MARCH NEWSLETTER: VOLUME 5, ISSUE 1, 2023

March 29, 2023 vpfynn Comments 0 Comment

WELCOME: Law and Society Annual Meeting 2023

Dear Colleagues:
Happy belated new year!

Welcome to our first quarterly newsletter of the year: Volume 5, Issue 1. This issue is overdue because of challenges we have had with filling the Newsletter Editor role. We invite you to consider volunteering to assist with producing the quarterly newsletter, advertising/promoting our activities, reviewing/editing the Journal of Internal Displacement, discussing/taking notes during the Law and Society Annual Meeting 2023 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Have you ever wondered why securitization and protection of refugees dominate international (forced) migration discourse while settler colonial forced displacement of Indigenous Peoples and trans-Atlantic human cargo business are missing from law, policy, and advocacy on migration and development? If your work is focused in this subject area, consider submitting a book proposal to the Migration, Development and Displacement Book Series.

The impact of climate change and natural disaster is worsening each day. From Ecuador landslide; to food security threats in Kenya; Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Tonga vulnerability to natural disasters; and the mass displacement/extinction of wildlife, the story is bleak. Let’s continue to be intentional in our resolve to minimise displacement in all shapes and forms.

We would like to reaffirm our support for all those displaced by the war, violent conflict, environmental disaster, climate change, modern day slavery, economic hardship and more.

Veronica Fynn Bruey and Steven Bender

DISPLACED PEOPLES’ RIGHTS AND PROTECTION

At a meeting in Brussels on 20 March 2023, The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi, the Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development of the African Union Commission, Minata Cessouma Samate, the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, and the IOM Director General, António Vitorino, discussed and advanced the priorities of the AU-EU-UN Tripatite Taskforce. The Taskforce on the Situation of Migrants and Refugees in Libya has called on the international community and Libyan authorities to work together to improve the plight of migrants and refugees in Libya. More information available here.

In a joint statement, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) urged today increased international support for refugees and migrants from Venezuela and the communities in Latin America and the Caribbean that host them. Nearly 7.2 million Venezuelans have left their country in recent years. The vast majority, 6 million, are hosted by countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. While various regularization and documentation initiatives have been implemented in the region, enabling access to vital rights and services for many, the international community needs to continue protecting refugees and migrants from Venezuela and investing in the communities hosting them. More information available here.

On 25 December 2022, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) strongly condemns the recent decree issued by the Taliban de facto authorities banning all female humanitarian workers at national and international NGOs from working across Afghanistan. This decision is a blatant violation of obligations under international humanitarian law and the most fundamental human rights of women in Afghanistan. It comes just days after the decision to ban all women from access to higher education. By banning female NGO workers, the Taliban de facto authorities are effectively denying these services to a significant portion of the population and putting the lives and well-being of all Afghans, especially women and children, at risk. More information available here.

State by Paulo Pinheiro, Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic during the 52nd Session of the UN Human Rights Council. Today, we offer our heartfelt condolences to the victims of last month’s devastating earthquake in Türkiye and the Syrian Arab Republic and we urge the international community to respond generously to the appeals for support by local and international humanitarian agencies. Last week Syrians marked 12 years of continuing crisis and conflict that has killed over 300,000 civilians and injured many more. Last month the north and north-west of the country was decimated by a once in a century earthquake that has killed at least 50,000 in Türkiye; 4,500 in opposition-held northwest Syria; and 1,500 elsewhere. Syrians in both areas have condemned the actions of the Syrian state and other parties to the conflict who delayed and obstructed aid instead of facilitating it, and lamented the inaction or inability of the international community or the UN to help them rapidly. They feel abandoned and betrayed. More information available here.

IDMC has been monitoring displacement associated with disasters for over two decades. In 2021, we recorded 23.7 million disaster displacements. In line with previous years, weather-related disasters accounted for the majority of these internal displacements, with floods and storms jointly causing 21.6 million internal displacements. Beyond displacements caused by sudden onset hazards, we are also recording increasing numbers of new displacements associated with slow onset hazards such as droughts. To do so, we have developed a new methodology to increase confidence in displacement estimates, Our Pacific Response to Disaster Displacement (PRDD) project is generating new evidence to better understand, plan for, prevent, and respond to disaster displacement in the Pacific region. Already, we have published disaster displacement risk profiles for Vanuatu, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Marshall Islands. More information available here.

