30 November 2009

Resources relating to Gender-based Violence

Upcoming Events and Opportunities:

The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, on November 25th, marked the beginning of the "16 Days of Activism" campaign to end gender-based violence. The 16th day falls on December 10, or Human Rights Day. Read this related UNHCR news story and Refugees International blog entry.

Applicants sought for teaching fellowship in the Refugee and Human Rights Law Clinic at U.C. Hastings, with joint placement at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS). Apply by 15 January 2010.

Past Events:

The First Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking, held 29-31 October 2009, will be posting papers and conference proceedings on the Univ. of Nebraska's Digital Commons space. A summary of the plenary speech by Kevin Bales is provided here.

A Workshop on International Legal Cooperation in Trafficking in Persons Cases was held in Bangkok, 23-25 November. More information is available, including a brief report of the gathering.

Publications:

Every Single Woman: A comparison of standards for women in the asylum system with standards for women in the criminal justice, prison and maternity systems in the UK (Women's Asylum Charter, Dec. 2009) [text]

Peril or Protection: The Link Between Livelihoods and Gender-based Violence in Displacement Settings (Women's Refugee Commission, Nov. 2009) [text]

Other Resources:
  • Human Security Gateway's resources relating to "gender and armed conflict" [access]
  • IDMC's Internally Displaced Women page [access]
  • Refworld's Gender Equality and Women page [access]
  • ReliefWeb's Policy & Issues section on "gender" [access]
  • Women's Asylum News issues [access]
See also:

On this blog, items relating to gender-based persecution, human trafficking, and women.

In the Researching Forced Migration guide, items relating to human trafficking and women.

Tagged Events & Opportunities, Publications and Web Sites/Tools.

28 November 2009

New Issue of the Journal of Refugee Studies

The December issue of vol. 22 of the Journal of Refugee Studies (JRS) is now available. Contents include the following articles:
  • The (Relative) Decline of Palestinian Exceptionalism and its Consequences for Refugee Studies in the Middle East [abstract] [working paper]
  • Residential Sampling and Johannesburg's Forced Migrants [abstract] [workshop paper]
  • Facilitating Youth Participation in a Context of Forced Migration: A Photovoice Project in Northern Uganda [abstract] [draft]
  • Liberian Refugee Families in Ghana: The Implications of Family Demands and Capabilities for Return to Liberia [abstract]
  • Displaced Livelihoods in Sri Lanka: An Economic Analysis [abstract]
Also included is a conference report for "Writing Refugees into History" and nine book reviews. Interestingly, the reference for each book review displayed in the JRS RSS feed in my Google Reader links to a one-page PDF extract of the review (here's a sample). I'm not sure why, since these don't appear to be available via the online contents list, but if you subscribe to the feed, you can try it out for yourself!

Tagged Periodicals.

27 November 2009

Self-Archiving Guide: Postscript

Just to follow-up on my SSRN deposit experience, I have now received confirmation that my document - "'Is that Forced Migration Text Online?' Testing an Information Access Rule of Thumb" - is available. One caveat: When I first uploaded my document, I neglected to "save" the action so the PDF was not actually included in my initial submission, even though everything else was. However, once I realized this, I simply returned to my profile, re-uploaded the document, waited once again for the review to be completed, and voila!

In sum, what options are available for forced migration researchers who wish to archive their works? The first consideration should be one's home institution. Check openDOAR to see if your university is listed as having a repository. If it is not, then authors around the world without an institutional repository now have the chance to deposit their research output with EDINA's Depot.

Alternatively, as I demonstrated in my two previous posts on self-archiving journal eprints and unpublished papers, you can elect to go with a disciplinary or subject-based repository, like SSRN. Check the Open Access Directory (OAD) for other options.

Finally, while Forced Migration Online (FMO) has not widely advertised its digital library as an open access repository, it has migrated its collection to the open source Fedora platform and it is now interoperable with other open access repository systems. So, effectively, FMO can be viewed as a repository for the forced migration field and researchers can submit their documents accordingly.

Tagged Publications and Web Sites/Tools.

Publications: Copenhagen Guide, Global Appeal, IDP Protection, Refugee Protection/Americas, WDR/Climate Change

Global Appeal 2010-2011 (UNHCR, Dec. 2009) [site access]
- Alternatively, browse individual sections of the report in PDF, such as an updated list of states parties to the 1951 Convention/1967 Protocol, strategies for addressing statelessness and working with the internally displaced, among others.

A Humanitarian's Guide to Copenhagen (IRIN, Nov. 2009) [text via Towards Recognition]

Protection and assistance to IDPs, A/C.3/64/L.34/Rev.1 (UN General Assembly, Nov. 2009) [text - choose language]

Regional Conference on Refugee Protection and International Migration in the Americas, San José, Costa Rica, 19-20 November 2009 (UNHCR, Nov. 2009) [access]
- Various notes and background documents available in Spanish and English.

