30 June 2025

Thematic Focus: General - Pt. 2

Journal articles:

"…when the category ‘migration’ lost its innocence for migration scholars. And what now? A plea for dialogue," Comparative Migration Studies, 13:37 (June 2025) [open access]

Anniversary issue: 10 years of Comparative Migration Studies [access]
- Follow link for collection of 11 articles.

"Cover(ing) migration: the visual narrativisation of flight, asylum, and security practices," European Journal of English Studies, vol. 28, nos. 2-3 (2025) [open access]
- Focuses on Germany and the US.

"Crisisology no more? (Comparative) Migration Studies beyond the Crisis," Comparative Migration Studies, 13:38 (June 2025) [open access]

"A Good Life in Exile: Understanding and Measuring the Wellbeing of Refugees Living in Protracted Displacement," Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, Latest Articles, 11 June 2025 [open access]

"Involuntary immobility and well-being: a scoping review of existing literature and future research directions," Globalization and Health, 21:35 (June 2025) [open access]

"Migration as International Relations," Global Networks, vol. 25, no. 3 (July 2025) [ResearchGate]

"The psychological impact of spending a prolonged time awaiting asylum," European Journal of Psychotraumatology, vol. 16, no. 1 (2025) [open access]

"Theorizing experiential time in refugee migration: speed and duration," Journal of Refugee Studies, Advance Articles, 11 June 2025 [open access]

Multimedia:

Empire of Refugees: North Caucasian Muslims and the Late Ottoman State, 20 May 2025 [access]

Ruling Emancipated Slaves and Indigenous Subjects: The Divergent Legacies of Forced Settlement and Colonial Occupation in the Global South, 4 June 2025 [access]

Related post:

Thematic Focus: General - Pt. 1

Short pieces:

High Commissioner Filippo Grandi’s message on World Refugee Day 2025 (UNHCR, June 2025) [text]

Seeing the unseen: Disaggregating IDPs by sex and age (IDMC Blog, June 2025) [text]

UNHCR Records and Archives: Interesting Times (UNHCR Blog, June 2025) [text]

Why reforms are necessary to protect the UN-led system (WEF Blog, June 2025) [text]

Reports:

Conflict Trends: A Global Overview, 1946–2024 (PRIO, June 2025) [text]

Global Peace Index 2025 (Institute for Economics and Peace, June 2025) [access via ReliefWeb]

Global Report 2024 (UNHCR, June 2025) [access]
- Follow link for highlights, the text of the report and access to the data set.

Inhuman: Torture Along the Mediterranean Migration Route, and the Support of Survivors in a Fragile System (Médecins Sans Frontières, June 2025) [text via ReliefWeb]

Internal displacement in the context of organized criminal activity: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, UN Doc. No. A/HRC/59/46 (UN Human Rights Council, June 2025) [text]

Phenomenon of migrants going missing or subjected to enforced disappearance – human rights analysis: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Gehad Madi, UN Doc. No. A/HRC/59/49 (UN Human Rights Council, April 2025) [access]

UNHCR Statistical Quality Assurance Framework for Official Statistics (UNHCR, June 2025) [text]

Where and How is Money Spent on International Migration and Refugees by World Bank Operational Projects?, Policy Research Working Paper, no. 11141 (World Bank, June 2025) [text]

World Refugee Day: Global Attitudes Towards Refugees (IPSOS & UNHCR, June 2025) [access]
- Follow link for press release, report and summary.

The world's most neglected displacement crises in 2024 (Norwegian Refugee Council, June 2025) [access]
- Available in English and French. See also the companion website.

Related post:

