All national identities are somewhat fluid, held together by collective beliefs and practices as much as official territory and borders. In the context of the Palestinians, whose national status in so many instances remains unresolved, the articulation and `imagination' of national identity is particularly urgent. This book explores the ways that Palestinian intellectuals, artists, activists and ordinary citizens `imagine' their homeland, examining the works of key Palestinian thinkers and writers such as Edward Said, Mahmoud Darwish, Mourid Barghouti, Ghassan Kanafani and Naji Al Ali. Deploying Benedict Anderson's notion of `Imagined Communities' and Edward Soja's theory of `Third Space', Tahrir Hamdi argues that the imaginative construction of Palestine is a key element in the Palestinians' ongoing struggle. An interdisciplinary work drawing upon critical theory, postcolonial studies and literary analysis, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Palestine and Middle East studies and Arabic literature.

This volume examines how Governmental agencies, non-profit organizations and educational institutions are mobilizing their resources to promote inclusion of refugees and internally displaced people. It explores the grass root campaigns that are working towards participation and full involvement for disadvantaged groups, and towards equitable distribution of opportunities in both home and host countries. The case studies included emphasize the importance of effective cooperation and coordination across multi-sectoral responses, and the need to take into account the social and economic dimensions of inclusion. Providing educators at all levels with a research and evidence based understanding of the educational opportunities and challenges facing refugees (both children and adults), this important book considers related and overlapping issues such as equality, equity, power, privilege, identity, rights, and pluralism, and addresses the relevant issues at the theory, policy, and practice levels.

This volume examines how universities and colleges are working towards implementing various interventions to integrate refugees along with non-governmental organizations and local governments to achieve an optimal level of integration with host communities. The first part of the volume addresses the challenges of educating and integrating refugee populations, while the second part considers methods for establishing support systems. Using case studies and other empirical research, this volume presents a broad and in-depth overview of the various methods implemented to integrate the refugees into society. The international case studies reveal the complexity of the perception-practice dynamic and the multi-faceted factors that influence various levels of integration.

Protection challenges around the globe require innovative legal, policy and practical responses. Drawing primarily from a new generation of researchers in the field of refugee law, this volume explores the 'boundaries' of refugee law. On the one hand, it ascertains the scope of the legal provisions by highlighting new trends in State practice and analysing the jurisprudence of international human rights bodies, as well as national and international Courts. On the other hand, it marks the boundaries of refugee law as 'legal frontiers' whilst exploring new approaches and new frameworks that are necessary in order to address the emerging protection challenges.

This book examines forced migration of two refugees groups in South Asia. The author discusses the claims of "belonging" of refugees, and asserts that in practice "belonging" can extend beyond the state-centric understanding of membership in South Asian states. She addresses two sets of interrelated questions: what factors determine whether refugees are relocated to their home countries in South Asia, and why do some repatriated groups re-integrate more successfully than others in "post-peace" South Asian states? This book answers these questions through a study of refugees from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh who sought asylum in India and were later relocated to their countries of origin. Since postcolonial societies have a typical kind of state-formation, in South Asia's case this has profoundly shaped questions of belonging and membership. The debate tends to focus on citizenship, making it a benchmark to demarcate inclusion and exclusion in South Asian states. In addition to qualitative analysis, this book includes narratives of Sri Lankan and Chakma refugees in post-conflict and post-peace Sri Lanka and Bangladesh respectively, and critiques the impact of macro policies from the bottom up.

Examining refugees of Civil War-era North Carolina, Driven from Home reveals the complexity and diversity of the war's displaced populations and the inadequate responses of governmental and charitable organisations as refugees scrambled to secure the necessities of daily life. In North Carolina, writes David Silkenat, the relative security of the Piedmont and mountains drew pro- Confederate elements from across the region. Early in the war, Union invaders established strongholds on the coast, to which their sympathisers fled in droves. Silkenat looks at five groups caught up in this flood tide of emigration: enslaved African Americans who fled to freedom; white Unionists; pro-Confederate whites-both slave owners (who often forced their slaves to migrate with them) and non-slave owners; and young women, often from more besieged areas of the South, who attended the state's many boarding schools. From their varied experiences, a picture emerges of a humanitarian crisis driven by mobility, shaped by unprecedented economic pressures and disease vectors, and exacerbated by governments unwilling or unable to provide meaningful relief. For anyone seeking context to current refugee crises, Driven from Home has much to say about the crushing administrative and logistical challenges of aid work, the illusory nature of such concepts as home fronts and battle lines, and the ongoing debate over links between relief and dependence.

