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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Refugees & political asylum
This pioneering piece of research on the situated study of language issues in the context of forced migration provides interdisciplinary insights into language as learned, used and lived by 12 Congolese refugees in Norway. It offers an innovative contribution to the field of SLA by bringing together structural, cognitive, social and critical approaches to data collected among the same individuals, these individuals being underrepresented within the field of SLA research as both refugees and learners whose experiences with language stem from the Global South. Their histories of mobility and their learning contexts are rarely reflected in theories and concepts from the Global North and this book thus makes a much-needed contribution to the field.
Luise Urban was born in 1933 into a world about to be turned upside down. Her family lived east of the river Oder. Fatefully, her family were not Nazi Party members and suffered as a result. As the Third Reich crumbled and the Red Army advanced, she was one of 15 million Germans trapped in a war zone during the terrible winter of 1945. Weakened by starvation and forced to flee their home, it was only the bravery of Luise's mother that saved the family from total destruction. The Oder-Neisse line (Oder-Neisse-Grenze) is the German-Polish border drawn in the aftermath of the war. The line primarily follows the Oder and Neisse rivers to the Baltic Sea west of the city of Stettin. All pre-war German territory east of the line and within the 1937 German boundaries was discussed at the Potsdam Conference in 1945. Germany was to lose 25 per cent of her territory under the agreement. Crucially, Stalin, Churchill and Truman also agreed to the expulsion of the German population beyond the new eastern borders. This meant that almost all of the native German population was killed, fled or was driven out by force. In A Dangerous Game, Luise relives that harrowing time, written in memory of her mother, to whom she owes her life. It is the story of a child, but it is not a story for children.
We Are Better Than This is a collection of essays and poetry addressing the Australian government's asylum seeker policy. The aims of the book are several: to provide some of the information about the situation in detention camps that is being withheld by the government; to correct some of the government's misrepresentations of the current situation; to clarify some of the complex legal issues surrounding the right to seek asylum, and to give some insight into the plight of those who are seeking asylum. It is hoped that this book will better inform people about the government's policies: to support those who are unsatisfied and seeking to change the situation, as well as those who are uncertain and need more easily accessible and reliable information. Contributors are drawn from several areas of expertise and engagement with asylum seekers.
*Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2017* In 2011, many Syrians took to the streets of Damascus to demand the overthrow of the government of Bashar al-Assad. Today, much of Syria has become a war zone where foreign journalists find it almost impossible to report on life in this devastated land. Burning Country explores the horrific and complicated reality of life in present-day Syria with unprecedented detail and sophistication, drawing on new first hand testimonies from opposition fighters, exiles lost in an archipelago of refugee camps, and courageous human rights activists among many others. These stories are expertly interwoven with a trenchant analysis of the brutalisation of the conflict and the militarisation of the uprising, of the rise of the Islamists and sectarian warfare, and the role of governments in Syria and elsewhere in exacerbating those violent processes. With chapters focusing on ISIS and Islamism, regional geopolitics, the new grassroots revolutionary organisations, and the worst refugee crisis since World War Two, Burning Country is a vivid and groundbreaking look at a modern-day political and humanitarian nightmare.
Do states have a duty to assimilate refugees to their own citizens? Are refugees entitled to freedom of movement, to be allowed to work, to have access to public welfare programs, or to be reunited with family members? Indeed, is there even a duty to admit refugees at all? This fundamentally rewritten second edition of the award-winning treatise presents the only comprehensive analysis of the human rights of refugees set by the UN Refugee Convention and international human rights law. It follows the refugee's journey from flight to solution, examining every rights issue both historically and by reference to the decisions of senior courts from around the world. Nor is this a purely doctrinal book: Hathaway's incisive legal analysis is tested against and applied to hundreds of protection challenges around the world, ensuring the relevance of this book's analysis to responding to the hard facts of refugee life on the ground.
The first edition of The Law of Refugee Status (published in 1991) is generally regarded as the seminal text on interpreting the refugee definition set by the UN's 1951 Refugee Convention. Its groundbreaking analysis served as the bedrock for not only much judicial reasoning, but also for a burgeoning academic literature in law and related fields. This second edition builds on the strong critical focus and human rights orientation of the first edition, but undertakes an entirely original analysis of the jurisprudence of leading common law and select civil law states. The authors provide robust responses to the most difficult questions of refugee status in a clear and direct way. The result is a comprehensive and truly global analysis of the central question in asylum law: who is a refugee?
Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence This ground breaking book presents the first evidence of forced labour among displaced migrants who seek refuge in the UK. Through a critical engagement with contemporary debates about precarity, unfreedom and socio-legal status, the book explores how asylum and forced labour are linked, and enmeshed in a broader picture of modern slavery produced through globalised working conditions. Drawing on original evidence generated in fieldwork with refugees and asylum seekers, this is important reading for students and academics in social policy, social geography, sociology, politics, refugee, labour and migration studies, and policy makers and practitioners working to support migrants and tackle forced labour.
Is there still a right to seek asylum in a globalised world? Migration control has increasingly moved to the high seas or the territory of transit and origin countries, and is now commonly outsourced to private actors. Under threat of financial penalties airlines today reject any passenger not in possession of a valid visa, and private contractors are used to run detention centres and man border crossings. In this volume Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen examines the impact of these new practices for refugees' access to asylum. A systematic analysis is provided of the reach and limits of international refugee law when migration control is carried out extraterritorially or by non-state actors. State practice from around the globe and case law from all the major human rights institutions is discussed. The arguments are further linked to wider debates in human rights, general international law and political science.
Using comparative cases from Guinea, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, this study explains why some refugee-hosting communities launch large-scale attacks on civilian refugees whereas others refrain from such attacks even when encouraged to do so by state officials. Ato Kwamena Onoma argues that such outbreaks only happen when states instigate them because of links between a few refugees and opposition groups. Locals embrace these attacks when refugees are settled in areas that privilege residence over indigeneity in the distribution of rights, ensuring that they live autonomously of local elites. The resulting opacity of their lives leads locals to buy into their demonization by the state. Locals do not buy into state denunciation of refugees in areas that privilege indigeneity over residence in the distribution of rights because refugees in such areas are subjugated to locals who come to know them very well. Onoma reorients the study of refugees back to a focus on the disempowered civilian refugees that constitute the majority of refugees even in cases of severe refugee militarization.
A magisterial and masterful addition to the tradition of South African narrative non-fiction, Christa Kuljian’s Sanctuary offers a welcome woman’s voice in a genre distinguished by Jonny Steinberg, Antony Altbeker and Anton Harber. After years of sporadic media attention and posturing by politicians, Kuljian has made it her business to find out exactly what has been going on at the Central Methodist Church in downtown Johannesburg, where the Church acts as a gateway to the city – an Ellis Island for South Africa, the place where many migrants first go to get their bearings. How did a place of worship turn into a shelter for thousands of refugees? Where did they come from? Why are they still there? Seeking to answer such questions, Kuljian fluently combines many elements: interviews with members of the refugee community and residents of the Church, and key figures like Bishop Paul Verryn, who has often been at the centre of the storm; historical material on the church and its role in the city since the early years; and an understanding of urban dynamics, migrancy, and South African and southern African politics. The result is a complex, open-eyed book that grapples with some of South Africa’s most urgent social problems as they are refracted through one appalling, frustrating, inspiring place.
Forty thousand people died trying to cross international borders in the past decade, with the high-profile deaths along the shores of Europe only accounting for half of the grisly total. Reece Jones argues that these deaths are not exceptional, but rather the result of state attempts to contain populations and control access to resources and opportunities. "We may live in an era of globalization," he writes, "but much of the world is increasingly focused on limiting the free movement of people." In Violent Borders, Jones crosses the migrant trails of the world, documenting the billions of dollars spent on border security projects and their dire consequences for countless millions. While the poor are restricted by the lottery of birth to slum dwellings in the aftershocks of decolonization, the wealthy travel without constraint, exploiting pools of cheap labor and lax environmental regulations. With the growth of borders and resource enclosures, the deaths of migrants in search of a better life are intimately connected to climate change, environmental degradation, and the growth of global wealth inequality.
An important and topical contribution to the field of Middle East studies, this innovative, provocative, and timely study tackles head-on the main assumptions of the foundation of Israel as a Jewish state. Theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich, Yaacov Yadgar provides a novel analysis of the interplay between Israeli nationalism and Jewish tradition, arriving at a fresh understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through its focus on internal questions about Israeli identity. By critiquing and transcending the current discourse on religion and politics in Israel, this study brings to an international audience debates within Israel that have been previously inaccessible to non-Hebrew speaking academics. Featuring discussions on Israeli jurisprudence, nation-state law, and rabbinic courts, Israel's Jewish Identity Crisis will have far-reaching implications, not only within the state of Israel but on politics, society and culture beyond its borders.