In their position on migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, Amnesty International campaigns for a world where human rights can be enjoyed by everyone, no matter what situation they are in. Amnesty has championed the human rights of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants for decades. We campaign to make sure governments honour their shared responsibility to protect the rights of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. We condemn any policies and practices that undermine the rights of people on the move. More information available here.

CRN-11 EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Call for Book Proposal: Migration, Displacement and Development

The Migration, Displacement, and Development book series with Rowman and Littlefield is an interdisciplinary series that critically examines the obstinacy to expand legal protection to displaced peoples beyond the bona fide refugee within local, regional, and international contexts. Extending protection to a wide range of displaced persons, the series promises to address adverse effects on those forced to leave their homes in the name of globalization by improving the economic, social, and political conditions driving migration in favour of sustaining growth. The series strives for law and policy reform particularly in areas of trade, economy, remittance and aid as well as protecting individual rights to stay home and live a dignified life. If you are interested in turning your research into a full book visit the MDD Book Series website or email vfynnbruey@athabascau.ca and benders@seattleu.edu.

Call Editors and Reviewers: Journal of Internal Displacement

The Journal of Internal Displacement is accepting applications for editorial board membership and reviewers. All interested should email: internaldisplacement@gmail.com. Deadline: Open

Call For Volunteers: LSA 2022 in San Juan, Puerto Rico

CRN-11 is in need of volunteers as a discussant and notetakers for LSA 2023 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. All interested please email vfynnbruey@athabascau.ca and benders@seattleu.edu. Deadline: 5 April 2023.

Call For Newsletter Editors

CRN-11 Newsletter is produced quarterly per annum and must be released by the last day of March, June, September, and December. The Newsletter Editor will be responsible for:

Researching and compiling information for the Newsletter,
Assisting with the distribution of the Newsletter electronically to subscribers and other social networks,
Inviting and showcasing guest blogger written pieces, and
Promoting and advertising the Newsletter with the aim of expanding its reach.

To apply, submit a cover letter and CV to vfynnbruey@athabascau.ca and benders@seattleu.edu. Deadline: Open

Call For Advertisement and Promotion Committee

CRN-11 is recruiting volunteers to lead the Advertisement and Promotion Committee. To apply, submit a cover letter and CV to vfynnbruey@athabascau.ca and benders@seattleu.edu. Deadline: Open

Become a CRN-11 Research Collaborator

Interested in being a bona fide research collaborator with CRN-11? To apply, submit a cover letter and CV to vfynnbruey@athabascau.ca and benders@seattleu.edu. Deadline: Open

Invitation to be a Guest Blogger for CRN-11

Do you have an interesting story to tell about internal and international migration and displacement? CRN 11 is eager to share your piece as a guest blogger in our quarterly newsletter. Submit your stories to vfynnbruey@athabascau.ca and benders@seattleu.edu. Deadline: Open

GENERAL CALLS: UPCOMING EVENTS

Equipping Student Leaders as Partners for Sustainable Humanitarian Action Conference

Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) are pleased to invite you to an international conference titled Equipping Student Leaders as Partners for Sustainable Humanitarian Action, convened by International Students Overcoming War (ISOW). The conference will be held at the Waterloo, Ontario campus of Wilfrid Laurier University from March 30 to April 1, 2023. Register here.

SHARED – Shared Responsibility at the EU’s External Borders

The Observatori de Dret Públic de la Universitat de Barcelona in collaboration with the (B)Orders Centre of Queen Mary University of London and members of the European Parliament are hereby organising a workshop, meeting with policy makers, and a final conference concerning the notion of ‘shared responsibility’ in European law as applied to the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), the EU Member States, as well as third countries and private entities with which they may collaborate in the implementation of the Schengen acquis, concerning the violation of fundamental rights in the context of border enforcement and migration control. More information available here.

