Issue 54 February 2017

Resettlement

Plus: a mini-feature on post-deportation risks and monitoring and a selection of articles on other aspects of forced migration

FOR FREE DISTRIBUTION ONLY Forced Migration Review (FMR) provides a forum for the regular exchange of practical From the editors experience, information and ideas between researchers, refugees esettlement is receiving greater prominence in the context of the recent and internally displaced people, Rsurge in numbers of refugees. This traditional ‘durable solution’ – the and those who work with them. managed movement of refugees to a safe third country – already affects many It is published in English, Arabic, thousands of refugees every year, the communities they move into, the people Spanish and French by the they leave behind and the agencies that work with them. With the prospect that Refugee Studies Centre of the numbers will continue to rise, this is an opportunity both to try new approaches Oxford Department of International and to re-examine old ones. Development, University of Oxford. This issue of FMR looks at some of the modalities and challenges of resettlement Staff in order to shed light on debates such as how – and how well – resettlement is Marion Couldrey & managed, whether it is a good use of the funds and energy it uses, and whether Maurice Herson (Editors) it is a good solution for refugees. Case-studies draw in particular on some of the Maureen Schoenfeld (Finance countries that resettle the largest numbers of refugees. and Promotion Assistant) While this issue of FMR was going to press, US President Donald Trump signed an Sharon Ellis (Assistant) executive order indefinitely banning all Syrian refugees from entering the US and Forced Migration Review suspending the country’s broader refugee programme for 120 days. After this the Refugee Studies Centre programme would be much smaller, with the total number of refugees resettled Oxford Department of International in the US in 2017 more than halved – to 50,000 from 110,000. As the US has Development, University of Oxford, the largest refugee resettlement programme in the world by far, this would have 3 Mansfield Road, a significant impact on global resettlement. Oxford OX1 3TB, UK This issue of FMR also contains a mini-feature on Post-deportation risks and [email protected] monitoring and a selection of articles on other forced migration topics. Skype: fmreview Formats and languages: The full issue and all the individual articles in this issue Tel: +44 (0)1865 281700 are online in html, pdf and audio formats at www.fmreview.org/resettlement. www.fmreview.org FMR 54 and its accompanying digest (which provides introductions to all articles plus QR/web links) will be available free of charge online and in print in English, Disclaimer: Opinions in FMR do not Arabic, French and Spanish. necessarily reflect the views of the Editors, the Refugee Studies Centre If you would like printed copies of either the magazine or the digest, in any or the University of Oxford. language, please email us at [email protected]. Copyright: FMR is an Open Access Please disseminate this issue through your networks, mention it on Twitter and publication. For details visit Facebook, and add it to resources lists. www.fmreview.org/copyright. We would like to thank Michael Collyer of Sussex University and Jeff Crisp of the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University for their assistance as advisors on the feature theme of this issue. We are also grateful to Immigration, Refugees ISSN 1460-9819 and Citizenship Canada, RefugePoint, the Government of the Principality of Liechtenstein, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and UNHCR’s Designed by: Division of International Protection for their financial support of this issue. All Art24 www.art24.co.uk FMR donors are listed on page 99. Printed by: Forthcoming issues and feature themes: Oxuniprint www.oxuniprint.co.uk • FMR 55: Shelter in displacement (due out June 2017) • FMR 56: Latin America and the Caribbean (due out October 2017) • FMR 57: Non-signatories to the 1951 Refugee Convention Front cover image: (due out February 2018) This 15-year-old Syrian boy’s family is hoping to be resettled in Canada and For details about forthcoming issues, including article submission deadlines, see is in the final stages of assessment. www.fmreview.org/forthcoming. They live in a two-room shelter in an informal refugee settlement in Join us on Facebook or Twitter or sign up for email alerts at Lebanon. He keeps his suitcase www.fmreview.org/request/alerts. packed. UNHCR/Sebastian Rich Marion Couldrey and Maurice Herson Why have we pixellated his face? Editors, Forced Migration Review See www.fmreview.org/photo-policy Forced Migration Review issue 54 • www.fmreview.org/resettlement

Resettlement 54 The Solidarity Resettlement Programme, and alternatives, in Latin America 4 Practical considerations for effective María José Marcogliese resettlement William Lacy Swing 56 Private refugee sponsorship in Canada Jennifer Hyndman, William Payne and Shauna Jimenez 6 The resettlement of Hungarian refugees in 1956 Amanda Cellini 60 The story of a small Canadian congregation sponsoring a refugee family 9 The internationalisation of resettlement: lessons Shannon Tito and Sharolyn Cochand from Syria and Bhutan Carol Batchelor and Edwina O’Shea 61 Rethinking how success is measured Chloe Marshall-Denton 11 Surge and selection: power in the refugee resettlement regime 63 Expectations of vulnerability in Australia Annelisa Lindsay Alice M Neikirk 14 A ‘successful’ refugee resettlement programme: 66 Resettlement of refugee youth in Australia: the case of Nepal experiences and outcomes over time Bipin Ghimire Celia McMichael, Caitlin Nunn, Ignacio Correa-Velez and Sandra M Gifford 16 Putting refugees at the centre of resettlement in the UK 68 Rejecting resettlement: the case of the Michael Collyer, Rupert Brown, Linda Morrice and Palestinians Linda Tip Anne Irfan 20 Southeast Asia and the disenchantment with 71 The resettlement of Polish refugees after the resettlement second world war Sébastien Moretti Agata Blaszczyk 22 Portugal’s position on resettlement: a view from 73 Resettlement: where’s the evidence, what’s the periphery of the EU the strategy? Lúcio Sousa and Paulo Manuel Costa Alexander Betts 23 Pre-resettlement experiences: Iranians in Vienna Post-deportation risks and monitoring Molly Fee 76 Post-deportation risks for failed asylum seekers 25 ‘Matching’ refugees Jill Alpes, Charlotte Blondel, Nausicaa Preiss and Will Jones and Alexander Teytelboym Meritxell Sayos Monras 26 The secondary migration of refugees resettled in the US 78 Risks encountered after forced removal: the return experiences of young Afghans Jeffrey Bloem and Scott Loveridge Emily Bowerman 28 The importance of legal counsel 81 A grim return: post-deportation risks in Uganda Betsy Fisher Charity Ahumuza Onyoin 29 Who will resettle single Syrian men? 84 The EU-Turkey deal: what happens to people who Lewis Turner return to Turkey? 32 How NGOs have helped shape resettlement Sevda Tunaboylu and Jill Alpes Amy Slaughter 34 Expanding the role of NGOs in resettlement General articles Melonee Douglas, Rachel Levitan and Lucy W Kiama 88 Ensuring the rights of climate-displaced people 38 Resettlement as a protection tool for in Bangladesh refugee children Prabal Barua, Mohammad Shahjahan, Susanna Davies and Carol Batchelor Mohammed Arifur Rahman, Syed Hafizur Rahman 41 An unequal partnership: resettlement service and Morshed Hossan Molla providers in Australia 91 When money speaks: behind asylum seekers’ Niro Kandasamy consumption patterns 43 Refugee resettlement and activism in New Jonathan Goh, Sophie Kurschner, Tina Esmail and Zealand Jonathan van Arneman Murdoch Stephens 94 Migrant, refugee or minor? It matters for children 45 Differential treatment of refugees in Ireland in Europe. Natalya Pestova Kevin Byrne 48 Towards a new framework for integration 96 Statelessness determination: the Swiss in the US experience Catherine Tyson Karen Hamann 50 How refugee community groups support resettlement G Odessa Gonzalez Benson 99 News from the Refugee Studies Centre 52 US refugee exclusion practices 100 Iraqi refugees in Spanish-speaking Californian Katherine Knight communities 53 Security practices and resettlement Ken Crane and Lisa Fernandez Shoshana Fine 4 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017 Practical considerations for effective resettlement William Lacy Swing

Certain essential elements of resettlement programming benefit both refugees and the states undertaking to receive them. IOM believes that this holds true regardless of the type of resettlement scheme, the destination country or the profile of the refugees being assisted.

Resettlement is a vital tool for international Refugee-centric programming protection and a durable solution for Successful resettlement programmes are some of the most vulnerable people in the refugee-centric and have protection as their world. Though not an option for the vast main driver. Resettlement programming majority of refugees, resettlement gives real should include a range of pre-departure hope and a chance to begin life anew to and post-arrival services, and be designed many who would otherwise have neither and implemented to support refugees home nor country to call their own. and counterparts at every phase of the The number of persons resettled annually resettlement process. This means ensuring is on the rise, yet the number of places being that refugees move in a safe and dignified made available is vastly disproportionate to manner and that they are empowered, global needs. States are therefore increasingly well informed and properly prepared considering other pathways to provide for third-country resettlement and protection to refugees who have compelling integration into welcoming communities. needs for international protection. Beyond The need to involve, empower and classic refugee resettlement, more states are prepare refugees applies whether states are interested in or are carrying out humanitarian resettling one hundred people or one hundred admissions, private sponsorship and other thousand people. Refugees are eager to learn options such as academic scholarships as much as they can about the resettlement and labour mobility schemes. process and what awaits them in resettlement Since 1951, the International Organization countries (those countries offering to resettle for Migration (IOM) has worked closely refugees) with or without the intervention with governments, the UN Refugee Agency of official resettlement actors. This means (UNHCR), civil society and other partners that people seeking to be resettled can to prepare refugees to resettle and prepare and do misconstrue or pick up inaccurate states to receive them. While IOM supports information which may influence their the development of alternative pathways, decision to undertake resettlement. Providing it believes that all such schemes should not refugees with accurate, objective information only provide and safeguard legal protection about the resettlement process and the but also foster refugees’ integration and country of destination can help refugees to economic participation in new societies, participate actively in the process and make whatever the legal nature of the scheme. an informed decision about resettlement. On the basis of sixty-five years of experience with resettlement, IOM Planning and preparation recommends exploration of two broad Careful programming before departure lays approaches: refugee-centric programming, the foundation for successful integration. and planning and preparation. Underpinning During the planning phase, resettlement both is the ever-present need for close, countries should engage with refugee-hosting regular consultation with all concerned, and countries early on to gain their support for strong, informed partnerships; resettlement programme objectives and should consult is complex and resource-intensive and must with appropriate parties to set realistic time involve the synchronised actions of many frames and to develop a predictable and partners within and outside the state. manageable refugee departure and arrival Resettlement 5 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

pipeline. Government officials in resettlement attitudes they will need in order to succeed in countries should coordinate closely with their new environment. It also addresses the receiving communities to ensure that psychosocial well-being of refugees, taking sufficient reception capacity is available. into account the social, anthropological, At some point – and better earlier cultural and psychological aspects of than later – all stakeholders will need to resettlement. Orientation must address the consider the needs and concerns of each real concerns of participants, and emphasise refugee, their health and well-being, cultural adaptation, inter-generational arrangements for their safe travel, and the communication, gender roles, changing prospect of their meaningful integration. family dynamics and other challenges. States need to ensure timely, high-quality Innovative approaches to pre-departure processing of resettlement applications. orientation can be used to reinforce the Hallmarks of successful case-processing linkages between refugees before they leave services include: adherence to standard and people in receiving communities. For operating procedures; strict confidentiality example, the use of video-conferencing and data protection standards; multi-level before arrival can add a reassuring human quality assurance controls; and robust touch to the process by introducing social anti-fraud measures. Case processing workers or previously resettled refugees who should also include information sharing can act as mentors for refugees going to that with relevant settlement parties to provide same country. It builds trust between people them with an accurate account of refugees’ and can help in managing expectations of skills, capacities and desires, and potential refugees and address any fears they may contacts in the receiving communities. This have. In addition, the time between selection information can help the resettlement agency and departure can best be used to improve place refugees in a location which offers a refugees’ prospects for labour market better chance of successfully integrating. integration by building their confidence, Health assessments in the pre-departure preparing them for interviews, identifying phase of resettlement are increasingly transferable skills and encouraging them recognised as an important tool for public to pursue both language and vocational health promotion and disease prevention. skills training after their arrival. Health checks prior to resettlement and Ensuring the safe and dignified movement addressing refugees’ health needs early on can of refugees is central to any resettlement also be cost-effective in reducing the demand operation. Many refugees are new travellers for domestic health or social services in the with little, if any, experience of air travel, destination country. Health-related assistance and they require close assistance to find before, during and after travel is a key their way through formal procedures in requirement to ensuring a safe and dignified preparation for travel, during transit and journey for refugees with medical conditions upon arrival at their final destination. IOM’s or other health needs. Referrals for additional experience is that moving individuals investigations or stabilisation treatment prior or groups, especially from remote and to departure, special travel arrangements sometimes dangerous locations, requires a and the provision of medical escorts are all large network of experienced operations staff important components in mitigating risk attuned to the needs of vulnerable travellers during travel. The efficient, timely exchange of in order to guide and monitor movements medical information also allows resettlement in real time from take-off to landing. agencies to prepare adequately for the arrival of refugees and ensure continuity of care. Conclusion Pre-departure orientation goes far The resettlement community is at a watershed beyond simply sharing information about not only because an increasingly large the receiving country; it prepares refugees number of refugees are in desperate need by helping them to develop the skills and of a third country solution but also because 6 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

the current international response is gravely refugees and vulnerable migrants in need of inadequate. There is an urgent need for protection, including through resettlement. more reliable funding, more resettlement Ultimately, resettlement is not about countries, larger and more predictable programming, processes or procedures; it quotas and wider inclusion of beneficiaries. is about providing sometimes life-saving IOM is pleased to see resettlement once but always life-changing international again in the limelight. In the wake of the protection to fellow human beings in need. As Leaders’ Summit on Refugees in September resettlement practitioners, we need to do our 2016 and given current work to develop global best to help their lives change for the better. compacts on refugees and migrants, IOM William Lacy Swing [email protected] continues to urge states to exercise leadership Director General, International Organization for with compassion, and generosity toward Migration www.iom.int The resettlement of Hungarian refugees in 1956 Amanda Cellini

Around the 60th anniversary of the Hungarian uprising it is worth looking back on the efforts to resettle refugees to see that debates about how to help are timeless.

During the suppression of the uprising that Agency, UNHCR, and the Intergovernmental took place in Hungary in October 1956, some Committee for European Migration 180,000 Hungarians fled to Austria and (now the International Organization for another 20,000 to Yugoslavia. The response to Migration) specifically requesting financial those who fled is considered one of the most support for Austria and expressing his successful demonstrations of international hope that most of the refugees could solidarity to find solutions to forced soon be relocated to third countries: migration: nearly 180,000 Hungarians were FURTHERMORE EARLY TEMPORARY resettled to 37 countries within three years. ACCEPTANCE OF AS GREAT A NUMBER Hungary had erected a so-called Iron AS POSSIBLE OF THESE REFUGEES Curtain along the border with Austria at the BY EUROPEAN STATES IS URGENTLY end of 1949, a deadly system of barbed-wire REQUESTED STOP1 THE FEDERAL fences, watchtowers and landmines intended GOVERNMENT APPEALS TO THE – at the start of the Cold War – to prevent FEELINGS OF SOLIDARITY IN HELPING Hungarian citizens fleeing to the West. REFUGEES WHICH HAS SO OFTEN BEEN Then between May and October of 1956, the EVIDENCED IN THE PAST physical border and minefield were largely dismantled by Hungary. The Hungarian On the same day UNHCR sent an uprising and the flight of Hungarians to appeal to the 20 member states of the Austria began within the next few days. UN Refugee Fund Executive Committee Austria showed openness and willingness stressing the importance of showing to welcome the refugees, noting their solidarity to the refugees and to Austria: prima facie status under the 1951 Refugee Convention. Concerned for his government’s IN OUR AND AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENTS ability to handle the vast number of people OPINION EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE suddenly arriving in Austria, Interior Minister HELP WOULD ALSO BE PROVIDED IF Oskar Helmer quickly appealed to the United GOVERNMENTS SYMPATHETIC TO THE Nations and specific countries for assistance. TRIALS OF HUNGARIAN PEOPLE WOULD On 5th November, Helmer sent a telegram AGREE TO GIVE AT LEAST TEMPORARY to the newly established UN Refugee ASYLUM TO GREATEST POSSIBLE NUMBER Resettlement 7 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

OF REFUGEES STOP YOUR GOVERNMENT campaigning in the UN system, urging other IS THEREFORE URGENTLY REQUESTED states to take more refugees, including the TO GIVE CONSIDERATION TO THIS ‘harder’ cases. Norway, on the other hand, POSSIBILITY IN ADDITION TO FINANCIAL chose to watch, wait and see how the situation AID FOR THESE REFUGEES STOP SERVICES evolved on the ground before committing OF THIS OFFICE ARE AVAILABLE TO more than financial assistance to Austria. ASSIST IN SELECTION Sweden The UN General Assembly – otherwise By 6th November, the decision to resettle occupied with the Suez Canal crisis Hungarian refugees was made by Sweden’s happening concurrently – also called for Minister of Aid and Immigration, Ulla help but did not mention the resettlement Lindström. On the following day, camps of refugees specifically until 21st November. in Austria were contacted to coordinate Appeals for assistance continued through selection, and a Swedish delegation was November from the Austrian representative sent. The Labour Board began planning to the UN, through additional direct appeals the selection process as well as the via telegram by the UN Secretary-General process for reception of those resettled. and UNHCR, and through Resolutions in the On 12th November, 73 children and 30 UN General Assembly. As early as 7th November, the French Red Cross flew a plane loaded with medical supplies to the Austrian capital Vienna and brought refugees back on the return flight. On 8th November, the first of many trains moved more than 52161/1956-57 UN Archives/UN 400 refugees to Switzerland. Buses from Sweden and additional trains from Belgium and the Netherlands transported refugees on 9th November. By 28th November, a total of nine European countries had already resettled 21,669 refugees; by 31st December, 92,950 had been transported out of Austria. In total, 37 countries around the world resettled nearly 180,000 Hungarians. Sweden was one of the first countries to respond to the call for solidarity, resettling Hungarian refugees from Austria just days after the uprising began. Sweden also had national politicians Hungarian refugees in Austria taking a train to Switzerland, their new country of asylum, in 1956. 8 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

mothers went via train from Vienna to parliament urged caution and restraint Malmö; on the following day, busloads of while waiting to see how the situation Hungarian men headed towards Sweden. unfolded. After another direct appeal On 15th November, a new request for a from UNHCR for resettlement, a debate on larger quota came from UNHCR. Support 30th November acknowledged the need to from the public and newspapers also strike a balance between helping people in argued for a larger number of refugees to Austria and resettling them to Norway. come to Sweden and on 21st November it During a meeting on 6th December was decided that another 2,000 should be between the Ministry of Social Affairs resettled. Quotas were further increased and the newly established Board for the on 7th December and 8th February 1957. Resettlement of Hungarian Refugees to Interestingly, on 23rd November, Minister Norway, it was noted that Sweden was taking Lindström spoke to the UN about Sweden’s in 100-130 refugees a day, and it was hoped refugee policy on the Hungarians, noting to bring 100 refugees to Norway by late how it can be especially beneficial to take December. By 13th December 1956, the first in the old and the sick. She noted that there transport of Hungarians to Norway arrived. should be motivation by all states to help By the end of 1957, nearly 1,500 Hungarians with the harder cases as well as the need had been resettled to Norway, including for Sweden to take in those who could tuberculosis patients and their families. easily be integrated into the labour market. The internal debates in Sweden and “The best thing to give a resettled refugee”, Norway in 1956 parallel those in 2015, when she argued, “would be a chance – and a countries in Europe were attempting to job.” By the end of 1958, more than 7,300 respond to a sudden influx of refugees and Hungarians were resettled to Sweden. asylum seekers. Sweden’s reaction in 2015 echoed the speed of its response in 1956: Norway along with Germany, it was one of the first Norway was slower to allow resettlement and only European countries to let refugees compared with other countries, and preferred and asylum seekers in before eventually to wait and see if the situation evolved. pausing to question whether they had the Three days after the Soviet invasion, on capacity. Norway, by contrast, first held a 27th October, 70,000 Norwegian Krone was large domestic debate pitting the merits of allocated for emergency relief for Hungarian increasing the annual quota with specific refugees who had begun to appear in spots allocated for Syrians against simply Austria. Through the first week of November, donating money to countries neighbouring reports requested by the government from Syria hosting large refugee camps, before its permanent delegate in Geneva argued deciding both to increase their resettlement that the situation on the ground was still quota and to donate money to the region. unclear; it was thought that the majority of As the experiences of Sweden and refugees wanted to stay close to Hungary Norway demonstrate, the years may pass in the hope of eventual return. Despite but domestic debates about solidarity and acknowledging requests from UNHCR how best to respond to flows of refugees and and the Austrian government to directly asylum seekers appear to remain constant. resettle refugees – and despite growing Amanda Cellini [email protected] public opinion in Norway supporting the Research Assistant, Peace Research Institute refugee cause – the government was advised Oslo www.prio.org to offer only financial assistance for the refugees where they were, in Austria. 1. ‘STOP’ was frequently used in telegrams at the end of sentences (in preference to a dot, which was anyway charged as a full word) Debates in the Norwegian parliament to avoid messages being misunderstood. Telegrams were always on 16th and 26th November revolved around composed and printed in CAPITAL LETTERS. how much funding to allocate to the refugee situation. All but one member of Resettlement 9 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement The internationalisation of resettlement: lessons from Syria and Bhutan Carol Batchelor and Edwina O’Shea

There is clearly political will to engage more on refugee issues through resettlement. A defining feature of this effort is its internationalisation.

Broadly speaking, the internationalisation 15 rounds of failed talks between Bhutan of resettlement means enhanced cooperation and Nepal on repatriation and local and coordination between states and UNHCR, integration. The Syria Core Group (SCG) the UN Refugee Agency, in three inter-related was formed in 2013, quite early in the spheres: operational planning and experience- emergency phase of the Syria response. sharing between resettlement states, both The Syria resettlement response resulted in traditional and new or emerging; increasing the largest resettlement commitments in recent the numbers of resettlement places; and history and the fastest processing, for which enhanced dialogue with hosting countries. new processing approaches were successfully Established in the mid-1990s, the Working tried. Tools were developed including Group on Resettlement (WGR) and the Annual counselling templates for responding to Tripartite Consultations on Resettlement questions frequently asked by refugees (ATCR) are the principal multilateral about the process and a resources website, institutions in which states, UNHCR and non- with a view to improving the provision of governmental organisations (NGOs) engage on information to those seeking resettlement. issues specific to the resettlement of refugees. The SCG has provided a forum for states One result of the WGR and ATCR forums has to support each other in upholding respect been the agreement of resettlement states and for international protection principles in UNHCR to create ‘core’ and ‘contact’ groups resettlement programme design and delivery. for resettlement cooperation for particular The Bhutanese Core Group (BCG) populations. Core groups are advocacy-, supported several countries to process policy- and operations-oriented while contact Bhutanese refugees in Nepal as members of a groups are mainly operationally focused. group which had been defined as in need of Core and contact groups are, in principle, resettlement. This saved considerable time and state led, but UNHCR plays a catalytic role resources. The BCG members also exchanged in bringing states together to achieve results. fraud prevention information and shared UNHCR is well placed to identify protection the purpose-built IOM transit centre in the needs but it also plays an important advisory Nepalese capital Kathmandu. Their dialogue role and provides technical support for states led to operational and policy convergence and in resettlement programme design, selection, a willingness to work together on standards. adjudication and settlement. Implementing The SCG aimed to secure sustainable effective resettlement programmes through multi-year commitments from resettlement high-quality and efficient processing models states, both traditional and emerging. with robust integrity safeguards and Success to date has been impressive, with managing refugee expectations are key aims over 224,000 spaces pledged for resettlement of internationalisation in resettlement. and other pathways. The SCG involved NGOs in mobilising domestic support for increasing Collaboration over Syria and Bhutan resettlement and complementary pathways The Syria and Bhutan examples emerged by generating more political attention on from very different contexts. The Bhutanese the issues. Core Group (BCG) was formed in 2005 While the BCG did not garner as much following decades of displacement and political attention as the SCG, it did manage 10 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

resettlement countries in the dialogue. An SCG Host Country Resettlement Group was formed in Geneva with participants from Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and Egypt to raise awareness; SCG meetings also take place in regional capitals. UNHCR/D Guerrero UNHCR/D Guerrero Core group engagement in the Rwandan refugee resettled in Santiago, Chile. name of over 20 to increase resettlement commitments over countries lends weight in dialogue with host time. Ultimately, over 100,000 Bhutanese countries, which can serve to improve levels were resettled.1 The BCG member states of facilitation or achieve a more cooperative issued a communiqué announcing their approach; the host communities feel a sense collective resettlement commitments and of solidarity beyond financial support. called on Nepal and Bhutan to join them in the pursuit of other durable solutions.2 Conclusion These core groups have taught us that Host country involvement internationalisation of resettlement Engagement with host countries aims to requires strong state leadership and active deepen understanding of resettlement chairing, building on UNHCR’s broader processing and to sensitise host governments relationship with host governments. In to the role that resettlement plays as part addition, harnessing civil society efforts to of a broader humanitarian response. This advocate for more robust responses to help engagement recognises host governments’ refugees, including through resettlement, current contribution to refugee protection can garner much-needed political will and (for example, by keeping open borders or action. Perhaps most importantly, refugees facilitating registration or providing access to themselves need clear, consistent and relevant schools or hospitals). It also raises awareness information about the resettlement process of the scale of resettlement and the resources in order to make informed decisions about involved, while gaining crucial support from their future. Common counselling products the host country in order to help facilitate have gone some way to addressing this. the resettlement process. UNHCR plays a These internationalised efforts have critical role in enabling this engagement as brought important protection dividends it works with a range of host state agencies in both contexts including the expansion across security, public health, education, of the protection space in host countries diplomatic and social services. Bringing these and the alleviation of pressures on critical officials together can raise awareness of how health and social services by resettling the their work can affect burden sharing through most vulnerable. The multilateral efforts resettlement efforts. This is especially effective generated a multiplier effect of more when emerging resettlement countries and countries becoming involved and more donor countries join in with traditional resettlement spaces being offered. The Resettlement 11 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

internationalisation of resettlement provides at the September 2016 UN Summit for the means to pursue more lofty goals like Refugees and Migrants is encouraging.4 those outlined in the concept of the strategic Carol Batchelor [email protected] use of resettlement.3 Internationalisation Director, Division of International Protection, is about how we do things, not why we UNHCR do things or what we hope to achieve. Resettlement is often sidelined in Edwina O’Shea [email protected] broader debates about solutions because Consultant, Resettlement Service, Division of it is seen as too limited in scope to matter. International Protection, UNHCR But resettlement is a critical protection tool www.unhcr.org that saves lives and that must be accessible 1. See press release http://bit.ly/BhutanCoreGroup-communique to those with protection needs particularly 2. https://nepal.usembassy.gov/bhutan_05-16-2007.html in instances where other solutions will not 3. See UNHCR (2013) Great expectations: A review of the strategic use be possible. The attention paid to expansion of resettlement www.refworld.org/docid/520a407d4.html of resettlement and other legal pathways 4. See the New York Declaration https://refugeesmigrants.un.org/declaration Surge and selection: power in the refugee resettlement regime Annelisa Lindsay

There is an imbalance of power – and a resulting lack of agency for refugees – in the structure of the current resettlement regime. The top-down process of selection also poses ethical dilemmas, as recent surges in resettlement operations show.

