Power and Influence in the Global Refugee Regime Refuge
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Vol 33 • No 1 • 2017 Special issue Power and Influence in the Global Refugee Regime Refuge Canada’s Journal on Refugees Revue canadienne sur les réfugiés Vol. 33, No. 1 Centre for Refugee Studies, Room 844, Kaneff Tower, York University 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3 E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://www.yorku.ca/refuge Editor-in-Chief Christina Clark-Kazak Guest Editor James Milner Managing Editor Johanna Reynolds Book Review Editor Dianna Shandy Editorial Advisory Board Sharryn Aiken, Queen’s University Laura Bisaillon, University of Toronto Scarborough Megan Bradley, McGill University François Crépeau, McGill University Jeff Crisp, Oxford University Judith Kumin, University of New Hampshire, Manchester Susan McGrath, York University Volker Türk, UNHCR Madine Vanderplaat, Saint Mary’s University Founded in 1981, Refuge is an interdisciplinary journal published by the Centre for Refugee Studies, York University. The journal aims to provide a forum for discussion and critical reflection on refugee and forced migration issues. Refuge invites contributions from researchers, practitioners, and policy makers with national, international, or comparative perspectives. Special, thematic issues address the broad scope of the journal’s mandate, featuring articles and reports, shorter commentaries, and book reviews. All submissions to Refuge are subject to double-blinded peer review. Articles are accepted in either English or French. Refuge is a non-profit, independent periodical funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and supported by the membership of the Canadian Association for Refugee Studies (CARFMS). The views expressed in Refuge do not necessarily reflect those of its funders or editors. Refuge is indexed and abstracted in the Index to Canadian Legal Literature, Pais International, Sociological Abstracts, the International Bibli- ography of the Social Sciences, and Canadian Business and Current Affairs. In accordance with the journal's open access policy, the full text of articles published in Refuge is also available online through our website, www.yorku.ca/refuge. ISSN (online): 1920-7336 Volume 33 Refuge Number 1 Contents Introduction: book reviews Power and Influence in the Global Refugee Regime james milner .......................................3 The Politics of Migration in Italy: Perspectives on Local Debates and Party Competition Power in the Global Refugee Regime: by Pietro Castelli Gattinara Understanding Expressions and Experiences of Power giorgia Donà ....................................107 in Global and Local Contexts James Milner and Krystyna Wojnarowicz ............7 The Politicisation of Migration Edited by Wouter van der Brug, Gianni D’Amato, us Leadership and the International Refugee Regime Didier Ruedin, and Joost Berkhout Susan f. Martin and Elizabeth Ferris ...............18 mark maguire....................................108 Australia as a Powerbroker on Refugee Protection in Diaspora Lobbies and the US Government: Southeast Asia: The Relationship with Indonesia Convergence and Divergence in Making Foreign Policy Susan kneebone .................................. 29 Edited by Josh DeWind and Renata Segura Donna R. gabaccia ...............................109 Power and Responsibility at the Margins: The Case of India in the Global Refugee Regime Keywords of Mobility: Critical Engagements Ranabir samaddar . 42 Edited by Noel B. Salazar and Kiran Jayaram katie nelson .....................................111 Effecting Change: Civil Servants and Refugee Policy in 1970s Canada michael j. molloy and laura madokoro ............51 Les hauts et les bas du financement canadien au HCR : quelle aide et pour quels réfugiés? Catherine-Lune Grayson et François Audet ........ 62 UNHCR’s Origins and Early History: Agency, Influence and Power in Global Refugee Policy gil loescher ......................................77 Finding Space for Protection: An Inside Account of the Evolution of UNHCR’s Urban Refugee Policy jeff crisp .........................................87 The International Organization for Migration (IOM): Gaining Power in the Forced Migration Regime megan bradley....................................97 1 Volume 33 Refuge Number 1 Introduction Power and Influence in the Global Refugee Regime James Milner nderstanding the politics of the global refugee of power within the regime has been examined,8 power has regime has been an important area of research in arguably been conceptualized in a narrow sense, pointing to refugee and forced migration studies for nearly three the need to develop a conceptualization of power that brings Udecades.1 A specific focus of this work has been the challenge these diverse efforts into closer conversation while providing of fostering the various forms of international cooperation the basis for future research. necessary for the regime to fulfill its core functions, detailed Regardless of one’s views on the ways that power should in the 1950 Statute of the Office of the United Nations High be used within the global refugee regime, it is important Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as ensuring protection for refugee and forced migration studies to develop a more for refugees and finding a solution to their plight.2 Given the systematic and comprehensive understanding of the sources regime’s demonstrated inability to predictably secure this and functioning of power in the regime. To paraphrase Lukes, cooperation and fulfil these functions, however, there has there is a common importance in paying closer attention to been a sustained interest in the role that politics and interests power, whether that attention is motivated by a desire to play in either constraining the regime,3 or, more recently, in “study, acquire, maintain, increase, reduce or destroy it.”9 In expanding the scope and functioning of the regime.4 this way, it is important for our understanding of the politics While this literature has made significant contributions, of the global refugee regime to be complemented by a more it is striking that there has been limited overt and system- systematic and rigorous understanding of power. While a atic engagement with notions of power in the global refugee range of actors seek influence,10 how do we understand the regime.5 Echoing the observation of Thucydides that “the factors that determine their ability to demonstrate power strong do what they have the power to do and the weak within the regime? Who has power? When? Under what accept what they have to accept,”6 this limited attention to circumstances? What are the various forms of power? While power may stem from a concern that engaging with the important insights have been gained on the exercise of influ- interests of the powerful within the regime may legitimize ence in situation-specific and high-profile initiatives,11 how the actions of such actors and undermine the functioning can we understand and observe the functioning of power in and legitimacy of the regime itself. There have also been con- the day-to-day practice of the regime? The answers to these cerns that discussions of power may stray from the analytical questions will have important implications for theory and to the editorial, prompting some, like Chimni, to note that practice, within the global refugee regime and beyond. “what I am propounding here is not a conspiracy theory” but These questions provided the focus for a workshop hosted instead that “refugees are pawns and not concerns, and that at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, in late Septem- human rights violations are often used to justify violence ber 2015.12 It was a time when the global media focused on and the naked exercise of power.”7 Moreover, where the role events unfolding in Europe, which served as but the latest 3 Volume 33 Refuge Number 1 example of the global refugee regime’s apparent inability to International relations scholarship presumes that while ensure predictable protection for refugees and a timely solu- states are not the only actor in the international system, tion to their plight. More than thirty representatives of the they are arguably the most powerful. This may be especially research, policy, and practitioner communities discussed true in the context of the global refugee regime, as UNHCR papers that examined the range of actors and interests that is reliant on states, both for the voluntary contribution of influence outcomes in the global refugee regime, including funds and access to their territory to pursue its work, but the states in the Global North and South, international organi- contributions to this special issue suggest that the relation- zations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The ship is much more nuanced. Martin and Ferris examine the articles that form this special issue were first presented at the United States and the evolution of its role as the state that workshop. Together, they seek to offer new perspectives on is presumed to have the most power in the global refugee the expressions and experiences of power by diverse institu- regime, given that it is the single largest donor to UNHCR tional actors within the global refugee regime and to encour- and resettles more refugees per year than all other countries age future research on these tensions and themes. in the world combined. As argued by Martin and Ferris, An earlier version of the article by Milner and Wojnarow- however, the foundations of US engagement in the global icz served as a background paper for the workshop,