Refugee Law Initiative Annual Conference

The Refugee Law Initiative annual conference serves as a dedicated forum for bringing together decision-makers and practitioners, policy-makers, academics and students to share, discover and debate the latest thinking and developments in the refugee protection field. The 7^th Annual Conference, “Inequality and Fairness in Refugee Protection”, will be held 21-23 June 2023. Register here.

The Migration Conference 2023 Hamburg

The Migration Conference 2023 is hosted by the Faculty of Law at Universität Hamburg and will be held 23-26 August 2023. More information available here.

Race and Borderlands: Human Rights, Human Triumphs, and Forging Peace on the U.S.-Mexico Border, 7-8 April 2023

The U.S.-Mexico border is a site of human suffering and a showcase of human resilience. This conference brings together scholars, practitioners, student organizations, and grassroots movements from the San Diego and Tijuana regions to collectively consider issues of human rights and racialization in our borderlands. The conference will focus on the human tolls and triumphs that flow across this border every day. We will consider the hindrances and costs, the lives and human sacrifice, and the stories of hope and justice that intermingle in the liminal space of the borderlands. While the conference is free for anyone to attend, we ask that you register in advance. Register here.

RESEARCH, AWARDS, SCHOLARSHIPS, AND FELLOWSHIPS

Oxford University Refugee Study Centre Pathways Application

The University of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre (RSC) is pleased to announce the launch of applications for RSC Pathways, a three-month online course in Refugee Studies for learners affected by displacement that is available free of charge to individuals who have been affected by forced displacement. The course teaches the interdisciplinary foundations of Refugee Studies, preparing learners for advanced academic, research, and professional opportunities. More information is available here. Deadline: 27 March 2023.

Canadian Immigration Research Portal

Let’s say you want to know how many asylum seekers came to Canada from Iran in 2020. Where do you go to find out? What if you want to apply for a grant to start an after-school program in Lethbridge and you need to know how many 14-year-old refugee children live in the area? The Canadian Immigration Research Portal can be the solution. This new tool provides statistical, demographic data to the public. More information available here.

Call for Applications: FFVT Fellowship Programme

The cooperation project “Forced Migration and Refugee Studies: Networking and Knowledge Transfer” (FFVT) aims to strengthen interdisciplinary forced migration and refugee research in Germany. To this end, the project brings together research and knowledge transfer on forced migration and refugee issues with migration, development, conflict and violence, climate change, health, governance, human rights and other fields of study. More information available here. Deadline: rolling.

Scholarships and Fellowships in Migration Studies

ARMACAD database is a rich resource for those looking for academic and professional programs and events in the field of migration studies and other related areas. More information is available here. Deadline: varied

Applications are Open: Visiting Fellowships, Refugee Study Centre

We are currently receiving applications for Michaelmas 2023 (Sunday 8 October – Saturday 2 December) or Hilary 2024 (Sunday 14 January – Saturday 9 March) terms only. Please note that applications can only be made for one term. Applications for later terms will open later in the year. More information is provided here. Deadline: 10 April 2023.

JOB POSTS

Academic Staff: Policy Science and Socio-economic Analysis of Environmental and Climate Issues

The University of Antwerp is a dynamic, forward-thinking university. We offer an innovative academic education to more than 20000 students, conduct pioneering scientific research and play an important service-providing role in society. We are one of the largest, most international and most innovative employers in the region. With more than 6000 employees from 100 different countries, we are helping to build tomorrow’s world every day. Through top scientific research, we push back boundaries and set a course for the future – a future that you can help to shape. More information available here. Deadline: 27 March 2023.

Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

The Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology is one of the leading centres for research in social anthropology. Common to all research projects at the Max Planck Institute is the comparative analysis of social change; it is primarily in this domain that its researchers contribute to anthropological theory, though many programmes also have applied significance and political topicality. The Department “Anthropology of Economic Experimentation” is seeking a researcher with the highest potential to advance migration and mobility studies. More information is available here. Deadline: 2 April 2023.