Of the three durable solutions, resettlement countries, UNHCR has developed seven is often the last option advocated by the prioritisation categories to identify refugees UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, and the last with more serious or urgent protection needs. option desired by refugees. Yet in many UNHCR sorts, filters and prioritises refugees conflicts there comes a tipping point at in accordance with these categories to make which UNHCR works with states to seek referrals for resettlement to states. The resettlement for a select few refugees. resettlement referral selection process varies Less than 1% of all refugees receive the by region and UNHCR office, and protection option to resettle in a third country. officers may use participatory assessments, How does a refugee become one of the Heightened Risk Identification Tool, the few? The answer is: refugees usually or other referrals to identify the most cannot choose. The current structure vulnerable refugees for resettlement. of the resettlement regime requires The UNHCR Resettlement Handbook UNHCR to choose refugees first and states that selection “should not be based then to refer them to states. States then on the desire of any specific actors, such decide whether or not to accept them. as the host State, resettlement States, other The refugee resettlement regime is partners, or UNHCR staff themselves.”1 designed to identify and protect the ‘most In reality, very few states accept refugees vulnerable’ refugees. At its core lies the for resettlement on a ‘dossier’ basis, that is, 1951 Convention definition of a refugee, without further scrutiny of individual cases which UNHCR uses to conduct refugee or additional selection criteria. In fact, most status determinations and register refugees states assert their own specific selection in countries of asylum. Given limited criteria, thus creating the final layer of resettlement places offered by receiving selection in the resettlement regime. Often 12 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

underlying these additional criteria are commitments, so UNHCR ensured that they societal and political desires. Some states received the first arrivals of resettled Syrians. choose refugees who already speak the Several states, including Canada and the local language or have advanced education United States (US), implemented ‘surge’ and professional skills, with an interest in resettlement operations – that is, expedited refugees’ ability to integrate into society processing – to resettle especially large with little assistance. Other states prioritise numbers of Syrian refugees in short protecting refugees with urgent medical periods of time. In late 2015, the Canadian needs. Some state-specific requirements government expedited the resettlement correspond with political or fiscal calendars process for Syrian refugees in Jordan and in order to meet campaign promises or to Lebanon, culminating in the arrival of match allocated budgets. Some states have 25,000 Syrian refugees in Canada. In early resettlement quotas or ceilings, which may 2016, the US followed suit, undertaking be further defined by refugee nationality. a similar surge operation in Jordan. 4 The Handbook also emphasises that As part of these surge operations, UNHCR UNHCR bases selection on the “refugee’s and states applied additional selection objective need for resettlement and not criteria to further profile and expedite on their subjective desire for it.” That refugee referrals. The Canadian government resettlement is not a right is often repeated prioritised “vulnerable refugees who were to help convey this message, perhaps so a low security risk, such as women at risk as to reassure states of their sovereignty and complete families.”5 The US government and to temper the expectations of refugees also focused on “particularly survivors themselves. Refugees themselves have very of violence and torture, those with severe little choice in the resettlement system. medical conditions, and women and children Refugees usually cannot proactively apply – consistent with our national security.”6 for resettlement. Even refugees selected Rationales for additional selection criteria for resettlement cannot choose to which ranged from reducing processing times by country they will be resettled. Ultimately, screening out refugees likely to be barred the only agency that refugees possess in under exclusion clauses to minimising the resettlement regime is the choicenot to security risks by selecting families and resettle if they have been offered resettlement. children over single men of fighting age. As a result, the resettlement regime In response to these requests, UNHCR currently empowers UNHCR and states developed ‘streamlined resettlement and leaves refugees without much methodologies’ to support expedited agency in the decision, despite UNHCR’s processing, including the Humanitarian promotion of self-reliance as a core goal Transfer Programme with Canada and of durable solutions.2 This imbalance of the Simplified Identification Form with power requires more scrutiny, a need the US.7 Both governments deployed that became even more evident in recent additional government officials to the efforts for Syrian refugee resettlement. surge processing locations to conduct final determinations of individual Surges in resettlement of Syrians refugees’ eligibility for resettlement. Since 2013, UNHCR has referred over 242,000 In addition to the enhanced selection Syrian refugees for resettlement or other criteria in these resettlement surges, the forms of admission to third countries3 and time and place of the operations served as has employed various strategies to quickly an additional and unintended selection meet states’ pledges to resettle Syrians. First, factor influencing refugees’ opportunity for it prioritised sending refugees to resettlement resettlement. From autumn 2015 through countries with the most urgent resettlement summer 2016, resettlement opportunities windows. Several states were new to for Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon resettlement or had time-sensitive political drastically increased compared to those Resettlement 13 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

available to Syrian refugees in Turkey and Instead of accepting the status quo because Iraq. This caused a disproportionate increase it yields results, resettlement stakeholders in probability of selection for resettlement. should ask how the process of selection can be improved to reflect the common Conclusions goal of empowering refugees, while Examining power and agency in the structure acknowledging the sovereignty of states. of the resettlement regime and the use of As UNHCR and states work together to ‘surges’ as a resettlement strategy is important balance needs for resettlement and political in order to inform UNHCR’s and states’ will to welcome refugees amid increasingly resettlement policies. Just as states have antagonistic domestic political environments, previously used surge operations to meet they should also work to ensure that power exceptional need,8 states may continue to use is more evenly distributed. Refugees should similar strategies – especially as UNHCR no longer be left with such little decision- plans to refer 170,000 refugees out of the 1.19 making power regarding resettlement in a million that will need resettlement in 2017. third country. UNHCR should not sacrifice However, the current selection process in the its participatory approaches for the sake of resettlement regime is in direct contradiction expedience. Instead, it could at least adopt to UNHCR’s policy of minimising the impact more equal-opportunity strategies for initial of state preferences on resettlement and of selection, where refugees could have equal promoting refugee self-reliance as integral chances for consideration for resettlement. to all durable solutions. The resulting ethical In recognition of the sovereignty of states, question is: do the ends justify the means? refugees selected for resettlement would A pragmatic perspective would emphasise still be subject to state-specific requirements; the need for selection criteria to narrow down however, UNHCR should encourage the supply of refugees that is greater than states not to narrow selection criteria so the demand for resettlement from states. much as to be at odds with the intent and UNHCR’s current selection criteria constitute purposes of the Refugee Convention. the necessary process for the resettlement Annelisa Lindsay regime to function within these confines. This [email protected] methodology is founded on international law Graduate of the MSc Refugee and Forced and built upon by humanitarian imperative Migration Studies programme, Refugee and morality. This selection process does Studies Centre offer a pathway to protection, self-reliance and increased agency for thousands of This article is written in a personal capacity. refugees, so the ends do justify the means. 1. UNHCR (2011) UNHCR Resettlement Handbook An ethical analysis, however, reveals www.unhcr.org/46f7c0ee2.html that resettlement is no exception to the stark 2. UNHCR (2014) Finding Durable Solutions imbalance of power that permeates most of http://bit.ly/UNHCRGlobalAppeal2014-15 and UNHCR (2005) humanitarian assistance. In reality, UNHCR Handbook for Self-reliance www.unhcr.org/44bf7b012.pdf 3. UNHCR/UNDP (2016) 3RP Regional Refugee & Resilience Plan and states reserve the power to choose which 2017-2018 http://bit.ly/UNHCR-UNDP-3RP-2017-18 refugees are more worthy of resettlement. 4. Hirschfield Davies J ‘US Could Exceed Goal of Accepting 10000 Refugees have limited or no voice in the Syrian Refugees’, New York Times http://nyti.ms/2j4woPt decision-making process and no power to 5. Government of Canada ‘#WelcomeRefugees: The first 25,000 – proactively apply for resettlement as an option Phase 1’ www.cic.gc.ca/english/refugees/welcome/phase1.asp for their future. Instead, their future rests 6. The White House (2015) ‘How We’re Welcoming Syrian Refugees While Ensuring Our Safety’ http://bit.ly/WhiteHouse2015 on the political will of UNHCR and states. 7. UNHCR (2016) Global Projected Resettlement Needs 2017 UNHCR bears the difficult burden of http://bit.ly/ResettlementNeeds2017 balancing the interests of states and the 8. For example, the US’s history of surge resettlement operations interests of populations of concern, and includes 20,000 Hungarian refugees in 1957; 111,000 Vietnamese the imbalance of power between the two refugees in 1975; 7,000 Kurdish refugees from Iraq in 1996; and 20,000 Albanian refugees from Kosovo in 1999. is in critical need of further examination. 14 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017 A ‘successful’ refugee resettlement programme: the case of Nepal Bipin Ghimire

More than 100,000 Bhutanese refugees have been found homes in third countries. The other side to the story of this successful resettlement programme, however, is the failure to tackle the impact it has had on the remaining camp populations.

At present, the refugee camps in eastern of female-headed households are submitted Nepal are composed of both first-generation as high priority, whereas male survivors are and second-generation refugees. Despite not often overlooked in a patriarchal society being party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, like Nepal. The same is true for survivors of Nepal has hosted refugees from Bhutan for domestic violence, where female refugees more than two decades. In 2007, a group of have more chance of being submitted as eight countries – Australia, Canada, Denmark, ‘survivor of violence and torture’ than do New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, the male survivors of domestic violence. United Kingdom and the United States – agreed to take their share of international Effects on the remaining refugees responsibility for the Bhutanese refugees and It is generally older persons who are not resettle them. However, there are more than interested in third country resettlement 10,000 remaining who are either ineligible and are being left in the refugee camps, for resettlement or not willing to be resettled lacking family support and income and in a third country; they remain in the facing difficulties in reaching service refugee camps, living with the consequences centres for food rations and health of the resettlement programmes. services. When other family members get As the Bhutanese refugees and the host resettled these older people are isolated, community of Nepal share cultural, linguistic which has led to an increase in cases of and ethnic affinity, some people chose to depression, suicide and substance abuse marry outside the refugee community; in the camps. UNHCR, the UN Refugee the result is commonly known as a ‘mixed Agency, has launched suicide prevention marriage’. According to the prevailing projects, with psychosocial counselling, resettlement standard operating procedure and the help of the local police force in applicable in Nepal, a refugee man of a mixed controlling the supply and consumption marriage is eligible for resettlement whereas of harmful substances, especially locally a female refugee of a mixed marriage is not, made alcohol and harmful drugs. unless she is divorced. This situation reflects Resettlement has also caused frequent the Nepali Citizenship Act 2006 which states turnover of the schools’ teaching staff in that a foreign woman married to a Nepali the camps since it is the policy to recruit all man can acquire citizenship but there is the teachers from the refugee community currently no provision for citizenship for a itself. When a teacher is resettled, students foreign man who marries a Nepali woman.1 frequently face long gaps before a new On the other hand, being female tends to teacher, perhaps with new teaching methods, offer better opportunities for being resettled. is appointed and both the teacher and One of the categories for submission for students need time to adjust. The process resettlement2 is ‘women and girls at risk’, repeats when another teacher gets resettled. giving priority to women and girls being Many students lose interest in education submitted for resettlement over boys and and drop out while they are waiting to be men at risk. Cases of female survivors of resettled3 and many young people doubt sexual and gender-based violence and cases that the camp education prepares them Resettlement 15 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement Bipin Ghimire

Older Bhutanese refugee in one of the refugee camps in Nepal. well for resettlement anyway. To counter do not get any support from their resettled the high dropout rate, the schools in the relatives. Households headed by old people camps have school counsellors to motivate or women become more vulnerable after the the children. Drop-in-centres and ‘youth- resettlement of their relatives if they cannot friendly’ centres have been established work or do not have skills that will enable to help dropouts to rejoin school and to them to earn. In this situation they become prevent them from becoming involved in dependent on the support of agencies. gambling, drug supply and abuse, thieving Finally, asylum seekers from other parts or fighting. The activities of drop-in centres of India or Nepal have started coming to have no doubt changed some young people the refugee camps in significant numbers – but are not able to make a significant knowing that the resettlement process is open, change to the overall camp situation. that their children can have free schooling The resettlement of the refugees from and that they can get free primary health- Nepal does increase the income of some care services – and this has consequences families in the camps. Remittances from for services and security in the camps. the resettled relatives enable some families Bipin Ghimire [email protected] in the camps to achieve a better standard Doctoral Fellow, South Asian University, New of living, for the children to go to a good Delhi, India www.sau.int school, for the sick to get better health care, and for families to get access to modern 1. The issue of a Nepali woman marrying a foreign man is under consideration in the new constitution but this has yet to be technology such as smart phones and finalised and put into practice. computers. Yet the same flow of money has 2. UNHCR (2011) UNHCR Resettlement Handbook, also changed their life style; they no longer www.unhcr.org/46f7c0ee2.pdf go to work but depend on the remittances. 3. Marschilok C (2013) Resettlement, Education and Anxiety, Duke Conversely, there are many families who University Uprooted/Rerouted report http://bit.ly/Marschilok2013 16 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017 Putting refugees at the centre of resettlement in the UK Michael Collyer, Rupert Brown, Linda Morrice and Linda Tip

There are growing numbers of refugees in the UK who have been through a resettlement programme. New research in four UK cities highlights opportunities to incorporate the refugees’ expertise into programme design.

The United Kingdom’s contribution to refugee of well-being for resettled refugees who resettlement has increased substantially had arrived in the UK before 2010. in recent years, although from a relatively 280 resettled refugees were involved, low base. This contrasts sharply with the 180 of whom completed all three surveys, highly restrictionist stance of virtually every giving detailed longitudinal information other aspect of UK policy towards migrants on the well-being of refugees resettled to and refugees, including asylum. In 2015, the UK, some time after their arrival.2 Eight the government expanded the quota of 750 of the peer group researchers attended the refugees arriving under the established final conference on the research findings. Gateway Protection Programme (GPP) with Four of the themes that emerged were: an additional 4,000 refugees a year under the Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement difficulties with education and (VPR) Programme. There are also a number employment of other programmes, mostly focused on the central importance of English resettling or relocating vulnerable children. language ability The first refugees resettled through the role of pre-departure orientation the GPP arrived in 2004. There are now

several thousand people in the UK who the interaction between refugee status, have been through a refugee resettlement citizenship and belonging. programme, many of them now with long experience of life in the UK. The recent Education and employment expansion of VPR, the introduction of new Charles, a 28-year-old originally from the programmes and the continued refinement Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), of the GPP provide a real opportunity to described his achievements in getting a incorporate refugees’ own expertise into job and subsequently receiving a degree: the development of new programmes. “I applied for a cleaning job. Then I did an There is no evidence at the moment that interview. I had a suit, you know. Then they the UK government is considering this said, right off, that I don’t have experience – for a in any systematic way, though there are cleaning job! Then I said [to myself] this will be the plenty of examples of how effective it first and the last time that I will apply for this type can be, such as the SHARE Network’s of job. I was really upset. … I applied for another Resettlement Ambassador Programme.1 job. I managed to get a social care job. I got a job Our research project, entitled Optimising as a support worker. That was in September 2010. Refugee Resettlement in the UK, set out to We arrived in March, and six months later I was put refugees at the centre of resettlement working. Actually, I was the first person in our research. The research involved 11 peer group to work.” researchers – that is, resettled refugees – from the cities where the research would “The only advantage really which I thought about happen. At three intervals (one year apart) getting to Europe [for] was education. I was saying, from 2014 to 2016, using a survey and you know, this is a great opportunity. African interviews they investigated determinants [government] ministers, they send their kids to Resettlement 17 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

Europe to study. So I had this opportunity to go CV with those skills, but the Job Centre is telling and study. All I had in my mind was education them, “Go for a cleaning job, and clean the toilet.” [but] no one really wanted to know what you wanted to do in terms of education, or in terms He also expressed a real feeling of of your future career. That was not part of the disappointment that refugees resettled to the package, because, you know, they see refugees as UK when they are older, beyond standard one big category.” university age, are not able to access the UK’s further or higher education system in the Charles was able to overcome the barriers same way. to education, eventually getting a degree. Ali, originally from Somalia but who had Nevertheless, he was concerned that the grown up in Kenya, was confused about the channelling of refugees into particular recognition of his qualifications in the UK: sectors has serious long-term implications: “My worst experience was the education system “We have a problem which really hurts me a lot. when I tried to attend a college, or access a course. Seventy maybe eighty per cent of refugees are I submitted all my papers from Kenya, including working as care support workers. What is the my advanced, first certificate diploma from Nairobi future of this community? Who is the role model?” University… I submitted everything and they said English language ability to leave the diploma outside because they said it was Even English language education was unacceptable because they are not qualifications hard to access, beyond the two hours a from an English university. I said, “What?!”” week provided. Our research findings showed the fundamental importance of Pre-departure orientation English language ability to refugees’ well- These things were not effectively explained being, so this is a particularly surprising during the pre-departure orientation. Over omission. Those who were successful were the years, the pre-departure orientation those who were proactive in identifying had progressively been dramatically and accessing other classes that were not cut, from the two full weeks provided provided specifically for refugees. Suzanne, when the GPP was first established to a a 36-year-old woman, originally from DRC: mere three hours by 2016. Our research highlighted the importance of realistic “We started looking at other places like the expectations to well-being later on. Many Community Centre, where we can go and learn refugees were bemused at the orientation English. So we went on Mondays to the college they received; Suzanne remembered because Monday is the day they give us to go one particular piece of information: and learn English. We went to another one in the Community Centre, and another one we found “They told us about people who are here, what in […] Castle Museum. We just went wherever their culture is like. They showed some films. [there] was English!” They taught us how clean it is here, [compared] to where we were in Africa. They even said “British Disappointment and frustration with people, they don’t greet.” Where we were, we greet the limited opportunities to learn English everyone! And we welcome everyone! They said to were common to most resettled refugees. just be aware, don’t just go and greet or else you This influenced attempts to find work will be disappointed. So they said, “Just smile, so, and education more generally. Eremias, a you should learn how to smile!” And this teacher, 36-year-old originally from Ethiopia, had I really remember her, she lined us up and tried to established a flourishing social enterprise, teach us how to smile.” yet he was clear that this was contrary to the direction that he was initially pushed in: All of the peer researchers highlighted how much help they thought they could give “Some people come here as a doctor or a lawyer if they were invited to teach on these pre- [or] a teacher. That is their background. They were departure sessions. The current total of three respected! But they come here, and they have their hours is only enough to explain what would 18 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017 UNHCR/H Davies UNHCR/H Davies

English classes for refugees from Ethiopia who came to the UK in 2006 and were resettled in Brighton on the south coast under the Gateway Protection Programme. happen on the flight whereas longer sessions when I’m out applying for jobs or university, I have a demonstrable impact, even years after don’t go and say I’m a refugee. I just do whatever arrival. The opportunity to speak to someone anyone is doing. But it’s quite hard to forget you’re who went through that experience a decade a refugee sometimes. … But no, I don’t view myself or more earlier would be of tremendous long- as a refugee, but I do view that as part of myself.” term benefit and yet is rarely even discussed. In the UK, resettled refugees can claim Kess was the only peer researcher on the citizenship after being in the country for five project who had come to the UK at school age. years. Our research, with the initial survey She had enjoyed relatively easy, direct access occurring at least four years after people to the education system, simply because she had arrived and the final survey at least six was the right age, though there were still years after, covered the time at which they things that surprised her: became eligible for naturalisation. By the “Just little things like wearing a uniform and end of the research, the large majority had showing respect to the teacher. I’d never in my life attained British citizenship, though opinions heard someone speak back to the teacher. When they varied about the extent to which being a did it here, it was quite a shock.” refugee still mattered. Charles suggested that it was at times when he was really Refugee status, citizenship and belonging struggling that he resented the refugee label, Arriving at a younger age obviously makes and when things improved, that changed: it much easier to feel part of the UK. Unlike her parents, Kess speaks English easily “If you are going through a very difficult situation, and perfectly, with no trace of a foreign like you can’t access education, you can’t pass accent. Yet, even though she now has the test about life in the UK, or your English is British citizenship, being a refugee remains very poor, I think being a refugee would always relevant to her at certain moments: be painful. But if things are going well, for me I’m proud to be a refugee. I’m really proud to be a “I think being a refugee is in the background – it’s refugee.” part of your mind, of yourself. But, as far as I’m Similarly, Eremias also recognised that concerned, I don’t view myself as a refugee. So negative associations with the status of Resettlement 19 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

refugee made it a more difficult status to It is still relatively unusual for research claim: to recognise refugees’ expertise. There are even fewer examples of where refugees “Not because being a refugee is bad, but being a are placed at the centre of planning refugee, or how a refugee is treated in terms of refugee resettlement programmes. Yet education or if you want to go to university, or there are obvious benefits to doing so. if you want to be employed … because you come from a different country, you know it’s not easy to Michael Collyer [email protected] get a job. For that reason, that mentality is in our Professor of Geography, University of Sussex mind, and for that reason people don’t want to be Rupert Brown [email protected] categorised as a refugee.” Professor of Social Psychology, University For Eremias, everything was linked. of Sussex The difficulties encountered in finding Linda Morrice [email protected] employment or education and struggles Senior Lecturer in Education, University of Sussex with learning English were inevitably tied up with how it feels to be a refugee. Linda Tip [email protected] This was an important reason why he Research Fellow, School of Global Studies, rejected the label. Yet he concluded: University of Sussex University of Sussex www.sussex.ac.uk “Most of the time, we – refugees – came here with 1. http://bit.ly/SHARE-Resettlement-Ambassador empty pockets, but not empty minds. If we get a lot 2. Initial results are available on the project website of support and opportunity, we can deliver a lot as www.sussex.ac.uk/migration/refugeeresettlement. There is also well.” a series of blog posts based on invited presentations at the final conference, held at the University of Sussex, September 2016.

Resettlement and humanitarian admission programmes in Europe – what works? The European Migration Network has published a by means of a leaflet, guide, cultural orientation study on resettlement, humanitarian admission and training or workshops. private sponsorship programmes in the Member The challenges and good practices reported by the States of the European Union (EU) and Norway. It Member States predominantly concern practical covers the period between 2011 and mid-2016 issues in all phases, such as problems with and includes cases from 24 countries. Despite the documents, learning the language of the receiving number of such programmes in the EU, however, the country and organising early medical assessments. total number of resettled/admitted persons through One of the challenges identified concerns refugees’ these programmes is modest, ranging from over expectations of conditions in the receiving country, 5,400 in 2011 and 2012 to around 18,000 in 2014 and the most pressing issues identified relate to the and 2016. integration phase. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has a clear The results of the study show that, although role in the selection process for resettlement numbers are as yet small, there exists a firm basis or humanitarian admission, and in the majority within the EU in terms of policy and practice for of Member States the candidate first needs to setting up and further developing resettlement, have been recognised as a refugee by UNHCR. humanitarian admission and private sponsorship The majority of the Member States set annual or programmes as legal pathways of migration. multi-year quotas, and all use their own criteria for prioritising or deprioritising candidates in the With thanks to Michiel Besters selection process. Most Member States grant the [email protected] same or similar status to both refugees and other Researcher, Netherlands National Contact Point for beneficiaries of international protection. In most the European Migration Network cases, the rights granted include the right to family reunification and travel within the EU for short The report, entitled Resettlement and Humanitarian periods. The majority of Member States provide the Admission Programmes in Europe – what works?, is refugees with information about their status and available at http://bit.ly/EMN-ResettlementReport rights as well as the resettlement process itself, 20 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017 Southeast Asia and the disenchantment with resettlement Sébastien Moretti

While resettlement is nowadays considered as a solution to be resorted to only in exceptional circumstances, in Southeast Asia resettlement has always been, and remains, the most important durable solution for refugees.

There was a time when resettlement was role of resettlement as a solution and a means considered as the ‘preferred’ solution for of protection”.2 In UNHCR’s opinion, the refugees. In the context of the Indochinese decision taken in 1979 to offer resettlement refugee crisis, from the mid-1970s to the to the Vietnamese boat people arriving on mid-1990s resettlement played a particularly Southeast Asian shores “acted as a ‘pull important role. The main countries of first factor’, helping to create an unmanageable asylum in the region – Thailand, Malaysia and exodus of people, an increasing number of Indonesia – made the provision of temporary whom left their homeland for economic and asylum to refugees from Cambodia, Laos social reasons, rather than to escape from and Vietnam conditional on their rapid persecution”. In proposing a re-thinking resettlement. Eventually approximately of resettlement as a solution limited to 1,315,000 people were resettled in some 30 specific protection cases, UNHCR noted different countries, to which should be added that it would indeed “appear prudent to the 650,000 Vietnamese who were resettled in avoid the type of programme established for the United States (US) under the framework the Vietnamese” where efforts were made of the Orderly Departure Programme (ODP). to resettle all the members of a particular While resettlement undoubtedly played refugee group. UNHCR considered that such a key role in the protection of refugees and measures would lead to traditional countries in the resolution of the Indochinese refugee of resettlement adopting further restrictive crisis, the magnitude of the operations, policies.3 These developments contributed to according to UNHCR, the UN Refugee a large extent to the shift towards voluntary Agency, “proved costly to refugees and to repatriation as the preferred solution to some of the basic concepts of international refugee problems in the first half of the 1980s. protection”.1 In particular, the resettlement By the end of the 1980s, it was clear efforts undertaken by Western countries that what had started as a refugee exodus in the first years of the crisis played an of people persecuted by the communist important role in the phenomenon of government in Vietnam had evolved into ‘compassion fatigue’ which led to increasingly an influx of primarily economic migrants restrictive measures being adopted by those attracted by the prospect of quasi-automatic same states in the first half of the 1980s. In resettlement in Western countries. The turn, without guarantees that the refugees Comprehensive Plan of Action on Indochinese hosted in their territory would be resettled, refugees (CPA), adopted in June 1989 to put countries of first asylum in the region a definitive end to the exodus of Vietnamese tended to close their borders, refuse to grant boat people in the region, arguably temporary asylum, push back arrivals by sea, represented the first international initiative or return refugees to their country of origin in designed to respond to a phenomenon violation of the principle of non-refoulement. of ‘mixed migration’. The CPA instituted UNHCR came to the conclusion that a Refugee Status Determination (RSD) the decision to adopt an across-the-board procedure at the regional level, which aimed approach to resettlement in the region had to differentiate between economic migrants in many ways “cast a long shadow over the and refugees for those who arrived after a Resettlement 21 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

certain date. The objective of the CPA was interference in the internal affairs of other actually to channel departures through the states, a cornerstone principle in the region. ODP and, for the rest, to “limit entitlement In the context of the so-called Bay of to resettlement of recognised refugees”.4 Bengal and Andaman Sea Crisis in 2015, While the CPA is often referred to as Malaysia and Indonesia again made the a particularly good example of a regional granting of temporary shelter to people approach to large movements of migrants adrift at sea conditional on the provision and refugees, it has to be noted that the wider of a durable solution within one year, international community played a central that is their resettlement, in the case of role in the success of the initiative. Indeed, approximately 600 Rohingya refugees who it was decided that all those who arrived in could not be sent back to Myanmar. the countries of transit before the deadline Interestingly, while countries such as dates, as well as those who arrived after but the US or Ghana announced that they could were recognised as refugees through the resettle some of the Rohingyas, this option RSD procedure, would be quickly resettled. was not supported by UNHCR, in part Those found not to be refugees were to be because it was feared (based on experience repatriated to their country, “preferably on from the Indochinese refugee crisis) that a voluntary basis” according to the CPA, resorting to this solution would create a pull but other measures would be envisaged if factor and potentially exacerbate the problem necessary. In total, some 80,000 Vietnamese by encouraging additional departures. It was were resettled in the framework of the CPA. also considered that in the Southeast Asian context, and given the limited number of The current situation people concerned, more innovative solutions Although the number of refugees in could be envisaged, such as the grant of Southeast Asia is far smaller than during the migrant worker status in the country of Indochinese crisis and despite the fact that asylum. This option, however, was ruled some of the states in the region are now more out by the countries concerned, leaving prosperous, in Southeast Asia resettlement resettlement again as the remaining option. has remained the preferred durable solution. Sébastien Moretti [email protected] Local integration is generally ruled out, Senior Fellow, Global Migration Centre, Graduate except for specific groups of people with close Institute of International and Development ethnic ties with the local populations, while Studies http://graduateinstitute.ch/gmc voluntary repatriation is rarely conceivable. More than 100,000 refugees from Myanmar 1. UNGA (1986) ‘Addendum to the Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’, UN Doc. A/40/12/Add.1 have been resettled from the refugee camps in http://bit.ly/UNHCR-Addendum1986 Thailand since 2004 and as many people have 2. UNHCR (1994) ‘Resettlement in the 1990s: A Review of Policy been resettled from Malaysia during this same and Practice’ www.unhcr.org/3ae6bcfd4.pdf period, representing a disproportionate part 3. UNHCR (1995) The State of the Word’s Refugees 1995: In Search of of the global resettlement effort. Since 2009, Solutions, Oxford University Press www.unhcr.org/3eedd8db4.html the Philippines has been hosting one of the 4. UNHCR ExCom (1989) ‘Summary Record of the 443rd Meeting’ three Emergency Transit Facility mechanisms, http://bit.ly/UNHCR-ExCom1989 that is, a transit centre where refugees who cannot stay in their country of first asylum The value of learning for protection reasons can be accommodated FMR is funded entirely by donations and grants, including pending their resettlement in another country. donations from individuals who read FMR. Could you help This mechanism is particularly important keep FMR going so that it can continue to support learning in Southeast Asia, with the countries through the sharing of knowledge and experience? belonging to the Association of Southeast Even small donations help. For individuals, we suggest an Asian Nations (ASEAN) largely reluctant to annual contribution of £30 / US$37 / €35. Please visit our offer asylum to people coming from other secure online giving site at http://bit.ly/supportFMR ASEAN countries, on the principle of non- 22 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017 Portugal’s position on resettlement: a view from the periphery of the EU Lúcio Sousa and Paulo Manuel Costa

The evolution of European policy in recent years has shown how policy can be used to actively restrict the movement of people and as a mechanism for choosing what kind of refugee a particular country receives, with the interests of states prevailing over humanitarian needs.

A process called regional relocation aims line with those of the EU, bringing in more to distribute recent refugees among the restrictive European policies on these issues. various Member States of the European Within the context of Portuguese asylum Union (EU), according to national quotas policy, the resettlement of refugees, though that take into account a variety of factors rare, has always been of specific individuals such as each state’s GDP, population size or families. However, in 2006 Portugal and unemployment rate. Given Europe’s established a resettlement programme that recent tendency to externalise its response envisaged an annual quota of 30 refugees. to migration, it is no surprise that the Although there have been variations in the European Commission is prepared to use flow of arrivals, the resettlement of refugees resettlement as a migration management (the majority from Africa) has been steady. tool, taking advantage of recent events in In light of recent European proposals Europe to submit a series of reforms that for refugee relocation, the Portuguese aim to consolidate a common European government stated its willingness to accept asylum policy. To some extent, these 10,000 refugees, unlike several Member proposals have a federalist bent, seeking States which refused to accept refugees and to eliminate specific national legal and closed their borders. Portugal’s willingness procedural aspects – whether by establishing is rather unusual, especially considering national refugee quotas, by strengthening the numbers involved and its previous the role of European agencies (such as experience. In contrast to similar events in the European Asylum Support Office) the past (particularly with refugee flows from or by creating new agencies (such as the Kosovo in 1998 and Guinea-Bissau in 1999), European Border and Coast Guard to Portuguese public opinion was mobilised control the common external borders). and people organised to welcome refugees, Portugal has previously seen relatively with new private bodies taking on the role of few refugees settle in the country. Most interlocutor to deal with the state and those asylum applications came during the first local organisations willing to host refugees. decades of the post-colonial period (after That said, this is also an example of 1974) and were made mainly by Africans, how pragmatic concerns and self-interest in particular those from former Portuguese – managing migration flows, attracting colonies. Only in the last decade has there human resources, offsetting demographic been a consistent, albeit small, number of deficits – seem to take precedence over the applicants from other places, including humanitarian criteria normally associated Ukraine, Guinea, Pakistan, Mali and Syria. with the process of resettlement and Portugal’s first asylum law was drawn up protection of refugees. Portugal’s decision to within the context of its post-revolution host large numbers of refugees serves, first democracy and was relatively open and and foremost, Portugal’s political, economic inclusive. When Portugal joined the European and demographic needs, particularly those Community (now the EU), the asylum law associated with poor economic growth was amended to bring national practices into and net emigration. These are the obvious Resettlement 23 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

reasons for the break with the country’s making it even more difficult for refugees more restrictive policy and the modest to reach its borders to claim asylum. numbers of refugees taken in the past. Lúcio Sousa [email protected] More broadly, there is political pragmatism at play in the search for Paulo Manuel Costa [email protected] solutions that serve Europe’s own interests Assistant Professors, Centre of Studies on and, as part of Europe’s asylum and Migrations and Intercultural Relations (CEMRI), resettlement policy, this will allow the EU Universidade Aberta, Portugal to strengthen the walls of fortress Europe, http://cemri.uab.pt/index.php/english/

Pre-resettlement experiences: Iranians in Vienna Molly Fee

Refugees’ resettlement experiences may be shaped in the stages leading up to their arrival.