World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change (World Bank, Nov. 2009) [access]

Tagged Publications.

24 November 2009

New Issues of Global R2P, INSCAN, Intl. J. Water Resources Dev., ICRC Review, JIMI, Researching Ref. Health, Rutgers Law, Soc. Hist. Med.

Global Responsibility to Protect, vol. 1, no. 4 (Oct. 2009) [contents]
- Mix of articles.

INSCAN, vol. 23, no. 2 (Fall 2009) [contents]
- Focus is on schools.

International Journal of Water Resources Development, vol. 25, no. 3 (Sept. 2009) [contents]
- Focus is on the involuntary resettlement caused by large dam projects in Asia.

International Review of the Red Cross, vol. 91, no. 874 (June 2009) [contents]
- Focus is on "war victims."

Journal of International Migration and Integration, vol. 10, no. 4 (Nov. 2009) [contents]
- Special issue on "Migration, Crime and Justice." Includes "Diamonds in the Rough: Bridging Gaps in Supports for At-Risk Immigrant and Refugee Youth."

Researching Refugee Health, no. 11 (Oct. 2009) [full-text]
- Lead article is "Researching refugee mens’ health and wellbeing."

Rutgers Law Record, vol. 34 (Spring 2009) [full-text]
- Focus is on Iraq, with three articles considering Iraqi refugee and IDP legal dilemmas.

Social History of Medicine, vol. 22, no. 3 (Dec. 2009) [contents]
- Special issue on "Medical Refugees in Britain and the Wider World, 1930-1960."

Tagged Periodicals.

23 November 2009

Information-related Items: Jobs, Opportunities, Publications

Jobs:

Apply for an Indexer/Cataloguer job with Pambazuka by 1 December 2009.

Apply for the Web Content Coordinator position with Forced Migration Online by 6 January 2010.

Opportunities:

Attend ICAR's seminar on "Gathering Evidence Effectively," London, 8 December 2009.

Participate in the Center for Research Libraries' "Human Rights Electronic Evidence Study," "a study of how NGOs think about and engage with digital documentation as a form of evidence for human rights activities (whether activism, scholarship, or legal action)." For more information, read the overview.

Publications:

Documenting Truth (International Center for Transitional Justice, Jan. 2009) [text]
- "Documentary materials -- whether governmental records and papers, court transcripts, newspaper articles and pamphlets, personal diaries and letters, or audio, video and oral testimony -- enhance our understanding of the past in our effort to build a more just future."

Human Rights Council and International Criminal Court: The New Challenges for Human Rights Communications (HURIDOCS, Feb. 2009) [text]
- Report of a conference that reflected "upon how information about human rights can be communicated more effectively by NGOs to institutions such as the Human Rights Council (HRC) and its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and to the International Criminal Court (ICC)."

Tagged Events & Opportunities and Publications.

Publications: Conference Reflections, Humanitarian Action/Africa, IDPs & Camps, Land & Conflict, Somalis/India

Beyond IDP Camps (IntLawGrrls, Nov. 2009) [text]
- Comment on the recent ICRC report on internal displacement in the context of armed conflict.

Hunger, Disaster, Hope: Rethinking Humanitarian Action in Africa (IFRC, Nov. 2009) [text]

Internally displaced people: facing up to the challenges (ICRC, Nov. 2009) [text]

The Policy Will Kill Us: Somali nationals seeking asylum in India (Pambazuka News, Nov. 2009) [text]

Reflections on an International Conference - "Protecting People in Conflict and Crisis: Responding to the Challenges of a Changing World" (Refugee Studies Centre, Nov. 2009) [text]
- Other participants can share their thoughts and reflections on the FMO blog.

Uncharted Territory: Land, Conflict and Humanitarian Action, HPG Policy Brief, no. 39 (ODI, Nov. 2009) [text]

Tagged Publications.

20 November 2009

Self-Archiving Guide: Unpublished Papers

Following on from my earlier post: My next experiment with self-archiving was with the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). This service was established to promote the rapid dissemination of research findings via abstracts and full-text papers. It was recently ranked number one by the "Ranking Web of World Repositories." I post a number of links to SSRN papers on this blog, particularly those with a legal focus.

I have an unpublished paper that I eventually may submit to a journal. However, in the interim, I thought I would submit it to SSRN to experience yet another repository's submission process. Once again, the time it took to actually upload the document was minimal: 15 minutes. As I did before, I spent a little time prior to the submission process reading through guidelines and converting my document to PDF. The fact that my paper is unpublished certainly simplified matters, since I did not have to investigate copyright policies or article archiving permissions. SSRN's form was very user-friendly, and included sufficient instruction to help me along the way. Upon uploading the document, I once again was notified that the paper would not become available until after review by an SSRN editor.