Postdoctoral Scholar – Research for Indigenous Social Action and Equity (RISE) Center – Psychology

The Department of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley seeks applications for a postdoctoral scholar employee to affiliate and work in conjunction with the Research for Indigenous Social Action and Equity (RISE) Center (housed at the University of Michigan). This position is located at Berkeley. The aims of the Center are bold—to re-imagine and re-create how mainstream U.S. culture engages with narratives about Indigenous Peoples. We are working toward a society in which all individuals not only learn about Indigenous Peoples but also learn from Indigenous Peoples. More information is available here. Deadline: 3 April 2023.

Team Lead, Refugee Status Determination (RSD)

The RSD Team Lead assists the Protection Program Coordinator by overseeing Asylum Access Thailand’s (AAT) RSD Team in providing legal representation for RSD cases before UNHCR. This involves managing the RSD caseload at AAT, reviewing screenings, deciding on representation and strategy, finalizing legal submissions, providing group workshops and consulting with partners. Depending on the capacity of the RSD team at the time, the RSD Team Lead also manages durable solutions cases. More information available here. Deadline: 21 April 2023.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention

The Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention (I-GMAP) at Binghamton University, the State University of New York, invites applications for the position of Visiting Assistant Professor of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention. This is a fixed-term position with an initial appointment for the 2023-2024 academic year and is renewable for a second year (2024-2025), pending satisfactory performance evaluations, and with the possibility of a third year (2025-26) depending on continuing performance and need. More information is available here. Deadline: 5 May 2023.

PUBLICATIONS

New Field Study: Syrians-Barometer. A Framework for Achieving Social Cohesion with Syrians in Turkey

Syrians Barometer (SB)-2021 is one of the most comprehensive annual field studies on the subject of Syrians in Turkey conducted simultaneously with Turkish society and Syrians. The research aims to understand and analyze social encounters, opinions, attitudes, anxieties, expectations and, most importantly, perceptions through comprehensive surveys and focus group meetings. It attempts to observe the trends of change and suggest policy recommendations. Access the full study here.

New Report: Immigration Policy ‘on the fly’: A Critical Review of Pandemic Policymaking in Canada

This report critically reviews key administrative trends and immigration policy responses and their significance for different groups of migrants. The findings show that while the federal government responded with rapid border closures for non-citizens, it immediately began to carve out exceptions for non-discretionary purposes. Ultimately, essential mobility into Canada was defined according to economically driven criteria, with the pandemic sometimes used as an excuse to exclude migrants considered undesirable, particularly asylum seekers, and to achieve administrative efficiencies. Migrants and asylum seekers continue to be made vulnerable by Canada’s immigration and refugee policies. Access the report here.

New Report: World Migration Report 2022

The World Migration Report 2022, the eleventh in the world migration report series, shows that the estimated number of international migrants has increased over the past five decades. The total estimated 281 million people living in a country other than their countries of birth in 2020 was 128 million more than in 1990 and over three times the estimated number in 1970. It also confirmed that COVID-19-related immobility had become the “great disrupter” of migration. Access the report here.

New Report: Global Report on Internal Displacement

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre’s Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID) is the world’s leading source of data and analysis on internal displacement. This year’s edition includes a special focus on internally displaced children and youth. Part 1 presents updated data and analysis of internal displacement at the global level. Data and contextual updates are included in the regional overviews and country spotlights. Part 2 explores the impacts of displacement on children and youth, so often invisible in displacement data, while highlighting promising initiatives that address some of their challenges. Access the report here.

New Report: Migration Governance Indicators Data and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration: A Baseline Report

This document analyses global, regional and thematic trends that emerge from MGI data concerning the general commitment and the range of associated actions for each of the 23 Global Compact for Migration objectives. The core of the document consists of 23 data bulletins displaying global and regional summary statistics of the answers to the MGI questions mapped against the respective Compact objectives. Access the report here.

