economically competitive, globalized world with rapidly changing welfare and citizenship models.

States restrict immigration on a massive scale. Governments fortify their borders with walls and fences, authorize border patrols, imprison migrants in detention centers, and deport large numbers of foreigners. Unjust Borders: Individuals and the Ethics of Immigration argues that immigration restrictions are systematically unjust and examines how individual actors should respond to this injustice. Javier Hidalgo maintains that individuals can rightfully resist immigration restrictions and often have strong moral reasons to subvert these laws. This book makes the case that unauthorized migrants can permissibly evade, deceive, and use defensive force against immigration agents, that smugglers can aid migrants in crossing borders, and that citizens should disobey laws that compel them to harm immigrants. Unjust Borders is a meditation on how individuals should act in the midst of pervasive injustice.

This book brings together contributions from some of the leading authorities in the field of EU immigration and asylum law to reflect upon developments since the Amsterdam Treaty and, particularly, the Tampere European Council in 1999. At Tampere, Heads of State and Government met to set guidelines for the implementation of the powers and competences introduced by the Amsterdam Treaty and make the development of the Union as an area of freedom, security and justice a reality. Since 1999, a substantial body of law and policy has developed, but the process has been lengthy and the results open to critique. This book presents a series of analyses of and reflections on the major legal instruments and policy themes, with the underlying question, to what extent the ideals held out of 'freedom, security and justice accessible to all', are in fact reflected in these legislative and policy developments. Has freedom from terrorism and the spectre of illegal or irregular migration, and increasingly strict border securitisation and surveillance overshadowed the freedom of the migrant to seek entry or residence for legitimate touristic, work, study, or family reasons, a secure refuge from persecution, and effective access to justice? In 2004, the Heads of State and Government presented a programme for the next stage of development in these areas, the Hague Programme, and the Directives and Regulations that have been agreed are now being transposed and applied in Member States legal systems. What are the main challenges in the years ahead as the Hague Programme and the existing legislative acquis are implemented?

This book explores the narratives and experiences of people in the Global South as they encounter the impact of international law in their lives. It looks specifically at approaches to international migrations and the law, as states in the Global South confront migration-related challenges. Taking a case study approach, drawn from the experiences of undocumented and displaced migrants in China and Nigeria, the book shows how informal justice systems not only exist but are upheld. With an innovative analysis drawing both on intersectionality and a Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), it moves away from the classic international versus regional and domestic law approach to reveal the experience of the Third World in relation to the law. This fascinating study will appeal to international law, human rights and immigration scholars, as well as those in the field of development studies.

Topical discussion of how social bureaucracies are increasingly used as a means to control immigration and mobility