All in all, very straightforward. You can submit abstracts, pre- and post-prints to SSRN as well as unpublished papers, and while there is no embargo option, you can designate papers that you've uploaded as private, and then change their status once a certain period of time has passed.

Tagged Publications and Web Sites/Tools.

Things to do in December

European Migration and Asylum Policies: Coherence or Contradiction? – An Interdisciplinary Evaluation of the EU Summits of Tampere (1999), The Hague (2004) and Stockholm (2009), Scribani International Conference 2010, Madrid, 8-10 September 2010 [info]
- Applications and paper proposals due 1 December 2009.

Immigrant Legal Resource Center Webinar Trainings [info]
- On offer are "Asylum and 'Material Support' Bar Webinar," 3 December 2009 and "LGBT and HIV+ Asylum Claims Webinar," 10 December 2009

RSC Vacancy: Departmental Lecturer in Forced Migration (part-time) [info]
- Apply by 9 December 2009.

International Conference: Deportation and the Development of Citizenship, Oxford, 11-12 December 2009 [info]
- Registration for attending this conference is now open.

Children and War: Past and Present, University of Salzburg, Austria, 30 September-2 October 2010 [info]
- Submit abstract by 31 December 2009.

Tagged Events & Opportunities.

19 November 2009

Legal Items: Asylum/EU, ECHR & Human Trafficking Victims, Gender & Refugee Convention, IDPs & Intl. Law

Advancing a Gendered Interpretation of the Refugee Convention: Refugee Appeal No. 76044 (New Zealand Refugee Law, Sept. 2009) [text]

The Common European Asylum System with particular reference to the Qualification Directive (2004/83/EC) (QD) and the Procedures Directive (2005/85/EC) (PD) (IARLJ, Oct. 2009) [text]

Permanent Residency for Human Trafficking Victims in Europe: The Potential Use of Article 3 of the European Convention as a Means of Protection (SSRN, Nov. 2009) [text]

A Tale of Two Decades: War Refugees and Asylum Policy in the European Union (SSRN, Nov. 2009) [text]

"Treatment of Internally Displaced Persons in International Law," Video Lecture by Walter Kälin (UN Audiovisual Library of International Law, 2009) [access]

Tagged Publications and Web Sites/Tools.

Publications: Civilian Protection/DRC, Humanitarian IT, Preparing for Future Humanitarian Impacts, Tibetan Diaspora, Women/Colombia

Applying Technology to Crisis Mapping and Early Warning in Humanitarian Settings (Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Sept. 2009) [text]

Colombia: Displaced Women Demand Their Rights (Refugees International, Nov. 2009) [text]

DR Congo: Protect Civilians and End Military Operations (Refugees International, Nov. 2009) [text]

Humanitarian Horizons Working Papers (Humanitarian Futures Programme, Nov. 2009) [access]
- Four titles, including "Climate Change and its Humanitarian Impacts," "The Future of Globalization and its Humanitarian Impacts," "Demographic Trends and their Humanitarian Impacts," and "Future of the Humanitarian System: Impacts of Internal Changes."

"Interpreting the Tibetan Diaspora: Cultural Preservation and the Pragmatics of Identity," CEU Political Science Journal, vol. 4, no. 3 (Sept. 2009) [text]
- An earlier version of this article entitled "Ethnography of the Displaced: Interpreting the Tibetan Refugee Experience in Darjeeling Town, India" won an award for best paper from the April 2009 CRS Graduate Student Conference.

Tagged Publications.

18 November 2009

New Issues of IJRL, J. Afr. Law, JEMS, Migration, Prehosp. & Dis. Med.

International Journal of Refugee Law, vol. 21, no. 4 (Dec. 2009) [contents]
- Includes articles on recognizing socio-economic refugees in South Africa; credibility, proof and refugee law; misidentifying human trafficking victims; and protecting stateless persons. Also included is a book review of "Stormy Weather: The Challenge of Climate Change and Displacement" (see related extract).

Journal of African Law, vol. 53, no. 1 (2009) [free full-text]
- Mix of articles.

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, vol. 36, no. 2 (2010) [contents]
- Theme is "Linking Integration and Residential Segregation."

Migration (Autumn 2009) [full-text via ReliefWeb]
- Theme is "Adapting to Climate Change." Includes "Climate Change and Displacement in Bangladesh: A Silent Crisis?" as well as articles on Bhutanese Refugees in Nepal, displacement in Sri Lanka, and Timorese returns.

Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, Supplement (August/September 2009) [full-text]
- Provides reports from the 2009 Humanitarian Action Summit. See also companion conference report on the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative site.

Tagged Periodicals.