For refugees going to the United States and risky passage, and are in the country (US), resettlement begins long before of asylum for less than one year. Some of they step off the airplane in their final the refugees also embrace their temporary destination. Those selected for resettlement stay in Vienna, seeing it as moment of must first undergo pre-departure respite between the stresses of leaving processing, which typically includes family and friends behind in Iran and the cultural orientation, official government challenges that await them in the US. interviews and long periods of waiting. Cultural Orientation (CO) is the most For many refugees destined for the US, obvious way that refugees’ resettlement this preparation and processing may take experiences are shaped by the pre-departure place in the country of asylum where they phase. The CO classes in Vienna form the have been residing. However, for one refugee first part of what is called the ‘orientation group in particular, it requires an additional continuum’ and are followed by post-arrival temporary migration solely for the purpose orientation in the refugee’s community of of resettlement processing. The Lautenberg resettlement in the US. For Iranian refugees Amendment allows members of religious coming through Vienna, CO consists of minorities in Iran to apply for resettlement five days of discussion, activities and to the US; since the US government cannot the occasional game that cover an array conduct the processing of these cases in of topics ranging from employment to Iran, the US has established an agreement housing to cultural adjustment – and what with the Austrian government to host these will be expected of them in the US. refugees while they undergo the necessary Most importantly, the instructors focus procedures to apply for resettlement. on preparation for the challenges that await Following an initial application process from the refugees in the US. One instructor talked Iran that may take as long as three to five of setting refugees’ expectations low so years, those who have successfully passed that they would not be disappointed once the requisite documentation review receive they arrive in the US. Another instructor a short-term visa for Austria. They then explained on the first day of class, “If you travel to Vienna about one month later to go to the US thinking life will be like the begin the pre-resettlement stage that lasts movies, you’ll be disappointed. … [The US] from approximately three to six months. is a great place, but it’s not easy.” Many of At first glance these seem to be the ideal the young refugees have their sights set conditions for a resettlement programme, as on pursuing higher education in the US, these refugees avoid physical endangerment and they are disheartened when they leave 24 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

CO with the message that “universities… may pass adults by. For example, a musician are too expensive for refugees”. In addition was offered an opportunity to play at an to helping refugees begin to prepare event in the US that would have given him for life in a new country, CO can also – good exposure and start off his career in a paradoxically – contribute to the uncertainty new country. Unfortunately this job offer and stress associated with resettlement. came and went as he waited in Vienna. Waiting for months on end can take a Money becomes another growing source toll on the refugees’ mental and emotional of anxiety. In addition to paying for their well-being. Two frequently cited challenges flight from Iran to Vienna, these refugees in Vienna are too much time and not enough must cover their living expenses for the money. Refugees have no way of knowing duration of their stay, including rent. The whether their cases will be processed in sizeable expenses associated with a six-month three months or drag on for seven or even stay in Vienna mean that refugees may eight months. Under the terms of their have already used all of their savings before Austrian visas adults are not allowed to arriving in the US or may even be in debt. work and children are not allowed to attend Moreover, some of the refugees who come school. Consequently, their time is spent through this programme are elderly or have waiting. As one man explained, “The first a range of chronic health issues. Because of month, the second month, is good. The rumours of the high costs associated with third month, my money starts to go down medical treatment in Vienna and fears that and now I want to go. Five months here and exposing a medical condition might delay I’m not working! We need the money!” or even preclude resettlement, people may Long periods of idle waiting plant seeds put off treatment until they reach the US. of fear and anxiety that one’s case will As a result, a refugee’s health may suffer ultimately be denied. One man who had and medical conditions may have become been in Vienna with his wife and two young more severe by the time they reach the US. sons for about six months, still without While acknowledging the numerous news regarding his family’s case, said: “It’s relative advantages that these refugees too long. …. I don’t know what’s going on… have throughout their resettlement process, I’m [usually] active but I’m idle here. I’m and while resettlement provides a critical very depressed.” This man came to define durable solution to refugees with few other himself by how long his family had been in options, it is still a difficult process that Vienna in relation to the length of stay for may present numerous obstacles along those around him. For every other refugee the way; an application for resettlement who passed us during our conversation, he does not signal the end of a refugee’s knew precisely how many days they had struggles. A better awareness of the pre- been in Vienna and who had received news resettlement context could help provide of their date of departure. One young woman greater continuity of assistance for refugees explained to me how she tried to hide her as they take on the challenges that come anxieties from her parents, forcing herself with resettlement in a new country. to appear happy in front of them so as not to Molly Fee [email protected] create another form of stress for her family. PhD student, University of California, Los Angeles With little else to occupy their days, these www.sociology.ucla.edu refugees are constantly dwelling on the uncertainties of their lives. Not only are they compelled to wait but they are also unable FMR Podcasts to take concrete steps towards preparing All the articles in this issue are available as for life in the US, particularly in finding podcasts on the FMR website at employment or beginning school. During www.fmreview.org/resettlement. this time, children may miss a year of school To access all FMR podcasts (arranged by and potential employment opportunities issue), go to https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/ series and search for ‘forced migration review’. Also available on iTunesU. Resettlement 25 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

LiechtensteinLanguages project www.liela.li Throughout the classes, LieLa aims to promote a In February 2016 Liechtenstein introduced the sense of self-worth and the values of peaceful co- LiechtensteinLanguages project (LieLa) to help existence. asylum seekers and refugees integrate more quickly Liechtenstein receives a significant amount of in their new country. Based on the New Learning asylum seekers each year (154 in 2015) compared Method developed in Liechtenstein in the 1990s, to its population size of 37,686 inhabitants. Many this language teaching method focuses on speaking come from the Western Balkans, in part at least skills – so that participants learn how to make because Liechtenstein took in more than 1,000 themselves understood in German as quickly as displaced persons from the Balkans during the possible – and on reducing barriers to learning. 1990s. Meanwhile, although not an EU state, The focus is on making learning fun, varied and Liechtenstein participates in the EU refugee active. LieLa trainers include games and movement relocation programme on a voluntary basis and in the sessions, and the teaching materials are took part in UNHCR’s resettlement programme. designed to enable as many learners as possible Since 2014, 23 Syrian refugees have been resettled to be active at the same time. Initial experiences from Turkey. 43 asylum seekers will be relocated to have been positive, and suggest that the method Liechtenstein from Italy and Greece. is effective in engaging participants from very early The main LieLa website is in German but a on, regardless of age, gender or circumstances. video in English introducing the methodology Sessions focus on topics of immediate relevance and showing classes in action is available at to the asylum seekers’ situations, such as dealing http://liela.li/videos/. For more information, please with public authorities, health care, getting about in contact [email protected]. town, and other aspects of everyday life.

‘Matching’ refugees

In 2016, we published an article in Forced by 2020 under the Syrian Vulnerable Person Migration Review called ‘Choices, preferences Resettlement Scheme to specific locations; and priorities in a matching system for by any of the nine Voluntary Agencies refugees’1 in which we argued that refugees that resettle refugees to the United States; to be resettled should be allocated to by the Canadian government that has countries through a centralised matching recently expanded its government-assisted system, using preferences of refugees and refugee programme; or even by the Swedish priorities of countries, similar to systems Migration Board to allocate refugees who used around the world to allocate school currently live in temporary accommodation places. The idea is now being discussed to permanent housing across Sweden. by the European Asylum Support Office To this end, in September 2016 we as a possible approach in the search for launched a project called Refugees’ solutions to the European refugee crisis. Say (supported by the Skoll Centre for We soon realised that an equally pressing Entrepreneurship at Oxford) which aims problem is the allocation of refugees to local to influence and reform public policy areas within a particular hosting country. in the resettlement sphere. We welcome There is a lot of empirical evidence that enquiries and hope to be able to design or the initial location in which refugees are redesign many effective matching systems resettled matters a great deal in terms of how for resettlement around the world. they succeed in areas such as education and Will Jones Royal Holloway, University of London employment. We have therefore suggested and Alexander Teytelboym University of Oxford that matching systems should also be used [email protected] www.refugees-say.com at the local level. For example, two-sided matching could be used: by the United 1. www.fmreview.org/destination-europe/jones-teytelboym Kingdom to allocate 20,000 Syrians arriving 26 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017 The secondary migration of refugees resettled in the US Jeffrey Bloem and Scott Loveridge

More and more refugees are resettled in communities where they have no intention of living and then move on.

While the assumptions underlying the In some places secondary migration current refugee resettlement system in the has massive consequences. For example, United States (US) may have been true 35 Minnesota accepted roughly 2,000 refugees years ago, the likelihood of an arriving in 2012 and 2013 but by the end of each fiscal refugee having no connections in the US year it had received over 2,000 more refugees diminishes every year. Every year the odds through secondary migration, largely into increase that an incoming refugee will have the Minneapolis-St Paul metropolitan area. family or friends already living in the US, Refugees move for the same reasons that and advances in global connectivity have any other person would move: to migrate aided future refugees to keep in touch with towards increased job prospects, lower former refugees. So incoming refugees, now housing costs or better school systems; to live more than ever, have strong connections closer to friends or family members; or to take and geographic preferences when arriving advantage of some geographical location or in the US. In recent years, homogeneous environmental amenity. It is rather the ways ethnic or cultural communities have in which refugees differ from the average begun to spring up all over the country, a mover that make their secondary migration phenomenon that refugee resettlement policy, remarkable, as refugees generally have less which aims rather to ‘spread the burden’ of wealth, initially do not have a full-time job, refugees across the country under a policy potentially do not speak English fluently, and of dispersal in the initial placement of have little knowledge about life in the US. refugees, is actually designed to prevent. It may seem unlikely that newly arrived Finding out why refugees move on refugees would spend their scarce financial When the US first began resettling refugees, resources on moving onwards when they have the community in which they were initially so many other challenging expenses. Refugees assigned to live was as good as any other must repay a loan for the cost of their flight community in the country. Thirty-five years to their new home. Within six months they on, better alternatives exist – and refugees are must begin paying rent. To do this they must increasingly aware of them. There are several quickly find a job. Picking up everything factors in why refugees need to move on: they own, again, and moving does not seem The incentive to remain silent: The most like something many refugees would choose convenient time to gather information from to do. Yet, the data tell us, many do move. refugees on their geographical preferences In both fiscal year 2012 and 2013, the US is during pre-resettlement interviews and accepted roughly 70,000 refugees; within meetings with them. There may, however, a year of arrival, over 10,000 of the 2012 be an incentive for refugees to withhold cohort and over 11,000 of the 2013 cohort information on their preferences due to a had moved out of their initial resettlement mistrust of bureaucratic officials or for fear community. However, these statistics only of ruining their chances of actually being reflect what is reported to the US Office of resettled in a third country. Remaining Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and are probably as amenable as possible may be a rational underestimates of the true rates of secondary strategy for some refugees. Preferences migration. may exist but the refugee may strategically Resettlement 27 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

withhold it believing that moving after community may influence an incoming arrival may well be a safer option compared refugee to migrate into this organisation’s with the risk of possibly losing the life- service area in search of a similar experience. changing opportunity of resettlement. Gains versus losses: Refugees make Refugee policy choices based on gains and losses. Prior Any refugee resettlement practitioner to arrival in the US, preferences tend to be will be quick to point out how important general. Safety and resettlement anywhere it is that refugees remain in their initial is a gain, while remaining in a refugee camp resettlement location for at least the first 90 or in danger due to violence is a loss. After days. Once a refugee moves, it is difficult arrival, however, the relative gains and losses for their services to be administered in the from living in different locations shift and new community. For this reason most local inform the decision to stay or move on. voluntary agencies actively discourage Updated geographical information: refugees from moving soon after resettlement. Refugees may know about the whereabouts of Local agencies are acutely aware of the their friends or family but may underestimate consequences of secondary migration on the distances in the US. Prior to their both the efficacy of the agency’s services arrival, incoming refugees may wrongly and the welfare of refugees themselves. assume that they will easily be able to visit Refugees are promised special services for relatives and friends already living in the up to five years after arrival and a failure US, simply because they will reside in the to adequately handle secondary migration same country. Upon arrival refugees may places resettlement communities and refugees desire to move in order to be nearer to their at risk. Some federal funding is provided friends and family – and they may only for voluntary agencies that are dramatically realise this once they arrive in the country. affected by secondary migration; formulas Network decision making: Relatively for allocating such funds, however, are large groups of highly networked refugees based on numbers of historical resettlement now call various communities home. Some patterns rather than on projections of future of these groups make migratory decisions patterns and often fall short of local needs. as a group but arriving refugees may not Efforts to improve the dispersal of have any idea where the group is planning refugees resettled in the US have been on moving until after they arrive. made in recent years. In 2010 the ORR ‘State-shopping’: Refugee resettlement enumerated a number of principles to guide programmes are extremely complex, with its services; in the explanation of these funds for assistance services coming from principles, however, secondary migration various budgetary streams, both public and is mentioned only twice. Firstly, it is stated private. Furthermore, eligibility for various that “Appropriate placement and services services such as temporary assistance to from the onset is [sic] seen as a preventative needy families, Medicaid (the social health- measure against the challenges brought by care programme for families and individuals secondary migration” and, secondly, there is with limited resources) and employment a reference to the intention to develop a data assistance varies quite noticeably between system that can track secondary migration states. This results in refugees engaging on from initial placements. Better placement in so-called state-shopping in search of a techniques and additional data-informed location where they stand the best chance decision making are certainly welcome of becoming self-sufficient. In addition, improvements to the US refugee resettlement stories and rumours circulate about where system but innovations are needed. the best services and organisations are One such innovation often used to combat located. Friends who may have had a good this issue is to present incoming refugees with experience with the services of a particular a contract. In signing the contract refugees local resettlement organisation in a different agree to report any information about the 28 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017 UNHCR/Sebastian Rich

A distribution centre run by Catholic charities to help newly arriving refugees in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2013. whereabouts of anybody they know who is location, a launch pad, where refugees currently living in the US. Additionally they simply receive initial core services. The many agree not to move within the first 90 days implications of the answer to this question of their arrival in the US under penalty of must be carefully considered. Given the forfeiting their right to core services. This current reality of resettling refugees and their policy aims to change the incentives by secondary migration, perhaps the answer is rewarding refugees who share information to redesign resettlement to be more dynamic but could penalise refugees who do not and to account for changing preferences. possess the information they might need in Jeffrey Bloem [email protected] order to communicate what their geographic PhD Student, Department of Applied Economics, preferences will be once they arrive in the US. University of Minnesota www.apec.umn.edu The question that lies at the core of the challenges brought by secondary migration Scott Loveridge [email protected] is whether the initial location should be a Professor of Agricultural, Food, and Resource community where refugees are expected Economics, Michigan State University to settle or whether it is more of a receiving www.afre.msu.edu

The importance of legal counsel Betsy Fisher

At each stage of the resettlement process, the presence of counsel – legal advocates – can help refugees to present their complete cases efficiently and avoid unnecessary rejections. This provides benefits to decision makers as well.

Legal advocates are particularly well suited to officials, whether from the UN or resettlement compile a refugee’s narrative and explain why states, making the decisions on refugees’ the facts of the individual’s case demonstrate cases. They can in addition provide input that the individual should be considered for for ways to improve refugee processing. resettlement. At each step of the resettlement The benefits of legal assistance in refugee process, legal advocates can assist and counsel status determination (RSD), the first step individual refugees in how to present their towards resettlement, are well established. narratives clearly – which also benefits those Refugee advocates can operate in refugee Resettlement 29 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

communities and build trust with vulnerable Finally, counsel can provide legal advice refugees, encouraging them to disclose and personal reassurance to refugees, and the narrative of the entire refugee claim a refugee who knows what to expect is less in advance of adjudication in their case. likely to find the process re-traumatising. If a case moves forward to resettlement Highly vulnerable refugees may not be consideration, advocates can also able to access UNHCR offices because of help refugees to assemble supporting serious medical or safety concerns, and documentation, evidence and Country advocates who are active within refugee of Origin Information. In preparing for communities can identify and refer these adjudications, legal representatives can help cases for consideration of resettlement. refugees to understand the information The resettlement state’s processes may and documents that adjudicators need include complicated legal analysis. The to decide their cases, leading to more assistance of counsel is crucial for highly efficient processing. Moreover, advocates vulnerable refugees, especially where can advise refugees on timelines and next in-person interviews are required. If an steps. This also benefits adjudicators, since individual’s case is rejected, counsel is refugees without a clear sense of when then essential to preparing precise appeals, they can expect further information or applying a client’s facts to a set of legal processing may request frequent updates. criteria, and presenting evidence and And by providing competent and qualified arguments to support a refugee’s credibility. legal assistance, advocates can limit the Betsy L Fisher [email protected] number of those seeking to exploit or Policy Director, International Refugee Assistance misguide refugees in their applications. Project, Urban Justice Center www.refugeerights.org Who will resettle single Syrian men? Lewis Turner Resettlement programmes for Syrian refugees severely restrict access to resettlement for single men, despite the conditions of vulnerability, insecurity and danger in which they live.

Resettlement opportunities for Syrian children and sexual minorities would refugees are allocated to those who are be prioritised. The British government deemed to be particularly vulnerable, consistently cites women and children and thousands of Syrian men, women as examples of the ‘most vulnerable’. and children have now been resettled. These policies should be understood However, single Syrian men (‘unattached’ in the context of domestic politics in or ‘unaccompanied’ adult males) living in resettlement states. Firstly, excluding or Middle Eastern host states face particular minimising the number of single men challenges in accessing resettlement. reflects the widely held view that ‘authentic’ Host states that offer resettlement refugees are women and children, who are places for Syrians regularly exclude or try implicitly vulnerable and in need of external to minimise the numbers of single men. assistance. Secondly, with these policies In November 2015, it was widely reported resettlement states are responding to, rather that the Canadian government would not than challenging, Islamophobic portrayals be accepting any unaccompanied men, of Muslim Arab men as threatening, and as unless they identified themselves as non- potential terrorists, rather than as victims heterosexual. Canadian officials denied and survivors of the conflict in Syria. there was a blanket ban on single men The timetables imposed by some but acknowledged that families, women, resettlement countries also create difficulties 30 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

for single men seeking resettlement. For privately), opportunities for resettlement are example, the new Canadian government distributed according to how ‘vulnerable’ promised to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees refugees are deemed to be. As it pertains to by the end of February 2016. Canadian visa resettlement, the categories of vulnerability officers were allowed to presume that those include women at risk, survivors of violence fleeing the conflict met the definition of a and torture, children and adolescents at refugee, unless there was evidence to the risk, those with medical needs or legal contrary, and their interview process therefore and physical protection needs, and those focused on “security risks, criminality and lacking foreseeable durable solutions. hea lt h”.1 Knowing that single men are liable While determinations of vulnerability to receive much more extensive security are typically presented as objective and screening from resettlement states made neutral, they are in fact deeply subjective resettlement officers in host countries less and political. Single Syrian men’s chances likely to submit single men for consideration. for resettlement are determined, in part, by Furthermore, knowing that they are under the prevailing perceptions of vulnerability pressure to reach targets (which are often in the humanitarian sector. Throughout politically imposed) discourages resettlement my research into how the humanitarian officers from working on case files of sector approaches its work with Syrian men, individuals, in favour of large families, and I encountered a widespread and deeply large Syrian families have at times been ingrained assumption, subject to little critical prioritised for resettlement for this reason. For scrutiny, that refugee women and children resettlement officers, it can become pointless were the ones who were (most) vulnerable. to work on the cases of single men, as this is This assumption ignores the conditions likely to waste the resettlement officers’ time of vulnerability and insecurity that Syrian and needlessly raise refugees’ expectations. men face.2 Single Syrian men in particular are often rendered vulnerable by their ‘Vulnerability’ circumstances. For example, in Lebanon Working within whatever restrictions a many single Syrian men live in fear for resettlement state lays down (publicly or their safety, predominantly due to threats UNHCR/E Dorfman

A Syrian refugee, now living with his family in Lebanon, holds photos of his sons. He covers their faces to avoid recognition. Like other young Syrian men who have fled Syria, they fear they will be punished by the Syrian government or made to join the army should they be found. Resettlement 31 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

they face from Lebanese authorities. Single high, one must take into account that 22% Syrian men ‘of military age’ have been of cases included between seven and 10 barred from entering Jordan since 2013, individuals, and 55% included between meaning that they were often forced to enter four and six individuals.3 This means that irregularly and may remain unregistered. one would expect 100 cases to include This leaves them both vulnerable to around 500 individuals, of whom only exploitation and less able to access services. nine would be resettled as individuals. NGO workers often assume that adult Since the Canadian government does not males could (or should) be working and release figures that provide a breakdown by therefore should be more self-sufficient gender and family size, it is not clear what than other refugees. Yet informal proportion of these resettled individuals work entails the risk of arrest, forced were male or female, although, given encampment, or refoulement to Syria. Single prevailing cultural norms, one might Syrian men’s vulnerability is reflected in expect them to be predominantly male. data gathered by humanitarian actors, The notions of vulnerability employed but this rarely translates into targetted in resettlement programmes and the short humanitarian support or protection. timeframes involved may be politically Two ways in which it can sometimes expedient but they come at the cost of be possible for single Syrian men to be ignoring a particular set of insecurities and recognised as vulnerable and in need of threats that single male refugees face. resettlement is if they are either victims Additionally, while maintaining its of torture or identify as non-heterosexual. focus on the conditions of vulnerability Refugees whose cases for resettlement fall and insecurity that refugee women, girls under the category of LGBT (lesbian, gay, and boys experience, the humanitarian bisexual, transgender) are recognised as sector needs to become more closely attuned a priority because of the persecution they to the conditions of vulnerability and might face. The number of valid cases for insecurity that affect single refugee men LGBT resettlement, however, far exceeds (and adult male refugees more generally).4 the number of places available, and LGBT This recognition would allow access to refugees often encounter prejudice in their resettlement for a particular demographic interactions with the humanitarian sector. group of refugees who are not typically On the ground, resettlement officers thought of as vulnerable but who are often understand that some countries of in danger, and would help humanitarian resettlement are more likely to be flexible actors to engage more effectively with a than others; the United Kingdom, for group that is not ordinarily considered example, has been fairly strict in its adherence to be among its primary beneficiaries. to its strongly stated preference not to take Lewis Turner [email protected] single men for resettlement, while Canada PhD Candidate, Department of Politics and did accept single men for resettlement International Studies, SOAS, University of London on the grounds of an LGBT claim, severe www.soas.ac.uk disabilities or because they were victims of 1. Information provided by the Canadian Embassy in Amman, via torture. Canadian private sponsors were also email, 19 July 2016. able to identify individuals for resettlement 2. Turner L (2016) ‘Are Syrian Men Vulnerable Too? Gendering the and were able to consider single men. Syria Refugee Response’, Middle East Institute This means that there have been some http://bit.ly/Turner-291116 limited chances for people to be resettled 3. Government of Canada (2016) ‘#WelcomeRefugees: The Journey as individuals, rather than as part of to Canada’ http://bit.ly/Canada-welcomerefugees 4. See for example Davis R, Taylor A and Murphy E (2014) families. According to figures released by ‘Gender, conscription and protection, and the war in Syria’, the Canadian government, 9% of Syrian Forced Migration Review issue 47 resettlement cases had a family size of ‘1’. www.fmreview.org/syria/davis-taylor-murphy While this percentage may appear quite 32 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017 How NGOs have helped shape resettlement Amy Slaughter

NGOs have a rich history of involvement in case identification and referral for resettlement, and have helped to increase numbers, improve processes and make resettlement more equitable, and accountable, for refugees.

While one can easily grow impatient the mid-1990s following the end of the with resettlement’s shortcomings, it is Cold War. In particular, the US changed its important to consider how far resettlement policy in 1995 to give priority to referrals has come over the past decades and the submitted by UNHCR, as opposed to role that non-governmental organisations prioritising lists of specific groups of (NGOs) have played in its evolution. concern to the US that could access The involvement of civil society in resettlement directly through one of the resettlement pre-dates the creation of State Department’s NGO partners. Intended the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, and to create a more equitable global system the establishment of formal resettlement focused on humanitarian needs, the move programmes by receiving countries. Faith- had the unintended consequence of chronic based and secular humanitarian groups referral shortfalls for the next twelve actively identified and assisted refugees to years as UNHCR did not immediately resettle prior to, during and after the second have the capacity to substitute for the world war. With the Indochinese crisis cases historically generated by NGOs in the 1970s and 1980s the United States through the ‘direct access’ programmes. (US) developed the Orderly Departure Program with the aid of the International Struggling to fill quotas Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) to Responding to criticism over this and screen eligible applicants. UNHCR’s role warnings that it could undermine UNHCR’s was primarily to broker the arrangement credibility with resettlement countries, between Vietnam and the US rather than threaten future funding and result in to identify the people to be resettled. reduced quotas,1 UNHCR set about Similarly, for Indochinese who fled to developing a ‘rationalised’ resettlement Thailand, NGOs such as the International programme, with consistently applied Rescue Committee (IRC) identified and criteria and professional, trained staff. processed them for resettlement. It was at this point that the resettlement The other dominant caseload in the criteria we know today were codified 1980s and early 1990s were Soviet religious and the first Resettlement Handbook was minorities. As for the Vietnamese, NGOs published in 1996. The first coordinating were the frontline screening agents for forum was created – the Annual Tripartite resettlement, most notably the Hebrew Consultations on Resettlement – with Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) in Vienna the original brief to strategise on closing and Rome. In fact, prior to the mid-1990s, the gap between referrals and quotas. NGOs working closely with governments It was also at this point that, in its effort were responsible for the bulk of case to rise to the demands of resettlement identification and referral. Until that time, countries, UNHCR focused intensively resettlement was seen largely as a foreign on building its internal capacity rather policy or immigration concern of receiving than building on partnership models states, to be handled through their own with NGOs, as had been successfully channels with little involvement by UNHCR. employed by resettlement states. The The shift to the greater role for UNHCR partnerships between states and NGOs in resettlement that we see today came in had existed in parallel with UNHCR’s Resettlement 33 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

referral system, meaning that UNHCR did UNHCR referrals to be divided among all not have a rich history of partnering with resettlement countries were 35,000, equal NGOs on resettlement on which to build. to just half of the US’s quota alone. The notable exception to this trend was the development in 1998 of a deployment Resurgence of NGO involvement scheme administered by ICMC to Seeing the discrepancy between unused supplement UNHCR’s resettlement staffing. slots and acuteness of needs witnessed in Due to the scale of the scheme, however, the field, more NGOs felt compelled to find it has not played out quite as envisioned, ways to shore up the operational capacity. which was the temporary secondment of Recognising that the crucial gap continued NGO staff. The high demand for staffing to be around staffing to conduct case has resulted in the majority being hired identification and referrals, RefugePoint3 specifically for deployment to UNHCR, was founded in 2005 with the initial goal sometimes without prior NGO experience. of ensuring that available resettlement There were experiments with other quotas were fully utilised, particularly for forms of partnership for case identification African cases, which had historically fared and referral during this time. Notably, poorly compared with other regions. in the early 2000s, IRC in Pakistan began NGOs loaning resettlement staff to a project to identify at-risk Afghans and UNHCR has now become commonplace. refer them to UNHCR for resettlement With ICMC by far the largest provider, consideration. The rationale was that the these ‘auxiliary workforces’ collectively scale of the refugee crisis in Pakistan left produce around 60% of all resettlement UNHCR handling only those cases that self- referrals annually. Beyond deploying staff identified for resettlement, whereas an NGO to UNHCR, international NGOs continue could focus on outreach to find the most to work with and train national NGOs so as vulnerable cases. IRC worked closely with to expand the reach of resettlement to cases local NGOs in the identification process and, that otherwise would not gain access, using not having to deal with the full enormity their unique position in refugee communities of the crisis as UNHCR did, could dedicate to identify the most at-risk cases and refer resources to conducting home visits and them to UNHCR for consideration. There is better verifying the merits of the cases. now an online Toolkit hosted on UNHCR’s In Kenya in 2002, in the wake of a website intended to encourage NGOs corruption scandal that halted UNHCR to identify cases and, correspondingly, resettlement activities, HIAS developed to encourage local UNHCR offices to a resettlement identification and referral welcome and process NGO referrals. 4 programme.2 The US State Department, While it is difficult to disentangle the frustrated with the continued lack of sufficient various contributions that resulted in UNHCR referrals to fill its annual admissions significantly expanded capacity and quotas quota, offered a series of NGO trainings being met, the fact that in recent years NGOs intended to result in NGOs authorised to have become trusted, relied-upon sources refer cases to the US. This initiative was of resettlement referrals – combined with eventually abandoned, in part because the UNHCR having adopted a more welcoming trainings resulted in few agencies signing approach to partnering with NGOs – has on and few referrals from the ones that did. undoubtedly served the programme well. For a new generation of resettlement Beyond added capacity, NGO professionals, UNHCR was the only involvement has brought other benefits. referral agent known. And for many While by necessity UNHCR must focus on European countries, reliance on UNHCR generating sufficient referrals to respond to and lack of NGO involvement had been donor and resettlement country demands, the norm so the memory of significant NGOs are freer to focus on vulnerability NGO involvement faded. By 2003, total and the merits of individual cases. 34 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

One of RefugePoint’s goals has been to resettlement was an activity driven by ensure equitable access to resettlement, both a few resettlement countries for mixed in the sense of geographic distribution of humanitarian and foreign policy motives. resettlement opportunities and demographic In its next phase, resettlement became distribution within those geographies; this formalised and led by UNHCR. In its has also been a stated goal of UNHCR and current phase, resettlement might benefit resettlement governments over the years. from greater accountability, with the time RefugePoint has tracked the percentage ripe for establishing common impact referred country by country in Africa, for measurements around resettlement, beyond example, and what emerges is an improving referral numbers. As a community we picture. In 2005, refugees of 23 different might develop measures, for instance, to nationalities were referred from 28 different answer the questions about how effective host countries in Africa. By 2015, it was up resettlement is as a durable solution, how to 28 nationalities referred from 34 host equitably it is implemented, and whether countries and referral numbers for those same it is reaching those who need it the most. years increased from 15,000 to nearly 39,000. Amy Slaughter [email protected] Chief Strategy Officer, RefugePoint Conclusion www.refugepoint.org The increased involvement of NGOs in 1. Frederiksson J and Mougne C (1994) Resettlement in the 1990s: A the identification and referral process Review of Policy and Practice, UNHCR Evaluation Report over the past decade has brought with it www.unhcr.org/3ae6bcfd4.pdf a steady spotlight on issues of equity and 2. See article by Melonee Douglas, Rachel Levitan and Lucy accountability, which has improved and Kiama, pp34-37. strengthened the resettlement programme 3. Originally under the name Mapendo International overall. Leading up to the mid-1990s, 4. UNHCR (2015) UNHCR-NGO Toolkit for Practical Cooperation on Resettlement http://bit.ly/UNHCR-NGO-resettlement-toolkit Expanding the role of NGOs in resettlement Melonee Douglas, Rachel Levitan and Lucy W Kiama

With global resettlement needs growing and more refugees living outside camps, NGOs are uniquely positioned to identify and interview vulnerable refugees and to play a larger role in refugee resettlement.