An incisive look at Hmong religion in the United States, where resettled refugees found creative ways to maintain their traditions, even as Christian organizations deputized by the government were granted an outsized influence on the refugees' new lives. Every year, members of the Hmong Christian Church of God in Minneapolis gather for a cherished Thanksgiving celebration. But this Thanksgiving takes place in the spring, in remembrance of the turbulent days in May 1975 when thousands of Laotians were evacuated for resettlement in the United States. For many Hmong, passage to America was also a spiritual crossing. As they found novel approaches to living, they also embraced Christianity-called kev cai tshiab, "the new way"-as a means of navigating their complex spiritual landscapes. Melissa May Borja explores how this religious change happened and what it has meant for Hmong culture. American resettlement policies unintentionally deprived Hmong of the resources necessary for their time-honored rituals, in part because these practices, blending animism, ancestor worship, and shamanism, challenged many Christian-centric definitions of religion. At the same time, because the government delegated much of the resettlement work to Christian organizations, refugees developed close and dependent relationships with Christian groups. Ultimately the Hmong embraced Christianity on their own terms, adjusting to American spiritual life while finding opportunities to preserve their customs. Follow the New Way illustrates America's wavering commitments to pluralism and secularism, offering a much-needed investigation into the public work done by religious institutions with the blessing of the state. But in the creation of a Christian-inflected Hmong American animism we see the resilience of tradition-how it deepens under transformative conditions.

This ethnography, based on a five-year field study, presents a holistic view of a nearly invisible ethnic minority in the urban Midwest, Cambodian refugees. Hopkins begins with a brief look at Cambodian history and the reign which led these farmers to flee their homeland, and then presents an intimate portrait of ordinary family life and also of Buddhist ceremonial life. The book details their struggles to adjust in the face of the many barriers presented by American urban life, such as poverty, dangerous neighborhoods, and unemployment, and also by the conflict between their particular needs and American institutions such as schools, health care, law, and even the agencies intended to help them.

As the scale and complexity of global child migration grows, so too does the urgency of understanding this multifaceted phenomenon. This comprehensive, and original, Research Handbook is an essential tool for anyone seeking to engage in the topic. Collecting together a plethora of original intellectual, empirical and legal resources the Research Handbook on Child Migration probes the origins, characteristics and impacts of current child migration situations. Bringing together both leading experts and grass-roots activists, this Research Handbook is a comprehensive and diverse collection of the best and most up-to-date research on global child migration. It covers a wide range of topics from the history of specific child migration flows, the ethnography of child migration, and child specific legal tools and challenges, to the psychological effects of migration on child migrants. Presented in an accessible style, this Research Handbook provides a wealth of evidence and reflection which will enrich and improve the readers ability to tackle this key human rights challenge. This Research Handbook is an innovative tool which will be of use not only for students and scholars interested in migration displacement, immigration, and human rights, but also for policymakers and others actively engaged in the migrant and refugee rights advocacy community. Contributors include: H. Ascher, J. Bhabha, B. Bookey, S.B. Coutin, M. De los Angeles Torres, I. Derluyn, V. Digidiki, A. Farmer, H. Fehrenbach, L. Frydman, O. Geissler, W. Giles, A. Hjern, J. Kanics, R.K.S. Kohli, J. Kumin, R.-C. Liwanga, A. Lundberg, M. Ni Raghallaigh, R. O'Donnell, A. Orgocka, O. Peyroux, P. Rekacewicz, E. Rozzi, D. Senovilla, L. Singh, C. Smyth, C. Suarez-Orozco, S.J. Terrio, D.B. Thronson, V. Thronson, E.E. Tibet, M. Timera, M. Treibe, O. Uzureau, F. Vacchiano, L. van Waas, M. Vervliet, C. Watters

This study focuses on the field of security studies through the prism of migration. Using ethnographic methods to illustrate an experiential theory of security taken from the perspective of migrants and asylum seekers in Europe, it effectively offers a means of moving beyond state-based and state-centric theories in International Relations.

Looking at refugee protection in Latin America, this landmark edited collection assesses what the region has achieved in recent years. It analyses Latin America's main documents in refugee protection, evaluates the particular aspects of different regimes, and reviews their emergence, development and effect, to develop understanding of refugee protection in the region. Drawing from multidisciplinary texts from both leading academics and practitioners, this comprehensive, innovative and highly topical book adopts an analytical framework to understand and improve Latin America's protection of refugees.

Chechens: Culture and Society is an ethnography that elaborates the lived experiences of Chechens, focusing primarily on relationships and socio-cultural norms within the context of the current conflict in the Chechen Republic.

There are more than 26 million refugees in the world, and the population is expected to grow. However, there is minimal training or understanding in the mental health and social services fields that provides the awareness, knowledge, and skills to effectively work with refugees. Subsequently, this volume is intended to provide a comprehensive understanding of refugee psychosocial adjustment that incorporates cross-cultural perspectives.

The text provides an all-inclusive overview of refugee acculturation and adaptation, a model of intervention to assist refugees in the process of psychosocial adjustment, case studies illustrating practical intervention applications, and country-specific interventions from unique and diverse national perspectives. Professionals working with refugees in the United States and around the world will value this volume.

Since the Iraq war, the Middle East has been in continuous upheaval, resulting in the displacement of millions of people. Arriving from Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, and Syria in other parts of the world, the refugees show remarkable resilience and creativity amidst profound adversity. Through careful ethnography, this book vividly illustrates how refugees navigate regimes of exclusion, including cumbersome bureaucracies, financial insecurities, medical challenges, vilifying stereotypes, and threats of violence. The collection bears witness to their struggles, while also highlighting their aspirations for safety, settlement, and social inclusion in their host societies and new homes.