Self-Archiving Guide: Journal article eprints

During Open Access Week, I posted on open access repositories and on options for authors who wish to archive eprints of their scholarly journal articles. Both posts were intended to encourage forced migration researchers to more regularly deposit their research output in either institutional or disciplinary repositories. However, since I have never actually archived anything myself, I thought I should try it out and report back in order to be able to say "I know whereof I speak."

For my first experience, I decided to deposit a journal article eprint. The article in question is entitled "Using a wiki to publish a research guide," and it was published in Emerald's Library Hi Tech News.

Step one: Confirm publisher's self-archiving policy.
When depositing article eprints, the first thing to check is the publisher's policy re. self-archiving. Generally, this information is available on the publisher's web site. For example, Emerald has a page called the Authors' Charter, which spells out copyright principles and author rights. Alternatively, you can search in the RoMEO database for a synopsis of publisher self-archiving policies. Here is the entry for the specific journal title: It allows author pre-prints (i.e., pre-refereeing) and author post-prints (i.e., final draft post-refereeing), as long as the published source is acknowledged and a link is provided to the publisher version.

I only had a pre-print version of my article, or the copy that I originally submitted to the editor for review. I did not have an official post-print since any editorial changes required were made in-house and were only circulated to me for review.

Step two: Select a repository.
The next thing to do is choose an appropriate repository. Academic authors affiliated with an institution should first check to see if their institution has its own repository. They can do that by searching in the openDOAR Directory of Open Access Repositories. However, since I work independently, this was not an option for me. I decided instead to go with a disciplinary repository. I am an information specialist, and the OAD's listing of disciplinary repositories includes a section for "library and information science." By default, I chose E-LIS since the other alternative was not accessible at the time of this writing! E-LIS also happens to be "a free-access international archive, in line with the Free Online Scholarship (FOS) movement and the Eprints movement, based on the Open Archive Initiative (OAI) standards and protocols."

Step three: Prepare for the submission process.
I reviewed the submission guidelines prior to registering in order to be properly prepared. E-LIS requires that submitted documents be provided in HTML or PDF format. Since my article was prepared in Microsoft Word, I took a few minutes to convert it to an acceptable format. I did this by copying the text of the article to Google Docs, since I knew I could then download the document as a PDF file. Since images cannot be copied and pasted, I also took some time re-inserting two screenshots into the Google Doc version. All in all, this process probably took about 15 minutes.

Step four: Register with the repository.
Next, I proceeded with the registration process. This simply involves signing up with an email address, a user name and a password. An automated confirmation message was sent to the address I provided, and once I activated the account, I was ready to continue.

Step five: Deposit your document.
Once I logged into E-LIS, I was presented with the option of uploading a new item or editing an existing one. I selected the former, and proceeded to a page with straightforward instructions about the kind of information I needed to provide (type of document, title, location elsewhere online, abstract, keywords, subject terms, etc.). Once I completed the necessary fields, I moved on to actually uploading the document. E-LIS offers the option to embargo a document, i.e., to make it available at a later date to accommodate publishers who place restrictions on when a post-print can be deposited (e.g., 12 months after it has been published). It also includes a utility that will convert a document to PDF for you, if you were not able to do so yourself. Once the uploading process was complete, I could revisit all the details I provided. I was also notified that the document will become available subsequent to a review by an editor. All-in-all, the process took about 15 minutes.

So now I can attest to the fact that depositing a journal article eprint to a disciplinary repository is a relatively painless endeavor! And a day later, here is the document.

Tagged Publications and Web Sites/Tools.

17 November 2009

Asia Focus: Round-up of Resources

Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN)

Asian civil society mobilizes in support of refugee rights (UNHCR, Oct. 2009) [text]

Climate Change


Climate change and migration in Asia and the Pacific (Asian Development Bank, 2009) [exec. summary via PreventionWeb]
- "This draft study discusses how climate change is likely to influence population displacement, migration and settlement patterns and examines how this will impact development in five sub-regions of Asia and the Pacific. It argues that if migration due to climate change is managed effectively, humanitarian crises will be minimized, conflicts avoided, and countries can benefit."

Burmese Displacement

Audio-slideshow marks 25th anniversary of the Burmese refugee crisis along the Thailand Burma border (Christian Aid, Nov. 2009) [access via AlertNet]

Burmese border refugee sites with population figures (Thailand Burma Border Consortium, Oct. 2009) [text]

The People Nobody Wants (ISN Security Watch, Nov. 2009) [text]

Protracted displacement and militarisation in Eastern Burma (Thailand Burma Border Consortium, Nov. 2009) [text]

"Screening Practices for Infectious Diseases among Burmese Refugees in Australia," Emerging Infectious Diseases, vol. 15, no. 11 (Nov. 2009) [full-text]

Detention

Asylum Seekers in Indonesia: Project, Findings & Recommendations (Behind Australian Doors, Nov. 2009) [text]
- See related blog.