Camps, for better or worse, have been the As more refugees began to settle outside backbone of global refugee resettlement, camps, the traditional identification and with most referrals coming from camp-based referral mechanisms that the resettlement populations and submitted to resettlement programme relied on did not translate countries (those countries offering to resettle well from camps to urban settings and refugees) almost exclusively by UNHCR, UNHCR was forced to identify refugees the UN Refugee Agency. With large refugee in need of resettlement mainly through populations living in camps and registering data from registration and RSD. In host to access services, UNHCR and its partners countries where registration and RSD were easily able to identify and refer cases data were unreliable, and where UNHCR for resettlement. Resettlement countries was not able to effectively reach the were comfortable with the opportunity most vulnerable refugee communities, provided by camps for organised and identification became challenging. systematic registration, refugee status In response to this changing refugee determination (RSD), identification, landscape, in the early 2000s Canada and referral and submission procedures. the US approved two non-governmental Resettlement 35 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

organisations (NGOs) in the Africa region for example, where resettlement caseloads – RefugePoint (then called Mapendo are primarily urban, UNHCR struggles to International) and HIAS – to submit out- produce enough submissions for resettlement. of-camp cases directly to them, creating a This is partly because resettlement approval parallel structure to UNHCR’s resettlement rates for identified cases – many of whom process. These ‘direct referrals’, though few are from Syria and Iraq – are as low as in comparison with the number of UNHCR 50-60%, and partly because of higher submissions, in some years accounted than average drop-out rates. NGOs, often for a significant proportion of the total located in refugee neighbourhoods, with submissions in Nairobi and Kampala, the established relationships to vulnerable two urban locations where they operate. refugee communities, are well-positioned to This relatively modest direct referral identify refugees who fit the approval profile programme continues to operate in Africa. for specific resettlement countries. UNHCR Despite increased demands by does not always have the time or staff resettlement countries for cases, direct NGO capacity to properly sort the cases according referral programmes have not increased to where they have the best chance of being proportionally, either in terms of programme approved. NGOs’ more nuanced approach location or numbers of NGOs engaged. is an asset to the programme and part of the To meet the need, donors, resettlement reason why their approval rates are so high. countries and UNHCR should support and Third, direct referrals increase access implement NGO direct referral programmes for particularly vulnerable individuals. For more widely, expanding the number of instance, most LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, specialised NGOs engaged in case referral transgender and intersex) refugees cannot and increasing the overall number of live in camps because UNHCR is not able appropriate, vulnerable cases referred. to provide them with adequate protection from the refugee community. Similarly, The value of NGO direct referrals there are women at risk and sexual and In addition to increasing the overall numbers gender-based violence cases who also are of cases submitted, there are other significant not afforded protection from other refugees benefits of expanding NGO direct referral in the camps. In general, these individuals programmes. feel less exposed and can access better First is the creation of parallel pathways protection in urban areas through NGOs’ in the resettlement system. This is more services and programmes. Some extremely than just creating access; parallel pathways vulnerable refugees are reluctant to refer allow the programme to continue if one themselves for resettlement to UNHCR, pathway breaks down or experiences a having no established relationship with any stoppage. For instance, if UNHCR must of its staff. NGOs, by contrast, work closely focus its efforts on submissions to one with these vulnerable refugees by providing particular country to support an upcoming services over an extended period, and create adjudication mission (thereby decreasing environments that encourage them to disclose submissions to other countries), NGOs details of persecution based on gender, sexual can assist in filling the gap so that no orientation and gender identity. In some resettlement country has to experience a lull cases, these NGOs are the only agencies that in submissions. Additionally, if funding for more marginalised groups approach when UNHCR submissions is cut, NGOs that have they first arrive in a country of asylum. private funding designated for resettlement Fourth, NGO direct referrals are activities are well positioned to continue cost efficient. For NGOs, outreach and providing these countries with referrals. identification of resettlement cases occurs Second, direct referrals from NGOs daily through regular programme activities, alleviate some of the pressure on UNHCR which amounts to a subsidy of these to produce submissions. In the Middle East, resettlement-related services. 36 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

Best practice RSD and resettlement interviews, limiting While NGOs’ role in identification and RSD to those being referred for resettlement, referral is welcomed by resettlement diversifying the NGO partners for the countries and UNHCR alike, the NGOs’ role deployment scheme, and introducing shorter in submitting cases directly to resettlement resettlement referral forms. However, for countries – rather than to UNHCR – is the most part, the response to the requested controversial. Critics argue that this model increase in quotas has been achieved through can cause refugees to perceive direct referral surge operations – which are not sustainable. NGOs as gateways to resettlement. To Resettlement countries that have mitigate this, NGOs should only submit employed surges readily admit that the cases that are referred to them by external associated costs are unsustainable and that partners. If they deem a client to be in need the speed with which cases were processed of resettlement (a so-called internal referral), led to integration difficulties and increased the case should be referred to UNHCR or to anxiety among refugees and caseworkers, another agency approved to submit cases and was one of many contributing factors directly. As an added measure, RefugePoint to high dropout rates prior to departure. and HIAS conduct regular case conference The most easily accessible vulnerable cases meetings with UNHCR, prior to submission, were identified for submission, which is to verify family composition, mitigate fraud, not the same as prioritising cases based prevent overlaps in service delivery and better solely on vulnerability. In effect, the surges, ensure the integrity of the programme. In while producing larger numbers of people any case, all NGO submissions go through for resettlement, have taken resources from the same security checks by the resettlement more protracted caseloads, exacerbated country as the UNHCR submissions. tensions between refugee populations and The current direct referral partnership created an imbalance between addressing model has been lauded as a best practice by vulnerable cases and achieving targets. resettlement countries, with each of the NGOs being encouraged to increase their respective A new model for a new normal submissions from Nairobi (RefugePoint and A NGO direct referral system must play HIAS) and Kampala (HIAS) while the latest a larger role in assisting UNHCR to direct referral agency, International Refugee achieve growth while simultaneously Assistance Project (IRAP), has been approved prioritising vulnerability. To effectively to submit cases from the Middle-East expand the NGO direct referral system, North Africa region. Despite the request for the following steps are needed: increased submissions from many countries Approve more NGOs to conduct direct since 2011, surprisingly only Australia has referrals: Just as UNHCR has implementing agreed to join Canada and the US in accepting partners for the services it offers to refugees, direct referrals. Furthermore, IRAP is the so too should the resettlement programme only NGO that has been approved to submit have at least one NGO implementing partner cases to the US since that time. UNHCR has for resettlement submissions in every location projected that there are 1,190,519 refugees in where there are resettlement operations. need of resettlement in 2017, and that given This NGO should be well-established in the its current resources its target for actual host country, and offer other programmes submissions is 169,789.1 While secondments and services. With UNHCR committed to and deployments from NGO partners are one actively pursuing alternatives to camps for option to increase submissions, submissions refugees and with host countries increasingly by NGOs provide an additional opportunity choosing not to construct camps, the need to increase resettlement numbers. to identify and refer vulnerable refugees So far, to increase submissions, UNHCR in non-camp settings for resettlement is and the resettlement countries have come up critical. The role of NGOs in such referrals with creative solutions such as combining is not disputed but there is a need for more Resettlement 37 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

NGOs to be approved by resettlement direct referrals in South Africa. A simple countries to submit cases directly. model could be introduced whereby a Train NGOs to conduct direct resettlement agency could partner with referrals: An NGO training programme specialised civil society agencies working should be designed by UNHCR and the with, for example, sexual minority refugees three current direct referral NGOs, with or refugees with disabilities to identify input from resettlement countries, and appropriate cases for referral. Targeting be offered on an annual basis. Currently, specific vulnerable populations in locations the direct referral NGOs train their where, for whatever reason, resettlement partners on how to refer cases to them. has not kept pace with the needs would be However, there is no induction training a strategic use of direct referral NGOs. available for new direct referral NGOs. While NGOs have a prominent role Increase the number of resettlement to play in the identification of vulnerable countries that accept direct referrals from individuals and their referral to UNHCR for NGOs: The US, Canada and Australia should resettlement consideration, their role in the promote this model to other resettlement submission of cases directly to resettlement countries and explain the benefits of NGO countries has been limited. With the shift direct referrals. In particular, countries that to the majority of refugees living outside accept referrals on a ‘dossier’ basis (that is, camps, operational modalities in most sectors without interviewing the refugee before have had to move away from traditional arrival in the resettlement country) could models and find innovative ways to adapt. especially benefit from this programme if The resettlement sector should do the same. their goal is to reach the most vulnerable. Melonee Douglas [email protected] Fund direct referrals: The cost to the Director, Durable Solutions, HIAS NGOs of the direct referral programmes has not just been financial. Because NGOs offer Rachel Levitan [email protected] this service free of charge to resettlement Associate Vice President, Global Programs, countries, resettlement countries have little Strategy and Planning, HIAS sense of responsibility to serve as a true Lucy W Kiama [email protected] partner. To grow the programme responsibly, Country Director, HIAS Kenya NGOs need to be funded for their services, at least partially or on a matching basis. www.hias.org Most NGOs – particularly those based in 1. UNHCR Projected Global Resettlement Needs 2017 refugee communities with deep ties to http://bit.ly/UNHCR-ResettlementNeeds2017 vulnerable populations – would find it extremely challenging to run a direct referral programme that does not receive the kind of funding from resettlement countries thematic listings or UNHCR that other programmes do. Strategically use NGO referral agencies www.fmreview.org/thematic-listings to expand resettlement in specific locations: In response to requests from readers, we now By expanding the number of NGO referral publish thematic listings of FMR articles on agencies and the number of resettlement specific topics. Topics to date: countries willing to accept them, locations Rohingya • Children on the move • Trafficking where the resettlement programmes are and smuggling of people • Protection at sea • insufficient for the need could be strategically Youth • Health expanded. For instance, the resettlement You will find for each article listed: the title, year programme in South Africa has remained of publication, the author(s), some introductory stagnant for years, hovering at around sentences, and links (url and QR code) to where 1,400 referrals a year since 2011. Currently, you can access the full article online. there is no NGO that is approved to do 38 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017 Resettlement as a protection tool for refugee children Susanna Davies and Carol Batchelor

There is a need to ensure that new and existing initiatives to resettle refugee children at risk, including unaccompanied children, are better able to serve their unique protection needs in today’s global context.

Today, more than half of refugees and submitted for resettlement as part of asylum seekers worldwide are children family units and under other resettlement under the age of 18. Displaced girls and boys categories than under UNHCR’s category leave behind not only homes and family of ‘children and adolescents at risk’. members but also the safety and stability essential to their long-term development. In Current resettlement needs of children the face of forced displacement on a scale at risk unseen in the recent past, resettlement Globally, nearly 100,000 – or slightly less is relevant not only for the protection of than 1% – of all refugee and asylum-seeking those in need but also as a mechanism for children are separated from their families. global responsibility sharing. A myriad of While these children are highly vulnerable international agencies and the public at large without their usual parent or caregiver to have shown a surge of interest in resettlement, support them, refugee children within family and resettlement of children in particular. units can also face a variety of acute and Prioritisation of children at risk as a sometimes life-threatening risks. As well category for resettlement dates back to the 1980s, when the United States (US) established its Unaccompanied Refugee Minor Program to support children among the ‘boat people’ fleeing Vietnam. Since then, other high-profile displacements, including that of the Lost Boys of Sudan, have led to an increased focus on unaccompanied children for resettlement. Other traditional resettlement countries, including Norway and Sweden, have established programmes to resettle and support unaccompanied refugee children. The United Kingdom (UK) established a new initiative in 2016 to resettle vulnerable refugee children from the Middle East and North Africa, regardless of their family separation status. Currently the number of resettlement places is dramatically less than the needs of children for whom resettlement would be the most appropriate solution. Globally, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, submitted nearly 4,500 children and adolescents for resettlement in 2015, representing 3.6% of global resettlement submissions. Significantly more of these children were Where do you come from? Resettled refugee children in New Zealand share pictures of themselves and use a map of the world to show where they have come from. Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre, Auckland, New Zealand. Resettlement 39 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

as unaccompanied and separated children, sexual and gender-based violence, including children at risk include survivors of sexual child marriage and sexual exploitation as well and gender-based violence, children who as child labour. There have also been reported are recruited into armed groups, children cases of recruitment of refugee children into who are exploited and forced to work in armed groups, with 12,000 children within dangerous and harmful conditions, and other South Sudan estimated to have been recruited. children facing violence, abuse, neglect and Resettlement may not be the solution exploitation. Estimates based upon prevalence in the best interests of all these children, rates of the main risks could put the number however. In the majority of cases, refugee as high as 1.9 million refugee children at risk. children receive support to address their Focusing on specific displacement protection issues locally, are reunified contexts reveals different patterns and with family in refugee-hosting countries prevalence of risks facing refugee children. within the region and in some cases Among Syrian refugees in the Middle East, eventually return to their country of origin. for example, some 10,000 children – or less The appropriateness of resettlement to than 0.5% of all children among this refugee resolve a child’s protection situation would population – are separated from their family. always be determined on an individual Far more children face other equally harmful basis through resettlement screening risks including hazardous child labour and and UNHCR’s Best Interests Procedures.1 child marriage, especially as families face However, the sheer number of girls and dwindling resources. Among South Sudanese boys facing acute protection risks compared refugees, on the other hand, approximately with the very limited number of places for 44,000 children – or 5% of child refugees – are resettlement reveals a wide gulf between separated or unaccompanied. South Sudanese the needs and the availability of solutions. refugee children also face significant risks of The recommended response Any resettlement programme could usefully include a targeted focus on the category of children and adolescents at risk, including children within family groups and children separated from their parents or families. The UK’s new initiative for children in the Middle East and North Africa is an important first step in this direction. Importantly, the children and adolescents at risk category avoids promoting negative coping mechanisms, as families have been known to separate on purpose in order to gain access to schemes which solely resettle unaccompanied and separated children. Recognising that each child’s needs, capacities and protection risks are different, an individual assessment or determination of their best interests must remain central to any resettlement decision and guide the resettlement process. Family unity, in particular, must continue to be prioritised in Best Interests Procedures and must also be recognised by receiving states as a primary consideration for the well- UNHCR/I Earp-Jones UNHCR/I Earp-Jones being of children, noting the pivotal 40 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

role that families play in children’s children and families.2 Resettlement workers protection and long-term development. are based in schools, assigned to work with Prospects for family reunification should individual children and their families, and be a key factor in the decision whether to provide ongoing counselling, home visits resettle a child, and steps should be taken to and educational advice and support. ensure that resettlement does not undermine or seriously hamper future reunion with The future their family. Following their arrival in a Our collective focus on addressing the needs resettlement country, it is important for of children at risk could be sharpened and unaccompanied and separated children to new initiatives to respond to needs would be able to benefit from family reunification be valuable. New programmes should with both close and extended family consider all children at risk, avoiding the members. Visa restrictions that prevent pitfalls of focusing solely on unaccompanied children from being reunited, after their and separated children. At the same time, arrival in the country of resettlement, with UNHCR could do more to ensure that family members who are traceable present children and adolescents at risk, for whom a significant obstacle to the resettlement of resettlement might be in their best interests, unaccompanied and separated children. are identified proactively. In refugee In addition, family reunification policies operations where systems already exist for could do more to accommodate differing identifying refugee children facing risks cultural family structures within law and and referring them for local protection policy. Most resettlement countries currently services and support, these systems could only allow for family reunification with the be better linked with resettlement services. nuclear family. Such restrictions have posed UNHCR, its partners and states must challenges to finding solutions for children continue to identify innovative approaches trying to reunite with family members to protecting children on the move – whether in the context of the recent emergency in through resettlement or other pathways to Europe. Furthermore, shortened waiting durable solutions.3 Importantly, any progress times and prioritisation of rapid processing in keeping children on the move safe must of children at risk can help mitigate the include support to strengthen national child long-term negative impacts of prolonged protection systems for the benefit ofall family separation on their development. children, as well as continued collaboration Finally, continued support upon arrival with states to ensure respect for existing in the resettlement countries is crucial for principles and frameworks governing children and their families. Children and protection and assistance to children. adolescents at risk will require continued It is no surprise that countries of asylum protection services and assistance to struggle to meet the demand for good- integrate safely in their new community. quality child protection services in most Psychosocial services, whether through refugee operations. However, resettlement counselling or local peer networks, will be will not be the solution in the best interests essential to assist children at risk and their of the majority of the nearly 12.5 million families to overcome past experiences and refugee and asylum-seeking children successfully embark upon their new life. globally. Most of these children and their Careful attention should also be placed on families will remain in their countries initiatives to encourage integration, especially of first asylum. To meet their protection those pairing refugee children and families needs, greater investment in long-term with members of local communities and child protection and education programmes providing opportunities to form new support within refugee operations is sorely needed. networks. Canada’s current Settlement Resettlement has become an increasingly Workers in Schools scheme provides an vital part of UNHCR’s efforts to find excellent example of support provision for solutions and advocate for more equitable Resettlement 41 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

responsibility sharing for refugees. Within Carol Batchelor [email protected] this focus, resettlement processes could Director, Division of International Protection, be strengthened to better meet the distinct UNHCR protection needs of children and adolescents www.unhcr.org at risk. Increased investment in protection 1. (2008) UNHCR Guidelines on Determining the Best Interests of the and social welfare services for children in Child www.refworld.org/docid/48480c342.html and (2011) Field countries of first asylum and in resettlement Handbook for the Implementation of UNHCR BID Guidelines countries will help refugee children in www.refworld.org/docid/4e4a57d02.html the search for long-term solutions. 2. See http://swissask.ca/ 3. See Background Paper for the 2016 High Commissioner’s Susanna Davies [email protected] Dialogue on Children on the Move: www.unhcr.org/583d8e597 Roving Child Protection Expert, Division of International Protection, UNHCR

An unequal partnership: resettlement service providers in Australia Niro Kandasamy

The relationship between government and government-contracted refugee resettlement service providers in Australia needs to be based more on autonomy and trust.

In September 2015 the Australian government out by government to a range of CSOs. announced that it would provide an Resettlement services provided by these CSOs additional 12,000 places to resettle refugees include assistance on arrival, information, from Syria and Iraq, begging the question of referrals (to government agencies that provide how the government would facilitate their income, health care, etc) and housing services. resettlement. In Australia, the government After a period of six to twelve months, relies on Civil Society Organisations refugees can access the Settlement Grants (CSOs) to fulfil its commitment to refugee Program (SGP) which is also contracted out to resettlement but there was little said about CSOs to assist refugees with a range of skills providing enhanced support for CSOs including driving and job development. to cope with the increased workload. Australian CSOs are key agents for Resource limitations supporting refugees who are on the path to Although the range of support to becoming citizens, by advocating for their refugees is not homogeneous across all needs as well as providing immediate and CSOs in Australia, they are all equally ongoing support such as housing, health and affected by resources determined by education. In Australia in the late twentieth government contracts. Agency frontline century, CSOs were encouraged to adopt workers struggle to meet the needs of a New Public Management model that their refugee clients because they cannot emphasised competition and privatisation. find appropriate venues for their refugee CSOs had to tender for government service programmes and have too few staff to share contracts that have now become the norm the workload and fulfil administrative in the delivery of refugee resettlement duties related to their contracts. support and whose contractual obligations For example, a key challenge for frontline challenge the CSOs’ autonomy and model workers is having to meet the needs of their of partnership with government. refugee clients with part-time staffing. In Support for refugees immediately after Australia, the traditional employment of they arrive into the country is contracted part-time workers in CSOs has resulted in 42 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

many CSOs relying on volunteers to run their me and government, a total disconnect on the issue refugee programmes, a situation supported of refugees. There needs to be a shift in the way by the government’s National Volunteering contracts are written, a shift in the relationships Strategy. On the one hand, government and this needs to be on an equal footing and a true contractual arrangements leave a gap between partnership in the true sense of the word.” (CSO resources and the needs of refugees by manager) limiting the amount of resources available to CSOs to employ full-time workers and, Frontline workers and managers of CSOs on the other hand, the government conveys recognise that a contractual relationship with a sense of concern for the welfare of refugee the government is the norm; however, they communities by encouraging volunteering also assert that this collaboration must revolve among civil society to fill these resource around the main goal of fulfilling the needs gaps. CSOs are being forced to devise of all refugees, including those on temporary innovative solutions to meet needs in what is visas. To ensure that Australian CSOs are clearly becoming an increasingly precarious fully supported in their efforts to resettle environment for refugee resettlement. the new refugees without compromising the It is becoming more and more difficult government’s well-established processes for CSOs to fulfil their responsibilities to of contracting out refugee services, the refugees within the market-like structures following recommendations are proposed: of government refugee resettlement Government contracts must prioritise programmes. CSOs advocate for individual the resource requirements of CSOs to refugees’ needs and at the level of fulfil their service delivery obligations government policy. However, advocating to refugees. for refugees particularly at the policy level is difficult for organisations that are in a The government should utilise the contractual relationship with government. expertise of CSOs in refugee resettlement, There is a common perception among beyond conversations with contract CSOs that their contractual relationship with managers, to encourage different government takes away any opportunity perspectives on how best to support the for advocacy work. For example, the re- resettlement of refugees. introduction of Temporary Protection Visas As rural areas of Australia are fast (TPVs) in 2014 prevents CSOs from providing becoming key sites of resettlement for the full range of support to refugees as Syrian refugees, CSOs operating in those on TPVs are not allowed to access these areas will need improved levels the same types of education and training of infrastructure and social networks to that are available to other humanitarian support the resettlement of refugees. entrants; furthermore, CSOs are severely limited in their capacity to advocate for these Enhancing the responsibility of and refugees, whose resettlement is uncertain resources afforded to CSOs has the potential and under review every three years. to improve the outcomes for refugees as they settle in a new land. Respectful Recommendations government-CSO relationships – a true While the Australian government partnership – would serve to strengthen characterises its relationship with CSOs as Australia’s resettlement strategies. a partnership, this relationship is in fact Niro Kandasamy unequal and the government shows little [email protected] appreciation of the views and concerns of PhD Candidate, University of Melbourne; Social CSOs on the resettlement of refugees: Research Officer, Anglicare Victoria “…there exists a cultural, absolute and total www.anglicarevic.org.au disconnect between civil society organisations like Resettlement 43 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement Refugee resettlement and activism in New Zealand Murdoch Stephens

From 2013 the Doing Our Bit campaign has been calling for New Zealand to double its refugee quota from 750 places to 1,500.

Until Canada’s recent intake of Syrian as a way to amplify our message to the refugees, New Zealand was the only country general public. These connections led in the world that received more refugees to our first meetings with sympathetic through a UNHCR resettlement system Members of Parliament from opposition than through asylum seeker applications. parties and we were able to convince the To make up for the fact that only 300 asylum major opposition party, Labour, to include applications are made every year, New an increased refugee quota in their election Zealand seeks to do its fair share through a manifesto – a step in the right direction. quota system. The limited number of ‘quota By February 2015 other advocacy refugees’ welcomed into a population is based groups also were campaigning to double not on the claims made by asylum seekers the quota. In time we also drew in celebrity based on rights, however, but on what public endorsements and the support of mayors and representatives think the public wants. A rights-based framework asserts the rights of people to seek protection regardless of economic value. A rights-based framework is also useful for organisations representing quota refugees once they arrive in resettlement countries. However, democratic institutions – not simply politics and elections, but also the media, advocates, activists and government departments – can offer an additional avenue for the protection of refugees with the number of quota refugees welcomed into a population based not on the claims made by asylum seekers based on rights but on what public representatives think the public want. In New Zealand, a lack of public debate about refugees meant that the size of the annual quota – 750 – did not grow for 30 years. In that time the country’s population grew by 41% and real GDP per capita more than doubled. Those who advocated for a larger quota during this time, however, did so with only limited engagement with the wider public. In 2013 I started the Doing Our Bit campaign to double New Zealand’s refugee quota. The campaign began with no funds and no established public profile. That made social and alternative media the only way to begin. We also focused on friends in the arts, academic and activist communities Matt Grace Campaigners protest outside government buildings, Wellington, New Zealand. 44 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

of other refugee service provision agencies. while asylum seeker applications would be Engagement with the general public was expected to fluctuate with changes in conflict pursued through public meetings, pamphlet and persecution, groups advocating on the drops and art exhibitions. Two years into refugee quota must mobilise public support the campaign, and before the migrant crisis around these moments of review as well as arrived in Europe, one poll showed that 53% at elections. Though the international focus of New Zealanders were in favour of a quota on the recent refugee crisis helped to speed increase. In September 2015 the government up the increase in our permanent quota, we announced that it would provide 600 more were confident we would achieve an increase. quota places (for Syrians) over three years. In June 2016, the government announced Despite our focus on democratic that the refugee quota would permanently institutions, claims on the values of human grow to 1,000 places from 2018, with rights were important for the campaign. developing opportunities for community However, human rights were used to make sponsorship. That increase did not match an appeal to the public via democratic what we and others had campaigned for; institutions, rather than as a basis for a legal however, both main opposition parties have claim in court. Alongside human rights, now adoped the policy of increasing the the campaign was also based on narratives quota to 1,500 places, editorials in all major of fairness (‘doing our bit’) and driven by newspapers condemned the small growth compelling statistics that compared our in the quota, and public sentiment is still contribution with that of other countries. An broadly in favour of accepting refugees. important message for the campaign was There are four main challenges with New that even though Australia, for example, Zealand’s resettlement intake of refugees. treats asylum seekers terribly, New Zealand First, it is easy for states like New Zealand also shirks its responsibilities through to prioritise certain kinds of refugees. having a tiny and stagnant refugee quota. Without the recent public interest in refugees, We, and refugee service provision policymakers have picked refugees who they groups, had been showcasing positive think will settle best rather than focusing on stories about resettlement outcomes and the most vulnerable. While categories were had framed the wider narrative around established for medical and disabled cases the lack of an increase in the quota. A these have been substantially curtailed since campaign for higher refugee quotas can be 2009. The current government has also limited made without creating a narrative where new quota refugees from the Middle East and the quota becomes the only legitimate Africa only to those who already have family avenue for refugee protection, especially if in the country, in direct rejection of UNHCR’s advocates work with the mainstream media focus on the most vulnerable people.1 to clarify the two categories of refugee Second, government selection and protection. In fact, a focus on the quota transportation of refugees through a quota led to less traction for overblown, negative system normalises a system that requires news stories about asylum seekers, and refugees to wait for places that are far fewer most discussions of security issues around than the number required. bringing refugees to New Zealand are now Third, the focus on refugee quotas based on the government screening of the in times of crisis can detract from other refugees arriving through the quota. immediate needs such as aid to countries that host most refugees. Ultimately the Resettlement shortcomings calls for increased refugee quotas need to In New Zealand the refugee resettlement be tied to calls for increased aid rather than quota is planned at three-year intervals. This made in competition with those calls. allows planning for incremental increases Finally, New Zealand is only just to the quota while avoiding narratives of beginning community sponsorship chaotic intakes or ‘floods’ of refugees. So programmes that would allow for public Resettlement 45 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

sentiment to be more responsive at times lead to a situation where movements of crisis. One reason why the success of the of individuals seeking asylum are Doing Our Bit campaign was limited is that delegitimised and the rights afforded in much of the initial enthusiasm from the the Refugee Convention negated. The public was squandered as the government function of a democratic framework is to tried to slow down its response so as push for protection measures beyond and not to alienate some of its supporters. in addition to a rights-based approach. The New Zealand experience of trying Murdoch Stephens to increase a long-stagnant refugee quota [email protected] showed that a rights-based framework is Doing Our Bit campaign www.doingourbit.co.nz necessary but not sufficient for a strong 1. UNHCR Projected Global Resettlement Needs 2017 resettlement programme. An exclusive http://bit.ly/UNHCR-ResettlementNeeds2017 emphasis on resettlement can also Differential treatment of refugees in Ireland Natalya Pestova

The Irish government makes considerable efforts to resettle Syrian refugees arriving through the UNHCR resettlement process but offers no support to those refugees – some of whom are also from Syria – who individually seek asylum under the international protection system.

In response to the war in Syria, the Irish schools, health services, housing authorities government undertook to welcome 4,000 and so on. Statutory agencies are mobilised refugees. Civil society and the Irish people at to ensure adequate access for the refugees to large shared the feeling of solidarity for those services. Interpretation, child care or other who suffered in Syria and the cry ‘refugees immediate specific needs of refugees are welcome’ has been widely articulated over the taken into account and provided for where last year. The Irish state is putting significant possible. Community engagement and effort and assistance into supporting the integration are also a part of the resettlement programme for Syrian refugees resettled support process. This well thought-out and under the process organised by the UN practical approach to resettlement, although Refugee Agency, UNHCR, as a part of their limited to possibly little more than one year, commitment to welcoming these refugees. would be a credit to the Irish government, Between its beginning in 2000 and late if considered outside the broader context November 2016, the UNHCR-led resettlement of its immigration policy and practice. programme supported 1,705 vulnerable At the same time as these refugees are persons from 27 countries, including Iraq and being resettled, 4,209 asylum seekers – who Syria, to start a new life throughout Ireland.1 have made their own way to Ireland – are Under its recent commitment to welcome awaiting decisions on their protection 4,000 Syrian refugees, the government claims and are accommodated in open commenced resettlement planning for prison conditions under the system called families based in refugee camps outside Syria. Direct Provision under which asylum By mid-2016 several cohorts of Syrian people seekers are not allowed to work, study had arrived in Ireland and had been placed in or cook for themselves. There have been a number of locations throughout the country. 109 applications from Syrian asylum Financial resources are allocated by the seekers registered in 2016 in Ireland.2 government to support people through the It can take up to ten years before a first year of transition, to provide immediate final decision on the granting of asylum assistance to the families to engage with is made by the authorities. No structured 46 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

support is afforded to those people who individually sought asylum under the international protection system and eventually did get recognition of their status. vjeran2001 Former asylum seekers are left to their own devices to support themselves through the transition to independent living, and inevitably face poverty and hardship.

