On emergency

Held on 5 February, the Foreign Policy program at Brookings hosted the American Academy in Berlin for the 2016 Richard C. Holbrooke Forum focusing on the global refugee crisis. I finally got around to watching the interesting exchange between Leon Wieseltier, Michael Ignatieff, and Martin Indyk. Worth watching for Wieseltier’s brief discussion about emergency; of his current research on […]

On implementing EU-Turkey agreement

Standard Operating Procedures implementing the mechanism for resettlement from Turkey to the EU as set out in the EU-Turkey Statement of 18 March 2016 EU-Turkey refugee deal: staff shortages and rights concerns pose twin threat / Fears grow over refugee safety with EU returns plan set to take effect / Greece insists refugee deportations will […]

On offices under construction

Greetings from my little corner from inside the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget)! With thanks for all of the assistance in digging out old Swedish records despite considerable construction.

On back to the stacks

I spent 7-10 March back in Geneva, visiting the archives at IOM, IFRC, and the UNOG: With thanks to the three offices for my visits!

On Norway’s 2016 quota for refugees

The formal documentation of the 2016 quota for resettlement refugees (overføringsflyktninger) in Norway: Ny: 2015-12-18-JD Kvoten for overføringsflyktninger 2016 – Kvotesammensetning (3/9/2016): Brev fra Justis- og beredskapsdepartementet med kvoten for overføringsflyktninger for 2016. Kvoten er på totalt 3120 plasser, hvorav 3000 er øremerket syriske flyktninger. [the letter] G-04/2015: Retningslinjer for arbeidet med overføringsflyktninger jf. utlendingsloven § 35.

On enthusiasm

Add this to the list of things I want to be when I grow up — an enthusiast.

On Super Tuesday

A ways back, I was deeply involved in an American student anti-genocide campaign, specifically responsible for education programming. I eventually came to the belief that the organization’s time and energy was best spent educating Americans on global issues, certainly, but to also pay a large amount of attention to issues closer to home. I didn’t have the language […]

On China hosting refugees

Over at Foreign Policy, Liang Pan just posted a great overview on why China isn’t hosting Syrian refugees — China almost certainly will not adopt a refugee resettlement plan that will help relieve the heavy burden faced by the other developing countries in the region currently overwhelmed by the influx. China lacks the institutions conducive […]

On studying the timing of displacement

Justin Schon over at the Monkey Cage writes about drives behind population displacement, studying Somalia using UNHCR’s Population Movement Tracking system data — What factors influence the timing of displacement? Why do certain crises prompt displacement floods while others only elicit a trickle? Unique daily internal displacement data from Somalia in the mid-2000s, which I […]

On girl crushes

Three lovely bits from a recent conversation with bell hooks and Emma Watson in Paper Mag: [bell] hooks: …I have an overall obsession in my life with beauty. I’m always wanting to surround myself with the kind of beauty that uplifts you, that runs counter to some of the stereotypes of feminist women. [Emma] Watson: Yes, yes. In […]