The issue of asylum seekers and refugees is one of the most talked about subjects in contemporary politics, fueled by extensive coverage in the media. David J. Whittaker's book provides a balanced introduction to this very controversial subject.
"Asylum Seekers" "and Refugees in the Contemporary World "discusses the international as well as national implications of the issue, looking at the way different governments have dealt with it. Taking a number of case studies, for example Palestinian, Afghan and Iraqi refugees, Whittaker cuts through the emotive language to give an objective introduction to the subject. The book looks in detail at the issue as it has affected Britain and Europe in particular, as well as including material on the UN and its response to the refugee "problem."
Including a final statement on the British government's 2005 proposals for dealing with refugees, "Asylum Seekers and Refugees in the Contemporary World "is essential reading for all students of the history of the modern world and is ideal for newcomers to the subject.

"For four days, I haven't been able to write. The headaches, the nausea, the pain in my eyes finally caught up with me ... I couldn't write, just as I couldn't keep any food down, or escape the persistent nightmares whenever I tried to sleep. I've been dreaming of friends getting injured, of blood, and of people seeking shelter from falling bombs. Even when we sleep, there is no escape." Muna HamzehThis remarkable book is a gripping eyewitness account of what it is like to live in Palestine as a refugee in your own homeland. Born in Jerusalem, Muna Hamzeh is a journalist who has been writing about Palestinian affairs since 1985. She first worked as a journalist in Washington DC, but moved back to Palestine in 1989 to cover the first Palestine Intifada P the war of stones. She then settled in Dheisheh, near Bethlehem, one of 59 Palestinian refugee camps that are considered the oldest refugee camps in the world.The first part of the book consists of a diary which Hamzeh wrote between October 4th and December 4th 2000, telling the story of the second Intifada. Facing the tanks and armed guards of one of the best equipped armies in the world, the Palestinians have nothing. The anguish and terror that Muna and her friends face on daily basis is tangible. Who will be the next to die? Whose house will be the next to burn down? The second part of the book provides the background to these current events. It describes what life has been like for Dheisheh's refugees since 1990, and explains why the second Intifada was a natural development of the Oslo peace accord. "Refugees in Our Own Land" is a rare insider's look into the hearts and minds of Palestinian refugees.

This title was first published in 2003. The authors of the essays in this collection, all internationally recognised refugee scholars and practitioners, look at the controversial "hot" topic of refugee rights. They consider whether, 50 years after its agreement, the Refugees' Convention can provide an adequate framework for protection. In particular, the authors address: the effect of globalization upon the human rights of asylum seekers and refugees; the efficacy of the Convention as an instrument of international law; the role of the UNHCR; whether NGOs are effective instruments for change; and nationality and citizenship issues. They also consider alternatives and options for solutions to the global refugee problem.

Across the world, more than 160 million people now live outside the country of their birth." The Politics of Migration" explores the opportunities and tensions posed by this unprecedented level of migration and looks at the policy levers that governments must deploy to manage it effectively.

The book consists of a series of essays written by some of the foremost international experts on migration and citizenship issues. Focusing on Europe and North America, these experts examine issues such as the rise of the far right, the contradictory dynamics of migration in the European Union, the international politics of refugees, the impact of migration on labour markets and welfare states, the integration of Muslims, public opinion and citizenship. Arguing that we need to move beyond a sharply polarised debate, they offer a series of strong, workable proposals for managing migration more effectively.