Government position on ‘balanced migration’ The new government elected in early 2016 laid out its position on migration in the Programme for a Partnership Government, in a section entitled ‘Ensuring a Balanced Mig rat ion’. 3 The Programme commits to offering safe haven to, and ensuring integration of, refugees coming to Ireland under the resettlement programme. It does not speak in the same terms about refugees seeking protection through the system established under international refugee law. The government’s position on migration is heavily preoccupied with border-protection concerns. The repeated references to measures such as ‘tackling illegal migration’, ‘getting tougher on abuses’ by ‘bogus asylum seekers’ and to facilitating removals hardly represent a balanced policy. The wording of the Partnership Cover image from Mayo Multilingual Support Services Booklet http://bit.ly/MIApdf Government Programme implies that there are two categories of migrants – is detrimental to child development, good migrants and bad migrants. Good personal freedom and dignified living. migrants are welcome to Ireland and their needs are recognised, while bad Moving out of Direct Provision migrants are not welcome and are to be To clear the backlog of applications from removed. This approach fuels prejudice persons who had been awaiting their against asylum seekers and does not protection status determination for over contribute to building an inclusive and five years, a significant number of asylum equal society that affords migrants equal seekers received their status during 2015 recognition, voice and opportunities. and 2016. This was a major breakthrough With its preoccupation with border and a ‘release’ for those trapped in the protection concerns, the Programme complexities of the Irish protection process missed the opportunity to formulate a for up to a decade or, in some cases, even comprehensive and fair response to inward longer. Even after the final recognition of migration, and particularly to the reception their status, however, there is an almost conditions of people seeking protection in complete absence of targeted support of Ireland. The Programme acknowledged any kind for a transition to independent the negative impact of the Direct Provision living and settling of these refugees into system on the family life of asylum seekers communities – just a couple of token measures but did not recognise that Direct Provision such as an information booklet (Your Guide to Resettlement 47 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

loans taken from friends or ‘loan sharks’ to cover their relocation expenses.

Comparative observations The Programme for a Partnership Government sets the tone for immigration policy and practice and is currently sending out a divisive message to service providers and to the public. Its position underlines the differential treatment by the state, whereby the needs of resettled Syrian refugees are well taken care of while the needs of those moving out from Direct Provision appear not to matter. Such preferential treatment is an unfair policy, which deepens inequality in society and can trigger frustration or even conflict between different vulnerable groups. Syrian refugees who seek asylum in Ireland through the general system of international protection would find it hard to reconcile why their compatriots who arrived in Ireland through the UNHCR process are offered local authority housing and a range of other supports, while they have to struggle to find affordable private rented accommodation (in the context of the current severe housing crisis in Ireland) and to go through cumbersome transition process with no support. Treating those who have sought protection on the basis of the Refugee Convention Independent Living) and information sessions procedures differently from those who offered on a quarterly basis to the residents are resettled through the UNHCR process of the centres who received their status. emerges as a worrying concern for those Refugees continue to live on an allowance working in the sector. Concerns about the of €19.10 per week and are expected to way the Irish state is treating refugees should find their own way through intricate be challenged by human rights agencies bureaucratic procedures such as applying nationally and internationally alike. This for an immigration card and social welfare disregard of equality, the core human benefit, registering for social housing, rights principle, needs to be addressed in finding private rented accommodation and respect of national equality legislation and negotiating Housing Assistance Payment. constitutional, European and international Refugees are expected to move out of the human rights law. Direct Provision accommodation but are Natalya Pestova [email protected] not even paid the costs of travelling to view Project Coordinator, Mayo Intercultural Action houses, so they must try to fit the phone www.miamayo.ie calls and travel costs into their €19.10 weekly 1. http://bit.ly/OMI-Ireland budget.4 One refugee woman disclosed that 2. As at September 2016 she was granted €16 train fare to relocate with 3. Section 11.10 www.merrionstreet.ie/MerrionStreet/en/ all her personal and household belongings ImageLibrary/Programme_for_Partnership_Government.pdf from the Centre to another location. Families 4. See Irish Refugee Council (2016) Transition: from Direct Provision are left living in dire poverty, paying back to life in the community http://bit.ly/IrishRefCouncil-Transition 48 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017 Towards a new framework for integration in the US Catherine Tyson

The view of integration in US resettlement policy is currently disconnected from the views of integration held by refugees themselves.

Integration is a central challenge for resettled the Office of Refugee Resettlement is to refugees if they are to establish themselves “make available sufficient resources for and succeed in their new communities. employment training and placement in The United States (US) resettlement regime, order to achieve economic self-sufficiency founded on the Refugee Act of 1980, defines among refugees as quickly as possible.” indicators of successful integration and English language acquisition is seen resettlement.1 However, the current US as important only in its role in helping resettlement regime ultimately leaves some, refugees find employment and become maybe many, refugees struggling even after economically self-sufficient. The Act specifies the official period of resettlement is long over. that English is to be taught to an adequate The consistent poverty and low incomes level to enable refugees to find jobs; there experienced by many refugee communities,2 is no emphasis on learning English to fulfil climbing rates of suicide among certain social functions or even to allow further communities3 and accounts of frustration and autonomy in navigating US infrastructure. isolation expressed by resettled refugees are The economic orientation of policy indicates only a few of the indicators that suggest that that resettlement is much more about current US resettlement policy is ultimately integration into the local economy rather than not enabling broader, long-term success for into the community at large. This particular the population that it is designed to serve. insight proved a point of immediate and From ethnographic studies of the stark contrast with integration as perceived Iraqi and Bhutanese-Nepali communities by the Bhutanese-Nepali and Iraqi refugees. in Chicago in 2013 and analysis of US resettlement policies (primarily the Indicators of integration among refugees Refugee Act), I found several clear points For the Bhutanese refugees, indicators of of divergence in ideas of integration integration are English language acquisition, between policy and refugee populations cultural visibility and cultural preservation, as well as some differences in integration and for the Iraqi refugees, English language between the two refugee communities. acquisition, relationships with Americans and socio-economic mobility, with a lesser Indicators of integration in US policy emphasis on cultural preservation. Integration in US refugee resettlement English language acquisition was policy relies upon neoliberal notions of a clearly viewed as important in and of itself, productive citizen, such as self-sufficiency rather than just as a facilitator of economic and independence. The specific provisions self-sufficiency. Iraqi and Bhutanese made in the Refugee Act for federally funded refugees recognised the need for English integration activities, and the majority of if they were to obtain employment and activities funded by federal and state grants, become economically self-sufficient but are those that focus on basic English language English language acquisition was also acquisition and employment placement. seen as central to the formation of social It is clear that this approach establishes relationships and navigation of their new economic self-sufficiency as the primary surroundings. Both Bhutanese and Iraqi indicator of successful integration. Indeed, refugees wished to become proficient footnote (1)(A)(i) of Section 411 of the Act4 in English rather than learning just specifically stipulates that the purpose of enough to enable them to get a job. Resettlement 49 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

Cultural preservation was seen by the each refugee population perceived integration refugees as providing a way both to establish and the way in which it was encoded into and strengthen relationships within families resettlement policy, indicating an important and the wider refugee community and to feel disconnect and a possible reason for less more integrated as a result of being able to than desirable resettlement outcomes. hold onto their culture in a diverse society. The current framework of US resettlement Activities related to cultural preservation policy correlates public outcomes – such as also mitigate psychological stress associated obtaining a job that gets a refugee off public with the resettlement process and, as assistance and acquiring the bare minimum such, undoubtedly diminish barriers to of English required to get that job – with integration. While cultural preservation was ‘successful’ integration, leaving gaps between an indicator of integration for both refugee refugees’ understandings of successful groups, there is not a single mention of integration and the assumption in the policy. cultural preservation in the Refugee Act. In recent years, researchers and resettlement Economic issues did not loom as large in professionals have noticed the ineffectiveness of the Bhutanese view of integration but they were the current US resettlement regime. In order to important indicators of integration to the Iraqi offer more effective resettlement aid within the refugees, who were concerned with achieving US, it will be necessary to establish a framework economic self-sufficiency, even if they did not of resettlement that bridges the gap between view achievement of that as marked largely policy and the lived experience of integration, by independence from public assistance. The taking distinct cultural considerations into Iraqi refugees were more concerned than the account in the formation of new policies Bhutanese with socio-economic mobility as an and practices. While creating resettlement indicator of integration, as demonstrated by policies for each refugee group may be their concerns with furthering their English problematic, it is still necessary to take into language skills and pursuing other formal account the factors that allow refugees to feel education that would enable them to access integrated in order to serve them effectively. a wider range of employment options. If indicators of successful integration An interesting indicator of integration derived from refugee populations are taken held specifically by the Bhutanese-Nepali into consideration during policy creation, refugees was cultural visibility. The almost long-term outcomes for resettled populations universally conveyed feeling of being a could be improved. Future research on how relatively small and new community within many resettled refugees consider themselves Chicago contributed to a sense of alienation unintegrated and how this correlates with from the broader American population. unsuccessful outcomes both by current Because Bhutanese-Nepali immigrants had policy indicators and refugee indicators not lived in Chicago prior to 2008, there might spur governmental action to amend were no pre-existing communal resources current resettlement policy in the US. to facilitate their integration. However, Catherine Tyson [email protected] the Refugee Act of 1980 does not provide a Incoming graduate student, Johns Hopkins framework for the development or funding of School of Advanced International Studies programmes that could provide support for http://krieger.jhu.edu/internationalstudies/ those without an established community. 1. United States Public Law 96-212. 94 Stat. 102. (17 March 1980) Bridging the gap http://uscode.house.gov/statutes/pl/96/212.pdf 2. Capps R and Newland K (2015) The Integration Outcomes of US Overall, there were only a few areas of Refugees: Successes and Challenges, Migration Policy Institute convergence between the policy and refugees’ www.migrationpolicy.org/research/integration-outcomes-us- views of integration and only one point – refugees-successes-and-challenges English language acquisition – featured within 3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013) Suicide and Suicidal Ideation Among Bhutanese Refugees – United States 2009 – 2012 all views of integration. There were far more www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6226a2.htm clear differences between the ways in which 4. www.acf.hhs.gov/orr/resource/the-refugee-act 50 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017 How refugee community groups support resettlement G Odessa Gonzalez Benson

Refugee community groups often fill in service gaps after resettlement but remain unrecognised and not fully incorporated in formal resettlement processes.

Very soon after the arrival in the United States policymaking and planning resettlement (US) of the first Bhutanese refugees in 2008, processes, including determining they began forming small groups in nearly appropriate placement in US cities. every city to address their community’s most pressing needs. The community groups Included – but not fully incorporated formed out of existing social networks from Professional workers in resettlement agencies the bottom up, offering an effective means and leaders of Bhutanese community for broad outreach to the community and groups provided similar forms of assistance, reflecting what is perhaps a fundamental particularly in the earliest stages of drive in migrant communities to come resettlement, but they differed in terms of together and to address shared difficulties. legitimacy, resources and support received. The leaders were those with higher education, Case workers also offered English classes, English proficiency, and existing reputation for example, as part of mandated services. and work experience, including leadership or Professional workers, however, often could teaching roles while in the refugee camps. not meet the diverse and immediate needs Because resettled refugees were often of all refugees, given limited resources and placed in close proximity to each other, it high caseloads. Also, federally funded case was easy for word to spread about these key management services lasted only eight individuals and it was relatively easy to reach months generally, and only special cases were them to seek assistance. The (unpaid) advice eligible for additional support. Furthermore, and guidance they provided sought to ease it was especially difficult for case workers the emotional difficulties in the community’s who spoke only English to communicate transition. They were also the go-to persons in with and assist those Bhutanese refugees times of crisis, such as medical emergencies. who spoke only their native language. As a group, they organised informal public The leaders of the Bhutanese community discussions, English classes, and celebrations groups thus stepped in to fill these gaps of traditional cultural and religious events. in resettlement agencies’ services. Locally based, grassroots refugee Indeed, resettlement agencies recognised community groups have long been an the value of the community groups and their integral part of the resettlement process in leaders, often hiring them for services and the US, complementing professional services work written into grant-funded projects. and filling important gaps, while pursuing Resettlement agencies also often consulted actions towards self-determination in other with group leaders to ensure culturally ways. At the official level, nine nationally appropriate and effective service delivery and based non-governmental resettlement to gain community participation in projects. agencies are contracted and funded annually Rarely did such employment and by the US federal government’s Office of consultation evolve into more meaningful Refugee Resettlement to provide professional partnerships, however. Many Bhutanese services for refugees’ transition, basic community leaders felt they had no voice in needs and self-sufficiency in the earliest planning resettlement and no access to the phases of resettlement. These agencies resources and institutional links available to are consulted by the government in their counterpart workers at the resettlement Resettlement 51 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

agencies. Over the years, few community groups gained sufficient technical and financial assistance to be able to strengthen their organisational capacity and there was little room for legitimate incorporation of community groups with resettlement agencies. Ownership of programmes and projects was rarely transferred or shared with community groups, despite their being actively engaged on the ground. While efforts by Bhutanese community refugee groups

complemented professional Joanna Pinneo/Citizen D services in addressing more general social and practical Bhutanese refugees resettled in the US work in the community gardens they have developed with the help of NGO Citizen D. www.citizend.org needs, community groups also sought out new ways of attending and a plot of land and organised workers and to specific emergent needs and broader volunteers for planting, harvesting, marketing aims. In one city, leaders of the Bhutanese and administration. The farm not only yielded community group worked with a local sufficient produce to sustain a small business advocacy group. A large number of Bhutanese but also produced engagement and a sense families and their children were placed by of ownership among community members. resettlement agencies in an area that was In a third case, a Bhutanese community just outside the zone covered by school bus group in another city looked internally transportation. Many Bhutanese children and then to new partners to address the had to walk three miles to and from school issue of citizenship for Bhutanese elders. along a busy road that was deemed unsafe. Gaining citizenship is important for political The community group teamed up with the and symbolic inclusion, as well as for the advocacy group in organising public events, economic stability that such membership the largest one attended by hundreds of offers. However, most elderly Bhutanese people, to raise awareness about the issue do not speak English and cannot pass the and gain broader public support. As a result, language requirements of US citizenship school administrators changed school bus tests, thus remaining without citizenship and zoning policies to better accommodate ineligible for much-needed public assistance the needs of the newcomer families. that they would otherwise have received. In another city, the municipal government The mainstream organisations that offered emerged as a partner for the Bhutanese citizenship classes for immigrants did not group. One of the projects in this case was effectively address the specific language a farming programme that was widely needs of elderly Bhutanese. The community appreciated by the Bhutanese community, group thus developed its own curriculum many of whom were traditionally farmers and strategies for teaching elderly students, in their home country. Bhutanese were part and offered citizenship classes in both Nepali of the planning and implementation teams and English taught by volunteer leaders. along with city workers. As with conventional Community leaders sought out legal and farm cooperatives, the team secured funding medical experts for guidance and direct 52 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

assistance for obtaining waivers to citizenship led efforts seems to indicate not only a lack examinations. Although they aimed not only of support but an active ‘taking from’ the to resolve individual cases but also to provide community’s potential. Perhaps a first step more comprehensive solutions, the lack of would be recognition of the validity of citizenship for elderly Bhutanese refugees existing community strategies and capacities, remains a largely unresolved social problem. by way of public statements of endorsement and acknowledgement. A second would be to Recognition of refugee community groups legitimise refugee groups and their services These cases show what is possible outside by financially compensating community- the formal resettlement process, thereby based assistance, mandating refugee leaders also showing what is missing in the as part of planning teams, providing process. Turning to advocacy groups, local technical assistance for capacity building and, government and specialised professionals importantly, authorising refugee community may usher in new ways of addressing new groups as a formal part of resettlement policy. challenges and of moving beyond merely G Odessa Gonzalez Benson [email protected] meeting the most basic requirements of Doctoral Candidate, School of Social Work, resettlement. Disregarding such community- University of Washington http://socialwork.uw.edu

US refugee exclusion practices Katherine Knight The issue of ‘material support’ provided to an organisation deemed to be involved in terrorism has been fraught with contention in US immigration law circles, most often over the issue of support provided under duress.

The average time between a refugee being in the Immigration and Naturalization referred to the United States Refugee Act (INA) reveals the flaws within this Admissions Program by the UN Refugee legislation. ‘Engaging in terrorist activity’ Agency, UNHCR, and when they arrive means committing an act “that the actor in the United States (US) is 18-24 months. knows, or reasonably should know, affords During this time, a myriad of governmental material support, including a safe house, agencies conduct security screenings, transportation, communication, funds, health clearances and interviews, all aimed transfer of funds, or other material financial at determining whether this particular benefit...” to a terrorist organisation (or to a individual is acceptable to admit into the member of such an organisation). The Act’s US. Even with this multi-layered vetting definition of ‘terrorist organisation’ covers in place, there have been repeated calls 60 Tier I Foreign Terrorist Organisations1 from US citizens and elected politicians including ISIL (‘Islamic State’) and Boko alike to suspend the refugee admissions Haram, Tier II individuals and organisations programme in the name of national security. such as the Ulster Defence Association and The validity of the fear behind these calls is the Real IRA, and Tier III organisations not statistically supported; an exceedingly which consist of “a group of two or more small fraction of the hundreds of thousands individuals, whether organized or not, of refugees resettled in the US have been which engages in, or has a subgroup arrested on terrorism-related charges. which engages in” terrorist activities. Barring someone who has assisted a Given these definitions, a Sri Lankan terrorist organisation appears to be a practical man who cooks, provides small payments measure towards ensuring national security, and performs manual labour after being but a deeper look at the definitions contained kidnapped by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Resettlement 53 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

Eelam has provided support to a terrorist 2014 the vast majority of material support organisation. So too have the Salvadoran waivers issued – 816 in total – excused man who avoided execution by allowing actions taken while the applicant was under FMLN rebels to use his kitchen (and duress or coercion. 652 of those waivers giving them directions when required) went to applicants for resettlement, only 14 and the Colombian businesswoman who to asylum seekers. With US immigration provided foodstuffs and supplies from rhetoric so focused on vetting, screening and her shop in response to threats by the verifying migrants, it is perhaps unsurprising Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that where such waivers are granted it (FARC). Her shop and her hotel were indeed tends to be in the context of resettlement, later destroyed by the FARC despite her before individuals enter the country. acceding to their demands.2 These three In the event that the DHS declines to issue individuals were all deemed inadmissible. a material support waiver, the consequences In an effort to address the injustice of may be much less acute for a pre-admission people being denied humanitarian protection applicant who could be redirected for despite posing no real threat to US national resettlement elsewhere. If an asylum seeker security – and in fact being victims of the is denied a waiver after they are in the US, same terrorist groups we judge as a threat they cannot be granted legal admission – the INA permits the Secretary of State even if their persecution claims are valid. and the Secretary of Homeland Security to Katherine Knight [email protected] waive the terrorism-related inadmissibility PhD student, Queen’s University Belfast grounds in certain circumstances. Since www.qub.ac.uk these waivers are solely discretionary, attempts to appeal Department of Homeland 1. www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm Security (DHS) decisions through the judicial 2. All actual cases, not fabricated for illustrative purposes. system have been largely unsuccessful. In

Security practices and resettlement

A widely held misconception about the unreliable yet which fundamentally affect terrorist threat is particularly evident people’s future mobility prospects. This in refugee resettlement practices, where arbitrarily assembled identity focusing on refugees are placed on a security continuum the possible security threat posed by any alongside transnational criminals and particular refugee obscures from view terrorists. Although refugee protection itself their protection needs as a refugee. is inscribed in international law, refugee Rather than being terrorists, refugees resettlement depends on the discretion of sometimes have protection needs as a result the resettlement country and since 9/11 of terrorism. Keeping these applicants for the United States and major resettlement resettlement away from the West is likely countries in Europe have increasingly to increase the number of people resorting deployed security risk management practices to illegal means through which to find within the resettlement selection process. somewhere safe to live. Ironically, in this way Predictions and decisions about the security practices within the resettlement risk a refugee presents are made on the process are themselves likely to produce basis of a ‘virtual’ identity assembled the so-called threat of ‘illegal’ migration. through an accumulation of any available Shoshana Fine [email protected] electronic records of activities, affiliations Research Associate, CERI Sciences Po Paris and so on. This predictive capacity is highly www.sciencespo.fr/ceri/en dependent on technologies that are often 54 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017 The Solidarity Resettlement Programme, and alternatives, in Latin America María José Marcogliese

For more than a decade, the countries in the Southern Cone of South America have had a regional Solidarity Resettlement Programme. The region’s states are also assessing alternative approaches to support refugee mobility within the framework of current migration agreements.

To mark the twentieth anniversary of the the international community’s commitment 1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees,1 through UNHCR to finance the transfer the Latin American and Caribbean States of individual refugees or families and to undertook a consultative process which contract local agencies and civil society concluded with the adoption of the 2004 organisations to implement the programme Mexico Declaration and Plan of Action.2 – that is, to manage the reception of and The document was a guide to action provision of lodging and food for the regarding the protection of refugees in refugees, and to support the process of the region for the decade that followed, integrating them into the workforce. Local and featured the Solidarity Resettlement asylum authorities and the state should, Programme, designed as a protection tool however, have played a larger role in and a durable solution for Latin American the integration process than they did. refugees (primarily of Colombian origin) who In addition, while Colombian refugees faced risks in neighbouring countries. The who underwent resettlement are similar Programme also aimed to be a mechanism culturally and linguistically to people living for international solidarity and responsibility in the countries of South America’s Southern sharing among the region’s states, seeking Cone, they mostly expected to be resettled to bring relief to those countries hosting to northern Europe or the United States, the greatest number of refugees. Between and the Southern Cone option was clearly 2005 and 2014, some 1,151 refugees – the perceived as the least desirable option. This vast majority Colombians – were resettled disappointment, combined with the fact that from Ecuador and Costa Rica to Argentina, the financial assistance and support differed Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay in from those that traditional countries could the Southern Cone of South America. offer, in some cases led to a reluctance to These so-called emerging resettlement integrate in a new society, and consequently countries primarily received technical and to a refusal of the offer of resettlement financial support from UNHCR for the design or to their return shortly after arrival. and implementation of their programmes and For those who accepted the offer of also from traditional resettlement countries, resettlement, structural difficulties typical including Norway and Australia. However, of the receiving societies (relating to access the process of integrating the refugees in to jobs or housing, income generation, public their new homes was clearly different for the safety and so on) made the process emerging resettlement countries from that of integration difficult. of the traditional countries of resettlement. Finally, geographic proximity to the In the first place, the Programme countries of first asylum and to the country was based on the states’ commitment to of origin led some refugees who were facing provide refugees with residence permits, difficulties – albeit difficulties typical of the documentation, and access to rights equal process of integration in any new society – to to those of foreigners who resided in the leave the resettlement country. According to territory. But it was simultaneously based on a recent evaluation of the Programme, 78% Resettlement 55 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

of the refugees who arrived in the Southern the selection and profiling phases and in Cone through the Solidarity Resettlement the integration process”; cooperation with Programme remained in the country of the countries of the Northern Triangle of resettlement, while 22% left. The report noted Central America, given their vulnerability that, “for the resettlement countries, the to the activities of transnational organised departure of many resettled refugees to return crime; and demonstrating solidarity with to their country of origin or to the country international humanitarian crises. of first asylum, or to go to a third country, The states proposed the consideration of engendered the sense that the programme alternatives to the Solidarity Resettlement was failing, or that the resettlement was not Programme, on the understanding that “these the protection tool that the states thought alternatives may be applicable in the absence it was when they originally committed to of options for local integration of refugees in the Solidarity Resettlement Programme.”3 the host country or as a solidarity measure However, as a protection tool, the to share the burden of a country receiving a Programme clearly had and still has positive large number of refugees, thus becoming a aspects. With effort and perseverance, the regional responsibility-sharing mechanism.” resettled refugees are able to overcome The Brazil Plan of Action also includes initial obstacles although how well they the Labour Mobility Programme, which do so depends on a wide range of issues. aims to facilitate the mobility of refugees within the scope of MERCOSUR’s migration Alternatives agreements, thus allowing refugees (as At the first regional consultation in nationals of the countries that make up preparation for the thirtieth anniversary of MERCOSUR) who are facing difficulties in the Cartagena Declaration, the authorities local integration to migrate within the region. of the States Parties of the Southern Necessary protection safeguards would Common Market (Mercado Común del Sur, include: recognising the extra-territoriality or MERCOSUR) and its Associated States of refugee status to respect the principle of declared that they “recognise the value of the non-refoulement; assuring confidentiality; regional Solidarity Resettlement Programme facilitating the issuance of personal identity as a concrete example of responsibility and travel documents; and respecting sharing” and recommended to “evaluate family unity, in addition to those safeguards its continuity and/or expansion, according associated with their status as refugees.6 to the possibilities and experiences in the In response to this proposal, UNHCR respective countries, in terms of quotas, commissioned a study of the applicability of the inclusion of refugees from outside the Agreement on Residence for Nationals of the region and more state resources in MERCOSUR’s Member States to individuals financing” and “urge countries in the region with international protection needs in to discuss the possibility of joining the the region, and its compatibility with the regional resettlement programme (…).”4 standards of international refugee law.7 The conclusions and recommendations This study indicates that the vast majority of that consultation and three other of refugees hosted in the region originate consultations that took place within the from within the region, primarily from framework of the Cartagena +30 process led Colombia. Traditional durable solutions for to the adoption of the Brazil Declaration and the Colombian population – who are settled Plan of Action.5 One of the new programmes mainly in Ecuador, Venezuela and in some established in this Plan refers explicitly to Central American countries such as Costa the Solidarity Resettlement Programme Rica and Panama – are faced with a series of and proposes various actions, including: obstacles; therefore, the possibility of refugees the joint evaluation of the various national moving within the regional space, either resettlement programmes “in order to temporarily or permanently, appears to be identify obstacles and good practices during an interesting alternative and, as mentioned 56 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

in the study, could be “a complementary 2. Declaración y Plan de Acción de México Para Fortalecer la Protección Internacional de los Refugiados en América Latina, component to the classic durable solutions”. Ciudad de México, 16 de noviembre del 2004 Clearly, establishing this type of http://bit.ly/MexicoPlanOfAction2004 scheme would be an extremely interesting 3. Ruiz H (2015) Evaluation of resettlement programmes in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, UNHCR contribution from the MERCOSUR region, http://bit.ly/UNHCRLatAmericaEvaluationResettlement and from Latin America, to the debate 4. (2014) Commemorative process of the 30th Anniversary of the on durable solutions for refugees. Cartagena Declaration on refugees ‘Cartagena+30’: MERCOSUR Sub- Regional Consultation. Summary of conclusions and recommendations María José Marcogliese www.acnur.org/t3/fileadmin/Documentos/BDL/2014/9777.pdf [email protected] 5. http://bit.ly/Cartagenaplus30Declaration Executive Secretary, National Refugee Committee 6. See endnote 5 (CONARE) of the Argentine Republic 7. Bello J (2015) El MERCOSUR y la protección internacional: www.migraciones.gov.ar/conare aplicabilidad de las políticas migratorias regionales a la luz del Derecho Internacional de los Refugiados. Informe de la Consultoría del 1. Declaración de Cartagena sobre los Refugiados de 1984, Alto Comisionado de Naciones Unidas para los Refugiados. Proceso Cartagena de Indias, 22 de noviembre de 1984 Cartagena+30 http://bit.ly/CartagenaDeclaration1984 http://bit.ly/Cartagenaplus30Process

Private refugee sponsorship in Canada Jennifer Hyndman, William Payne and Shauna Jimenez For almost four decades, groups of Canadian private citizens have sponsored refugees for resettlement in addition to federal government resettlement programmes.