Human Rights

"Asean Human Rights Body Launched Amid Controversy," The Irrawadday (23 Oct. 2009) [text]

ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, Oct. 2009) [text]
- Provides an overview of the member state representatives to the new ASEAN human rights body.

"Asia: Human rights body’s shaky beginnings," IRINNews (26 Oct. 2009) [text]

Human Rights Defender, vol. 5, no. 2 (Sept. 2009) [full-text]
- Focus is "We Want an ASEAN Human Rights Commission with Teeth."

Human Trafficking

Asia Regional Trafficking in Persons Project (ARTIP) [access]

Please Don't Say My Name (Karen Zusman, 2009) [access]
- Documentary on human trafficking of Burmese refugees in Malaysia.

[Map credit: "East Asia and Pacific," UNHCR]

Tagged Publications.

16 November 2009

Publications: Environment & Migration, Horn of Africa Refugees/Australia, Intl. Law & Detention, Mental Health/UK, UK Media & Marginalized Groups

A Civilised Society: Mental Health Provision for Refugees and Asylum-seekers in England and Wales (Mind, 2009) [text]

Improving Mental Health Support for Refugee Communities: An Advocacy Approach (Mind, 2009) [text]

Migration and Detention: Mapping the International Legal Terrain (Global Detention Project, Nov. 2009) [text]

The Settlement Experiences of Refugees and Migrants from the Horn of Africa (Centre for Refugee Research, posted Oct. 2009) [text]

Uncovered: Assessing Media and Communications Needs and Capacity of Marginalised Communities (ICAR et al., Oct. 2009) [text]

The Way Forward: Researching the Environment and Migration Nexus (UNU-EHS, Oct. 2009) [text]

Tagged Publications.

American Political Science Association Papers

The 2009 meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA) was held in Toronto, 3-6 September 2009. Participants are "strongly encouraged" by conference organizers to upload their papers to the Annual Meeting repository. SSRN was selected as the repository for 2009 papers.

Browse/search through the conference program or view it in PDF for more information about conference sessions. Here are several relevant titles I located:

Fighting and Helping? NGOs and Military Organizations in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies [text]

The Framing of Human Trafficking in the U.S. Print Media [text]

Metaphors in the US Trafficking in Persons Report [text]

Revisiting Human Rights Discourse: The Challenge of Environmental Refugees to International Moral and Legal Norms [abstract]

Statelessness and the Contestation of Community: On the Interrelation Between Democracy and Global Justice [text]
- Note: The link goes to an earlier version of the paper posted on AllAcademic.

Ties That Bind: Examining the Role of Human Rights in Family Reunification Policy Formation [text]
- Note: This is the name of the conference paper; the link is to the text of a paper by the same author with a similar title.

The Travel-Refugee Regime Complex [abstract]
- Note: This is the name of the conference paper; the link is to an abstract for a paper by the same author with a similar title.

Tagged Publications.

15 November 2009

Audiovisual: Detention, Human Trafficking, Migrants/Greece, Peace Media, Refugee Film Makers/Kakuma, Refugees/Malta

Multimedia Collection:

Peace Media Clearinghouse (U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) & Georgetown University's Conflict Resolution Program) [access]
- "A collection of key audio and visual resources and best practices related to conflict management." Search by subject, e.g., "humanitarian efforts" or "refugees/idps" to locate relevant media.

Individual Resources:

Affected for Life (UNODC, Oct. 2009) [access via UN Pulse]
- An anti-human trafficking film.

Esmeralda: A transgender asylum seeker speaks out against immigration detention (Restore Fairness, Nov. 2009) [access]

FilmAid’s Participatory Video Program in Kenyan Refugee Camp (FilmAid Intl., 2009) [access via It Begins with Me... Blog]

Malta slideshow: 'I just want a place where I can live in peace' (MSF, Sept. 2009) [access]
- Focuses on refugees and migrants who arrive in Malta

No Refuge: Migrants in Greece (Human Rights Watch, Nov. 2009) [access]

The Real Refugees of Kakuma County (Reporters Uncensored, Oct. 2009) [access via Huffington Post]

13 November 2009

Book Reviews of "Human Rights Overboard" and "Rethinking Asylum"

A free issue of Australian Journal of Politics & History (vol. 55, no. 1, March 2009) includes Binoy Kampmark's review of Human Rights Overboard: Seeking Asylum in Australia, by Linda Briskman, Susie Latham, and Chris Goddard (Melbourne: Scribe, 2008). Go to the book review section and scroll down to p. 134 of the text. Information about the book is available here.

