On meetings: Migration Across the Mediterranean

On 30 October 2015, I attended the Migration across the Mediterranean: Challenges and Solutions meeting hosted at Institutt for samfunnsforskning. The timing of the meeting was spot on: halfway through the budget addendum went public, relating specifically to the discussions of the Ministries represented. Also always interesting to hear discussions of more the technical issues […]

On creative solutions

[updated as further suggestions pop up] Islands: Egyptian billionaire: I found the island I want to buy for refugees Open the border: Best way US could help Syrians: open the borders Tradable quota: How a tradable refugee-admission quota system could help solve the EU’s migration crisis; see also: Fernández-Huertas Moraga & Rapoport: Tradable Refugee-admission Quotas (TRAQs), […]

On cities

David Miliband, writing in the Guardian, asks why no one is talking about cities — In all the many column inches on the European refugee crisis, one point has barely received a mention: the overwhelming majority of Syrian refugees are not in refugee camps. Rows of white tents in an otherwise sparse landscape are often […]

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 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 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 European resettlement resources

on Researching Forced Migration / Forced Migration Open Access ECRE – European Council on Refugees and Exiles – on Resettlement European Resettlement Network Asylum Corner IOM Missing Migrants project Migrant Crisis project hosted at the European University Institute and Migration Policy Centre Know Reset project hosted at the European University Institute: “KNOW RESET has resulted in […]

On numbers

Hannah Postel, Cynthia Rathinasamy and Michael Clemens over at the Center for Global Development’s Views from the Center blog investigate the numbers being thrown casually around in the media about Europe’s refugee crisis — Journalists have warned you that there are now 60 million refugees worldwide, and that Europe faces “the worst refugee crisis since World War […]

On the Human Costs of Border Control

Hosted by VU University Amsterdam, the Human Costs of Border Control measures changes in migration policies in Europe — On the basis of globalization theories, as well as on the basis of developments in European migration policies, we hypothesize that since 1990 migration law has witnessed a shift from migration control (reactive, focus on concrete individuals) to migration management […]