New Issue of JRS

A special issue of the Journal of Refugee Studies (JRS) has been published. The theme of vol. 38, no. 2, June 2025 is "The Spatial Dimensions of Refugee and Migrant Activism: Borders, Liminality, and Porosity." Contents include:
  • The spatial dimensions of migrant politics: to the border and beyond [open access]
  • Refugee Mobilization in the Nepal–India Borderlands: Porosity as Opportunity [open access]
  • Borderland Porosities: Migratory Journeys and Migrant Politics in Lebanon and Turkey [abstract] [ResearchGate]
  • ‘On the Border, I Learned How to Advocate’: Borderlands as Political Spaces for Burmese Women’s Activism [open access]
  • Boundary-Making and Political Activism in Protracted Exile: Second-Generation Tibetan Refugees in India [open access]
  • Fragile Solidarities: Contestation and Ambiguity at European Borderzones [abstract] [Academia] [postprint]
  • Capturing the Border in Refugee Solidarity Camp Visits and City Tours in Germany: Theorizing Relationality through the Border as Horizon in Refugee/Migrant Solidarity Activism as Citizenship Politics [abstract
  • Refugee Journalism in Indonesia: Self-Representation, Resistance, and Writing across Borders [abstract]
  • Migrant necropolitics in No Man’s Land camps [abstract]
  • Undocumented Bordering Practices: Protagonism and Spaces of Making [abstract]
  • Not idle: The gymnastics of refugee activism in—and out of—the aid apparatus [abstract]
  • The Borders of Migrant and Refugee Activism in South Africa [abstract]

Two reviews are also included.

Tagged Periodicals.

28 June 2025

Regional Focus: Europe - Pt. 2

New open access book:

Forced Migrants in Nordic Histories (Helsinki Univ. Press, June 2025) [open access]
- "[This book] sheds light on the often-overlooked histories of forced migrants in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden during the 20th and 21st centuries. It offers the first comparative, region-wide volume focused specifically on the histories of refugees and other groups of forced migrants across the Nordic countries. Nordic historiographies have long tended to marginalise or omit the presence of these migrants, producing a perception of forced migration as something ‘new’ or ‘exceptional’. This volume challenges that notion by uncovering the long and varied histories of forced migration within, between, to, and from the Nordic region. In doing so, it repositions forced migrants as integral to the shaping of Nordic societies."

AIDA country reports (June 2025):

Updated profiles for Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland and Ukraine.

Journal articles:

"Bordering Asylum: Examining the EU’s Border Procedures under the Asylum Procedures Regulation (EU) 2024/1348," International Journal of Refugee Law, Advance Articles, 17 June 2025 [open access]

"Determinants of refugees’ generalised and institutional trust: evidence from Germany," Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Latest Articles, 10 June 2025 [open access]

"Non-exceptional humanitarian spaces: the emergency reception of Ukrainian refugees as contingency planning for domestic mass displacement in Romania," City, Territory and Architecture, Latest Articles, 20 June 2025 [open access]

"Unpolitics, domestic pressures, or else? The opposition of Visegrád Group countries to the EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum," Journal of European Integration, Latest Articles, 19 June 2025 [open access]

"Volunteering for Refugees as a Journey of Growth and Pain," Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, vol. 35, no. 4 (July/Aug. 2025) [open access]

Related post:

Regional Focus: Europe - Pt. 1

Short pieces:

The CJEU’s Judgment in Kinsa: A Big Win – But for Whom? (RLI Blog, June 2025) [text]

Housing and Property Policies for IDPs: The Evolution of the Ukrainian Case (RID Blog, June 2025) [text]

*Irregular migrants’ rights in Europe: New indicators show protection limits of legal rights (MPC Blog, June 2025) [text]

Migrants and Refugees in Distress at Sea on the Central Mediterranean Route - Malta: You Have to Pick Up the Phone! (Opinio Juris, June 2025) [text]

S.S. and Others v. Italy (EJIL: Talk Blog, June 2025) 
- Read two reactions by members of the applicants' legal counsel team to the recent ECHR ruling, here and here.

*Towards Temporary Prolonged Protection? (EU Immigration & Asylum Law & Policy Blog, June 2025) [text]

**For much more news and info on the latest developments, check out the ECRE Weekly Bulletin.**

Reports:

Analysis of Jurisprudence on the Implementation of the Dublin Procedure, Fact Sheet, no. 33 (EU Agency for Asylum, June 2025) [text]

Asylum Report 2025: Annual Report on the Situation of Asylum in the European Union (EU Agency for Asylum, June 2025) [text]

[ECRE Comments on the Proposal for a Return Regulation] (ECRE, June 2025) [text]

No Access to Justice 2 Mapping the UK's continuing immigration and asylum legal advice crisis (Justice Together, June 2025) [text via EIN]
- See also related Free Movement blog post.