In managing the growing number of refugees arriving in the industrialised world, beginning at the end of the 1970s, States have devised increasingly restrictive policies. The objectives of these measures have been to restrict access to the territory or, at least, to asylum procedures. Thus, while international co-operation in the refugee field traditionally focused on protection and assistance, the last two decades have been characterised by the emergence of transnational policies aimed at containing refugee flows, primarily on the European continent. The convoluted refugee routes - often described as 'secondary' or 'irregular' movements of refugees between countries of origin and their final destination - have been among States' major preoccupations. To combat what they often perceive to be proof of the fraudulent or manifestly unfounded nature of asylum claims, European States have passed legislation or agreed on international instruments designed to allocate and even evade responsibility for the examination of asylum applications. Even bolder solutions have been advocated more recently, such as the outsourcing of asylum procedures through regional or offshore schemes. This book presents a critical legal analysis of the mechanisms and arrangements devised by States to tackle secondary movements of refugees, and offers innovative solutions to the protection crisis afflicting the global refugee regime. After providing a comprehensive breakdown of the various legal tools used by States to combat secondary refugee movements, the book argues that, while the legality of these various arrangements is seriously in doubt, the most appropriate way to address these protection failures is to strengthen and develop adequate international accountability mechanisms.

It is estimated that at least 33 million people around the world have been displaced from their homes by war or persecution. Numerous studies have documented high rates of psychological distress among these survivors of extreme violence and forced migration, yet very few have access to clinic-based mental health care. In any case, clinic-based services cannot adequately address the constellation of displacement-related stressors that affect refugees daily, whether in a new region of their homeland or a new country--stressors such as social isolation, the loss of previously valued social roles, poverty and a lack of employment opportunities, and difficulties obtaining education and medical care. Additionally, many refugees from non-western societies find western methods of psychiatric and psychological healing culturally alien or stigmatizing, and therefore underutilize such services. This book brings together an international group of experts on the mental health of refugees who have pioneered a new approach to healing the psychological wounds of war and forced migration. Their work is guided by an ecological model, which, in contrast to the prevailing medical model of psychiatry and clinical psychology, emphasizes the development of culturally grounded mental health interventions in non-stigmatized community settings. The ecological model also prioritizes synergy with natural community resources to promote adaptation, prevention over treatment, the active involvement of community members in all phases of the intervention process, and the empowerment of marginalized communities to address their own mental health needs. Drawing on their expertise in community psychology, prevention science, anthropology, social psychology, social psychiatry, public health and child development, the authors present a variety of highly innovative, culturally grounded interventions designed to improve the mental health and psychosocial well-being of communities that have survived the nightmares of political repression, civil war, and genocide. They discuss the various conceptions of well-being and distress that have informed their projects, their own integrations of western and indigenous approaches to understanding and relieving psychological distress, and in several instances their creative use of well-trained paraprofessionals. They examine with remarkable candor the challenges they have faced in carrying out their work in extraordinarily demanding conditions. An extended introductory chapter reviews and analyzes what we know about the impact of political violence and exile on mental health, and lays out the ecological model in rich theoretical and empirical context. The first of two concluding chapters addresses the critical and often-neglected issue of the evaluation of community-based interventions in conflict and post-conflict settings; the second sums up the implications of the achievements and limitations of the programs described, poses questions that must be answered, such as "How adequate is the PTSD construct in capturing the nature of refugee trauma?", and suggests numerous directions for future research and practice. The Mental Health of Refugees: Ecological Approaches to Healing and Adaptation is an essential reference for all professionals who seek to serve members of this vulnerable population, for those who train and supervise them, and for program administrators and policymakers concerned with refugee well-being. It is also an excellent resource for graduate courses in public mental health, community psychology and psychiatry, refugee and immigrant studies, psychological trauma, medical anthropology, and ethnopolitical violence.