This book examines the educational systems into which students with refugee backgrounds are placed when relocated into their new homelands. It discusses the current climate of neo liberalism which pervades schooling in many western countries and the subsequent impact on curriculum focus and teaching strategies. The authors propose ways in which these students can be educated with policies and perspectives which respect diversity and uniqueness, using among others a primary school in regional Australia dedicated to holistic education as an example. Informed by postmodern perspectives on education and its purposes and drawing on the interdisciplinary wisdoms of critical scholars, this book presents a theoretical introduction to the educational landscape as found in many of the countries in which students with asylum seeker and refugee backgrounds are placed as the result of forced resettlement in new homelands. It discusses the impact of reductionist pedagogical and epistemological policies which are the foundations of neo liberalism. It challenges educators and policy makers to see beyond superficial differences and competition and to focus instead on the very significant impact of trauma and loss that these students have experienced as children and young people. The book dares educators at all levels of policy and practice to become truly human again and to consider the role of educational love and care that formed the cornerstones of educational endeavours for authentic pedagogues for decades. The book concludes with a research-based study of a school in a regional Australian town which not only educates with an ethic of pedagogical love and care, promoting a sense of belonging and emotional wellbeing for all students, 30% of which are of asylum seeker and refugee backgrounds, but celebrates high academic standards needed for student success, as well.
This book traces the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) across its three decades in exile through rich, local histories of the camps where Namibian exiles lived in Tanzania, Zambia, and Angola. Christian A. Williams highlights how different Namibians experienced these sites, as well as the tensions that developed within SWAPO as Namibians encountered one another and as officials asserted their power and protected their interests within a national community. The book then follows Namibians who lived in exile into post-colonial Namibia, examining the extent to which divisions and hierarchies that emerged in the camps continue to shape how Namibians relate to one another today, undermining the more just and humane society that many had imagined. In developing these points about SWAPO, the book draws attention to Southern African literature more widely, suggesting parallels across the region and defining a field of study that examines post-colonial Africa through 'the camp'.
These are the photographs and writings by 12 young refugees, living in London, who have been mentored by established photographers as part of the work by the charity PhotoVoice. Their stories personalise and individualise the lives behind the labels - through their images and words, we understand something more of London through their eyes, and of their lives as young people finding their place in a new city, far from home. With introductions by the broadcaster George Alagiah, writer Hari Kunzru and critic Charlotte Cotton, the book shows a side of London from the point of view of some of the city's newest arrivals. The young people, aged 16-23, come from around the world, all with their own diverse experiences and backgrounds. Photographer mentors on the project include: Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, Gayle Chong Kwan, Suki Dhanda, Jillian Edelstein, Jenny Matthews, Sarah Moon, and Othello de Souza Hartley.
Traditionally, humanitarianism is considered a nonpolitical urgent response to human suffering. However, this characterization ignores the politics that create and are created by the crises and the increasingly long-term dimension of relief. In The Politics of Crisis-Making, by shedding light on how humanitarian practice becomes enmeshed with diverse forms of welfare and development, Estella Carpi exposes how the politics of defining crises affect the social identity and membership of the displaced. Her ethnographic research in Lebanon brings to light interactions among aid workers, government officials, internally displaced citizens, migrants, and refugees after the 2006 war in Beirut's southern suburbs and during the 2011-2013 arrival of refugees from Syria to the Akkar District (northern Lebanon). By documenting different cultures, modalities, and traditions of assistance, Carpi offers a full account of how the politics of crisis-making play out in Lebanon. An important read, The Politics of Crisis-Making reveals that crisis, as an official discourse and framework of action, has the power to shape the social membership of forced migrants and internally displaced people, engendering unequal political, ethnic, and moral economies.
Free World? is a major contribution to the transnational history of humanitarianism in the postwar world. Peter Gatrell shows how and why the UN, NGOs, governments and individuals embarked on a unique campaign, World Refugee Year (1959-1960), in response to global refugee crises, particularly in Europe, the Middle East and the Far East. Adopted by nearly one hundred countries, the campaign galvanised public opinion and raised money by enlisting celebrities, using the mass media, and recreating 'refugee camps' in the affluent West. Free World? assesses the causes and consequences of the refugee crises, locates the campaign in the broader geopolitical context of the Cold War and decolonisation and shows how it helped to inspire subsequent campaigns such as Amnesty International and Freedom from Hunger. Ultimately the book asks how those who are in a more privileged position might better reflect on their responsibilities towards refugees in the modern world.
Based on fieldwork among undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers, '"Illegal' Traveller" offers a narrative of the polysemic nature of borders, border politics, and rituals and performances of border-crossing. Interjecting personal experiences into ethnographic writing it is 'a form of self-narrative that places the self within a social context'.