Small Boats, Big Stakes: Options for a UK-EU Deal on Migration and Asylum (Migration Policy Institute, June 2025) [text]

*State of play on the implementation of the Pact on Migration and Asylum (European Commission, June 2025) [access]

Transitioning out of temporary protection for displaced people from Ukraine (EPRS, June 2025) [text]
- See also related EC article.

UK-France Cooperation on Border Control: Efficacy, Deterrence and Human Rights, RSC Working Paper, no. 142 (Refugee Studies Centre, June 2025) [text]
- See also related Refugee Research Online blog post.

*UPDATED

Related post:

27 June 2025

Call for input: Advancing meaningful participation as a right

On World Refugee Day, a global working group released a draft of the "Independent Declaration on the Right of Refugees and Others Experiencing Displacement or Statelessness to Participate in Decisions that Affect Them." From the news release: "This landmark document is a tool for ensuring that participation goes beyond gestures. It complements and reinforces commitments that governments and others have made to advance participation in recent years, including through the Global Compact on Refugees and pledges made at the United Nations Global Refugee Forum. Aiming to provide legal clarity, the draft Independent Declaration offers practical guidance on how States, UNHCR and other authorities must engage displaced and stateless people in decisions that shape their futures."

Drafts of the document can be accessed here.

For more information, watch this introductory video. Feedback can be shared via a virtual consultation on 9 July 2025 and/or submitted via email or this anonymous form until 20 August 2025.

New Issue of RSQ

The latest issue of Refugee Survey Quarterly (RSQ) has been published. As introduced in this issue, three "Perspectives on Displacement" thought pieces are featured, followed by a mix of original articles. Contents of vol. 44, no. 2, June 2025 include:

Perspectives on Displacement: Responses to "From Forced Migration to Displacement?"
  • Displacement as Decolonial Praxis: Centring Intersectionality in Forced Migration Studies. A Response to Owen’s ‘From Forced Migration to Displacement?’ [open access]
  • Towards Global Displacement Studies?: A Response to Owen’s ‘From Forced Migration to Displacement?’ [open access]
  • Refuting State-Centric Framings: Response to David Owen’s ‘From Forced Migration to Displacement?’ [free full-text]

Articles:
  • Evacuations as Displacement: Conceptual and Legal Challenges [abstract]
  • Criminalisation and Control: Mediterranean Maritime Search and Rescue Workers’ Perceptions of Uses of Law [open access]
  • Fairness and Efficiency in the Review of Asylum Decisions: Data-Driven Insights and Lessons From Australia’s Failed Fast Track Process [abstract] [preprint]
  • Failing Asylum-Seekers: Limited Judicial Review of Refugee Status Determination Decisions in Brazil [open access]
  • Mind the Empathy Gap: An Analysis of Agency and Emotional Encounters in the Asylum Appeals of Former Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Minors [open access]
  • Navigating a Paradox: Well-Being and Dimensions of (Non-)Belonging of Syrian Refugees in Austria [open access]

Tagged Periodicals.

26 June 2025

News: 2024 Global Trends Report Published

UNHCR launched its annual Global Trends report in advance of World Refugee Day. From the press release:

"According to UNHCR’s annual Global Trends Report released today, there were 122.1 million forcibly displaced people by the end of April 2025, up from 120 million at the same time last year, representing around a decade of year-on-year increases in the number of refugees and others forced to flee their homes. The main drivers of displacement remain large conflicts like Sudan, Myanmar and Ukraine, and the continued failure to stop the fighting. ...Forcibly displaced people include people displaced within their own country by conflict, which grew sharply by 6.3 million to 73.5 million at the end of 2024, and refugees fleeing their countries (42.7 million people). Sudan became the world’s largest forced displacement situation with 14.3 million refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs), replacing Syria (13.5 million), and followed by Afghanistan (10.3 million) and Ukraine (8.8 million)."

This page provides additional highlights, in English, French, Spanish and Arabic, as well as access to the annexes and data set. In addition, several years of previous editions of the Global Trends report can be retrieved at the bottom of the page.

03 June 2025

Admin: Summer Break

 This blog will be quiet over the next several weeks.

Thematic Focus: Statelessness & Nationality

Short pieces:

Statelessness in a Legal System Without States: A Tikanga Māori Perspective (CSS Blog, May 2025) [text]
- Focuses on New Zealand.

