On humanization

Some great advice from the recent bell hooks interview that ran in NYT’s The Stone — George Yancy: What should we do in our daily lives to combat, in that phrase of yours, the power and influence of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy? What can be done on the proverbial ground? bell hooks: I live in a small, […]

On Canadian resettlement

Via UNHCR — The UN Refugee Agency has welcomed news of the arrival in Canada last night of the first group of Syrian refugees under a recently announced humanitarian programme. The programme will provide a new life in Canada for 25,000 Syrian refugees, the first 163 of whom arrived in Toronto from Lebanon by Royal […]

On 2014 Statistical Yearbook

UNHCR just released their 2014 Statistical Yearbook. From chapter 3, durable solutions and new displacement — The number of countries admitting refugees for resettlement has remained relatively stagnant in recent years. Likewise, the number of available resettlement places has not grown significantly. These trends are in contrast to the number of resettlement claims, which continues […]

On conferences: The European refugee situation and the role of civil society

Norsk Folkehjelp hosted a conference on The European Refugee Situation and the Role of Civil Society on 8 December. The presentations themselves were interesting, but the most memorable point was a brief exchange during a question from the audience: After Vigdis Vevstad’s presentation situating the current legal (and, to some degree, political) situation, a woman […]

On bridges

From Feargus O’Sullivan over at Citylab (and The Atlantic) — When the Oresund Bridge (that’s Öresund in Swedish and Øresund in Danish) opened in 2000, it was taken as a harbinger of a bright, borderless future for Europe. Linking Danish Copenhagen with the Swedish city of Malmo across five miles of the Oresund Strait, the […]

On webinars: A crisis of refugee protection?

Dr Cathryn Costello and Prof Guy Goodwin-Gil hosted a webinar, ‘Is there a refugee crisis in Europe, or a crisis of lack of refugee protection?‘, on 12.11.15 for OxHRH. The webinar is archived here; also find a list of further readings. (the 1956 Hungarian crisis is specifically addressed starting at 33:00; also, they field a fascinating question about […]

On workshops: Power and Influence in the Global Refugee Regime @ Carleton

Carleton University hosted the Power and Influence in the Global Refugee Regime workshop 23-25 September 2015. From the event page, This workshop brings together a prominent group of scholars, practitioners and policy-makers to discuss the ability of different actors to influence outcomes within the global refugee regime.

On conferences: the discursive construction of ‘strangers’ @ Uni Birmingham

Ruth Wodak’s lecture on the discursive construction of ‘strangers’ during a conference held by the University of Birmingham on 5.11.15: Inclusion and exclusion of migrants and refugees are renegotiated in the European Union on almost a daily scale: ever new policies defining and restricting immigration are proposed by European member states. A return to more […]

On pushback to stronger border controls

Jørgen Carling in NRK discussing smuggling — De som ønsker å søke om asyl, må levere asylsøknaden på grensen. Grensekontrollen i Sverige førte til at antallet asylsøkere til Norge ble halvert på en uke, sier UDI. – Markedet for menneskesmugling ville blitt borte dersom det eksisterte trygge flyruter til Europa. Men da ville flere ha kommet, […]

On possible solutions

Quoted in NRK, Norwegian Minister of Justice Anders Anundsen — intentionally or not — promotes refugee resettlement as a solution: – Ideell løsning Anundsen skisserer det han mener er en ideell løsning på flyktningkrisen i Europa. – Norge og Nederland tar til orde for at man må plukke ut flyktninger fra flyktningleire i nærområder, og […]