New Report: Filling the Gap: Humanitarian Support and Alternative Pathways for Migrants on Columbia’s Edge

More migrants are taking immense risks to cross the Darién Gap, a dangerous 100 km stretch of dense jungle between Colombia and Panama. Refugees International visited Necoclí and Capurganá, Colombia—two critical junctions in the journey to cross the gap—to better understand humanitarian needs in the region. Access the paper here.

New Report: Automating Immigration and Asylum: The Uses of New Technologies in Migration and Asylum Governance in Europe

This report maps out the existing uses of new technologies across European immigration and asylum systems both at the national and the EU level. This is the first mapping report under the AFAR project. Access the paper here.

Journal Article: ‘Contemporary Wars and Politics of Dispossession: Afghanistan and Ukraine’

This special issue of Refugee Watch focused on the forced migration crises in Afghanistan and Ukraine, authors continue to debate the significance of forced migration studies within the larger context of history, politics and critical methodological interventions in the post-colonial context. Access the special issue here.

Journal Article: ‘The Organisational Pattern of Rohingya Refugee Community in Malaysia: Structural Opportunities, Constraints, and Intra-Community Dynamics’

The article draws attention to the proliferation of Rohingya community organizations in Malaysia. It argues that the ambivalent asylum policy and increasingly unfavorable socio-political environment of the host state were mediated by the organizations through support from the accumulated social capital and established social networks in their localities. The article contributes to debates on refugee self-reliance and their prospective role in enhancing host countries’ social and economic life, as indicated by the Global Compact on Refugees. It is also relevant to general debates about refugee mobilization in transit countries in Southeast Asia. Access the article here.

Journal Article: ‘Between Aspirations and Law: Protection Consciousness among Congolese Forced Migrants in Rabat’

This special section contributes to the growing interdisciplinary field of camp studies by examining the ways in which scholars methodologically approach and study camps and camp-like spaces. The characteristics of camps, which render them of interest to scholars in the first place, simultaneously generate methodological, ethical, and practical questions for research. Access the article here.

Journal Article: ‘Special Section of Conflict and Society: Advnces in Research 8’

The special section explores the role of art practice in transformation in contexts of violent conflict and displacement. The articles focus on artists that either create in the context of oppression and control or respond to these contexts by creating spaces of resistance, life in and with violent conflict, transformation, and inspiration. The articles discuss a range of initiatives and artistic practices that take place in a variety of contexts, from artists involved in societal transformation in Afghanistan, Cambodia, and Syria, to artists working in Palestine, Chad, Sri Lanka, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Access the article here.

Journal Article: ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A Human Rights Assessment of the Fate of Excluded Asylum-seekers and Criminal Refugees in Australia’

Richard Burton, soldier, ethnographer, translator, philologist, and colonial intelligence-gatherer spent the early years of his career in Sindh and was the first and primary colonial ethnographer of Sindh. Burton was clearly attracted to the ecumenical complexity of Sindhi religious practice but was hostile in his descriptions of Sindh’s Hindus whom he viewed as a corrupt and scheming “race,” subjecting the Muslims of the province to their tyranny. Access the paper here.

Journal Article: ‘”We are Forgotten”’: Forced Migration, Sexual and Gender-based Violence, and Coronavirus Disease-2019’

Adopting a structural violence approach, this article explores, with survivors and practitioners, how early coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic conditions affected forced migrant sexual and gender-based violence survivors’ lives. Introducing a new analytical framework combining violent abandonment, slow violence, and violent uncertainty, the authors show how interacting forms of structural violence exacerbated by pandemic conditions intensified existing inequalities. Access the article here.

Journal Article: ‘Education as an Opportunity for Integration: Assessing Colombia, Peru, and Chile’s Education Responses to the Venezuelan Migration Crises’

With over 5 million Venezuelans fleeing their home country, Latin America faces its largest migration crisis. Colombia, Peru, and Chile host the greatest number of Venezuelan migrants in the region. Each country has responded differently to the crisis regarding the provision of education. Venezuelan migrants attempting to enter the primary, secondary, and higher education systems encounter various barriers, from struggles with documentation, and limited availability of spaces in schools, to cultural barriers and xenophobia. This paper examines the distinct educational policy responses to Venezuelan migrants in Colombia, Peru, and Chile. Access the article here.