Until recently, Canada has been the only refugees of their choosing was undermined country that offers private sponsorship to by the introduction of limits on the number refugees. Sponsors fund the first year of of PSRs and caps on those who could be resettlement while the government covers sponsored from particular Canadian missions health care and children’s education; in abroad, which has caused frustration for the second year, refugees (who become civil society groups hoping to sponsor permanent residents upon arrival in refugees in Canada.1 While the Blended Visa Canada) are eligible for means-tested Office-Referred (BVOR) Program helped to government social welfare benefits. bolster and make up for the limited spaces Since 1978, more than 200,000 privately for PSRs and the reduced numbers in the sponsored refugees have arrived in Canada. government-assisted refugee (GAR) category While civil society groups were involved between 2012 and 2015, the BVOR category in bringing refugees to Canada after both restricts private sponsors’ ability to choose the first and second world wars, the 1976 who can be sponsored but still allows the Immigration Act provided a formal legal federal government to fulfil its international framework for the Private Sponsorship commitments. It is important that private of Refugees Program (PSR). Two major sponsorship is additional to government- movements of refugees define this private assisted resettlement commitments, and sponsorship. The first relates to the arrival of not a substitute for them. However, this some 60,000 Vietnamese, Cambodians and complementary protection stream can be put Laotians in the late 1970s and early 1980s, at risk if the government depends on it to including 29,269 privately sponsored refugees fulfil its international obligations. In 2013, for in 1979 alone. More recently, nearly half the first year in many decades, the number of almost 40,000 Syrian refugees who had of PSRs exceeded the number of GARs. arrived in Canada by the end of January 2017 Over the past ten years, the repetition were privately sponsored in whole or in part. by elected federal government officials and New restrictions on private sponsorship the media of the phrase ‘bogus refugees’ began after 2011. Sponsors’ ability to support and depictions of asylum seekers as queue Resettlement 57 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

jumpers and potential terrorists have led applications by sponsors of non-Syrian to a deterioration in attitudes towards refugees who completed their applications asylum seekers and refugees. Nonetheless, before the Syrian crisis. In some cases, the resettlement of refugees selected from sponsors and applicants alike have been overseas remains relatively popular with waiting years for processing to take place. the Canadian public. And since the election of a new government in late 2015, Canadian Private sponsorship and government politicians and civil servants have kept sponsorship separate the politics of radicalisation and the Well before the October 2015 election pledge question of Syrian refugee resettlement. to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada In March 2016, Canada’s Minister of by the end of 2015, civil society groups had Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship already stepped up to privately sponsor outlined Canada’s commitment to Syrian Syrian refugees. New Syrian refugee- refugee resettlement. In addition to sharing focused sponsorship groups formed, with knowledge and resources with other Canadians signing up to sponsor Syrian countries about private refugee sponsorship, refugee families. As of January 2017 45% of he confirmed that Canada would continue the total number of Syrian refugees coming to consider Syrian refugees as prima to Canada were privately sponsored in facie refugees until September 2017. In some part, if one includes partially privately December 2016, the Canadian government, sponsored refugees (Blended Visa Office- in partnership with UNHCR and the Referred refugees – BVORs) in which the Open Society Foundations, launched a private sponsor provides half of the first major initiative to promote private refugee year’s financial support while the federal sponsorship on a more global scale. government contributes the other half. A side-effect of priority processing Using prima facie refugee status for Syrians, however, is that some files for determination rather than the more onerous refugees from protracted situations continue individual refugee status determination for to languish in the backlog of other refugee eligibility for private sponsorship has made UNHCR/Annie Sakkab

A Canadian sponsor plays with Syrian refugee children who have been resettled in Toronto under the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program. 58 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

processing in regions of origin much easier More than 1,400 refugee students have and faster. Yet, at the Canadian end, the come to Canada through World University application forms to be completed for private Service Canada, an NGO that facilitates sponsorship of non-Syrian refugees are and supports student-run committees who longer than ever. In addition the recruitment welcome and guide the refugee students. criteria for Syrian refugee families in the The organisation announced that in 2016 its government-assisted refugee (GAR) category capacity would double, to fund almost 160 prioritised refugee families that qualified as refugee students per year. Analysts have ‘vulnerable’ and therefore were unlikely to noted that this private resettlement pathway be seen as security risks. Single men were not is especially attractive because it offers selected for government sponsorship, though refugee protection and also an opportunity some did come through the BVOR category.2 to access Canadian post-secondary Direct participation by civil society education and to seek work experience. in resettlement has been the hallmark of Privately sponsored refugees (PSRs) Canada’s private sponsorship programme, to Canada are often compared with their and a major element in its success. government-assisted refugee counterparts The majority of PSRs are supported by (GARs). Of Iraqi refugees who arrived in Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAHs), Canada between 2009 and 2014, it was who have formal agreements with the federal reported that PSRs slightly outperformed government, or by constituent groups that GARs in being in employment during the fall under the auspices of the SAHs. Some first three years in Canada. But fewer Iraqi 75% of SAHs are faith-based organisations, PSRs were in employment and they had lower and consist of ‘constituent groups’ of at average earnings than non-Iraqi PSRs during least five sponsors who contract to assist a the same period, despite higher educational refugee family for twelve months. A smaller levels prior to arrival.3 There was reportedly number of refugees are sponsored not by a high incidence of disabilities and mental SAHs but by ‘groups of five’ – groups of health needs among the refugees from Iraq, individuals who sign a commitment of without specifying whether or not this was support for a specific refugee or refugees. a higher level than other refugee groups. Private sponsorships have been mobilised Furthermore, while Iraqi PSRs from this to assist with family reunification. Canada’s group were able to secure a job more quickly Immigration and Refugee Protection Act than GARs in the first three years, other defines ‘family’ in nuclear terms: up to two research has shown that early access to the adults and their non-adult children. Families labour market may have a negative impact – and particularly extended families – can on language learning. Federal government therefore become separated through the data in 2016 shows no major difference in resettlement process. The former federal income earnings between GARs and PSRs government expressed concerns that private ten years after arrival in Canada, which sponsorships were a de facto pathway for is significant since PSRs arrive with much refugees to reunite with family members left more education and official language behind in camps or settlements in the absence ability (English or French) than GARs. of alternative pathways to reunification. In an earlier study that tracked the Research on SAHs shows that the personal resettlement experiences of both PSRs connections to extended family members of and GARs who arrived in Canada from sponsored refugees already in Canada become Southeast Asia between 1979 and 1981, priorities for sponsors. This ‘echo effect’ private sponsorship appeared to be more is an expression of sponsors’ willingness likely to lead to successful integration than to assist family members left behind. government assistance. However, the same Since 1978, students at universities across research also found cases of excessive Canada have also privately sponsored refugee intrusiveness of sponsorship groups in students to attend Canadian universities. the lives of refugees, very slow overseas Resettlement 59 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

processing times, and unnecessary burdens launched the Global Refugee Sponsorship created by government application processes. Initiative to make good on the pledge. Both It was concluded that sponsors themselves Australia and Britain have new private need support.4 There are also some concerns sponsorship schemes underway. There that the work of supporting privately is no single private sponsorship recipe to sponsored refugees depends too heavily follow, however, and the relatively positive on a few individuals and organisations. public opinion towards refugee resettlement in Canada is somewhat unusual. Strong A model for the future? leadership by government along with Since concerns were raised more than a civil society’s engagement is pivotal. In dozen years ago, improved structures and relation to Syrian refugees, Canadian civil practices have since been incorporated into society came out ahead of the government the thinking of sponsors and the operations in active support of resettlement. More of SAHs, constituent groups, and groups of research on what the other most critical five. Improvements to private sponsorship conditions and factors are is sorely needed. in Canada at that time included greater Private refugee resettlement cannot involvement of refugees in shaping their be about the privatisation of states’ own resettlement, the reconceptualisation international obligations and related costs. of sponsorship as a partnership between In Canada, the principle of additionality newcomers and their sponsors, recognition ensures that private effortsexpand refugee of the importance of transnational linkages protection spaces by complementing for newcomers, and the expanded use of government commitments to resettlement. places of worship for hosting widely used programmes such as health and employment Jennifer Hyndman [email protected] services so that newcomers could access as Director, Centre for Refugee Studies, York many services as possible in one space.5 University http://crs.info.yorku.ca/ The primary benefit of private refugee William Payne [email protected] sponsorship in Canada is not to reduce Doctoral candidate, York University and part-time government costs or commitments but professor; Community Worker Program at George rather to increase protection space through Brown College www.georgebrown.ca/ increasing resettlement spaces. While the Shauna Jimenez [email protected] relatively new BVOR category may be a potentially useful resettlement stream Community social worker and long-term volunteer whereby the government and private as a private sponsor of refugees sponsors share costs in the first year, it cannot 1. In late December 2016, the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada eliminated the caps on and should not replace the fundamental these Canadian missions abroad, a change that reversed the intention of the PSR category and programme geographically and racially prejudiced management of potential – namely, that private sponsors are able to refugees to Canada through private sponsorship. www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/laws-policy/protect-psr.asp name specific refugees for sponsorship. A 2. See article by Lewis Turner pp29-31. respectful partnership between government 3. Data from an April 2015 classified briefing note to then Minister and citizen groups is at the core of private of Citizenship and Immigration, accessed through a freedom sponsorships, one that respects the voluntary of information request, Summary of Preliminary Findings: Iraqi Resettlement (2009-2014) Case Study. Ministerial Briefing Advice to work and decisions of a mobilised civil Minister. Not for citation or distribution. society and aspires to the fair selection 4. See Beiser M (2003) ‘Sponsorship and resettlement success,’ and successful settlement of refugees. Journal of International Migration and Integration 4(2):203-15; and At the UN Summit in New York in Beiser M (2009) ‘Resettling refugees and safeguarding their mental health: lessons learned from the Canadian Refugee Resettlement September 2016, Canada pledged to ‘export’ Project,’ Transcultural Psychiatry 46(4):539-83. the private sponsorship model to other 5. Lanphier M (2003) ‘Sponsorship: Organizational, sponsor, interested states. In December 2016, the and refugee perspectives,’ Journal of International Migration and Canadian government in concert with Integration 4(2):237-56. Oxfam-Plan International-Habitat for Humanity/Ana Paola Van Dalen Van Humanity/Ana Paola for International-Habitat Oxfam-Plan UNHCR and the Open Society Foundations 60 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017 The story of a small Canadian congregation sponsoring a refugee family Shannon Tito and Sharolyn Cochand

Steps for private refugee sponsorship in Canada are not clearly spelled out for those seeking to be sponsors. While the process is rewarding, it is also challenging and sometimes frustrating.

Canada’s Blended Visa Office-Referred members of the group would be and a (BVOR) programme affords the opportunity proposed budget. Once we received official for private sponsorship groups to be paired approval from the church, we worked on by the Canadian government with refugees a settlement plan and fundraising. About seeking resettlement. While the process six months into the process, the team is well established, each group undergoes was matched with a refugee family from its own learning journey. Our experience Syria who arrived five months later. sponsoring a family illustrates aspects of this journey. The majority of us did not know how Successes and challenges to connect directly with a refugee family to We are a group of people who previously did sponsor nor did we have direct experience not know each other well, forming friendships with refugee families or know of any groups and bonding with people whom we otherwise who were interested in pursuing this venture. might not have got to know, coming The members of the team we established together for a common task and working to organise the sponsorship had differing beautifully together to accomplish more motivations for becoming involved. One than we had ever hoped would be possible. team member could not “fathom not having When looking at the key tasks that a a safe place for [her own] children to lay refugee sponsorship group must achieve, their head at night.” Another joined because we were struck by the diversity of skills and his grandfather had arrived in Canada abilities required. We formed subgroups as a refugee. At the outset, there were of people to work together, letting them many informal discussions between team take initiative in areas such as fundraising, members who wanted to “do something” renovation of the family’s future home and to help refugees but an organised team everyday support to work with the family. approach with a designated team leader We were matched with a family much was required to get the project started. sooner than we had been led to believe was Despite significant misgivings in part due possible. We had raised only about 25% to a fear of being ‘in the spotlight’ and lack of our budget at the time and had from a of leadership experience, one person took Friday afternoon to a Monday morning to on the task. A formal information night was decide whether or not to accept the family. scheduled at the South Ridge Fellowship After consideration, the elders of our church church to outline the BVOR programme, at told us that if we could raise another $6,000 which about 30 people turned up. Over the that Sunday, we could accept the family, next few weeks, a core team of 15 people trusting that we would raise the rest in emerged, and the Fresh Start refugee time for the family’s arrival. In the event sponsorship project was established. $32,874 was raised on a single Sunday. Our first major task was to get official We found an amazing house in our approval from the church for our refugee desired area; it was run-down but the sponsorship in order to work under its landlord was willing to offer it at an extremely auspices. The team was tasked with creating favourable rent in exchange for our team a proposal outlining what the roles of the undertaking the renovation. Then we Resettlement 61 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

were able to fully renovate it with donated and that fosters eventual independence but supplies and volunteer labour. Finally we do not know exactly how to achieve this. were able to fully furnish the house with From our perspective as a small Canadian donated goods in beautiful condition. ‘community of faith’ group, sponsorship of On the other hand there was major refugees does not come with a clear road map. uncertainty in working with our Sponsorship Although the good faith from our federal Agreement Holder (SAH) – the body that government has been there, unfortunately has the formal agreement with the federal it has not helped clarify the process nor has government and can authorise groups in the it made it easy to progress smoothly with community to sponsor refugees under its our sponsorship project. Lack of information agreement.1 Both the government and the from government agencies or ministries SAHs have been overwhelmed by demands about the family we intend to sponsor, and for sponsorships. Limited information from the distance from and difficulty of timely the relevant government department has been communication with our SAH, have made frustrating; we waited for our family to arrive our work complicated and challenging. for three months, and had no information. The inability to connect directly with This led to uncertainty and difficulty our family as we planned for their arrival planning ahead. In late September 2016 we made it difficult for our team to lay down did get some information about our family specific and essential groundwork for including photos of the mother and father. their resettlement and has required us to The lack of communication with the exercise considerable patience. We have, family means that we have only basic however, found tremendous support and information about who they are; we have overwhelming commitment, both financially to make many decisions ‘blind’ and hope and morally, from our congregation, the they are right for the family. It would have church leadership, local businesses and been nice to know ways that they would determined like-minded individuals. like us to prepare for them, and we would Shannon O Tito [email protected] like to register their children in the local Social Justice/Peace Educator school, but cannot do so because we do not have their birth certificates. We know that Sharolyn Cochand [email protected] we need to help our family in a way that Intensive care unit nurse with a local hospital does not create unrealistic expectations 1. www.cic.gc.ca/english/refugees/sponsor/sah-how.asp

Rethinking how success is measured Chloe Marshall-Denton

Despite the Canadian Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program being praised for integrating refugees into the job market faster than government-assisted refugees, there may be limited cause for celebration.

The application form for Canada’s Private have access to low-grade jobs. The freedom Sponsorship of Refugees Program asks for to choose, the ability to aspire to something the applicant’s ‘intended occupation’, to different, has been out of reach for years or which the applicant is supposed to answer in some cases has never been in reach at all. in half a line what he or she intends to do in After careful deliberation, one father Canada. This question is almost always met writes ‘accountant’ and the mother ‘nurse’, with a blank look. Most refugees have been the professions they held before fleeing living in their host countries for years, where their country; for their three-year-old child, they are either banned from working or only they select – with a smile – ‘doctor’. What 62 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

reasons cited by refugees is that they fear becoming a burden on their sponsors. Despite employment

UNHCR/A Webster UNHCR/A Webster being an important stepping- stone to integration, there are risks associated with refugees being pushed into employment too quickly. The report highlights that half the refugee participants surveyed by the government had not had time to engage in language training, mainly because they started working upon arrival. The participants furthermore indicated that the perceived urgency to work prevented them from learning new skills or upgrading their previous skills, and limited their ability to find employment in a field related to their knowledge and skills. It therefore comes as no surprise that, despite having ‘successfully resettled’ by virtue of having secured employment, these refugees earn much less than the Canadian average Ethiopian refugees in Hargeisa, Somalia, attend English language classes in preparation for for some years after being resettlement to Canada. resettled to Canada. is written in that box matters. It matters But, of course, resettlement is first of all to the family, of course, and it matters to about protection. When asked why they want Canada, which tends to measure the success to go to Canada, most refugees are quick to of resettlement by how quickly refugees answer that Canada is a peaceful country, become productive members of society. a country respectful of human rights and By making employment, and how quickly a place where all are treated equally. And it is obtained, the main measure of success in protection is where the expectations of refugee resettlement, we reinforce the notion Canadians and of resettled refugees converge. that refugees are a burden. We are saying that Canada is offering a safe home to individuals the sooner refugees are able to get a job the in need of resettlement, corresponding to better: any job, as long as they are able to meet refugees’ primary concern for short- and their basic needs. The experience of refugees long-term safety. Ironically, while many previously sponsored to Canada emphasises refugees aspire to contribute to Canadian this point. For example, a report published society and their communities, Canada by the Canadian government established does not actively stimulate the engagement that if privately sponsored refugees tend and strengths of newly arrived refugees. to seek employment earlier, it is often out Canada’s refugee resettlement programme of a feeling of necessity.1 One of the main stems from humanitarian considerations, Resettlement 63 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

whereby refugees are selected based on which the strengths and experiences of their protection needs over their language resettled refugees contribute to our society. skills, education level or overall ability to Chloe Marshall-Denton [email protected] integrate. Canada does not expect resettled Director, Safe Passage Canada refugees to become the country’s greatest www.safepassage.ca; MSc Candidate in Refugee contributors but neither does it sufficiently and Forced Migration Studies, University of recognise refugees’ respective strengths Oxford and experiences. Instead of solely trying to demonstrate the reduction of the financial 1. Citizenship and Immigration Canada (2007) Summative Evaluation of the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program burden on Canada, we must also consider www.cic.gc.ca/ENGLISH/resources/evaluation/psrp/psrp- and build on the myriad dimensions in summary.asp Expectations of vulnerability in Australia Alice M Neikirk The ability of refugees to gain admission to Australia is increasingly based on perceptions of helplessness, suffering and ‘deservingness’. One consequence is that men in particular are marginalised following resettlement.

The rhetoric and policies of Australia’s stemming from past experiences, while major political parties have sought to women were considered vulnerable due to differentiate between refugees and asylum their gender roles. Men were consistently seen seekers. Asylum seekers are depicted as ‘fake as a barrier to be overcome in order to realise refugees’, particularly because they do not the transformation of vulnerable female ‘mind the queue’. Their action (getting on refugees into empowered women. These a boat) is framed as an indication that they understandings and assumptions regarding are not the most vulnerable but are capable the social role of women afforded men few economic migrants and hence undeserving pathways to move beyond their status of of sanctuary. Actively excluding asylum vulnerable (but still problematic) refugees. seekers is therefore considered a necessary Trauma morphed into a central feature, measure in order to provide adequate with both positive and negative effects, of humanitarian assistance for resettling male Bhutanese refugee identity in Australia. ‘genuine’ refugees, who have become First and foremost, trauma and suffering synonymous with those living for protracted marked them as deserving refugees and periods in refugee camps and coming to thus welcome in Australia. Several men Australia through a managed programme. told me it was important that Australians After more than two decades in camps, knew their story, their experiences of torture the Bhutanese resettling in Australia and the protracted time spent in camps. represent a global elite of refugees who “It is really essential for people in Australia to can access resettlement opportunities. know our history because they will not have The ability of refugees to gain admission information about our background… For example, is increasingly based on perceptions of I have been involved in discrimination on the street. helplessness, suffering and ‘deservingness’. As I was walking along the street someone from a These expectations have had an impact on car shouted at me using foul language and they said the way resettlement organisations, local “you Indian, go back to you country” and made a service providers and the general public rude gesture. Therefore it is important.” (Male, in approached the Bhutanese once they were in his 20s) Australia. In particular, Bhutanese refugee men (and, in particular, able-bodied men) Male interviewees believed that it was were seen as vulnerable due to the trauma through suffering that their admission 64 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

into Australia was made credible. There obligations to his family. This man was in his was a clear attempt to distinguish forties, had the equivalent of a high-school themselves from asylum seekers whom the education, spoke English proficiently, and popular press and some political groups had held leadership roles in Bhutan and in speculated were, in reality, economic the refugee camps. He now volunteered migrants. One Bhutanese refugee who for a local resettlement organisation and worked with recent arrivals explained: hoped to one day find gainful employment but did not think this was a realistic “The label refugee is very important. It is very aspiration. He pinned his hopes instead important because it makes people understand on his daughter, who would outgrow her we are from refugee camps. It also means more status as a refugee and be able to aspire support, support for torture victims.” (Male, in towards being a contributing member of his 30s) Australian society. He, on the other hand, Here, suffering in a refugee camp, coming found himself without a role beyond being through the correct resettlement process “a refugee the government is helping”. and reflecting the appropriate attributes The worries of this generation of men, of a refugee are all identified as significant roughly between the ages of twenty and to legitimise their presence in Australia. sixty, also highlighted the different reception Though participants recognised the of men and women. Once resettled, women potential positive aspects of the refugee were expected to expand their social roles label, they also expressed concern that with the help of various service providers people equated ‘refugee’ with a lack of who ran numerous programmes with the capabilities or education. One participant explicit goal of empowering women. The explained, “people won’t recognise the Bhutanese women participated in a myriad skills that we are bringing… people just of activities to improve their spoken English think refugees are poor people without and take leadership roles in public situations, any skills.” (Male, in his 30s). In addition, and were encouraged to pursue work however, the Bhutanese community also outside the home. The implicit assumption recognised that the label enabled them to access resources that other migrants could not. At a very practical level, being traumatised is a recognised disability that

brought with it additional financial support. Alice Neikirk In this context, the refugee label was both a help in fostering acceptance by Australians and a hindrance. Male refugees interpreted the expectations that they encountered as hindering their ability to contribute beyond their status as a victimised group and recipients of help. They worried that while the understanding of suffering, trauma and vulnerability was central to mediating their interactions with the broader Australian population (because it helped people understand their journey to Australia), ultimately it undermined future aspirations. They worried that being a refugee would mean little hope of them being seen as equally capable as their Australian hosts. One refugee man felt that refugee status undermined his ability to fulfil his Bhutanese refugees resettled to Adelaide, South Australia. Resettlement 65 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

was that women were vulnerable due to the with their qualifications. A few men have group’s culture. While there were vigorous been able to move into paid employment efforts by service providers to change the (mostly with organisations which facilitate role of female Bhutanese, it was felt that refugee resettlement) but these were men’s vulnerability was due to past events viewed as exceptional achievements. and could therefore not be changed. Paid employment is not the only pathway As women found themselves increasingly towards social status either in Australia more expected to be socially active and perhaps broadly or for the Bhutanese specifically. even employed (although generally in However, the men I spoke to consistently part-time or casual work), men became highlighted the value of paid work. “Eating entrenched in the domestic sphere. Childcare another man’s sweat” through social welfare is expensive in Australia and the cultural payments was not considered a desirable norms of the group necessitate a considerable way to live. Further, without a robust post- amount of labour each day to prepare food. resettlement programme to reinforce the In this context, it is difficult for dual-earning positive aspects of men looking after the households to function. One man in his domestic sphere it is unlikely that these early thirties explained his changing role: shifting gender roles will be straightforward.

“I used to be a teacher in the camps but here I Conclusion cannot find a job. Normally, my wife would take While trauma can have a powerful care of the children but she found a job – our legitimising effect, it also reinforces refugees’ neighbour helped her. Now, I volunteer but I am status as primarily victims and can thereby mostly the house minder now. I take my girls to have a negative impact on their ability to school and keep everything running.” (Male, in engage with the broader population. By his 30s) expecting widespread trauma, Australia For most men, this was a profound change effectively views a large section of the refugee from the camps where they dominated population as impaired; as such, they are schools as teachers and the camp’s internal not expected to participate in Australia. management Crucially, assuming that deserving refugee structure. Several men men are traumatised and thus incapable who were farmers may function to transform them from reflected that before political, economic and social actors, and arriving in Australia, potential participants in Australia more they had aspired to broadly, into semi-functional dependents. own farms akin to This is not to suggest that refugees should the ones they had in stop receiving assistance. Rather, a strict Bhutan. Owning a migration policy that focuses on suffering and farm promised self- trauma leads to particular forms of assistance sufficiency, autonomy that, rather than integrating refugees into and status. Now citizenry, may cause further alienation from they were living in mainstream Australia as dependent, lesser Adelaide, however, citizens. My interviewees saw themselves they did not think as much more capable than this. owning a farm would Alice M Neikirk [email protected] be possible due both PhD Candidate, The Australian National to cost and the urban University www.anu.edu.au setting. Others, particularly those This article is based on research with Bhutanese with college degrees, refugees in Australia between 2012 and 2014. hoped for employment commensurate Bhutanese refugees resettled to Adelaide, South Australia. 66 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017 Resettlement of refugee youth in Australia: experiences and outcomes over time Celia McMichael, Caitlin Nunn, Ignacio Correa-Velez and Sandra M Gifford

Findings from a longitudinal study of long-term resettlement experiences of refugee youth living in Melbourne show that refugee experiences – both pre- and post-resettlement – continue to influence opportunities and outcomes many years after arrival.

Refugee-related services, policies and 51 of the original 120 (25 female, 26 male) research in countries of resettlement typically participated in an in-depth interview and focus on the early years of resettlement. completed a short questionnaire. These Refugee experiences of resettlement, however, participants were by then aged between change over time, as does the resettlement 18 and 27 years and had been living in context, with ongoing adjustments to policy, Australia for eight to nine years. service provision, host society reception, and homeland and ethnic community politics. Settlement outcomes There is inadequate understanding of the One young woman from Sudan recalled that experiences of resettled refugees over time, “it took a bit of time for me to actually start to in particular of the long-term settlement belong… I just started fitting in, then getting trajectories and experiences of resettled used to the language, and studying, and so refugee youth. Refugees who resettle as on.” In their first year, most young people young people have been found to face (90%) indicated that they felt the Australian significant challenges, such as: disrupted community cared about them, while 18% education pre-migration and associated reported experiences of discrimination. barriers to educational success post migration; Eight to nine years after arrival, extensive family responsibilities including participants largely imagined and planned caring for siblings and assisting parents; their futures as being in Australia. 96% and experiences of discrimination in the now felt the Australian community cared host society. However, refugee young people about them, yet discrimination was still demonstrate significant resilience and a a problem for many. 27% indicated that great capacity to negotiate these challenges. they had experienced discrimination in ‘Good Starts’ was a mixed-method the previous six months, including by the longitudinal study of refugee settlement and wider public, work colleagues and police. A well-being that aimed to better understand young man from Sudan said, “some people how to support settlement for young people … they’re happy to have diversity, they’re with refugee backgrounds.1 In 2004, 120 happy to have different food and different young people from refugee backgrounds clothes. And some people just hate, you aged between eleven and nineteen years (55 know, as if we’re stealing their future.” female, 65 male) were recruited into the study; Participants reported that Australian all had recently been resettled via Australia’s citizenship provided a sense of security Humanitarian Program. The young people and a foundation for building a future in came from 12 different countries within Australia. It offered insurance against further Africa, the Middle East and Europe, and forced displacement, and it also allowed their average length of residence in Australia them to maintain transnational identities and at that point was six months. Qualitative attachments by facilitating overseas travel and and quantitative data on their psychosocial return to Australia. As one young man from health and settlement experiences were Ethiopia said, “I feel more comfortable now. If collected annually for four years. In 2012- anything happens, I won’t be going anywhere. 13, the participants were contacted again; I’m Aussie… I have that confidence.” Resettlement 67 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

More years of schooling prior to who are jobless…I don’t want to be like arrival, greater levels of self-esteem, not that. I want to have a good quality of life.” having moved house in the previous year In particular, due to pressing financial and greater social support were factors responsibilities to family in Australia and associated with higher self-reported overseas, several young people reported health status scores over time. A stronger taking on unskilled work – rather than ethnic identity was positively associated pursuing further study – in order to generate with happiness. Participants who had immediate income. Eight to nine years after experienced discrimination scored themselves arrival, 90% of young women and 54% of significantly lower in both health status young men said some or most of their income and levels of happiness. Importantly, eight was sent to support family overseas. to nine years after arrival, social inclusion Factors that helped young people to or exclusion continued to have a significant attain desirable employment included: impact on health and happiness, with higher emotional and practical support from average levels of health and happiness family members; personal contacts such among those who reported experiences as teachers, both refugee and non-refugee of social inclusion (and vice versa). peers, service providers and members of Attending school and achieving an ethnic communities who acted as sources of education is one of the most desired information about employment pathways and opportunities among resettled refugee opportunities; English literacy; and formal young people. One young woman from bridging programmes that helped them Sudan stated, “I want to finish school gain acceptance into university courses. and get a good job and make my family.” By 2012-13, one third of participants had There are, however, substantial barriers to made a return visit to their country or region completing secondary school for refugee of origin. Of those who had not yet gone back, youth. Eight to nine years after arrival, 62% 61% hoped to do so in the future, while the of participants had completed secondary rest did not intend to visit. Reasons for return school. However, those who were older on visits included tourism, to see family, to attend arrival, had experienced discrimination weddings, to connect with their homeland, in Australia or had experienced teen and for marriage. One young man who was pregnancy and early parenthood were born in Sudan went to Eritrea, his ancestral significantly less likely to complete secondary homeland; he recalled, “to actually be in the school. Importantly, young people who country where I’m actually from, where my indicated that they had not experienced people are – it was a feeling that I’d never discrimination in Australia were almost five felt before, and it was good.” Return visits times more likely to complete secondary provided a valued opportunity to renew and school than those who said they had. maintain connections to homelands. However, There is no typical employment trajectory no participant expressed an intention to go for young people with refugee backgrounds. back permanently, and return visits did not In this cohort, according to the follow-up erode their sense of belonging in Australia. interviews in 2012-13, 45% of participants were employed, mostly in casual or part-time Conclusions roles including in childcare, security, care of Eight to nine years after arriving in Australia, the elderly and retail. A similar number were most resettled young people in the Good simultaneously or alternatively completing Starts study demonstrated a positive and further education, including both university aspirational orientation to life in Australia, degrees and vocational training. Others including a perception of being cared for, were caring for children or parents, or job- positive evaluations of their health, happiness seeking. One young man from Ethiopia and quality of life, and a commitment to explained, “I don’t want to be like the lowest becoming Australian citizens and pursuing people around me. Like for example, people a future in their settlement country. The 68 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

factors mediating these outcomes – as Lecturer, School of Geography, University of well as more practical outcomes such as Melbourne http://geography.unimelb.edu.au/ educational and occupational attainment Caitlin Nunn [email protected] – relate to both pre- and post-resettlement International Junior Research Fellow, School of experiences. Pre-resettlement factors Applied Social Sciences, Durham University; supporting positive settlement outcomes Adjunct Research Fellow, Centre for Cultural include younger age on arrival and more Diversity and Wellbeing, Victoria University, years of pre-migration education; post Australia www.dur.ac.uk/sass/ settlement, strong networks and social support have a powerful impact, and strong Ignacio Correa-Velez ethnic identity is also valuable. Experiences [email protected] of discrimination have the most significant Associate Professor, School of Public Health and adverse impact upon self-reported health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology well-being and the pursuit of education. www.qut.edu.au/health/about/schools/school- It is therefore critical to address of-public-health-and-social-work discrimination, increase the pathways Sandra Gifford [email protected] through which refugee youth can access Professor of Anthropology and Refugee Studies, social goods and opportunities such as The Swinburne Institute for Social Research, education and employment, and promote Swinburne University of Technology connections to people and place. This www.swinburne.edu.au/research/institute-social- will increase the effectiveness of refugee research/ resettlement programmes over the longer 1. Gifford, S M, Correa-Velez I and Sampson R (2009)Good term, supporting young people with starts for recently arrived youth with refugee backgrounds: Promoting wellbeing in the first three years of settlement in Melbourne, Australia. refugee backgrounds to achieve their La Trobe Refugee Research Centre aspirations and pursue positive futures. http://apo.org.au/node/34674 and McMichael, C, Nunn, C, Gifford, S and Correa-Velez, I (2014) ‘Studying refugee settlement with Celia McMichael longitudinal research: methodological and ethical challenges from [email protected] the Good Starts study’, Journal of Refugee Studies, 28(2) http://jrs.oxfordjournals.org/content/28/2/238.full.pdf+html

Rejecting resettlement: the case of the Palestinians Anne Irfan Palestinian rejection of resettlement was driven by political concerns. This case study shows the importance of engaging directly with refugees when devising durable solutions.