It is estimated that at least 33 million people around the world have been displaced from their homes by war or persecution. Numerous studies have documented high rates of psychological distress among these survivors of extreme violence and forced migration, yet very few have access to clinic-based mental health care. In any case, clinic-based services cannot adequately address the constellation of displacement-related stressors that affect refugees daily, whether in a new region of their homeland or a new country--stressors such as social isolation, the loss of previously valued social roles, poverty and a lack of employment opportunities, and difficulties obtaining education and medical care. Additionally, many refugees from non-western societies find western methods of psychiatric and psychological healing culturally alien or stigmatizing, and therefore underutilize such services. This book brings together an international group of experts on the mental health of refugees who have pioneered a new approach to healing the psychological wounds of war and forced migration. Their work is guided by an ecological model, which, in contrast to the prevailing medical model of psychiatry and clinical psychology, emphasizes the development of culturally grounded mental health interventions in non-stigmatized community settings. The ecological model also prioritizes synergy with natural community resources to promote adaptation, prevention over treatment, the active involvement of community members in all phases of the intervention process, and the empowerment of marginalized communities to address their own mental health needs. Drawing on their expertise in community psychology, prevention science, anthropology, social psychology, social psychiatry, public health and child development, the authors present a variety of highly innovative, culturally grounded interventions designed to improve the mental health and psychosocial well-being of communities that have survived the nightmares of political repression, civil war, and genocide. They discuss the various conceptions of well-being and distress that have informed their projects, their own integrations of western and indigenous approaches to understanding and relieving psychological distress, and in several instances their creative use of well-trained paraprofessionals. They examine with remarkable candor the challenges they have faced in carrying out their work in extraordinarily demanding conditions. An extended introductory chapter reviews and analyzes what we know about the impact of political violence and exile on mental health, and lays out the ecological model in rich theoretical and empirical context. The first of two concluding chapters addresses the critical and often-neglected issue of the evaluation of community-based interventions in conflict and post-conflict settings; the second sums up the implications of the achievements and limitations of the programs described, poses questions that must be answered, such as "How adequate is the PTSD construct in capturing the nature of refugee trauma?", and suggests numerous directions for future research and practice. The Mental Health of Refugees: Ecological Approaches to Healing and Adaptation is an essential reference for all professionals who seek to serve members of this vulnerable population, for those who train and supervise them, and for program administrators and policymakers concerned with refugee well-being. It is also an excellent resource for graduate courses in public mental health, community psychology and psychiatry, refugee and immigrant studies, psychological trauma, medical anthropology, and ethnopolitical violence.

'Elegant and disturbing. A brilliant analysis of the cruel biopolitics of care in contemporary Britain' - Ash Amin Of the many state-enacted cruelties to which refugees and asylum seekers are subjected, detention and deportation loom largest in popular consciousness. But there is a third practice, perpetrating a slower violence, that remains hidden: dispersal. Jonathan Darling provides the first detailed account of how dispersal - the system of accommodation and support for asylum seekers and refugees in Britain - both sustains and produces patterns of violence, suffering and social abjection. He explores the evolution of dispersal as a privatised process, from the first outsourced asylum accommodation contracts in 2012 to the renewed wave of outsourcing pursued by the Home Office today. Drawing on six years of research into Britain's dispersal system, and foregrounding the voices and experiences of refugees and asylum seekers, Darling argues that dispersal has played a central role in the erasure of asylum from public concern. Systems of Suffering is a vital tool in the arsenal of those fighting to hold the government to account for the violence of its asylum policy and practice.

How can schools best prepare themselves to successfully educate refugee children? By focusing on the education of refugee children, this book takes a rare look at a subject of increasing significance in current educational spheres. Highlighting the many difficulties facing refugee children, the editors draw upon a wealth of international experience and resources to present a broad, informative and sensitive text. Educational Interventions for Refugee Children identifies school-based interventions, whilst suggesting methods and measures with which to assess the efficacy of such programmes. It also develops a useful model that provides a standard for assessing refugee experience, offering diagnostic indicators for: * Evaluating support services for refugee children * Future avenues of research * Practical implications of creating supportive educational environments for refugee children The need to identify and prepare for the education of refugee children is an international issue, and this is reflected in the broad outlook and appeal of this book. The editors have developed an overall model of refugee experience, integrating psychological, cultural and educational perspectives, which researchers, practitioners and policy makers in education will find invaluable.