"Supreme Court could block Trump’s birthright citizenship order but limit nationwide injunctions," AP News, 15 May 2025 [text]
- See also Austin American-Statesman comment, Just Security post and Migration Policy Institute short read.

Syria has the power to change, from one of the biggest statelessness exporters to a role model for the Global North (ENS Blog, May 2025) [text]

Reports & journal articles:

"Birthright Citizenship, Denaturalization, and the Specter of Statelessness," UCLA Law Review Discourse (Forthcoming, 2025) [preprint]
- Focuses on the US.

Citizenship Acquisition and Active Presence of Immigrants in Canada (Statistics Canada, May 2025) [text]

The Kurds’ Long Struggle With Statelessness: 1920-2025 (Council on Foreign Relations, May 2025) [access]

Multimedia:

The Anthropology of Statelessness, 25 April 2025 [access]

Expert Workshop on the Right to a Nationality: Equality in Nationality Rights in Law and in Practice, 6 May 2025 [Part 1] [Part 2]
- See the concept note for more info.

Seminar on Kurdish Identity, Statelessness and Displacement with Behrouz Boochani, 9 May 2025 [access]

Related posts:

Regional Focus: Europe

Short pieces:

‘Ceasefire’ talks pose difficult questions for Ukrainian refugees (Conflict and Civicness Research Blog, May 2025) [text]

Giving voice to the voiceless? The realities of interviewing irregular migrants in Croatia (MPC Blog, May 2025) [text]

Problems of Internally Displaced Persons in Ukraine and Ways to Overcome Them (RID Blog, May 2025) [text]

Reports & journal articles:

Danger in the Forest: Human Rights Defenders in Poland Targeted at the Belarus Border (Human Rights First, May 2025) [text]

"Desecuritization of migration in Greece: re-visiting 'flexicuritization'," Frontiers in Political Science, 29 May 2025 [open access]

Displacement and Return in Ukraine: An Analysis of Trends, Drivers and Movement Intentions (IOM, Jun 2025) [text]

Forced Migration Review, no. 75 (May 2025) [open access]
- The theme of the latest issue is "Dangerous journeys: Saving lives and responding to missing migrants and refugees"; follow the link to view a number of articles with a European focus.

The Impact of the Freeze on U.S. Funding on the Activities of NGOs Working in the Field of Migration and Integration in Poland (Mapuj Pomoc Network et al., May 2025) [access via ReliefWeb]
- Available in English and Polish.

"Navigating (im)mobility in an urban space: migrant’s lived experience in Kyiv/Ukraine before 2022," Comparative Migration Studies, 13:33 (May 2025) [open access]

UNHCR Updated Observations on the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, as Amended (UNHCR, May 2025) [text]
- Focuses on the UK.

Related post:

Opportunities: A Few More June 2025 and New July & August 2025

Panel discussion: A Closing Window: How Aid Cuts Are Undermining Rohingya Possibilities, Online, 5 June 2025 [info]

Seminar: Safe for Whom? Rethinking Return Through Marginalised Refugee Voices, Oxford, 5 June 2025 [info]

Call for applications: 40 Research Scholarships on Migration and Forced Displacement in Sub-Saharan Africa [info]
- Application deadline is 10 June 2025.

Webinar: I was born. I exist. Add me to the list, 10 June 2025 [info]
- First of three webinars on birth registration.

Talk: The Ecosystem of Exile Politics: The Importance of Physical Location in Diaspora Mobilisation, Oxford, 15 June 2025 [info]

Book launch: Refugee Protection in Southeast Asia, Online, 18 June 2025 [info]

Call for applications: Executive Master in European Migration and Asylum Law, Odysseus Network, 6 September 2025-10 July 2026 [info]
- Participants will attend the courses online via Teams; three gatherings require physical presence in Brussels. Apply by 11 July 2025.

CFP: Journal of International Migration and Integration [info]
- Contributions sought for special issue on "Navigating New Horizons: Ukrainian Refugee Migration to Germany and the United States after Russia’s 2022 Invasion." Submit manuscripts by 31 July 2025.

CFP: International Review of Education [info]
- Contributions sought for special issue on "Refugee learners risking and resisting (in)visibility in and through lifelong learning." Submit abstracts by 1 August 2025.

