Short Abstract:

With the number of forcibly displaced people now over 117 million the issue of migration is a core concern. This roundtable seeks to bring together scholars and activists from North through South, to explore the practices and policies of both liberal and illiberal stances to the global asylum system

Long Abstract:

Rightward political trends in the Global North have been emboldened since the Great Recession of late 2007 through 2009 and subsequent austerity economics that denuded public services in many states. Anti-immigrant anxieties in state policy have foregrounded nativist movements in North America and Europe. Such movements, which often encompass racism and xenophobia, constitute a global political movement that that is antagonised by the humanitarian conventions established by those same states only 50 years earlier.

For refugees and asylum seekers this is leading to a ‘global protection drought’ (Callan et al. 2025). Those seeking sanctuary are demonised, borders are militarised, migrants are commoditised and states seek to circumvent international law and ‘offshore’ obligations. At the same time certain states in the Global South have also learned to ‘game the system’ (Callan et al, 2025) or use refugees as political pawns. With over 117 million people worldwide forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations this asylum drought is of central global significance.

Nonetheless, the humanitarian impulse has not diminished. Across the world migrants, communities, volunteers, activists and professionals come together in a wide variety of creative ways to find new ground or create new cultures in defiance of the illiberal politics and policies of exclusion.

This roundtable seeks to bring together scholars and activists from North through South, to explore the practices and policies of both liberal and illiberal stances to the global asylum system and the millions of lives this contestation touches upon.