Over their seven decades as a large-scale by their equally vehement attachment to refugee population, the Palestinians have repatriation. The right of return has been a been remarkably consistent in collectively central tenet of the Palestinian nationalist opposing resettlement as a durable solution movement since 1948 when many Palestinian to their plight. Both the grass roots and refugees left their homes believing that later the Palestine Liberation Organisation they would return shortly, as a result often (PLO) have repudiated any suggestion of taking only a few belongings with them. third-country resettlement on the grounds While events on the ground put paid to these that it would undermine the Palestinians’ immediate plans, they did not destroy the political and national rights as a people. Host- hope of eventual return in the future. On the country integration was similarly spurned. contrary, the collective Palestinian desire for repatriation remained strong, buoyed by the The Right of Return United Nations’ (UN’s) formal endorsement of The Palestinian refugees’ vehement the right of return in Resolution 194. Calls for opposition to resettlement is explained the realisation of this right became central to Resettlement 69 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

Palestinian political discourse, and Resolution programmes put forward by the UN with 194 remains a popular and effective rallying the unofficial aim of facilitating resettlement cry today. When Palestinian President did nothing to allay such concerns. Mahmoud Abbas said in 2012 that he was In the first decade after 1948, the UN willing to forgo his right to return to his focused on attempting to resettle the hometown of Safad, his comments provoked Palestinian refugees into either the (Arab) outrage across the diaspora. host states or third countries (usually also Palestinian opposition to resettlement imagined as Arab countries). This was in must be understood within this context. keeping with the post-war international Resettlement as a durable solution is preference for resettlement over return. by implication mutually exclusive with Moreover, this seemed the most feasible return. Many Palestinian refugees have solution for the Palestinian refugees in feared, sometimes with good reason, view of Israel’s refusal to countenance that resettlement schemes are politically their return. It was thought that resettling motivated and designed to undermine the Palestinian refugees across the Arab their political cause by ‘solving’ their world would be straightforward in view of problem once and for all. Resettlement was their shared linguistic and cultural ties. thus never seen as a purely humanitarian On the world stage, both the United solution but was always politically tainted. States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) The PLO institutionalised this widespread favoured this option. This was particularly hostility to the idea by formally opposing significant as it was the US and the UK that any international plans for either host state championed and largely funded the UN Relief integration or third-country resettlement. and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which had been established in 1949 Failed resettlement as a specialist body for the Palestinian crisis. The refugees’ resistance to resettlement was While its primary focus was on relief, in the fuelled by resettlement’s perceived connection 1950s it also became the focus for broader to the UN. Many Palestinian refugees were resettlement plans for the Palestinians. The suspicious of the international community in ‘Works’ of its title referred to job schemes general and of the UN in particular, which designed to facilitate the refugees’ economic they perceived as biased towards Israel. The development and local integration. In 1952 the UN General Assembly even authorised a UNRWA Reintegration Fund for the precise purpose of resettling the refugees outside Palestine. Anne Irfan Such plans were overwhelmingly opposed and rejected by the Palestinian refugees themselves. Observing that the Works schemes presupposed their futures outside Palestine, the refugees largely declined to enrol and participate. Their intransigence, combined with the costly nature of the schemes, led UNWRA to eventually abandon the programme, switching its emphasis in the late 1950s to education. Yet the Mural in a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, calling for the right of return. 70 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

Works schemes’ impact far outlasted their fragment the Palestinian diaspora and duration, and resettlement has remained thereby undermine their collective national a major source of tension and suspicion in rights as a people. Crucially, it explicitly the refugees’ relationship with UNRWA. It requested that individual Palestinians is an early example of the lasting damage refrain from applying for asylum in the that can be caused when humanitarian West, fearing that any such moves might planning fails to take sufficient account enable resettlement ‘by the back door’. of the refugees’ own expectations. Notwithstanding this, many individual On similar grounds, the Palestinian Palestinians have successfully pursued refugees also resisted UNRWA’s efforts to third-country resettlement, acquiring develop and stabilise the infrastructure in citizenship in Europe, North America their camps in the 1950s. In the eyes of the and Latin America. In the vast majority of refugees, these moves were another part of the cases they have done so while continuing same plan to permanently settle them outside to identify as Palestinian refugees and still Palestine. In response, they uprooted trees favouring repatriation as a long-term solution planted by UNRWA in the camps, sprayed for the exiled community as a whole. structures with red anti-resettlement slogans, Emigration to Western states received demonstrated and went on strike. Their legal backing in 2012 from a ruling in the opposition was so vehement that UNRWA European Court of Justice, which created was unable to implement its plans, another a precedent for Palestinian eligibility to instance of the problems caused by inadequate claim asylum in Europe.2 Even the PLO engagement with the refugees themselves. has reportedly softened its stance on Hostility from the Palestinian refugees individual resettlement, acknowledging was not the only reason that resettlement was that it is not necessarily incompatible never implemented or seriously pursued. with collective repatriation rights. There was also a major obstacle in the form The issue of individual resettlement has of opposition from the Arab states, both taken on a new significance in the context of those already hosting large Palestinian the Syrian crisis. Syria historically provided refugee populations, and those who might some of the best conditions and entitlements be targeted for third-country resettlement for Palestinian refugees in the Arab world, a schemes. With the possible exception of situation that has been grotesquely inverted Jordan, these governments feared that by the current war. Since 2011, more than resettlement would compel them to absorb 100,000 Palestinians have fled their homes large numbers of refugees as citizens. The in Syria, becoming second-time refugees. As Arab states consistently spoke at the UN first Jordan and then Lebanon have closed against resettling the Palestinians, calling their doors to Palestinians from Syria, some rather for return as the only viable and are now looking to Europe for refuge. acceptable solution. Without Arab support, The plight of Palestinians fleeing Syria resettlement stood little chance and in 1987 has highlighted some of the long-term the UNRWA Commissioner-General Giorgio problems facing Palestinian refugees in Giacomelli stated that although the agency general. Their affiliation to UNRWA rather had been conceived with the intention of than UNHCR places them at a unique facilitating resettlement, financial and political disadvantage, rendering them ineligible for factors had rendered this impossible.1 the large-scale resettlement programmes organised through the latter. Instead, they Individual resettlement must make individual asylum applications, The PLO too actively opposed resettlement, and often do not qualify as political refugees insisting that UNHCR, the UN Refugee or even as stateless persons. Their legal Agency, not pursue this for the Palestinians. vulnerability means that Palestinians can The PLO’s opposition was grounded be denied the protections afforded to other in the concern that resettlement would refugees, including regarding resettlement. Resettlement 71 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

Conclusion other solutions. If people wish ultimately to The Palestinian refugee situation is in many return home, they are less likely to embrace ways exceptional. Its longevity, scale and measures that they fear will undermine institutional uniqueness all distinguish it their ability to do so. It is therefore worth from most other refugee situations. It can exploring ways of re-constructing the nevertheless offer valuable lessons, not least ‘three durable solutions’ so as to allay such when it comes to resettlement. anxieties. The Palestinian case shows that if In the case of the Palestinians, resettlement can be devised and fashioned resettlement not only failed but barely got off so as not to undermine the possibility of the ground. While the refugees’ opposition eventual return, it may prove more palatable. to it was driven by political concerns, the Finally, it is worth remembering that situation was not helped by the failure of UNHCR itself continues to hold up voluntary international humanitarians to engage with repatriation as the preferred durable them directly. The result has been lasting solution for all refugees, and resettlement mistrust and suspicion that have continually as the last resort. On this the Palestinian plagued the refugees’ relationships with refugees are firmly aligned with the UN. UNRWA in particular, and the UN in general. Anne Irfan [email protected] The suspicion felt by many Palestinian PhD Candidate, International History refugees towards resettlement was also Department, London School of Economics due to the perceived implications of the www.lse.ac.uk solution’s permanence. This is certainly not 1. The full interview can be found in the UNHCR journal Refugees, exceptional, in view of many refugee groups’ September 1987. continuing preference for repatriation over 2. El Kott judgement http://bit.ly/Curia-ElKottjudgement The resettlement of Polish refugees after the second world war Agata Blaszczyk

The passing of the Polish Resettlement Act and the creation of the different agencies related to it undoubtedly represented an unprecedented response to the challenge of mass migration in the UK.

When it became clear in 1945, at the end of the recruited from the PRC and would be placed second world war, that the Polish forces and in ‘approved’ Ministry of Labour jobs. refugees abroad would not be able to return The 1947 Polish Resettlement Act aimed to their homeland, the British government to resettle political refugees in the UK, at took on responsibility for them. The first step a time when it was on the verge of an era was the founding of the Polish Resettlement of considerable population increase based Corps (PRC) in May 1946. Almost a quarter largely on immigration. The Act provided of a million Polish servicemen supporting Polish refugees in the UK with entitlement to the Western Allies found that they could employment and to unemployment benefit. not return home. Soldiers and airmen The Act also laid out the responsibilities serving overseas were to be helped through of several government departments the Corps to stay in the United Kingdom to provide health services, pension (UK) and settle into civilian life there. entitlement and education for the Poles. Service in the Corps was intended to be an The Act was welcomed in parliament opportunity for retraining and education; it and considered to be an act of great was agreed with the British trade unions that statesmanship – an act that changed people’s prospective Polish employees could only be attitudes to the foreigners then arriving. 72 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

and dependants were also brought to Britain to join them, bringing the estimated total to over 249,000. The camps were generally in remote Agata Blaszczyk locations with Nissen huts or poor- quality dwellings each occupied by more than one family. The huts were equipped with electric lights and heated by slow combustion stoves but had poor natural ventilation and light. However, for the first generation of Poles they became a symbol of stability, and for the second generation the camps would remain in their memory as happy places, full of freedom. Alongside the basic needs of the new arrivals in terms of accommodation, health, welfare and employment, there was a considerable Nissen hut in Northwick Park Camp, originally built in 1943 as an American field hospital demand for education. In 1947, the and used from 1947 by the Polish Resettlement Corps. Committee for the Education of Poles The Act enabled Poles to integrate in the was set up, with all expenses to be defrayed UK and thus contribute to providing the out of funds provided by parliament. The labour force needed by the British economy Committee’s principal aim was to “fit [the in recovering from the war. By the end Poles] for absorption into British schools of 1949, 150,000 Polish soldiers and their and British careers whilst still maintaining dependents had settled in the UK and provision for their natural desire for the their descendants continue to make up a maintenance of Polish culture and the large part of the UK’s Polish community knowledge of Polish History and Literature.”1 as it exists today. In due course, the Poles This involved imparting to them an adequate emerged as dedicated contributors to the knowledge of English and of the British way reconstruction of the UK economy, and of life through education in appropriate Polish refugees became one of the most British institutions in order to prepare them prosperous immigrant groups in the UK. for resettlement either in the UK or overseas. This was the first time in the history The annual expenditure of the Committee of migration to the UK that this kind of was estimated at about £1,000,000 during legislation was brought out, directed uniquely the first year of its existence, rising for 1948- at a refugee group. The Act demonstrated 49 to £1,500,000. During the seven and a that by providing adequate resources half years of its existence the Committee’s and responding positively to the needs of expenditure totalled nine million pounds. refugees, the integration process into the Not surprisingly, for the first generation host society can be significantly eased. of newcomers the experience of settling A good deal of the work linked to this down proved to be tougher and lengthier Act involved the creation of the Polish than expected. However, for younger Poles Resettlement Camps. Former army and air the route of adaptation, integration and force camps were utilised as temporary even gradual assimilation was more of a accommodation for the Polish troops and natural process, and education provisions their families. By October 1946, some 120,000 helped here enormously. Learning the Polish troops has been quartered in 265 camps English language became the basic step to throughout the UK. Over the years, wives be taken in pursuit of this ambitious plan. Resettlement 73 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

From March 1948, the Home Secretary assets contributing to community life. The announced that applications for British Committee’s aim of adapting Polish exiles citizenship would be accepted from Polish to a new life was slowly being achieved. ex-servicemen and Poles were granted the As one local newspaper article of the time right to become naturalised British citizens. said, “Their assets and pastimes may differ, In the end, the Poles emerged as dedicated but that very difference is an asset to the contributors to the rebuilt British economy. joint community of the town.”2 Those who obtained secondary or higher Agata Blaszczyk [email protected] education found profitable and sometimes Lecturer in history, The Polish University Abroad prestigious posts in the British labour in London www.puno.edu.pl/english.htm market and made successful professional 1. Memorandum from the Minister of Education and the Secretary careers. Their different culture and tradition, of the State for Scotland, ED128/146, pp1-2. along with the shared traumatic wartime Report on the Curriculum and Staffing of the Committee’s Polish Schools, 13 July 1948, ED128/5, p3. experience, slowly came to be seen as 2. Melton Mowbray Times, July 1952 Resettlement: where’s the evidence, what’s the strategy? Alexander Betts The aims and objectives of resettlement are poorly specified and the outcomes are poorly measured. For resettlement to be effective, it needs a much stronger evidence base and it needs improved coordination at the international level.

Resettlement is an area of refugee policy that international solidarity. Yet the impact of too often escapes scrutiny. It is often viewed resettlement is almost never measured relative as inherently benevolent and serves as a to any of these putative purposes. Because means for distant countries and progressive aims and objectives are often so imprecisely members of civil society to believe that they specified, there are no benchmarks or are ‘making a difference’. And yet, relative metrics to hold governments accountable for to its historical and cultural primacy in their resettlement practices or to measure major resettlement countries such as the what resettlement actually achieves. It United States (US), Canada and Australia, is no wonder that it is so challenging for resettlement’s purpose and outcomes politicians to justify to electorates. often evade debate or examination. A few provocative facts hint at why Many of the more recent European there are at least valid concerns to consider. resettlement policies emerged as knee- Resettlement is consistently only available jerk responses to the European refugee to the few: it is offered to less than 1% of ‘crisis’. For example, the UK’s Vulnerable the world’s refugees. It is often not what Persons Relocation Scheme was extended refugees want: 70% of around 100,000 Syrian to 20,000 Syrians for one reason alone: the refugees approached by UNHCR about day after the body of the Syrian refugee resettlement to Canada in late 2015 said child Alan Kurdi was depicted on the they did not want resettlement to Canada. It front page of every British newspaper, leads to inequitable allocation of resources: resettlement had become the answer. we spend around US$135 on every refugee The purpose of resettlement is specified in the West for every US$1 we spend on a with surprising vagueness. It is supposedly refugee in developing regions of the world.1 a protection tool, a durable solution, a So why do Western states persevere with means to strategically leverage other durable resettlement? Why is it the default means solutions, and a form of burden sharing and by which a country like the US supports 74 Resettlement FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

refugees? There are many reasons. Some host countries in the region of origin, and are cultural and historical, with some that humanitarian assistance in the region countries and regions having long-standing provides a more efficient alternative to commitments to resettlement. But there is resettlement. Resettlement’s proponents also an underlying political economy. The make claims that, for example, resettlement ‘resettlement industry’ is worth billions of reduces spontaneous arrivals of asylum dollars a year to the NGOs and civil society seekers beyond the region of origin and organisations that participate in it. In the US that it reinforces the commitment of host there is a significant amount of lobbying – countries in the developing world’s to much of it faith-based – in state capitals and in asylum norms. Few of these claims – on Washington DC to advocate for resettlement either side – are necessarily wrong; it is places, including for specific groups. just that they have not been tested. Resettlement feels good and it feels cathartic. Successive UNHCR documents have But resettlement also increasingly serves highlighted the range of functions served by an unspoken migration management function. resettlement. And yet there has been very little It legitimates certain modes of entry for some research to show whether, and if so when, refugees, and it delegitimates others. It is no resettlement actually fulfils these different coincidence that it is in some of the countries types of objectives. But with research, these with the strongest resettlement traditions putative functions could be tested empirically. where spontaneous asylum is regarded with All of the goals of resettlement correspond to the greatest scepticism. In Australia, for specific, testable hypotheses: example, those who arrive spontaneously are referred to as ‘queue jumpers’. Function of resettlement + None of this is an argument not to engage example of testable hypothesis in resettlement. Resettlement represents a potentially important part of the toolbox International solidarity and responsibility sharing : influences host state behaviour for protecting and assisting refugees. It potentially fulfils all of the functions that Protection : reaches the most vulnerable UNHCR associates it with. But what has Strategic use : leverages other durable solutions been missing is a knowledge base that can empirically substantiate what it is that Public understanding : leads to greater the umbrella category of ‘resettlement’ is public support achieving. Who is it actually helping – beyond Addressing mass arrivals : averts refoulement sustaining the resettlement industry – and by host states on what basis? As resettlement is gradually reconceptualised more broadly as ‘pathways’, these questions become ever more urgent. To date, research on resettlement has focused mainly on three broad areas. First, descriptive Improving the evidence base accounts of the evolution of resettlement Compared with other areas of refugee policy. Second, work on the social integration studies, there has been a striking lack of of resettled refugees. Third, cultural research on resettlement. It is one of the least dimensions of the resettlement experience. evidence-based areas of refugee policy, led The existing body of work has left key more by belief, habit and culture. Too often gaps in important areas. Methodologically, resettlement policies are built on historical there has been limited quantitative or precedent and effective lobbying, rather comparative research that can inform practice. than on clearly defined objectives and Thematically, there are gaps. The politics carefully understood pathways to impact. has rarely been examined: how does the Resettlement’s detractors often resort ‘resettlement industry’ function, and what to empirically unsubstantiated claims: that are the power relations and interests that it is a ‘pull factor’, attracting migrants to sustain existing practices, globally, nationally Resettlement 75 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

and locally? The economics requires more The first thing that is needed is a work: what explains variation in outcomes collective purpose for resettlement. The for resettled refugees? Anthropologically, most obvious and unique function of most of the existing work is country- resettlement is as a route out of limbo. With specific rather than seeking to understand the exception of the most vulnerable, it is resettlement by tracing refugees’ trajectories arguably justifiable for refugees to wait in through the entire resettlement process. a neighbouring country in their region of origin for a certain period of time. But beyond Improving coordination a certain period – whether five or 10 years In addition, good resettlement policies – it becomes cruel and inhumane. Within a require international collaboration if comprehensive response, resettlement might they are to be effective. Most countries’ be most appropriately used as part of that resettlement contributions are a drop ‘route out of limbo’ function through which in the ocean by themselves; collectively the international community coordinates they have a greater chance of making a an end to protracted refugee situations. difference. Yet resettlement is not well The second thing that is needed, though, enough coordinated at the international is a more proactive resettlement ‘broker’. level. Beyond UNHCR’s Annual Tripartite At the moment, individual governments Consultations, most states make their determine their resettlement priorities resettlement commitments to UNHCR on and UNHCR supports them in meeting a bilateral basis and fail to coordinate their these objectives. Far more coherent resettlement policies. This means that the would be a UNHCR-led strategic vision aggregate of contributions from resettlement for resettlement as a component part fails to exceed the sum of its parts. of comprehensive responses to specific To be effective, resettlement cannot be refugee situations. A logical place for conceived as a discrete element of the overall the elaboration of such a role might well refugee regime but needs to be an integral be within the Comprehensive Refugee component part of a wider strategic vision. It Response Framework2 being developed has to be a part of comprehensive responses as part of the Global Compact process. to specific refugee situations around the Alexander Betts [email protected] world, considered alongside responses Professor of Forced Migration and International within host states in the developing world Affairs and Director of the Refugee Studies and within the country of origin. But until Centre, University of Oxford www.rsc.ox.ac.uk now, no such overarching strategy has 1. Betts A and Collier P (March 2017)Refuge: Transforming a Broken existed, and resettlement conversations Refugee System, Penguin Allen Lane have been more about the politics of the 2. New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, A/RES/71/1, resettlement country than about coherent Annex 1, para. 18 http://bit.ly/NewYorkDeclaration responses to specific refugee situations.

Options for accessing FMR – what you might not know… Do you like to read online or in print, or listen to Do you want to know as soon as a new issue or call podcasts? for articles goes online? • Read each issue online, either the full issue in pdf • Sign up for our occasional email alerts (with links to format or individual articles in html or pdf format: articles online) www.fmreview.org/request/alerts. www.fmreview.org • Join us on Twitter @FMReview or Facebook • Listen to FMR podcasts at https://podcasts.ox.ac. www.facebook.com/FMReview/ uk/series (search for ‘forced migration review’) • Request a print copy of the full magazine or its Remember: we publish in English, French, Spanish accompanying digest (with QR codes and web and Arabic, in print and online. links): www.fmreview.org/request/print 76 little monitoringlittle outcomes. done of deportation is there but origin of country to their return they when harm of risk at are deported are who Many failed? have applications asylum their after deported are who to people happens What cases: four confidentiality of asylum applications. asylum of confidentiality the undermining risk documents travel emergency facilitate to of origin countries and countries of deporting services intelligence and police immigration, between mechanisms cooperation Furthermore, returned. are they which to countries the with of familiarity lack of their because vulnerable are minors non-accompanied Former risks. serious to applicant the exposes and of treason act an as viewed is country another in asylum simply claiming places, some In of origin. country their to deported subsequently are they when vulnerable are refused been has for asylum People application whose seekers asylum failed for risks Post-deportation refoulement constitute fact may in cases some in deportation that –indicators treatment degrading and inhumane and detention, extortion, suicide, depression, trauma, destitution, homelessness, papers, of identity lack of belongings, loss include risks These deportation. after risks considerable face and vulnerable are of Butthem many mind. out of quickly therefore out and of sight, generally are follow. that Deportees months and weeks the during and deported, are they which to country the in journey, arrival on return that on them to what happens about however,known, is Little of origin. country their to usually deported, often are refused been has for asylum People application whose monitoring and risks Post-deportation Mini-feature sending asylum seekers or deportees back back or deportees seekers asylum sending Jill Alpes,Charlotte Blondel,NausicaaPreissandMeritxell Sayos Monras www.fmreview.org/resettlement

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return.” their on “generally disappear rejected are claims whose seekers asylum Eritrea, in Rights Human on Rapporteur Special UN the to According probably killed. very were some and tortured, and arrival on arrested were 2004 in Libya and 2002 in Malta from back sent people numerous; are of detention Cases death. and torture of mistreatment, cases and imprisonment unjustified arrests, arbitrary have reported UNHCR and Amnesty conditions. poor in overcrowded cells in held often are persecution. and reprisals to them subjecting and out investigations for carrying reason afurther provides which illegally, Eritrea left of having authorities by the suspected also are 2011 who asylum in have people sought that maintained sources British time, same At the abroad. from groups opposition encouraged of having them or suspect asylum, seeking for grounds as Eritrea in persecution cited have will elsewhere who asylum have sought people that suspect authorities Eritrean The mistreatment. and reprisals investigations, to family their and migrant the exposes Eritrea left 2014 and simply having 2009 that found Watch in Rights Human and by UNHCR Studies years. seven last over the Eritreans 350 deported and claims asylum 2,250 rejected nonetheless has level, France European the have mentioned similar risks in Iran. in risks similar have mentioned organisations other and Khartoum; to return their on killed have been deportees Sudanese that have confirmed newspapers British return. The decision to deport can thus thus can deport to decision The return. upon violations rights human serious risk seekers asylum failed countries some In The needformonitoring Chad; and Conakry Guinea in detention arbitrary of cases recorded has Anafé organisation non-governmental French The well. as countries other in problematic is rejected are easier. returns make to aims which Process, Khartoum of the terms the under regime the with cooperating from Union European the prevent to do seem not violations On their arrival, repatriated Eritreans Eritreans repatriated arrival, their On Return for migrants whose asylum claims claims asylum whose for migrants Return

an Irish organisation and several several and organisation Irish an 7 Knowledge of such human rights rights human of such Knowledge www.fmreview.org/resettlement 77 78 Sciences Po Paris Amsterdam Postdoctoral Researcher, Vrije Universiteit Jill Alpes detention. arbitrary and intimidation interrogation, belongings, of their confiscation extortion, to people exposing avoid to responsibility have apolitical to the level of refoulement the to do amount not risks post-deportation when Even of origin. countries to return after deportees with what happens do know not Today, evidence. on based be policymakers reports. Information of Origin for Country insights valuable by providing thirdly, and, well-founded; are seekers asylum returned of forcibly fears the where document and secondly, identify to by helping deported; are who seekers asylum to of support provision the ways: firstly,enabling by three at least in policy help improve refugee can monitoring Post-deportation seekers. asylum failed returned of forcibly situation rights human the about information collect systematically do not organisations international and constitute returnees and the monitoring. for need sustained the facing difficulties the both highlight conclusions Its to Afghanistan. UK the from removed forcibly seekers asylum young for outcomes the documented has research New Kingdom (UK) has forcibly removed forcibly has (UK) Kingdom United the years, nine past the Over young of Afghans experiences removal: return the forced encountered after Risks Network (RSN) revealed some of the key key of the some revealed (RSN) Network Support Refugee UK-based by the undertaken situations. dangerous and precarious often to returned are They system. care UK the in years teenage formative their spent and children asylum-seeking unaccompanied as UK the to who came men 2,018 Afghan young Afghanistan to Emily Bowerman www.fmreview.org/resettlement An effective migration policy needs to needs policy migration effective An A few years ago, preliminary research research ago, years preliminary A few [email protected] refoulement www.vu.nl ; VisitingResearcher, CERI . Nonetheless, states states . Nonetheless, Post-deportation risksandmonitoring Post-deportation , deporting states states , deporting

1 back back Sciences Po Paris www.sciencespo.fr/en [email protected] Meritxell Sayos Monras Nausicaa Preiss [email protected] Charlotte Blondel http://bit.ly/HRC2013-Eritrea human rightsinEritrea,SheilaBKeetharuth(A/HRC/23/53) 7. (28May2013)ReportoftheSpecialRapporteuronsituation www.refworld.org/docid/50ebe8352.html Rights Watch (2012)UK:HaltDeportationsofTamils toSriLanka from theUKwww.refworld.org/docid/505321402.html;Human 6. FreedomfromTorture(2012) 18 June282012 Congo: ReportofaFactFindingMissiontoKinshasaConductedbetw 5. UnitedKingdom:HomeOffice(2012) Seekers, JusticeFirsthttp://bit.ly/Ramos2011 4. RamosC(2011) (rounded) http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-datasets/ on applicationsbycitizenship,ageandsex: Annual aggregateddata order toleave –annualdata(rounded)andFirstinstancedecisions 3. EUROSTAT (2015)Thirdcountrynationalsreturnedfollowingan http://bit.ly/PDMnetwork risks forreturneesincountriesoforigin)’under‘Resources’at see (2015)‘Post-deportationrisks: Criminalizeddepartureand rights incountriesoforigin’(October2014toMay2015).Fordata, research project‘Airport casualties:migrationcontrolandhuman Conciatori, SuzanneSeillerandJanineUhlmannsiekinthe 2. We acknowledge withthankstheinvolvement ofMarie http://bit.ly/DIIS-alpes-sorensen Institute forInternationalStudiesPolicyBrief risks: People faceinsecurityandthreatsafterforcedreturns 1. Seealso Alpes MJandSørensenN(2016) facing forced return. forced facing of youth cohort this confronting challenges their return to their country of origin. At one of origin. country their to return their after development sector international the and UK the in are they while sector support asylum and refugee UK-focused the between approaches joined-up and of connections lack by the secondly and next, the rights limited with seekers adult asylum failed being to day one children after’ ‘looked being from transition abrupt the by firstly exacerbated Unsafe Return:RefoulementofCongolese Asylum , p33www.refworld.org/docid/538871264.html [email protected] 2 These challenges were were challenges These Sri LankanTamils torturedonreturn Democratic Republicofthe Post-deportation February 2017 , Danish

een

FMR 54 FMR 54 employment, health and well-being. and health employment, education, security, and safety reintegration, of their assessment gap in evidence a vital filling time, first for the and, experiences their 18, documenting turning after Afghanistan to removed forcibly been who had seekers asylum child former to what happened monitored systematically 2014-15, in period 18-month For an RSN Researching theoutcomes ever. than more needed is for returnees ground the on reality the about evidence seekers, asylum refused more many receive to latter the obliging government Afghan the EU and 2016 the October between in announced agreement an Following UK. the in approach compassionate more and informed abetter about bring to people young for these outcomes the tracking for research and Afghanistan, to removal forced of potential face the in unsupported and alone left be to minor unaccompanied for no former were goals long-term overall, programme’s The Afghanistan. to removal of forced possibility the now faced and protection refugee secure to failed who had children asylum-seeking unaccompanied former support to Move programme the future. uncertain an facing support, from adrift cut themselves found children seeking asylum- unaccompanied former trajectory, life of their stages precarious most of the been forcibly removed from the UK. the from removed forcibly been who had people young 25 with interviews semi-structured 153 in-depth conducted referred) (36% number of total returnees of young number asignificant such with contact establish to it proved impossible that concern potential officer is of but it monitoring the able not or contact to were chose either people young why these It known not is return. after contacted be not could and contact make not did 16 yet removal, of these time of forced the officer at monitoring RSN’s to referred Kabul-based were people young 45 return. on people young the with contact establishing was process research the February 2017 In response, RSN set up Youth its set RSN on response, In The first challenge experienced during during experienced challenge first The . Post-deportation risksandmonitoring Post-deportation 4 3