Journal Article: ‘Local Integration: A Durable Solution in Need of Restoration’

Local integration has long been seen as the “forgotten” durable solution to refugee displacement, evidenced by the reluctance of governments across the world to accord refugees new citizenship. This article goes further. It argues that local integration as a durable solution has not been merely forgotten, but deliberately avoided at a national, regional and international level. Access the article here.

Journal Article: ‘Comparative Migration Law: Methods, Debates and New Frontiers’

This special issue examines the purpose and methods of comparison in migration law. With contributions from academics working across a number of interrelated fields, including migration law, refugee law, comparative law, and migration studies. We aim to identify key contemporary debates and chart a program for future research. Access the article here.

Journal Article: ‘More People too Poor to Move: Divergent Effects of Climate Change on Global Migration Patterns’

The observed temperature increase due to anthropogenic carbon emissions has impacted economies worldwide. National income levels in origin and destination countries influence international migration. Emigration is relatively low not only from high income countries but also from very poor regions, which is explained in current migration theory by credit constraints and lower average education levels, among other reasons. These relationships suggest a potential non-linear, indirect effect of climate change on migration through this indirect channel. Access the article here.

Journal Article: ‘What is the Impact of Forced Displacement on Health? A Scoping Review’

While there is a broad literature analysing the effects of migration on health, important knowledge gaps persist particularly on the causal effects of forced displacement on health outcomes. We undertake a scoping review of applied epidemiological, statistical and econometric studies examining causal health impacts of forced displacement, which initially identified 1454 studies from the health and social sciences disciplines published up to May 2021. Our study makes two key contributions. Access the article here.

Journal Article: ‘Measuring the Effect of Climate Change on Migration Flows: Limitations of Existing Data and Analytical Frameworks’

The aim of this paper is to review quantitative large-N studies that investigate the effects of climate change on migration flows. Recent meta-analyses have shown that most studies find that climate change influences migration flows. There are however also many studies that find no effects or show that effects are dependent on specific contexts. To better understand this complexity, we argue that we need to discuss in more detail how to measure climate change and migration, how these measurements relate to each other and how we can conceptualise the relationship between these two phenomena. Access the article here.

Journal Article: ‘The Application of Assisted Migration as a Climate Change Adaptation Tactic: An Evidence Map and Synthesis’

Assisted migration entails the human assisted movement of individuals to more climatically-suitable areas within or outside of their current species range to help species respond to climate change. To better understand the potential for assisted migration to benefit species threatened by climate change, we conducted an evidence synthesis to map examples where assisted migration has been implemented around the world. Access the article here.

Journal Article: ‘Climate Change and Migration from Atolls? No Evidence Yet’

People living on low-lying coral atolls are highly exposed to climate change and there is much discussion that climate change is and will increasingly force their migration. This article presents findings from a systematic literature review on climate-change migration in atolls. We found an implicit (if not explicit) assumption in the literature that migration driven by climate change is already happening, yet the literature shows no empirical evidence of this to date. Access the article here.

New Book: A Novel Approach to EU Asylum Law: The Practitioners’ Handbook

This Practitioners’ Handbook on the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) and EU and Member States’ Commitments under the UN Global Compact on Refugees and the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration identifies CEAS provisions which fulfil the Compacts’ requirements as well as those that diverge therefrom. Access the article here.

New Book: Environmentally Internally Displaced Persons in the Northeastern Backlands of Brazil: A Case Study

The book addresses the relationship between internally displaced persons (IDPs) by natural disasters to search for legal and policy responses not yet applied in the region. Its focus is categorizing those environmentally displaced persons as IDPs, so they receive international legal protection, even without binding norms and institutions to protect them. Access the book here.

New Book: Migration Research in a Digitized World: Using Innovative Technology to Tackle Methodological Challenges (Open Access)

The book explores the implications of the digital revolution for migration scholars’ methodological toolkit. New information and communication technologies hold considerable potential to improve the quality of migration research by originating previously non-viable solutions to a myriad of methodological challenges in this field of study. This book addresses a range of crucial issues related to researcher-designed data collections and the secondary use of ‘big data’, highlighting opportunities, challenges, and limitations. Access the book here.

