On a crisis of values

From Volker Türk’s remarks at the 133rd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union General Debate — Yet the single-most important challenge to the protection of refugees, as well as to reaping the development potential of migration more broadly comes from populist politics and uninformed public debates. They engender a climate of fear. In some countries there […]

On countering rape

Elisabeth Jean Wood and Dara Kay Cohen published an op-ed in the NYT on how to counter rape during war, Last year, at a global conference on sexual violence during war, many speakers agreed that the best way to deter such crimes was prosecution, and they called for more of it. But prosecutions are not enough. We […]

On smuggling and securitization

In a discussion posted to Asylum Corner, Pamela DeLargy made an interesting point about smuggling and securitization — Asylum Corner: What is your opinion about the EU determination to focus on fighting the smugglers? Pamela DeLargy: The smugglers are only providing services, there is a demand for their services and they are just offering them. […]

On push factors

Emanuel Stoakes in Foreign Policy’s Dispatch blog discusses testimonies and documentary evidence shown in the new Al Jazeera documentary, “Genocide Agenda” that purports to link the Myanmar government to anti-Muslim incitement. The film points to a multi-pronged strategy by the government to encourage anti-Muslim hatred across the country, while pursuing policies against the Rohingya that legal […]

On “Where are you from?”

Tanvi Misra over at The Atlantic’s CityLab Navigator blog looks into the potentially loaded question, “Where are you from?” — Trump’s inquiry was a ruder variant of “where are you from?”—a seemingly innocuous question that we all have encountered under different circumstances. It’s okay in situations where everyone is venturing answers: say, as a part […]

On refugees facing sexual and gender-based violence

Jina Moore over at BuzzFeed News looked into sexual and gender-based violence of women traveling through central and western Europe — Those who make the trip from Syria, Iraq, or Afghanistan can count on the volunteers to cook them food, UNHCR to give them blankets, and, in some places along the way, the Red Cross […]

On catching up

After two weeks in the US, there is lots to catch up on: Sam Jones in the Guardian noting Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein’s concerns over rhetoric echoing that from the 1938 Evian conference Lamis Abdelaaty and Rebecca Hamlin posting on the Monkey Cage blog that political pressure can change the meaning of “migrant” and “refugee” at […]

On the other refugee crisis

Ben Rawlence writes in the New York Times of one of the other refugee crises — protracted situations by way of long-term refugee camps, Dadaab is not an anachronism, or a hangover from a former world order. It is the future. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Dadaab was created as a short-term haven […]

On the EU internal quota relocations

25.01.16: updated statistics: 257 relocated from Italy, 157 from Greece 23.01.16: Building on the Lessons Learned to Make the Relocation Schemes Work More Effectively – UNCHR 05.01.16: Member States’ Support to Emergency Relocation Mechanism [hint: things aren’t looking so good] 01.12.15: EU to relocate asylum seekers currently in Sweden 09.11.15: 5 reasons relocating refugees is a […]

On public conversations

video: UN High Level Side Event / Panel on Migration, specifically “Strengthening cooperation on migration and refugee movements in the perspective of the new development agenda” (30.09.15; 3 hours, 13 minutes). see also: press release | web resources