Forced Migration

"Many, and perhaps most, of the world’s displaced persons now find themselves in situations of protracted displacement facing unresolved conflicts that rule out both restitution and voluntary return as a viable solution. Trapped in these circumstances, many are denied their fundamental right to security of tenure. This indefinitely perpetuates their vulnerability, violates their rights and reduces the likelihood that they have sufficient resilience or possibility to return home sustainably, should the opportunity arise, or to integrate locally. In most cases, they end up being displaced for a long and indefinite time.

Conscious of this growing trend, NRC commissioned this report analysing the importance of rights to housing, land and property (HLP) in providing more durable solutions for both internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees. The report deconstructs the current legal and policy framework and analyses how state and humanitarian agencies’ practices have to change to confront this growing challenge. "

This volume examines the relationship between imperial collapse, the emergence of successor nationalism, the exclusion of ethnic groups with the wrong credentials, and the refugee experience. It brings together a coherent range of essays, written by established authorities and emerging scholars, which offer a highly original and comparative way of examining the refugee experience on a global scale. The book is structured into three distinct sections. The first of these contains three overview pieces introducing the key themes in the volume. The second focuses specifically upon the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires at the end of the First World War, with individual essays on specific case studies. The third examines 'The Consequences and Legacy of British Imperial Collapse', with a particular focus upon the experiences of South Asians immediately after the partition of India and the specific case of Uganda.

Large-scale displacement - whether caused by war, state-related political or development projects, different forms of political violence, structural crisis, or even natural disasters - evokes many stereotyped assumptions about those forcibly displaced or emplaced. At the same time there is a problematic lack of attention paid to the diversity of actors, strategies and practices that reshape the world in the face (and chronic aftermath) of dramatic moments of violent dislocation. In this highly original volume, based on empirical case studies from across sub-Saharan Africa, the authors reveal the paradoxical effects, both intended and unexpected, that displacement produces, and that manifest themselves in displacement economies.

"Carthage Center for Research and Information (CCRI) of the Lebanese
Development Network (LDN) and the Lebanese Emigration Research
Center (LERC) of Notre Dame University (NDU) announce the publication
of a new study entitled “Refugees of the Arab Spring: The Syrian
Refugees in Lebanon April 2011 – April 2012” written by Sam Van
Vliet and Guita Hourani. The study is published by The Center for
Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS) of the American University of
Cairo (CUA) in its new series 'Cairo Studies on Migration and Refugees'
with a preface by the Director of CMRS, Dr. Ibrahim Awad.

The study reviews the manifestations of the Syrian refugees’ crisis in
Lebanon during its first year. The paper analyzes the attitudes and policies
of the Lebanese state as well as the interaction of these attitudes with those
of the Lebanese society in its different components. As such, the paper may
be viewed as a study of the impact of the political and social environment
on refugee policy-making.

In his prologue, Dr. Awad wrote that “the humanitarian and political
importance of the subject, regionally as well as conceptually, and the
seriousness of the research undertaken by the two researchers have
prompted the CMRS to publish the paper in its new Cairo Studies on
Migration and Refugees series”."

The purpose of this project is to explore the gap between representations of Somali Bantu refugees as a “people of special interest” and their lived experiences across the forced migration trajectory. It begins with my own reflections as someone living in a receiving community who participated in their resettlement, and whose own subjectivity was transformed as a result. The purpose of this project is to explore the gap between representations of Somali Bantu refugees as a “people of special interest” and their lived experiences across the forced migration trajectory. It begins with my own reflections as someone living in a receiving community who participated in their resettlement, and whose own subjectivity was transformed as a result.

"The aim of the present research was to examine the experience of extended periods of immigration detention from the perspective of previously detained asylum seekers and to identify the consequences of these experiences for life after release. The study sample comprised seventeen adult refugees (sixteen male and one female; average age 42 years), who had been held in immigration detention funded by the Australian government for on average three years and two months. They were interviewed on average three years and eight months following their release and had been granted permanent visa status or such status was imminent. The study employed a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to explore detention and post-detention experiences, and mental health some years after release. The qualitative component consisted of semi-structured interviews exploring psychological well-being, daily life, significant events, relationships, and ways of coping throughout these periods. This was supplemented with standardised quantitative measures of current mental health and quality of life. All participants were struggling to rebuild their lives in the years following release from immigration detention, and for the majority the difficulties experienced were pervasive. Participants suffered an ongoing sense of insecurity and injustice, difficulties with relationships, profound changes to view of self and poor mental health. Depression and demoralisation, concentration and memory disturbances, and persistent anxiety were very commonly reported. Standardised measures found high rates of depression,
anxiety, PTSD and low quality of life scores. The results strongly suggest that the psychological and interpersonal difficulties participants were suffering at the time of interview were the legacy of their adverse experiences while detained. The current study assists in identifying the characteristics of prolonged immigration detention producing long-term psychological harm."

"This article seeks to shift the frame of analysis within which discussions of Indian indentured migration take place. It argues that colonial discourses and practices of indenture are best understood not with regard to the common historiographical framework of whether it was ‘a new system of slavery’, but in the context of colonial innovations in incarceration and confinement. The article shows how Indian experiences of and knowledge about transportation overseas to penal settlements informed in important ways both their own understandings and representations of migration and the colonial practices associated with the recruitment of indentured labour. In detailing the connections between two supposedly different labour regimes, it thus brings a further layer of complexity to debates around their supposed distinctions.

FULL TEXT .PDF available via link below to the Leicester Research Archives (scroll down to bottom of the page for link to .pdf)."

Deportees are a hidden yet highly vulnerable and numerous population. Significantly, little data exists about the substance use and deportation experiences of Mexicans deported from the United States. This pilot qualitative study describes illicit drug use behaviors among 24 Mexico-born male injection drug users (IDUs), ≥ 18 years old, residing in Tijuana, Mexico who self-identified as deportees from the United States. In-person interviews were conducted in Tijuana, Mexico in 2008. Content analysis of interview transcripts identified major themes in participants' experiences. Few participants had personal or family exposures to illicit drugs prior to their first U.S. migration. Participants reported numerous deportations. Social (i.e., friends/family, post-migration stressors) and environmental factors (e.g., drug availability) were perceived to contribute to substance use initiation in the U.S. Drugs consumed in the United States included marijuana, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and crack. More than half of men were IDUs prior to deportation. Addiction and justice system experiences reportedly contributed to deportation. After deportation, several men injected new drugs, primarily heroin or methamphetamine, or a combination of both drugs. Many men perceived an increase in their substance use after deportation and reported shame and loss of familial social and economic support. Early intervention is needed to stem illicit drug use in Mexican migrant youths. Binational cooperation around migrant health issues is warranted. Migrant-oriented programs may expand components that address mental health and drug use behaviors in an effort to reduce transmission of blood-borne infections. Special considerations are merited for substance users in correctional systems in the United States and Mexico, as well as substance users in United States immigration detention centers. The health status and health behaviors of deportees are likely to impact receiving Mexican communities. Programs that address health, social, and economic issues may aid deportees in resettling in Mexico.