New Book: The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration

Even as climate change dominates the headlines, many of us still think about it in the future tense—we imagine that as global warming gets worse over the coming decades, millions of people will scatter around the world fleeing famine and rising seas. What we often don’t realize is that the consequences of climate change are already visible, right here in the United States. In communities across the country, climate disasters are pushing thousands of people away from their homes. Access the book here.

New Book: Right Where We Belong: How Refugee Teachers and Students Are Changing the Future of Education

New Book: Transnational Migration, Diaspora, and Identity: A Study of Kurdish Diaspora in London (Open Access)

This book explores a common but almost forgotten historical argument that positions the Kurds as powerless victims of the First World War (WW1). To this end, the book looks critically at the unfavourable political situations of the Kurds in the post-WW1 era, which began with the emergence of three new modern nation-states in the Middle East—Turkey, Iraq, and Syria—as well as related modernising events in Iran. It demonstrates the dire consequences of oppressive international and regional state policies against the Kurds, which led to mass displacement and forced migration of the Kurds from the 1920s on. Access the book here.

New Book Chapter: ‘Leading for Equity and Social Justice: Systemic Transformation in Canadian Education’

Educational institutions, and in particular educational leaders, play critical roles in identifying and rectifying the many inequities that oppress, marginalize, and exclude individual students, educational actors, and some minoritized groups in Canadian education. Access the article here.

New Book Chapter: ‘Police Brutality and Violence Against Liberian Refugees and Migrants in Ghana: Assessing the Role of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice’

Precursor of the Liberian civil war which led to tens of thousands of them seeking refuge in Ghana for more than three decades started with dispossessing Indigenous Liberians of their land and the birthing of the modern Liberian State with assistance from the ACS in the early 1800. The setter-colonist’s True Whig Party of Liberia, one of the oldest political entities in the world, began its rule in 1869 as the only political party in the country until 1980, save for a brief coup d’état in 1871. Access the chapter here.

New Book Chapter: ‘”I Am Myself” – Queer Refugee Narratives’

The moment I heard about the coming together of this exciting anthology, I knew in my heart that Aram’s stories should be in the Handbook among the refugee narratives this Handbook presents. Aram is a self-identified queer lesbian refugee whom I met through my ethnographic research with Iranian LGBTQ refugees in Turkey. What makes me want to write about Aram, more than anything else, is that they queer all the structures, sites, and systems they encounter and navigate, ranging from asylum bureaucracies to hospital corridors, from textile factories to community meetings. Access the chapter here.

Policy Brief: Financing Responses to Climate Migration: The Unique Role of Multilateral Development Banks

As climate change increasingly contributes to migration and displacement in many parts of the world, there is a pressing need for measures that build resilience and prevent displacement, as well as those that help climate-affected people move to safety and support receiving communities. Access the brief here.

Policy Brief: City Planning with Displaced Communities: The Benefits of Inclusion

Displacement affects more than 100 million people worldwide and is often prolonged. Many displaced people seek opportunities in cities. Whereas participatory planning can be tokenistic and lack impact, the Protracted Displacement in an Urban World project explores participatory information gathering and decision making that meaningfully involve displaced and host communities in catalysing more equitable and inclusive urban development. Access the brief here.

Blog Post: From Teacher to Displaced Person and Back

Daw Chan (all names in this article have been changed), a 27-year-old ethnic Chin woman, is no stranger to moving around. When she was younger, she worked abroad in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, and sent money back to her family. On her return, she helped her parents with managing the Christian boarding school they ran in her home settlement in Paletwa, a township in the northwest of Myanmar. While there was no fighting where they lived, she remembers with teary eyes that even then there were displaced people from nearby areas. Access the post here.

Blog Post: Feminism as Method: How do we do Gender in International Refugee Law?