Afghan society has been marked in a lasting way by war and the exodus of part of its population. While many have emigrated to countries across the world, they have been matched by the flow of experts who arrive in Afghanistan after having been in other war-torn countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Palestine or East Timor. This book builds on more than two decades of ethnographic travels in some twenty countries, bringing the readers from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran to Europe, North America and Australia. It describes the everyday life and transnational circulations of Afghan refugees and expatriates.

This is an original perspective on the experience of refugees and relief workers. The period of the 'long' Second World War (1936-1948) was marked by mass movements of diverse populations: 60 million people either fled or were forced from their homes. This book considers the Spanish Republicans fleeing Franco's Spain in 1939, the French civilians trying to escape the Nazi invasion in 1940, and the millions of people displaced or expelled by the forces of Hitler's Third Reich. Throughout this period state and voluntary organisations were created to take care of the homeless and the displaced. National organisations dominated until the end of the war; afterwards, international organisations - the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency and the International Refugee Organisation - were formed to deal with what was clearly an international problem. Using case studies of displaced people and of relief workers, this book is unique in placing such crises at the centre rather than the margins of wartime experience, making the work nothing less than an alternative history of the Second World War.

One of this century's greatest tragedies, and one of our greatest challenges, has been the movement of millions of refugees. . . . This book, by an expert in the field, gives a comprehensive view of where we have been, and where we are likely to go, in coping with this world's endless stream of refugees. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Chairman, Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Affairs This survey of post-World War II refugees by a former UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees focuses on those assisted through the United Nations and its affiliated Refugees (UNHCR), the International Committee for Migration, and the World Food Program. . . . Smyser argues that refugee problems and crises are far from over and will continue to require urgent international cooperative treatment. He presents a lengthy agenda with recommendations `to preserve the global structure of refugee protection and care, to help those who need help, to prevent abuse, and to bring refugee concepts and practices into a framework appropriate to our troubled times. Choice

Through the ethnography of a Catholic community in Northeast Brazil, Maya Mayblin offers a vivid and provocative rethink of gendered portrayals of Catholic life. For the residents of Santa Lucia, life is conceptualized as a series of moral tradeoffs between the sinful and productive world against an idealized state of innocence, conceived with reference to local Catholic teachings. As marriage marks the beginning of a productive life in the world, it also marks a phase in which moral personhood comes most actively-and poignantly-to the fore. This book offers lucid observations on how men and women as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, negotiate this challenge. As well as making an important contribution to the ethnographic literature on morality, Christianity, and Latin America, the book offers a compelling alternative to received portrayals of gender polarity as symbolically all-encompassing, throughout the Catholic world.

Andrea Simonelli provides the first in-depth evaluation of climate displacement in the field of political science, specifically global governance. She evaluates four intergovernmental organizations (UNHCR, IOM, OCHA and the UNFCCC), and the structural and political constraints regarding their potential expansion to govern this new issue area.

What if my own multilingualism is simply that of one who is fluent in way too many colonial languages? If we are going to do this, if we are going to decolonise multilingualism, let's do it as an attempt at a way of doing it. If we are going to do this, let's cite with an eye to decolonising. If we are going to do this then let's improvise and devise. This is how we might learn the arts of decolonising. If we are going to do this then we need different companions. If we are going to do this we will need artists and poetic activists. If we are going to do this, let's do it in a way which is as local as it is global; which affirms the granulations of the way peoples name their worlds. Finally, if we are going to do this, let's do it multilingually.

Across Eastern Europe and Russia in the first half of the twentieth century, conflict and violence arising out of foreign and civil wars, occupation, revolutions, social and ethnic restructuring and racial persecution caused countless millions of children to be torn from their homes. Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 addresses the powerful and tragic history of child displacement in this region and the efforts of states, international organizations and others to 're-place' uprooted, and often orphaned, children. By analysing the causes, character and course of child displacement, and examining through first-person testimonies the children's experiences and later memories, the chapters in this volume shed new light on twentieth-century nation-building, social engineering and the emergence of modern concepts and practices of statehood, children's rights and humanitarianism. Contributors are: Tomas Balkelis, Rachel Faircloth Green, Gabriel Finder, Michael Kaznelson, Aldis Purs, Karl D. Qualls, Elizabeth White, Tara Zahra

Scholarship on ethnicity in modern Latin America has traditionally understood the region's various societies as fusions of people of European, indigenous, and/or African descent. These are often deployed as stable categories, with European or "white" as a monolith against which studies of indigeneity or blackness are set. The role of post-independence immigration from eastern and western Europe-as well as from Asia, Africa, and Latin-American countries-in constructing the national ethnic landscape remains understudied. The contributors of this volume focus their attention on Jewish, Arab, non-Latin European, Asian, and Latin American immigrants and their experiences in their "new" homes. Rejecting exceptionalist and homogenizing tendencies within immigration history, contributors advocate instead an approach that emphasizes the locally- and nationally-embedded nature of ethnic identification.