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- Convenors:
-
Behrooz Morvaridi
(University of Bradford)
Ulaş Sunata (Bahçeşehir University)
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- Chairs:
-
Laura Hammond
(SOAS)
Ulaş Sunata (Bahçeşehir University)
- Location:
- C7 (Richmond building)
- Start time:
- 6 September, 2017 at
Time zone: Europe/London
- Session slots:
- 3
Short Abstract:
The panel welcomes conceptual and policy papers relating to the narratives of the most vulnerable displaced people, including women, children and young female refugees who have lost their livelihoods and supporting networks and who live in uncertainty in urban areas and refugee camps.
Long Abstract:
The current forced migration discourse around national and global security has effectively reconstructed notions of forced migrants and the commitment of some states to protect their rights. Increasingly restrictive refugee policies, as part of the 'war' against 'terrorism' and 'political Islam', have made it harder for displaced people to seek asylum. The shift in the refugee discourse from one of 'burden sharing' to 'state security threat/protectionism' is reflected in policies of containment in many countries. Political discussion focuses primarily on two issues: how migration impinges on local lives and the extent to which injustices experienced by forced migrants suggest an institutional denial of their basic human rights. Analysis of the policy impact of forced migration is both limited and poorly theorised.
This panel aims to provide a forum to discuss theoretical and policy questions about how we think about forced displacement, resettlement and refugee protection and a forum to consider the merits of ideas that incorporate the possibility of transforming pre-existing development issues through displacement policy. It considers whether the adoption of policy measures such as social protection, as a strategy for displacement and resettlement, would provide a longer-term response to the risks and impoverishment associated with forced migration than current humanitarian assistance approaches. The panel welcome conceptual and policy papers relating to the narratives of the most vulnerable displaced people, including women, children and young female refugees who have lost their livelihoods and supporting networks and who live in uncertainty in urban areas and refugee camps.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Ulaş Sunata (Bahçeşehir University)
Paper short abstract:
This article determines how the spatial distribution of refugee across the Turkish provinces has evolved over the period 2005-2015 with an inevitably special focus on Syrians under temporary protection.
Paper long abstract:
This article determines how the spatial distribution of refugee across the Turkish provinces has evolved over the period 2005-2015 with an inevitably special focus on Syrians under temporary protection. It first explores on how Turkish cities were responding to their changing populations and to identify national and local administration's role in creating a welcoming community that attracts and retains refugees. The varying role of cities as first points of arrival, transit hubs and ultimate destinations will be then evaluated. After analysing urban scales, refugee distribution and internal dynamics in Turkey will be questioned at regional and local scales in order to understand how refugee agency deal with handicaps of their ambiguous legal status and mobility restrictions.
Behrooz Morvaridi (University of Bradford) Mats Garbe (UNESCO) Holly White (University of Bradford)
Paper short abstract:
The main objective of this paper is to assess the potential of cash transfer interventions to empower refugees.
Paper long abstract:
Understanding resettlement and the reconstruction of livelihoods following forced displacement is increasingly necessary given the scale of current patterns of refugees, their protection and concerns about local impact. In this paper we will examine whether cash-transfer interventions give choice and flexibility to refuges, enabling them to purchase food and other items and services for their own needs. We also examine if this empowerment contributes to social-spatial dynamics and supports the integration of refugees and host communities. Via an e-voucher and e-card system displaced people in both refugee camps and non-camp areas are given money, calculated on a per person per month basis, loaded electronically onto plastic cards. Such cash-based interventions go beyond food to help the displaced meet a variety of needs, including winter heating payments, healthcare and help with rent and shelter to support stable livelihoods. The rationale for this wider approach to protection is aimed at reducing risks that might result in harmful coping strategies, such as child labour, family separation, prostitution and forced marriage. Cash transfer interventions are a relatively new policy initiative and to date there has been very little research on their efficacy or on their potential impact on localities and communities over time. Even though this paper is based on case studies from Turkey and Jordan, its findings have relevance in other parts of the world experiencing forced displacement and resettlement.
Emel Coskun (Duzce University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper focuses on Turkey's asylum/refugee regime and its gendered effects on women asylum seeker/refugees.
Paper long abstract:
This paper focuses on Turkey's asylum/refugee regime and women asylum seeker refugees' experiences from a gender perspective. Previous research shows that gender is a determining factor in asylum seeker/refugee women's experiences and women face different difficulties than men both during accessing asylum processes and afterwards. In Turkey, women asylum seekers/refugees have conditional and limited rights such as limited access to health, education and social benefits for those who are registered and living in satellite cities as asylum seeker applicants and/or with refugee status given by the UNHCR. Most women asylum seeker applicants, however, find it difficult to live in those satellite cities especially when they have no socio-economic support from Turkish government or UN's Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
Founded on empirical research with a qualitative methodology approach, I will focus on the experiences of individual asylum seeker women from different nationalities. I will seek answers for the question of "What are the gendered effects of Turkey's asylum/refugee system on women?" Based on the preliminary results of an empirical research, it will be argues that the restricted rules on refugees, gender neutral asylum processes and no support mechanisms for asylum seeker and refugee women structurally produce vulnerabilities for women asylum seekers and refugees in Turkey. Their experiences show that both the application process itself and keeping the asylum status is very difficult and involve in gendered risks for women.
Laura Hammond (SOAS) Ayan Yusuf (OCVP)
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines 3 IDP communities in Hargeisa, Somaliland. It considers IDPs' experiences and challenges faced by urban authorities. Lack of access to land and a means of integrating has people living on the margins of the city, lacking protection and in a state of forced immobility.