Zora Neale Hurston, the Black American anthropologist and author whose works were pilloried in her lifetime and lauded posthumously, described research as ‘formalised curiosity … poking and prying with a purpose’. In this blog, I suggest that the notion of ‘poking and prying with a purpose’ is a helpful way of conceiving feminist engagement with international law. Feminist international law scholarship provides an array of methodological tools to interrogate and expose the gendered nature of international law but also to envisage and build alternative futures. Access the post here.

Magazine Article: It’s Time to Rethink the Idea of the “Indigenous”

Many groups who identify as Indigenous don’t claim to be first peoples; many who did come first don’t claim to be Indigenous. Can the concept escape its colonial past? Identity evolves. Social categories shrink or expand, become stiffer or more elastic, more specific or more abstract. What it means to be white or Black, Indian or American, able-bodied or not shifts as we tussle over language, as new groups take on those labels and others strip them away. Access the article here.

Documentary Film: Beyond Extinction: Sinixt Resurgence

Rungh is pleased to partner with the 2022 DOXA Documentary Film Festival (Vancouver) for the World Premiere of Governor General Award-winning Ali Kazimi’s new documentary “Beyond Extinction: Sinixt Resurgence”. In “Beyond Extinction”, he traces Indigenous matriarchs who revive traditions and fight to save an ancient burial ground in British Columbia’s Slocan Valley. Declared “extinct” by the Indian Act, the film documents their intimate living histories and their decades long struggle for recognition. Access the Film here.

Documentary Film: New Country, New Parenthood: Syrian Refugee in the Context of Resettlement

The two documentary-style videos “Refugees Coming to Canada” and “Refugees Resettled in Canada” offer first-hand advice from Syrian refugees who have resettled in Canada to those waiting to come to Canada or who are newly arrived. Participants generously agreed to share their stories and experiences, and to offer advice on what to bring, what to expect, and what to do to allow for an easier adjustment post-migration. They share what they wished they had known when preparing to move and during their first year in Canada. Access the first film here And the second film here.

ANNOUNCEMENTS, CAMPAIGNS, AND ALERTS

Member Request

If you are accepting a research assistant or fellow in migration or displacement studies, please get in touch with our (former) collaborator, Azin Emami aziemami@gmail.com. Azin recently graduated from a PhD program in International Relations, focusing on migration as an adaptation strategy to climate change, the implications of non-recognition for environmentally displaced persons and the nexus between environmental migration and labour migration. She has experience from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), where she conducted research on forced migration, climate change and environment trends and challenges in the Middle East and North Africa region in humanitarian and (post) conflict settings; with a specific focus on water scarcity. She has also conducted research on the Migration Sustainability and Transformation (MISTY) project at the Hugo Observatory (University of Liège) and has worked as a researcher at the Climate Displacement Planning Initiative in Canada. Please contact: aziemami@gmail.com.

IN THE NEWS

The Conversation, Why it’s important to understand the unique plight of IDP in Africa (15 November 2022)

NPR, Biden Administration invites ordinary Americans to help settle refugees (24 January 2023)

Japan Times, Hidden graves: India’s crackdown on Kashmir rebel funerals (11 February 2023)

NDTV, Massive landslides in Peru, boulders fall inches away from cars (24 February 2023)

Haaretz, Clashes between police, protesters in Tel Aviv after Netanyahu pauses judicial overhaul (26 March 2023).

InterAction, On eighth anniversary of Yemen conflict, tens of millions need assistance (27 March 2023)

UN News, Dismantling racism today starts by understanding slavery’s ‘horrific’ past (27 March 2023)

BBC, Kenya’s Azimio protests: Hundreds storm farm of ex-President Uhuru Kenyatta (27 March 2023)

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Displaced Peoples (CRN11) newsletter is published quarterly. The newsletter is a venue for sharing information regarding displaced peoples, broadly defined. Your contribution to the newsletter is crucial to its sustenance, success and quality. To contribute to the newsletter, please contact Veronica Fynn Bruey and Steven Bender: vfynnbruey@athabascau.ca and benders@seattleu.edu. To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit CRN 11 Displaced Peoples.