Internally displaced persons are those who have been forced to flee their homes and who do not cross an internationally recognized border. There are an astounding 28 million people around the world who currently qualify as IDPs. Unlike refugees, they have no organisation to deal with their plight. Very little is known about how people respond to the experience of displacement. In economic terms, the presence of the internally displaced is obvious. What are less obvious are the informal protection mechanisms that enable people to cope with the experience of displacement: the information networks that warn them of impending danger, or of events in their home villages. This is the first book to put together information on the networks that people have evolved for coping in such situations. Examining those people who have become IDPs as the result of violence and war, it uses case studies from different countries, different settings and different phases of displacement. The authors identify cross-cultural patterns of coping strategies, examine whether these strategies are effective and highlight to what extent they are dependent upon culture or the experience of displacement. Ideal for use as a resource of information on IDPs, it is also a practical handbook that will help international organisations formulate their relief plans to support - rather than inadvertently damage - existing coping mechanisms. Case studies include Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, Burma, Colombia, Georgia, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Sudan and Uganda.

In the 1950s and 1960s, immigration bureaucrats in the Department of Citizenship and Immigration played an important yet unacknowledged role in transforming Canada's immigration policy. In response to external economic and political pressures for change, high-level bureaucrats developed new admissions criteria gradually and experimentally while personally processing thousands of individual immigration cases per year. Making Middle-Class Multiculturalism shows how bureaucrats' perceptions and judgements about the admissibility of individuals - in socioeconomic, racial, and moral terms - influenced the creation of formal admissions criteria for skilled workers and family immigrants that continue to shape immigration to Canada. A qualitative content analysis of archival documents, conducted through the theoretical lens of a cultural sociology of immigration policy, reveals that bureaucrats' interpretations of immigration files generated selection criteria emphasizing not just economic utility, but also middle-class traits and values such as wealth accumulation, educational attainment, entrepreneurial spirit, resourcefulness, and a strong work ethic. By making "middle-class multiculturalism" a demographic reality and basis of nation-building in Canada, these state actors created a much-admired approach to managing racial diversity that has nevertheless generated significant social inequalities.

On April 17, 1975, after five years of civil war, the Khmer Rouge guerrillas invaded Cambodias major cities and forced the residents on a mass exodus to the countryside. Their leader, Pol Pot, established a government based on terror to bring about his dream of an agrarian society where work was done by hand--without what he believed to be corruptive influences. By the time the Vietnamese captured Phnom Penh and ended this brutal experiment in communism in 1979, an estimated two million Cambodians were dead and hundreds of thousands had begun to flee the country for refugee camps in Thailand. Survivors of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pots reign now living in the Midwest tell their stories in this work. Many of them were children during that time, unable to comprehend exactly what was happening and why, but now able to reveal the trauma they experienced. Noeun Nor and Sinn Lok recollect being wrenched from their families and put into labor camps around the age of five. Prum Noth talks about her mother encouraging her to eat the last grains of her familys rice. Sokhary You remembers giving birth on a mountain without a doctor or hospital and using rusty scissors to cut the umbilical cord.

In the Ogaden region of southeastern Ethiopia there is a camp of approximately 10,000 souls. Officially Ethiopian but ethnically Somali, they are not classified as refugees but as Internally Displaced Peoples, or IDPs, and thus live without even the marginal assistance that the UN can offer. The number of IDPs worldwide is far greater than is widely known, and far greater than that of officially recognized refugees--IDPs number near the population of Canada. Africa's tragedy lies not just in corruption, poverty, wars, droughts and famine, as if they were not enough. It lies also in the profound inability of Western societies, desperate to help with or without their politicians, to understand tribal and nomadic claims to the land. Jarret Schecter's Displaced in Denan is a record of the camp in Ogaden and the efforts of a small town in Connecticut to help the people there: it ends in hope that individuals can overcome bureaucracy.