Paper long abstract:
Somaliland's capital city Hargeisa hosts thousands of people displaced by drought, conflict, and destitution. The poorest of the poor live on the peripheries of the city in areas completely cut off from urban amenities and services. Most are former pastoralists who came into the city in the hopes of finding a step out of poverty. Instead, they have become even more destitute, and are effectively immobilised by lack of economic opportunity. This paper provides the first analysis of research being carried out in Hargeisa, Somaliland among three settlements of displaced persons which considers the causes of displacement, the experience of resettling in the city, and challenges faced by urban authorities in responding to urban displacement in this post-conflict, fragile context. We argue that lack of secure access to land and a means of integrating into the urban community has left people living on the margins of the urban landscape, lacking protection and in a perpetual state of forced immobility.
Gaim Kibreab (London South Bank University)
Paper short abstract:
Contrary to all reasonable expectations, post-independence Eritrea has been one of the major refugee-producing countries in the world. This paper examines the major drivers of forced migration in the country.
Paper long abstract:
The Eritrean people have paid dearly to achieve their independence in terms of loss of life, property and forgone opportunities. Given the promises of the liberation struggle, all Eritreans and their friends world-wide assumed that once the goals of independence and freedom were achieved, they expected that not only would the factors that previously forced hundreds of thousands of citizens to “vote with their feet” be relegated to the dustbin of history, but also in response of the political changes, the overwhelming majority of Eritreans, including those who were languishing in refugee and transit camps in the neighbouring countries would return in safety and dignity.
Contrary to all reasonable expectations, not only did the large majority of the pre-independence Eritrean refugees stayed put in the countries where they sought refuge, but also post-independence Eritrea has become one of the major refugee-producing countries in the world. Although the large majority of the post-independence Eritrean refugees remain in the neighbouring countries, between 2008 and 2014, over 137,000 have sought asylum in the EU+ countries. In 2014, Eritreans were the second largest group after Syrians who were caught crossing the EU’s external borders. During the same year, Eritreans were the second large group of asylum-seekers in the European Union. The aim and objectives of the paper are therefore to examine: 1) the major drivers of forced migration; 2) the problems they encounter en-route to safety; and 3) the responses of host governments, including in the EU+ countries to their plight.
Karolina Mendecka (University of Lodz)
Paper short abstract:
The aim of the article is to evaluate the complementary role of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, with particular reference to the best interest of the child principle, in deciding upon internationally displaced children's plight.
Paper long abstract:
Children suffer the most from the greatest emergency of our times - the refugee crisis. They constitute over half of the population of internationally displaced persons. In addition to their vulnerable position, they encounter endless obstacles on their way to a dignified childhood and the enjoyment of basic human rights. From the moment they are displaced, through the process of asylum seeking and long after being granted or refused a refugee status they are subjected to a wide array of rights violation. Therefore, it is argued that the best interest of the child may serve as an independent source of protection, especially for unaccompanied children. Additionally, the best interest standard serves as a rule of procedure in all stages of deciding upon a child's plight. Despite a great potential of the best interest principle, its vagueness may serve as a tool for prejudice and bias towards children from non-Western culture. The article, therefore, provides an overview of selected mechanisms available and seeks to establish the relevance of the best interest principle to refugee and asylum seeking children protection.
Ayar Ata (London South Bank University)
Paper short abstract:
To understand the Kurdish diaspora in London requires answering two interrelated questions of Kurdish forced migration history and Kurdish cultural identity. This study evaluates the integration experiences of the Kurdish diaspora in London, who have settled in this city since the1990s.
Paper long abstract:
In this paper comparison is made between the positions and perspectives of second generation Kurds born in Britain and the first generation that came to Britain in the 1990s.This allows an exploration of the notion of identity and ideas of home and belonging in the light of contemporary changes and concomitant theories of diaspora and refugee studies, and, where necessary, challenges those ideas. Evidence from previous academic work suggests that questions of Kurdish history and Kurdish cultural identity are inextricably linked. This study's research method is based on ethnographic fieldwork and the collection of qualitative data through 25 one-to-one semi-structured interviews, with participants selected from across different sections of the Kurdish diaspora community(ies) in London. In order to test and clarify complex conceptual issues. The stages as reflected in the personal narratives include initial arrival in London and encounters with the British state's immigration and integration policies, the actual process of rebuilding individual or family life, and new home making through the on-going challenges, shifts and negotiations of identities. That is, the slow process of becoming a Kurdish-Londoner.
Mateja Celestina (Coventry University)
Paper short abstract:
Development-induced displacement and resettlement can have substantial implications on people's lives - both those who resettle as well as those who stay. Looking at a case of a Mapuche-Pewenche community in Chile this paper explores the challenges they have encountered in place-attachment process.
Paper long abstract:
15 million people annually are believed to lose their assets and place due to 'development' projects. Development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) has been criticised for the negative socio-economic effects it has on people; however, the implications and the context in which the process unwinds are broader. Focusing closely on an indigenous community in Chile, the Mapuche-Pewenche, who were resettled as a result of a dam construction over a decade ago, this paper will analyse their attempts to make and remake place. The Chilean state has historically prioritised external markets and 'development' over the question of indigenous rights and environmental sustainability. Little is known about the direct effects of DIDR on people's way of life, how the Mapuche-Pewenches' DIDR sits within Mapuches' historically disadvantaged position, and how it is influenced by the current tensions between the Mapuche and the state. Namely, dispossession and resettlement have been accompanied by resistance to which the state has responded with oppression. Drawing on data collected through interviews and drawing, the paper will examine the processes of Mapuche-Pewenches' place attachment as affected by the physical environment, community relationships, memories but also politics.