The recently published Rethinking Asylum: History, Purpose, and Limits, by Matthew E. Price (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), is reviewed by Kevin Johnson on the Law & Politics Book Review site. Information about the book is available here.

Tagged Publications.

12 November 2009

Publications: Asylum Seekers/US, Boat Arrivals/Australia, Burmese Refugees/China, Humanit. Resp. Index, IDPs/Africa, Internal Displ. & Armed Conflict

"Border Burdens: China’s Response to the Myanmar Refugee Crisis," China Security, vol. 5, no. 3 (2009) [text via Human Security Gateway]

Denial and Delay: The Impact of the Immigration Law’s “Terrorism Bars” on Asylum Seekers and Refugees in the United States (Human Rights First, Nov. 2009) [text]
- See also press release.

The fifth ripple: Australia’s place in the global refugee crisis (Inside Story, Nov. 2009) [text]

Humanitarian Response Index 2009: Whose Crisis? Clarifying Donor's Priorities (DARA, 2009) [info] [summary of findings]

Internal displacement in armed conflict: facing up to the challenges (ICRC, Nov. 2009) [text]

Neglected Ones: The Untold Story of Africa's Internally Displaced Persons (Eldis Community, Nov. 2009) [text]

Tagged Publications.

11 November 2009

Publications: Eligibility/Kosovo, Human Trafficking, Refugees/Wales, Returnees/Burundi, Unacc. Minors

A Note on Unaccompanied Immigrant Children (ImmigrationProf Blog, Nov. 2009) [text]

Refugees Living in Wales: A Survey of Skills, Experiences and Barriers to Inclusion. Executive Summary (Swansea University et al., Sept. 2009) [text]

Slavery & the Trafficking of Women (IntLawGrrls Blog, Nov. 2009) [text]

"'Two People Can’t Share the Same Pair of Shoes': Citizenship, Land and the Return of Refugees to Burundi," Citizenship and Forced Migration in the Great Lakes Region Working Paper No. 2 (Intl. Refugee Rights Initiative et al., Nov. 2009) [text]

UNHCR's Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Individuals from Kosovo (UNHCR, Nov. 2009) [text]

Tagged Publications.

10 November 2009

New Issues of Dev. Outreach, E&RS, EJML, J. Immigr. Minor. Health

Development Outreach, vol. 11, no. 2 (Oct. 2009) [full-text]
- Focus of this issue is "Fragility and Conflict."

Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 32, no. 9 (Nov. 2009) [free full-text]
- I already posted a reference to this issue, but I noticed it is now freely accessible so here it is again! Includes "First generation decline: downward mobility among refugees and immigrants."

European Journal of Migration and Law, vol. 11, no. 4 (2009) [contents]
- Mix of articles, including "Environmental Displacement in European Asylum Law," "European Asylum Policy - Inclusions and Exclusions under the Surface of Universal Human Rights Language," and "Legislative Update: EC Immigration and Asylum Law Attracting and Deterring Labour Migration: The Blue Card and Employer Sanctions Directives."

Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, vol. 11, no. 6 (Dec. 2009) [contents]
- Special focus on "Language, Literacy, and Communication"; includes the article "Perceived Discrimination among Three Groups of Refugees Resettled in the USA: Associations with Language, Time in the USA, and Continent of Origin" and a book review of "Social Work with Immigrants and Refugees: Legal Issues, Clinical Skills and Advocacy."

Tagged Periodicals.

Book Review of "International Refugee Law and Socio-Economic Rights: Refuge from Deprivation"

International Refugee Law and Socio-Economic Rights: Refuge from Deprivation
by Michelle Foster, Cambridge University Press, 2007 [publication info.]

In International Refugee Law and Socio-Economic Rights: Refuge from Deprivation, Michelle Foster confronts the over-simplistic line frequently drawn between the ‘economic migrant’ and the ‘political refugee’ in both refugee and migration studies literature and refugee determination processes. Foster argues that given recent jurisprudential developments, particularly relating to international human rights law, the existing terms of the 1951 Refugee Convention already allow for many of those displaced who have suffered socio-economic deprivation and persecution to be recognized as Convention refugees through a “creative interpretation of the Refugee Convention consistent with principles of international treaty interpretation.” (p.1)

There is increasing recognition, both from academic researchers and organizations such as UNHCR that one of the major challenges the international community now faces is in determining how the refugee protection regime should respond to refugee claims based on the deprivation of socio-economic rights and the challenges of ‘mixed migration’. This is a particular challenge given the economic impoverishment caused by the endemic fragility of many refugee-producing states.

Foster's work is a welcome addition to this important area of research, particularly because, unlike much of the pre-existing literature concerned with socio-economic displacement (which has tended to be sociological, anthropological or political in nature), this work is directly focused on the legal arguments and existing jurisprudence relating to socio-economic displacement. Although very much written from a legal perspective, the central argument presented is both accessible and relevant to non-lawyers.

