Four Years of Forced Migration Current Awareness!

This blog was launched 1 November 2005. Four years later, it is still alerting readers to the availability of new forced migration-related publications, journal issues/articles, events, and web sites/tools. Its main aim is to support the research process by helping to seek out and identify potentially relevant information resources.

Read more about the blog in the FAQ. (See especially "How can I locate information in this blog?") Learn more about forced migration generally by visiting my wiki.

Who visits this blog? According to my web stats, I receive visitors from over 150 different countries. So far for 2009, the top 20 in terms of traffic are: US, UK, Canada, Italy, Switzerland, Australia, Netherlands, India, France, Germany, South Africa, Turkey, Belgium, New Zealand, Ireland, Austria, Kenya, Spain, Pakistan, and Sweden.

People find out about this blog primarily through web search engines. They've used over 6500 different keywords to get to me this year alone! Some of the most popular search terms are "kakuma," "human trafficking," "statelessness," "climate refugees," "environmental migrants," "bhutanese refugees," "zimbabweans," as well as the titles of different annual reports (e.g., World Refugee Survey, World Disasters Report, etc.).

The content of this blog has remained fairly consistent over the past four years. The most common types of posts are:
1) aggregated listings of new publications (primarily full-text);
2) lists of new journal issues (with links to either full-text or tables of contents);
3) announcements of new events or professional development opportunities; and
4) references to new web sites or research tools.

Often, a mix of these resources will be presented together if they focus on a particular theme. Some examples include: Focus on Europe, 60th Anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, and Domestic Violence Asylum Claims.

Over the years, I have added new features to the blog, including

• title lists of new journal article abstracts and books; legal articles are highlighted separately (see the sidebar);
• images within posts; and most recently,
• a site search engine.

I am also trying to track certain events more closely (e.g., the AU Special Summit, 60th session of EXCOM, Open Access Week...) and find podcasts/webcasts/presentations for conferences after they've taken place.

Because this blog functions as an alerting service, it is less conducive to feedback and opinions from readers than other blogs are. However, suggestions for improvements or new resources to monitor are always welcome and can be submitted through the comments feature. (Please keep in mind that I don't post the full-text of resources on the blog directly, I can only link to resources stored elsewhere.)

I hope this service continues to be useful to you. While it is largely a labor of love, I am fortunate to have received generous support for my efforts from UNHCR's Policy Development and Evaluation Service (PDES) and would not turn away funding from others! At the same time, I'm committed to running this blog, in one form or another, for as long as I can - or, at the very least, for yet another four years! Thanks for visiting!

[Photo source: AndrewEick's Photostream on Flickr]

Tagged Events & Opportunities and Web Sites/Tools.