Grace after Genocide is the first comprehensive ethnography of Cambodian refugees, charting their struggle to transition from life in agrarian Cambodia to survival in post-industrial America, while maintaining their identities as Cambodians. The ethnography contrasts the lives of refugees who arrived in America after 1975, with their focus on Khmer traditions, values, and relations, with those of their children who, as descendants of the Khmer Rouge catastrophe, have struggled to become Americans in a society that defines them as different. The ethnography explores America's mid-twentieth-century involvement in Southeast Asia and its enormous consequences on multiple generations of Khmer refugees.

This title was first published in 2000: An ethnographic inquiry into the socio-cultural dynamics of the Vietnamese asylum seeker detention centres in Hong Kong during the period of 1988-1995. It deals essentially with the British asylum policy towards Vietnamese refugees and its outcome in Hong Kong. Based on the author's first hand experience of working in refugee camps, this book argues that the administrators managed to solve the crisis by perpetuating horrendous human rights violations and subsequent ethnocide of the asylum seekers trapped in the detention centres.

This book analyses the extent and the modalities of the securitization of asylum-seekers and refugees in the EU. It argues that the development of the EU asylum policy, far from 'securitizing' asylum-seekers and refugees, has led to the strengthening and codification of several rights for these two categories of persons. However, the securitization of terrorism and the links that have been constructed between asylum, irregular migration and terrorism in the wake of the various terrorist attacks that have taken place in Europe in the last few years have had a significant impact on the ability of asylum-seekers to gain access to asylum systems in the EU. From a theoretical point of view, the book develops an original analytical framework that draws upon and further develops security studies - more precisely securitization theory - by connecting it to the literature on policy venues and venue-shopping. It therefore makes a significant contribution to the debates on both securitization and migration. Empirically examining the entire development of the EU's policy towards asylum-seekers and refugees, from its origins in 1993, this book will be of great interest to students of European and EU politics, refugees, migration, security, terrorism and counter-terrorism, security studies and International Relations.

Refugees, Interculturalism and Education focuses on the sensitive issue of forced migration and education from an intercultural perspective. The volume comprises diverse projects and classroom experiences in different countries, involving today's ever-increasing population of human beings who, for different reasons, are compelled to abandon their homelands and seek better living conditions in strange places where they are not normally welcome. Such a reality poses great challenges to the nations and educational systems that receive these groups and brings intercultural education to the centre of the discussion. The contributors to this book call attention to the importance of providing these refugee populations with a humanistic, stimulating and transformative educational setting in order to let them know that their lives are important and that their histories matter. The chapters in this book were originally published in Intercultural Education.

How are refugee crises solved? This has become an urgent question as global displacement rates continue to climb, and refugee situations now persist for years if not decades. The resolution of displacement and the conflicts that force refugees from their homes is often explained as a top-down process led and controlled by governments and international organizations. This book takes a different approach. Through contributions from scholars working in politics, anthropology, law, sociology and philosophy, and a wide range of case studies, it explores the diverse ways in which refugees themselves interpret, create and pursue solutions to their plight. It investigates the empirical and normative significance of refugees' engagement as agents in these processes, and their implications for research, policy and practice. This book speaks both to academic debates and to the broader community of peacebuilding, humanitarian and human rights scholars concerned with the nature and dynamics of agency in contentious political contexts, and identifies insights that can inform policy and practice.