Foster's arguments actually extend beyond the complex issue of socio-economic deprivation to offer a robust account of why refugee status determination - particularly in terms of understanding the meanings of ‘persecution’ - should be approached through the use of a human rights-based framework. The middle chapters of the book are particularly helpful in exposing the limitations of an over-reliance on rigid categorization between ‘economic’ and ‘political’ rights, and stake a persuasive claim for the understanding of refugee law as a particular dimension of human rights protection.

Her conclusion - that refugee status can and should be granted in response to certain forms of persecutory socio-economic deprivation - offers the possibility of innovative expansion beyond contemporary restrictive interpretations without the need for a new instrument. This is a welcome antidote to many legal accounts, which have often responded to the growth of ‘non-traditional’ asylum claims (and the parallel shrinkage of asylum space) by stressing the need for conservation of the distinction between the economic (migration) and the political (flight). In this sense, Foster has clearly been heavily influenced by the work of James Hathaway, her doctoral supervisor.

Refuge from Deprivation does suffer from some limitations. Although jurisprudence from the five major common law jurisdictions (UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) is reviewed in considerable detail, civil law jurisdictions are (explicitly) not subject to Foster's scrutiny. The result is research which does not consider the legal and policy issues surrounding South-South displacement at all (a fact acknowledged only in the conclusion), and which fails to consider in detail even the evidence from Western states with civil law systems. This makes it difficult to assess the wider applicability of Foster's assertions regarding empirical international jurisprudential developments, although has less impact if her research is seen in aspirational terms.

Perhaps the major criticism that could be levelled at Foster's work is that in building up the theoretical grounding to support her contention that socio-economic deprivation can form a basis for the granting of refugee status under the 1951 convention, she overstates the existence of such a trend in present practice. Foster suggests an already on-going empirical shift towards this tendency, despite the fact that the decisions presented in the book actually appear to demonstrate a very mixed and inconsistent history of juridical decisions regarding socio-economic asylum claims.

Her insistence that socio-economic rights should be viewed as of equal normative importance in relation to civil and political rights sometimes appears to elide into an assumption that they are seen of equal importance. Foster's assertion would be strengthened by engaging in more depth and detail with those who critique the status of socio-economic rights, rather than simply dismissing such approaches as outdated.

There is also a tendency to over-state the strength of her own assertions regarding the importance attached to socio-economic deprivation by the international community (for example through her uncritical reliance on the pronouncements of the Economic Council to reinforce her own legal-normative claims (e.g. p.17 pp.83-84), and to understate the political dimensions influencing judicial interpretation. This is a shame given the keen awareness she displays in the conclusion to the book regarding the reality of the intersection between politics, policy and law that often informs refugee status decisions (e.g. pp.344-348).

Refuge from Deprivation is therefore arguably best read as a well-researched but aspirational account of the creative possibilities the Refugee Convention can afford to socio-economic claimants, rather than an account of current juridical trends. Its considerable value lies in Foster's convincing demonstration that through a nuanced and sensitive interpretation of the Refugee Convention in line with emerging jurisprudential use of a broad human rights framework to determine ‘persecution’, those who suffer certain forms of socio-economic deprivation should be recognized as Convention refugees with a valid claim to international protection.

UNHCR has already recognized the need for new approach through which to challenges the international community's bifurcated approach to the economic and political whilst preserving asylum space. Refuge from Deprivation makes an important contribution to this endeavour by suggesting that the legal meaning of ‘refugee’ can indeed extend to cover socio-economic persecution.

Dr Katy Long, Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, and
Consultant to UNHCR's Policy Development and Evaluation Service.

(Circulated with the permission of the author.)

Tagged Publications.

06 November 2009

Publications: Accountability/Humanitarian Staff, Africans/Europe, Climate Refugees, Human Trafficking, Refugee Protection/Central America, UNHCR Plans

African Immigrants and Refugees in Europe (BAJI Blog, Nov. 2009) [access]
- Series of blog posts from two researchers who are "spending two weeks in Italy and Greece to learn more about the plight of African refugees as they make their way to Europe to find work to support themselves and their families back home."

"Deliver us from our Protectors: Accountability Violations Committed by Humanitarian Aid Staff against Refugee Women and Children," University of San Francisco Law Review, vol. 44, no. 1, (Summer 2009)
- This will eventually be available online. In the interim, two earlier docs. relating to this issue are available at Human Rights Advocates (see under CSW, 2009 53rd session).