Call for proposals: Special Issues of the Journal of Refugee Studies (JRS) [info]
- Submission deadline is 15 August 2025.

Related post:

02 June 2025

Thematic Focus: Education

Short pieces:

*A Better Place to Learn: Supporting Refugee Students Through Clean Water and Hygiene in Ethiopia (World Bank, June 2025) [text]

The education of almost a quarter million Rohingya refugee children at risk – UNICEF calls for urgent funding (UNICEF, June 2025) [text]

‘I didn’t feel like a refugee anymore': How the Scholars-at-Risk program is giving U of T academics a fresh start (Univ. of Toronto, May 2025) [text]

Record Student Visa Denials Before Trump: 41 Percent Rejected in 2024 (CATO At Liberty Blog, May 2025) [text]

Trump Administration actions against Harvard’s international students, explained (Niskanen Center, May 2025) [text]

Why Refugee Education Policy Defies Traditional Models: CID Faculty Research Insights (Harvard Univ., May 2025) [text]

Reports & journal articles:

The Native-Refugee Education Gap, EBRD Working Paper, no. 302 (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Feb. 2025) [text]
- Focuses on Syrians in Turkey.

Refugee and Asylum-Seeking Children's Achievement (Education Policy Institute et al., May 2025) [text]
- Focuses on the UK.

Refugee Education Research Digest (UNHCR, May 2025) [text]

"Reimagining education in emergencies: a conversation between practitioners and scholars," Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, vol. 55, no. 1 (2025) [open access]

Roadmap for the inclusion of refugee children in the education system in the Republic of Moldova (UNHCR et al., May 2025) [text]

Resource:

Ukrainian Refugee Regional Education Dashboard (Regional Technical Hub on Refugee Education) [access]
- See also related UNHCR announcement and UNESCO news release.

*UPDATED

Related post:

Regional Focus: United States

Short pieces:

"A court halted his deportation. The Trump administration deported him 28 minutes later," Politico, 28 May 2025 [text]

Noem Guidance on Third Country Removals (ImmigrationProf Blog, May 2025) [text]

Removing Protected Status for Afghans in the U.S. is No Way to Treat Allies (Just Security, May 2025) [text]

"Scoop: Stephen Miller, Noem tell ICE to supercharge immigrant arrests," Axios, 28 May 2025 [text]

"State Department seeks to create 'Office of Remigration' in restructuring," Axios, 30 May 2025 [text]
- See also related Mother Jones article.

Supreme Court Allows Trump Administration to End Humanitarian Parole for Migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (ImmigrationProf Blog, May 2025) [text]

Surge of ICE agreements with local police aim to increase deportations, but many police forces have found they undermine public safety (The Conversation, May 2025) [text]

Trump wants to cut funding to sanctuary cities and towns – but they don’t actually violate federal law (The Conversation, May 2025) [text]

Venezuelan and Haitian TPS Beneficiaries Contribute to the Nation and Should Not Be Deported (CMS, May 2025) [text]

Reports & journal articles:

"Discretionary (In)Justice Continued: Discretion as a Tool to Deny Asylum," Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice, vol. 31, no. 2 (2025) [full-text]

"Fragmented Grounds: Chevron’s Collapse and Geographical Disparity in U.S. Asylum Law," Columbia Undergraduate Law Review Online, 27 May 2025 [full-text]

"'Freedom Lives Hence, and Banishment Is Here': The Weaponization of Immigration Law to Punish Political Dissidents," Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice, vol. 31, no. 2 (2025) [full-text]

*From Welcoming Allies to Threats of Deportation: The changing status of Afghans in America (Afghanistan Analysts Network, June 2025) [text via ReliefWeb]

Lives at risk: Chaotic and abrupt cuts to foreign aid put millions of lives at risk (Amnesty International, May 2025) [access]

*"The Scope of Pediatric Forensic Psychiatric Evaluations in Student Run Asylum Clinics," Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, Latest Articles, 31 May 2025 [open access]

*UPDATED

Related posts:

01 June 2025

New Book Titles

Please visit my Forced Migration Library blog for references to new books due out in June 2025, as well as additional titles published in May 2025 and new open access texts.