A heartbreaking account of a poor and illiterate young West African's odyssey to Europe, translated by one of Britain's most celebrated playwrights. Ibrahima, whose family live in a village in the West African country of Guinea, helps his father sell shoes at a street stall in the capital, Conakry. At the sudden death of his father, he becomes the head of the family and picks up various skills, always alone and away from home, although his dream is to be a truck driver in his country. But when his little brother, Alhassane, suddenly disappears, heading for Europe in a bid to earn money for the family, Ibrahima leaves everything behind to try to find him and convince him to go back to their village and continue his education. In an epic journey, Ibrahima risks his life many times searching for his little brother. Each waystation that Ibrahima passes through takes him to another world, with different customs, other languages, other landscapes, other currencies, and new challenges to overcome. His willpower is astonishing, and the friendship and generosity of strangers he encounters on the way help him to keep going. After enduring many trials and tribulations, he learns of Alhassane's fate. Unable to return home, he embarks on the journey to Europe himself. Little Brother is a testimonial account that gives a voice, heart, and soul, and flesh and bones to the seemingly nameless masses of people struggling and dying, trying only to achieve a better life for themselves and their families.

The increase in the number of asylum seekers arriving in Europe has placed the issue of migration high on the policy agendas of national governments and the European Union. This book analyzes the impact of policy on the social and economic settlement of refugees in Britain in that context. The issues explored include: current UK and EU migration policy; the history of migration to Britain and policy responses; theories of migration and migrant settlement; social and economic settlement of refugees in Britain - including language, employment, social networks, the migratory process, community, development and policy recommendations.

Providing nuanced accounts of how the social identities of men and women, the context of displacement and the experience or manifestation of violence interact, this collection offers conceptual analyses and in-depth case studies to illustrate how gender relations are affected by displacement, encampment and return. The essays show how these factors lead to various forms of direct, indirect and structural violence. This ranges from discussions of norms reflected in policy documents and practise, the relationship between relief structures and living conditions in camps, to forced military recruitment and forced return, and covers countries in Africa, Asia and Europe.

Based on content analyses of three international organizations' policy reports and interviews with Somali refugees and refugee organizations, Dilek Karal examines the construction of ethico-political paradigm for immigration and asylum policies in Ethiopia. Departing from an assertion that ethico-political power is an intrinsic part of neo-liberal governmentality (and thus immigration and asylum policy formation), this volume unearths its mechanisms in Ethiopia's current immigration and refugee legislation and in global policy propositions moving forward. Ultimately, the exclusionary character of the propositions for Ethiopian states' governance of migrants is revealed through close interviews, data analysis, and applied analytics of governmentality method.

The large-scale movements of refugees and economic migrants from conflict zones to more stable societies have resulted in challenges, both for new entrants and their hosts. This fascinating volume brings together a collection of media analyses focused on immigration issues to examine how migration has been represented to the public. Case studies exploring media coverage of migrants and refugees in Europe enable the reader to better understand the complexity of the process through a range of unique and unexplored dimensions of immigration analysis, including strategic framing theory, game structure analysis, migration maps and routes, television narratives, rumour-based communication, and state-bred campaigns. The insights into the perspective of migrants, the general public and policy makers provide innovative methodological and theoretical analysis on population movements which will be of interest to scholars, students, and policy makers working in the fields of migration studies, international relations, peace and security studies, and social and public policy.

Refugees, Environment and Development is concerned with the complex interrelationships between forced migration, natural resource management and 'sustainable development'. The book challenges the growing rhetoric that refugees 'cause' environmental degradation, and that environmental decline is promoting a new wave of 'environmental refugees'. Drawing on examples from Africa, Asia and Latin America, as well as detailed case studies of the Rwandan emergency of 1994-96, and lesser known refugee movements to Guinea and Senegal in West Africa, the book argues against a neo-Malthusian view of the relationship between population, environment and migration. The author explores alternative approaches to the dynamic processes of social and environmental change in refugee situations. This is an ideal text for undergraduate and postgraduate students concerned with environment, development and migration studies, as well as policy-makers and practitioners in the field.

There is perhaps no aspect of the Arab-Israeli conflict that is more complex and more emotionally charged than the problem of the Palestinian refugees. The atmosphere surrounding the discussion has led to confusion, so that the facts have become unclear and the problems more difficult to treat. This book, first published in 1981, examines the complex interlocking issues that surround the topic of the Palestinian refugees in the country that adopted most of them - Jordan.