"Free Labor! A Labor Liberalization Solution to Modern Trafficking in Humans," Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems, vol. 18, no. 3 (Fall 2009) [text]

No Place Like Home: Where Next for Climate Refugees? (Environmental Justice Foundation, Nov. 2009) [text via Towards Recognition]

Regional Conference on Refugee Protection and International Migration in the Americas, "Protection Considerations in the Context of Mixed Migration" (San José, Costa Rica, 19-20 November 2009) (UNHCR, Oct. 2009) [text]

UNHCR's 10-Point Plan in Central America, Western Africa, Eastern Africa and Asia - A three-year project (UNHCR, Oct. 2009) [text]

Tagged Publications.

05 November 2009

New Issues of HRQ, Researcher, J. Common. Law & Legal Ed., J. Peace Res., Soc. Hist. Med.

Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 31, no. 4 (Nov. 2009) [contents]
- Mix of articles, including "Is Neutral Humanitarianism Dead? Red Cross Neutrality: Walking the Tightrope of Neutral Humanitarianism."

Journal of Commonwealth Law and Legal Education, vol. 6, no. 2 (2008) [contents]
- Includes two articles on human trafficking.

Journal of Peace Research, vol. 46, no. 6 (Nov. 2009) [contents]
- Mix of articles.

The Researcher, vol. 4, no. 3 (Oct. 2009) [full-text via Refworld]
- Lead article is "Statelessness: An Overview of the Legal Issues."

Social History of Medicine, forthcoming (Dec. 2009) [info]
- Special issue on "Medical Refugees in Britain and the Wider World, 1930-1950." While the issue hasn't been published yet, some articles are available via "advance access."

Tagged Periodicals.

04 November 2009

Publications: Diasporas, Early Recovery, Forced Migration/Uganda, Kampala Decl., Migrants/Greece, Refugees/South Africa, Separated Children/UK

Committed to the Diaspora: More Developing Countries Setting Up Diaspora Institutions (Migration Information Source, Nov. 2009) [text]

The Consequences of Forced Displacement in Northern Uganda, HiCN Working Paper 65 (Households in Conflict Network, Oct. 2009) [text]

Hidden Children: Separated Children at Risk (Children's Society, Nov. 2009) [text]

Kampala declaration on refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons in Africa (African Union, Oct. 2009) [text via Refworld]

No Refuge: Migrants in Greece (Human Rights Watch, Nov. 2009) [text]

Refugee Information Guide 2009 (Lawyers for Human Rights, 2009) [text via CoRMSA]

Untangling Early Recovery, HPG Policy Brief no. 38 (ODI, Oct. 2009) [text]

Tagged Publications.

03 November 2009

Events & Opportunities: CFPs, Courses, Fellowships, Meetings

Apply for the Arthur C. Helton Fellowship Program, American Society of International Law; applications are being accepted between 12 October 2009 and 12 February 2010.

Participate in the "Trafficking in Sex and Labor: Domestic and International Responses" symposium, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia, PA, 13-14 November 2009; register by 11 November 2009.

Sign up for CMRS Winter Short Courses, held at the American University in Cairo, January 2010; they include Introduction to Refugee Law (10-14 January 2010) and Advanced Refugee Law (17-21 January 2010). Apply by 11 November 2009.

Attend the "Essentials of Humanitarian Practice" workshop at REDR UK, 16-20 November 2009; while there is currently a waiting list for this course, another one is scheduled for February 2010.

Register for the "Forced Migration and Mobilities Research" workshop at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Lancaster University, 4 December 2009.

Sign up for "So You Think You Want To Be A Relief Worker?", REDR UK, 12 December 2009 & 30 January 2010 [Dec. info] [Jan. info]

Write a paper for the CARFMS 2010 conference, which will be held at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada, 6-8 May 2010. The theme is "Forced Migration: Challenges and Change," and abstracts are due by 30 January 2010.

Submit an article to Forced Migration Review's themed issue on "Disability and Displacement"; contributions are due by 31 January 2010.

Tagged Events & Opportunities.

02 November 2009

New Book Chapter: Country of Origin Research

Intersentia has just published Methods of Human Rights Research, edited by Fons Coomans, Fred Grünfeld, and Menno T. Kamminga. (Note: A paper written earlier in the year with the title "Methods of Human Rights Research: A Primer" is available through SSRN.) One of the chapters addresses "Methodological Challenges in Country of Origin Research" (pp. 187-212). Written by Marco Formisano, it focuses on the three elements of COI research: the observer, the facts and the research instruments.

Tagged Publications.

Update on U.S. Domestic Violence Asylum Claims

I posted earlier on U.S. legal developments relating to domestic violence asylum claims. On Oct. 29th, the New York Times reported that "the administration had taken a major step toward clarifying a murky area of asylum law and defining the legal grounds on which battered and sexually abused women in foreign countries could seek protection here." For more background on the case in question, Matter of R-A-, read the summary provided by the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies (CGRS).

Tagged Publications.

01 November 2009

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
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.