Social work practice with refugees and immigrants requires specialized knowledge of these populations, and specialized adaptations and applications of mainstream services and interventions. Because they are often confronted with cultural, linguistic, political, and socioeconomic barriers, these groups are especially vulnerable to psychological problems. Among these problems are anxiety, depression, alienation, grief, even post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as biological concerns stemming from inadequate or underutilized medical services. Best Practices for Social Work with Refugees and Immigrants is the first book to offer a comprehensive guide to social work with foreign-born clients that evaluates many different strategies in light of their methodological strengths and weaknesses. Part I sets forth the context for empirically based service approaches to such clients by describing the nature of these populations, relevant policies designed to assist them, and service delivery systems. Part II addresses specific problem areas common to refugees and immigrants and evaluates a variety of assessment and intervention techniques for each area. Maintaining a rigorous empirical and broadly pan-cultural approach throughout, Miriam Potocky-Tripodi seeks to identify the most practical, "best practices" to meet the various and pressing needs of uprooted peoples.
"Wait, Dad. Are we for them or against them?" Kent Annan was talking with his eight-year-old son about the immigrant and refugee crises around the world. His son's question, innocent enough in the moment, is writ large across our society today. How we answer it, Annan says, will reveal a lot about what kind of family, community, or country we want to be. In You Welcomed Me, Annan explores how fear and misunderstanding often motivate our responses to people in need, and invites us instead into stories of welcome-stories that lead us to see the current refugee and immigrant crisis in a new light. He lays out simple practices for a way forward: confessing what separates us, listening well, and partnering with, not patronizing, those in need. His stories draw us in, and his practices send us out prepared to cross social and cultural divides. In this wise, practical book, Annan invites us to answer his son's question with confident conviction: "We're for them"-and to explore with him the life-giving implications of that answer.
Olivier Kugler's series of brilliant drawings of refugees from Syria establishes this award-winning artist as one of the most important graphic reporters of our day. Collected here for the first time, the drawings in Escaping Wars and Waves document the lives of individuals and families Kugler met in Iraqi Kurdistan, the tourist island of Kos, and the jungle camp at Calais, mostly on commission for Medecins Sans Frontieres. Kugler's work has been widely exhibited and published, by The Guardian, Harper's and the European press. The German language edition of ESCAPING WARS AND WAVES (Edition Moderne, 2017) won the Jury Prize of the European Design Awards in June 2018. `Olivier Kugler is an extraordinarily skilled journalist and cartoonist who is taking comics journalism to a new level. These potent profiles from the migration front lines will leave an indelible impression on your brain and heart.'-Joe Sacco As well as his work with Medecins Sans Frontieres, Kugler recorded the experiences of refugees in London, Birmingham and Simmozheim, the small village in Germany where he grew up. The stories he tells are often tragic but also uplifting, testimony to both human senselessness and resilience. Based on many interviews, thousands of reference photos, and an acute observation of the objects, locations and conversations making up our daily lives, the effects of what he records will be felt for decades to come.
Drawing on a wide range documentary and oral sources, including interviews with refugees, this book explores the responses in Manchester to those threatened by the rise of Fascism in Europe. The book has been written with the general reader in mind, but it will be of particular interest to those studying Britain's attitudes to immigrants and refugees, the history of the British Jewish community, the role of Zionism during the Second World War, the role of philanthropy and the Christian churches in Manchester society and issues surrounding the settlement and acculturation of newcomers to British society. Bill Williams is an Honorary Fellow of the Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Manchester
The British have long boasted of their tradition of asylum for political refugees, but never with more justification than in the nineteenth century, when the legal toleration which was accorded them in Britain was nearly absolute. Not only were fugitives of all political complexions allowed into Britain, but there was for most of the century no possible way - no law on the statute book - by which they could be kept out. This, and the licence which was allowed them to agitate and conspire were greatly resented by the governments from which they had fled, and regretted only a little less by many British ministers, who sometimes found it necessary to take measures against them which were of dubious constitutional legality, and who wished, and once tried, to amend the law in order to enable them to do more. That effort, arising from Orsini's bomb plot in January 1858, resulted in the fall of the government which proposed it, and the loss by its successor of a famous state prosecution: a failure which, as this book argues, was crucial for the maintenance of the practice of toleration thereafter.
Our country has long been a beacon of hope and opportunity for people from around the world. Today, 41.3 million foreign-born residents live in the United States and are contributing to the vitality of our country and their communities. This includes the over 3 million refugees who have resettled here since 1975 from countries that span the globe. These immigrants and refugees are adding much to our country's social and cultural fabric, and are also critical to our country's continued economic prosperity. This book provides a review of the Federal Strategic Action Plan on Immigrant and Refugee Integration, which outlines core goals and recommendations to enhance civic, economic, and linguistic integration of new Americans. |
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