We include: These Afghanistan. to removal forced after seekers asylum child former facing challenges of interconnected a range highlighted research the Afghanistan, left again who had returnees of young number significant the identifying to addition In Research findingsandoutcomes maintain contact if it would put them at risk. at risk. it would put them if contact maintain to them put on be should no pressure and paramount is people’s young The safety phone. their on contacts have international to seen or be to English speaking heard be to would want not they particular, in areas Taliban-held in travelling family. When with reconnect to and work housing and secure to ability their affected turn in which westernisation perceived for their and criminality with or associated afailure as seen was for example, return because, UK the in been had they that fact the hide to wanted people young of the many that clear it was research, the Throughout security. of for reasons details contact new withheld may have Some deliberately unknown. still or well-being whereabouts eventual their worked, no longer with programme by the held details contact because process research of the end the before ceased people, contact of 11 case young the In Kabul. in no longer people young with conducted were interviews or Skype telephone in-depth possible, Where 12 moved away Kabul. additional from an and process, research the during Afghanistan left people young of the Six period. research the throughout interviews multiple facilitate order to in returnees the with contact in

claim ortotheir identityasareturnee due toissuesrelated totheoriginalasylum generalised insecurity andvictimisation from peopleintheUK support andrelianceonadhoc assistance challenges inaccessinginstitutional leading inturntoincreasedisolation the formationofnewsocialnetworks, fear ofstigmaanddiscrimination impeding family andsocialnetworks the impactofweakened ordisappeared The second challenge was remaining remaining was challenge second The www.fmreview.org/resettlement 79 80 for assessing Afghan asylum claims asylum Afghan for assessing report research RSN of the citation the in evidenced is data of such value The seekers. asylum as UK the in time who have spent those for return around realities the about data robust order produce to in outcomes return post- on for research more aneed is There Next steps and leavingitinthestreet.” card onhim.Theykilledhimbycuttinghisheadoff because hehadallhisinternationalpapersandbank Taliban ontheway toIran…andtheykilledhim I toldhimnottogo,buthewas arrestedbythe he couldn’tstay,thatwouldgobacktotheEU. “I have justmadeonefriendhere.[...He]toldme told he us: when distressed particularly was person young One areturnee. were they simply because targeted were them to close returnees or other they either where incidents reported Seven issue. critical as a insecurity identified monitored people young of the quarters three Over of their original asylum claims. There is is There claims. asylum original of their content of the regardless returnees, are they simply because people young facing risks persecution the to given be to continue process. asylum UK the through going 18 still but are who have turned minors unaccompanied former individual representing by solicitors use report’s the www.fmreview.org/resettlement

health care. limited accesstoessentialsupportand removal care andmedicationwere interrupted on particular challengeswherespecialised deterioration inemotionalwell-being, with mental healthdifficultiesandprotracted ability tosurvive orremainin Afghanistan and theimpactofthisonyoungreturnees’ the difficultyoffindingsustainablework in theUK and theirrelevance ofstudiesundertaken survival, theirlackof Afghan education, cost, theprioritisationofearningmoneyfor education afterforcedreturnduetoits the nearimpossibilityofcontinuingin Our hope is that due recognition will will due recognition that is hope Our in the UNHCR guidelines guidelines UNHCR the in Return After Post-deportation risksandmonitoring Post-deportation 5 and in in and contexts in their migration journeys. migration their in contexts two these who straddle people young the supporting better to aview with development sector, international the and organisations refugee UK-based separates that gap the bridging in step one as practitioners for other aguide we have created return, on life about and UK the in process this of end at the people young supporting about learning together Bringing return. of forced possibility for the exhausted, been have for remaining options all when and appropriate where plans, contingency make to and support psychosocial and practical legal, access to process asylum of the end at the too. outcome for them an be could Afghans by young experienced removal of forced outcomes the instance, first the in representation legal good get children unless that aware –are cases asylum their in them representing solicitors the and UK, the to brought be to children unaccompanied for more lobbying those – policymakers, involved those all that It important Union. is European of the parts other and Calais from UK the to minors unaccompanied on bringing focus asignificant currently guide 6. www.refugeesupportnetwork.org/resources/ARE-practitioner- www.refworld.org/docid/570f96564.html International Protection Needsof Asylum-Seekers from Afghanistan 5. UNHCR(2016) support theresearchprocess. officer andthreeotherstaffmemberswho madefieldvisitsto 4. Theinterviewswere conductedinKabulbyRSN’smonitoring www.refugeesupportnetwork.org/resources/after-return Afghanistan documenting theexperiencesofyoungpeopleforcibly removed to 3. SeeRefugeeSupportNetwork(April2016) AfterReturn: www.fmreview.org/detention/gladwell Afghanistan’, ForcedMigrationReview 2. Gladwell C(2013)‘Nolongerachild:fromtheUKto referring totheseyoung Afghans. prison term.‘Forcedremoval’ isthereforethepreferredtermwhen connection withconvictionforacriminaloffencethatcarries the countryisdeemed‘conducive tothepublicgood’,oftenin the UKgovernment inreferencetopeoplewhoseremoval from the country.Deportationis,however, aspecifictermusedby state-enforced orenforceabledepartureofanon-citizenfrom 1. Theterm‘deportation’iscommonlyusedtoreferthe www.refugeesupportnetwork.org Programmes Manager, Network Refugee Support [email protected] Emily Bowerman It is also important to help young people people help to young important It also is EligibilityGuidelinesfor Assessing the issue44 February 2017 6

FMR 54 FMR 54 individuals’ human rights. human rights. individuals’ of abuses grave and violence of evidence despite seekers, asylum Ugandan failed of UK bythe deportation after and during happens what monitors Uganda nor UK the Neither political opinion and sexual orientation. sexual and opinion political for of persecution grounds the on including abroad, asylum 2014. seek Ugandans Many in Act Anti-Homosexuality of the annulment the despite high remain minorities sexual of persecution homophobia and And ‘removed’ or is scheduled to be removed. be to ‘removed’ scheduled or is been has individual an that fact the to country deporting the in actors society civil and by organisations alerted often is RLP (UK). Kingdom United the from returned are of whom most Ugandans, returned to support post-deportation providing involved in been Uganda, has in University of Law at Makerere School of the project outreach a community civilians at the hands of security agents. of security hands at the civilians of torture to of journalists detention and leaders of opposition arrests violent from ranging rife, are violations rights human region, atroubled in of stability asource as hailed often Uganda is While A grim return: in risks Uganda post-deportation persecution. continuing and risks, psychosocial and economic social, to vulnerable may be they society, Ugandan into back integration their During friends. and family with reunification their during continue –and agents by state violence physical to and rights of their abuse to vulnerable are they –where airport the for RLP to support. individuals refer even will occasion on plays RLP and that role crucial the it now recognises of deportees, reception of RLP’s the in role suspicious initially were officers immigration Ugandan While departure. scheduled the before individual the with contact initiates RLP possible, where and, shared is information such before sought is individual’s consent the cases, all In of arrival. time scheduled the and airline the number, phone and name person’s the include will information The Charity AhumuzaOnyoin February 2017 Since 2006 the Refugee Law Project (RLP), Law Project Refugee the 2006 Since The risks to deportees start on arrival at arrival on start deportees to risks The Post-deportation risksandmonitoring Post-deportation 1

2

unwilling to speak to immigration officials officials immigration to speak to unwilling is individual an where used is coercion or that no force ensure to difficult it is representation, of legal absence Lastly, the in deportation. before or months for weeks detention in held been whom have already of majority the deportees, traumatises orientation reasons. orientation or sexual for political of persecution fear on based was application individual’s asylum an where particularly harassment, and torture detention, to –vulnerable contacts their –and Firstly, deportees it makes airport. at the database immigration an into entered Uganda are in contacts their and deportation their regarding details process, this interrogation’.‘routine During as to referred what is to subjected then are they and registered are details personal Their officers. by immigration interview office for immigration over the to handed –is injured at times and traumatised exhausted, often but who is state deporting of the by agents escorted or may be not –who may adeportee disembarking, On ‘silently’,arrive occurs. opposite the to wish many While arrival. upon adeportee’s appearance describe to officers immigration and by RLP used commonly words two are ‘disturbed’ and ‘Distressed’ Arrival attheairport can talk if they wish. Deportees are usually usually are Deportees wish. they if talk can whom they with airport at the representative RLP an is there that know deportee the let officials the that also point It at this is deportee. of the behalf on contacts these with touch in get then will –and contact to would wish they or relatives friends any has deportee the whether ask often officials immigration the interrogation, After Re-unification withfamilyor relatives This process is deeply problematic. deeply problematic. is process This www.fmreview.org/resettlement 3 Secondly, it further Secondly, it further 81 82 Activists and human rights groups in Nigeria protest against deportations by Britain to Nigeria, January 2017. January Nigeria, to Britain by deportations against protest Nigeria in groups rights human and Activists orientation, their story has been publicised in in publicised been has story their orientation, sexual of their grounds on asylum sought arranged. be could house her from and to transportation discreet when RLP from assistance psychosocial accessed only and identity her hide could she where area aremote in lived subsequently She country). leave to for her the arranged had partner (her down partner her let had felt she she because herself in deeply disappointed Additionally, was she both. them endanger would again this as partner her contact to feared and family her to return not could Uganda. to She back deported later was woman another with arelationship in was she that discovered family her after occasions several on attacked been having UK the whoto fled woman One safety. personal for fears or from family or disappointing of endangering fear from comes often friends deportation. their to prior reassurances and contact initial despite staff RLP with meet to have refused even some and friends, and families their with contact make to reluctant www.fmreview.org/resettlement In several instances where a deportee adeportee where instances several In and family contact to reluctance The Post-deportation risksandmonitoring Post-deportation force during return flights. Worse still, there there still, flights. Worse return during force of use of disproportionate cases report to deportees to available mechanism complaint no is there –and escorts the reprimand to failed unfortunately have officers immigration Uganda’s country, deporting the from escorts by dispensed been has violence the When deportation. and during before suffered assault and due torture to medically shape returnee. for the degrading and but inhumane unacceptable only not is facilities detention criminal in adeportee Keeping available. are funds until airport at the detention police in kept be will deportee the cases, such In for this. available rarely are funds However, practice, in destination. desired their to them for transport arrange office to immigration of the responsibility the theory in it is airport, the from them away collect to far too live or relatives contact any give not risk. at assistance thatprovide officers and organisations puts but also them to a danger poses only not This occurred. deportation the time by the online and newspapers Ugandan Sometimes, deportees are returned in bad in returned are deportees Sometimes, does deportee the where instances In February 2017

FMR 54 FMR 54 human rights obligations towards its citizens. citizens. its towards obligations rights human its state’s of the fulfil to duty a violation constitutes also instances such in agents state by Uganda’s inaction the while of violations, set one constitutes officials country deporting to another country to seek asylum. The The asylum. seek to country another to now who was heading and earlier month a UK the from deported been who had airport at the individual an into ran RLP occasion one On again. once arise for deportees. explored be could approach this resilience; increased and support peer useful yielded has groups support up setting that found RLP has of torture, victims and violence of sexual For possible. survivors what is limit for staff concerns security and resources However, of shortage assistance. necessary provide to and individuals the with contact maintain to seek country deporting the in to. attended not if problems health mental severe in result can which depression and trauma suffer deportees Some conditions. medical pre-existing with for those and removal during injured for those assistance medical and sustenance, daily for their money stay, to aplace include present deportees that needs immediate The deportees. to assistance psychosocial and legal providing organisation only the is RLP and programme, or integration monitoring post-deportation have not astate-supported Uganda does support. who have no family for those particularly difficult, extremely cases some in is community the into Reintegration Reintegration failed. escorts UK the against action legal to bring attempts while bills medical cover to the left was RLP at all. escorts UK the or reprimand protest not did officers immigration The staff. RLP to later and officers over immigration to handed was her dragging when used force the to out due pulled been had hair whose and due beatings to bruised were lips whose cuffs, secured tightly due the to swollen visibly were arms and legs whose UK the from adeportee case, one In individuals. such to provided attention no medical is February 2017 For some deportees security concerns concerns security For deportees some organisations society civil some and RLP 4 The treatment by the by the treatment The Post-deportation risksandmonitoring Post-deportation leaving the country and after their return. their after and country the leaving before lived they which in circumstances the of story a deeper much reflects deportation of risk the and asylum of seeking process gruesome the to again once themselves subject to willing is aperson that fact www.refugeelawproject.org Law Project, SchoolofLaw, Makerere University Access to JusticeProgramme Manager, Refugee [email protected] Charity AhumuzaOnyoin unabated. continue will sphere this in violations rights human Otherwise, documentation. systematic and continuous through deserve they attention the given be to need ramifications its and of deportation practice The individuals. to assistance needed much- provide to mechanism monitoring post-deportation no official Uganda has and post-deportation, what transpires on do follow up not often states deporting Worse still, show otherwise. accounts hand first- treatment, inhuman or other torture of danger in not are deported those that maintain states deporting While information. no is there or simply because at night arrive or flights late received is information because either support go without of cases number a Further, threats. security and resources by inadequate extinguished being risks this but of hope aflicker provide countries deporting in organisations society civil and Uganda in RLP situation. this exacerbate further arrival on endure must they that processes Uganda. to The return upon grim is future the For deportees, many Conclusion involving regional/international bodies. area, forexamplethrough establishingindependenttaskforcesor 4. RLPwouldwelcome informationaboutgood practiceinthis Deportation.pdf www.refugeelawproject.org/files/briefing_papers/The_Impact_of_ Deportation: SomeReflectionsonCurrent Practice’ 3. DolanC,SchusterL&MerefieldM(2012) ‘TheImpactof monitoring www.refugeelegalaidinformation.org/post-deportation- box onp87and 2. UsuallythroughthePostDeportationMonitoring Network:see http://uhrc.ug/uganda-human-rights-commission-upr-report Periodic Reviewreportp6 2015, p7http://uhrc.ug/reportsandOctober2016UHRCUniversal 1. UgandaHumanRightCommission(UHRC) www.fmreview.org/resettlement 18th Annual Report

83 84 individuals who are returned under the deal. deal. the under returned who are individuals of situation rights human the monitoring with tasked been has organisation independent deportation without access to legal aid and international protection. international and aid to legal access without deportation onward risk many and detained are deal EU-Turkey to Turkey the return under who People Algerians (72), Afghans (64) and Syrians (42). (64) (72), Syrians and Afghans Algerians (404), followed by Pakistanis were majority the months; over nine Samos Kos and Chios, of Lesbos, islands Greek Turkey the from to returned men) been had (predominantly people 777 only January by 9th deal, EU-Turkey of the importance symbolic the despite Consequently, pending. still are Turkey, to deportation procedures asylum of at risk who are Greece For in people most People inGreeceatriskofdeportation questioned. been also has immigration irregular curb to ability Its procedures. asylum efficient and fair to access for undermining organisations right human and by scholars criticised been has deal The ‘one on out’). one Turkey EU in, (based the to from for Syrians programme resettlement and a aid, financial for Turkish citizens, requirements of EU visa liberalisation the for exchange –in or land sea via seekers asylum of new arrival the prevent to agreed also and channels irregular through islands Greek the to crossed who had of people Turkey to return the to agreed leaders Political statement. made ajoint (EU) Union 2016, 18th March On Turkey European the and Turkey? to return The EU-Turkey deal: what happens to people who either a ‘safe first country of asylum’ of (where a‘safecountry either first Turkey that is grounds the on is, –that Greece in grounds formalistic on ‘inadmissible’ found been has claim asylum the when fourth, and, negatively; upon decided been has application asylum the when third, return; assisted move for opt an the on people when second, Greece; in application asylum an apply ornot withdraw for asylum they do when first, Turkeyto cases: four in Sevda Tunaboylu andJillAlpes www.fmreview.org/resettlement Asylum seekers in Greece can be returned returned be can Greece in seekers Asylum Post-deportation risksandmonitoring Post-deportation 1 Finally, no 2 refugees. and seekers asylum of both rights the respect and to implemented fails Turkey effectively not is Yet, this even nationals. African and Pakistani Afghan, for Syrian, protection weak and temporary Turkish only law provides the Convention, 1951 of Refugee ratification its country. third or asafe of asylum country first asafe either as considered be not should Turkey that documented have unanimously organisations rights human and Asylum courts. Greek in disputed being still is ‘inadmissible’ be to found is claim asylum an when of returns legality The Greece. in people’s asylum to with access problems grave have documented scholars and journalists International, (UNHCR), Amnesty Agency Refugee UN application), the their apply (orto for asylum withdrawn had adesire expressed not had they because returned were 521 that non-Syrians and Turkey to return to ‘volunteered’ had Syrians person). returned the to protection provide (namely, Turkey that can country’ ‘safe third ora protection) sufficient enjoys otherwise or arefugee as recognised been has a person the outside world and consequently little little outside world consequently the and with communicate to unable therefore are EU-Turkey the Turkey. under deal Returnees to returned who are of those phones the confiscate and Frontex officers officials state without due access to legal aid and asylum. and aid legal to due access without Syria and Iraq Afghanistan, to seekers asylum of hundreds back sending and country, the to enter who wanted at Syrians shooting Syria, non-refoulement of principle the Turkeythat breaching was evidence provided Watch furthermore had Rights Human and Turkey Amnesty deal, With Turkey’s geographical limitation to to Turkey’sWith limitation geographical 39 that state authorities Greek Although During return operations from Greece, Greece, from operations return During 3 Prior to the conclusion of the EU- of the conclusion the to Prior by deporting Syrians back to to back Syrians by deporting February 2017 4

FMR 54 FMR 54 border city of Kırklareli). After interviews interviews After of Kırklareli). city border Turkish western outside the kilometres 50 (located centre removal Pehlivanköy the to primarily Turkishto centres, removal non-Syrians all transfer officers Frontex refoulement and deportation (‘secondary’) onward secondly,and, their Turkey in protection and aid legal to of access lack and detention firstly,their over, arise questions Syrian, not are who individuals of deported case the In Non-Syrians forciblyreturnedtoTurkey return. to prior belongings their access to –struggled things other among have – Turkey,in returnees that clear it is non-profit organisations several and Heck Gerda researcher academic International, Watch, Amnesty Rights Human delegation, Parliament aEuropean by UNHCR, reporting From limited deal. the under returned of people location and status current the on information further provided not has (NGOs), Turkish government the organisations non-governmental several from requests Despite situation. rights human post-return their about known is 2016. April 4th province, Izmir in port Dikili at arrive deal EU-Turkey the under Turkey to readmissions First February 2017 Upon arrival in Turkey, in Upon arrival and police Post-deportation risksandmonitoring Post-deportation . 5

in the Pehlivanköy removal centre. removal Pehlivanköy the in conditions detention able document to was Peoples Association Bridging the called aTurkish NGO centres, removal the to Turkey. in arrival their since information no received had and them to happening what was know not did they that said also services. As the facility is run by a private by aprivate run is facility the As services. medical inadequate and isolation food, poor with struggle Moreover, returnees Turkish. in only available mostly and limited are information and communication or books. phone, TV, newspapers internet, outside world the –no with communication of means to do have not access detainees cells, their In cells. their to have return to they before exercise to hour an than less given are detainees break, each After breaks. meal aday for short times three only opened are cells detainees’ to doors either in Greece or in Turkey; or in Greece in either for asylum, ask to opportunity the given been had at Pehlivanköy interviewed refugees of the none that conclusion the to came parliamentarians European of three adelegation deal, the under returnees with Despite the difficulty of gaining access access gaining of difficulty the Despite Outside the cells, the means of means the cells, the Outside www.fmreview.org/resettlement 6 returnees returnees 7 The The

Dilan Taşdemir 85 86 from Turkey.from Turkey from 16 deported men deportation their after Pakistan in detained are men young that –reported deal the under back sent Pakistani of ayoung acquaintance by Turkish authorities. status protection his on adecision to prior and alawyer to access Turkey without Ivory Coast the to by onwards deported was nevertheless, but, researcher) auniversity to contacts his (through returnees other Turkeyin than mechanisms protection about information Turkey;to to access more Yusuf had hisdeportation prior to officers by Frontex confiscated documents his had reportedly apply but to for asylum wanting as police Turkish the with name) registered had real Yusuf (not Greece, his In Ivory Coast. Turkey from onwards May 19th the to on deported was Heck, by Gerda monitored Turkey to 2016 Greece April 4th on from was of origin. Turkey countries from their to deported Turkey to have been returned individuals 417 the of nationality. of all countries their to deportation for onward documents of travel preparation the is detention calls. make phone to them for difficult very is it cells, their in locked usually are returnees but since centre removal of their areas communal the in alandline is possibility communication only the For returnees, at Pehlivanköy. people able visit to order be in of returnees names the know to need Turkish lawyers returnees. to access limited very able gain to been have only Association, PeoplesTurkey, Bridging the and Mülteci-Der Rights Refugee as such organisations, right 2016, April Since Europe. Turkish human from deported been had Turkey they because in protection applynot for international could they that staff centre told by removal were deal the under who deported were seekers asylum of five a group Congolese Heck, Gerda to According absent. wholly or patchy Turkey in been has protection requests. or information complaints with Turkish authorities state access to unable often are company, detainees security www.fmreview.org/resettlement A former Pakistani police officer – an – officer police Pakistani A former The primary purpose of returnees’ of returnees’ purpose primary The to also thus and lawyers to Access 8 One Ivorian man, whose return return whose man, Ivorian One Post-deportation risksandmonitoring Post-deportation safeguards from ‘chain’ refoulement. ‘chain’ refoulement. from safeguards legal lacking about concerns raises which available, publicly not are agreements readmission of these texts The deal. EU-Turkey of the start the days after four only ratified was agreement readmission ATurkey-Pakistan Yemen Pakistan. and Nigeria, with up negotiations opening by countries various with agreements readmission existing its to adding started (US$95). each of 10,000payment rupees a 2017 after January 2nd on released then 2016 December detained, were 22nd on asked to be returned to Syria instead Syria to returned be to asked children four with woman Syrian one that bad so were camp Düzici in conditions detention the weeks, Turkey afew in after cities other to transferred and detention from released were returnees these While Turkey. in protection temporary about information with provided adequately Turkey in not were alawyer to and access denied were Greece from returned Syrians some that reported International Amnesty for Syrians, Regulation Temporary Protection made Turkey’s to been having amendments Despite difficult. been has protection asylum temporary and lawyers to access for three weeks upon arrival in Turkey. in arrival upon weeks for three detained arbitrarily were children) four (including 12 Syrians them, with reunited be Turkey in would families with those that and days three to two within documents identity with provided would be seekers asylum Syrian that Greece in process recruitment the during by Turkish authorities promises Despite treatment. medical adequate to access without and detention, of their length and for reason the about informed being without at Düzici detained have been returnees However,checks. security and identification of purpose for the only is of Syrians detention the Officially, Aleppo. from kilometres 200 of Osmaniye, Turkish province the in camp Düziçi in held have been they where Adana, to transferred been far have so Turkey to returned who are nationals Syrian returned Syrians In the aftermath of the EU deal, Turkey EU deal, of the aftermath the In For Syrian nationals detained at Düzici, at Düzici, detained nationals For Syrian February 2017 . 9

FMR 54 FMR 54 Sciences Po Paris www.sciencespo.fr/en Amsterdam Postdoctoral Researcher, Vrije Universiteit Jill Alpes www.upf.edu Master’s student,Universitat Pompeu Fabra [email protected] Sevda Tunaboylu policies. Europe’s play in migration returns assisted and forced that role the help assess to can organisations rights human independent by monitoring Post-deportation based. is EU-Turkey the which on deal reasoning of the part question into calls this as such Evidence Sea. Aegean the crossing lives their risked again men women and young these Turkey, in status protection or apermanent EU. work to the Without access into back way 2016, April 4th on their have found four Turkey to EU deported whom the seekers asylum Congolese of five monitored that for example, noting, It worth is programmes. return assisted and forced after people to happens about what little know policymakers however, what happens, monitoring agency Turkey. to states no independent With EU member other from nationals country of third- waypaved for deportations the Turkey, to Greece EU-Turkey the also deal from seekers of asylum return the Besides Monitoring returns February 2017 tab onthewebsite. Pleasesendany feedback to [email protected] intergovernmental organisations andthemedia. from avariety ofdisciplines(law, socialsciences, psychology, issuedby governments, etc) andreports NGOs, challenges faced by andexpelled deported andtheirfamilies. persons Resources includeacademicresearch International andmakes Justice)gathers accessibledataandresearch andthe regarding deportation GlobalInformation ProjectThe Deportation (basedatBoston College’sCenter for HumanRightsand http://postdeportation.org Global Information ProjectDeportation [email protected] and provide canprovide abriefdescription ofthesupport to. deportees providesdirectory contactdetails. Ifyou oryour organisationwishto belisted inthedirectory, pleasecontact countrieswithorganisations incountriesoforigin.Thenetwork’slawyers online andNGOsindeporting countries to changetheirasylumpolicies.Theproject seeks to protect by andassist deportees connecting to humanrightsviolations;andto lobby usesuchreports governments post-deportation inhost and report This project hasthreemaingoals:to protect andassistrejected to document asylumseekers deportation; after www.refugeelegalaidinformation.org/post-deportation-monitoring MonitoringPost-Deportation Network resourcesPost-deportation [email protected] www.vu.nl ; VisitingResearcher, CERI Post-deportation risksandmonitoring Post-deportation

To for inclusion,usetheSubmit Info orreports submit papers in this article. in thisarticle. also thesources for other evidence presented The sources cited inspecificendnotes are EUR4440712016ENGLISH.pdf www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ arbitrarily detained,19May2016 9. Amnesty InternationalTurkey: SyriansreturnedfromGreece, http://bit.ly/AI-Turkey190516 Progress madeintheimplementationofEU-Turkey Statement,p5 8. EuropeanCommission(8December2016) www.halklarinkoprusu.org/en/ on Pehlivanköy removal centre,4May2016 7. Seeendnote9plusBridgingPeoples Association, Pressrelease Delegation toTurkey, 2-4May2016http://bit.ly/GUE-NGLreport 6. EuropeanUnitedLeft/NordicGreenLeft(GUE/NGL) reporton 5. GerdaHeck,19June2016http://bit.ly/Heck190616 23 November 2015http://bit.ly/HRW-231115 Human RightsWatch ‘Turkey: SyriansPushedBackattheBorder’, www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur44/3022/2015/en/; of RefugeesfromTurkey 4. AI (2015)Europe’sGatekeeper:UnlawfulDetentionandDeportations http://bit.ly/Guardian-160516 EU deal‘have hadnoaccesstolawyers’’, 16May2016 Kingsley Pand Abdulatif E‘SyriansreturnedtoTurkey under www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur44/4124/2016/en/; Detention, 26May2016 3. Amnesty InternationalTurkey: SyrianRefugeesReleasedFrom www.astynomia.gr/newsite.php?&lang= 2. DatafromGreekpolicewebsite and ofBorderDeaths?http://bit.ly/SpijkerboerSept2016 Check: DidtheEU-Turkey DealBringDowntheNumberofMigrants http://bit.ly/MPCApril2016; SpijkerboerT(September2016) focus ontheEU-TRagreementMigrationPolicyCentre 1. DiBartolomeo A (April2016)EUMigrationCrisis Actions witha . www.fmreview.org/resettlement Fourth Reportonthe

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87 88 General articles FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017 Ensuring the rights of climate-displaced people in Bangladesh Prabal Barua, Mohammad Shahjahan, Mohammed Arifur Rahman, Syed Hafizur Rahman and Morshed Hossan Molla

Five critical areas require urgent action with the threat of internal displacement as a result of climate change already severe and growing in Bangladesh.

Annual monsoon-related flooding, river particularly relating to their housing, land and coastal erosion, tidal surges and and property rights. Further, given that tropical cyclones emanating from the Bay of the majority of persons displaced by the Bengal are a frequent cause of displacement effects of climate change will be internally in Bangladesh. Between 1995 and 2015, displaced, Bangladesh is bound to respect Bangladesh suffered damages worth over the UN Guiding Principles on Internal US$ 2.28 billion, equal to 0.73% of GDP, Displacement. Although they are non- wrought by 185 natural catastrophes.1 binding, they reflect and are consistent with Already one of the most climate-vulnerable international human rights and humanitarian countries in the world, Bangladesh is set to law which Bangladesh is bound to uphold. become even more so as a result of climate change creating new drivers of displacement. Five key actions Out of the 64 districts of Bangladesh, 26 Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), coastal and mainland districts are already a national non-governmental social sources of climate-related displacement. The development organisation, has developed Government of Bangladesh is well aware of a five-point advocacy action based on this looming crisis, claiming that 20 million applicable domestic and international legal people could be displaced in Bangladesh by standards and identified five key actions sea level rise alone over the next 40 years. for the Government of Bangladesh: But there is no comprehensive national Firstly, establish a climate displacement policy in Bangladesh that specifically monitoring mechanism: While we know targets climate displacement. Through a that natural disasters linked to climate combination of lack of political will and change are causing forced internal lack of financial and technical resources, displacement, there is no systematic there are currently no comprehensive collection of data on displaced persons or mechanisms to provide support to people sustained monitoring of their situation and who have lost their homes, land and property recovery. The Bangladesh Climate Change as a result of climate change. As a result, Strategy and Action Plan recommends that the rehabilitation of displaced persons by the government “develops a monitoring both government and non-government mechanism of migration of climate-change- sectors is, to date, very limited. Importantly, affected people and monitoring of internal livelihood problems remain after the as well as external migration”. 2 However, rehabilitation of displaced persons. no such mechanism exists yet. There are Because Bangladesh has signed and is existing models for the design of a climate bound to respect many key international displacement monitoring mechanism3 human rights treaties that provide and the government should establish one important human rights protections to without delay. Among the measures this climate-displaced persons, the government mechanism should take are registration has clear responsibilities under both of all climate-displaced persons, and domestic and international law to provide documentation of any support or assistance rights-based solutions to such persons, they are receiving from the government or General articles 89 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

other stakeholders. This information can It is important that decisions about then be utilised nationally to plan for and the distribution of khas land are made on implement effective and durable solutions for the basis of genuine need, rather than all climate-displaced persons in Bangladesh. political or personal considerations. Civil Secondly, incorporate the rights of society representatives should also be climate-displaced persons into existing part of the decision-making panels for climate change law and policy: The land distribution. Furthermore, training government has enacted a large number should be provided to decision makers on of laws and policies relating to climate climate displacement in Bangladesh and change vulnerability and adaptation;4 the need to ensure rights-based durable however, none of them clearly addresses solutions for climate-displaced persons. the challenge of climate displacement, Articles 54 and 56 of the Land including displaced persons’ housing, land Management Manual (1991) provide that and property rights. It is essential that the persons who are landless as a result of river rights of climate-displaced persons and erosion should be given first priority for the responsibilities of the government the allocation of khas land. It is important towards them in all phases of displacement – that this Manual is updated to reflect the prevention, during displacement, and durable current reality that the vast majority of solutions – are incorporated into existing people who become landless will do so and future laws and policies. This will as a result of adverse effects of climate require a concerted effort by the government change. The law should treat all people and civil society, with the support of the affected by the consequences of climate regional and international communities. change and natural disasters equally – Thirdly, ensure that the distribution of whether victims of tropical cyclones, storm state-owned land is effective, transparent surges, flooding, droughts or landslides. and fair: Since independence, the government Fourthly, allocate non-agricultural khas has enacted a number of laws and policies land to climate-displaced persons: It is clear regarding the distribution of khas land – that domestic land solutions will play an state-owned land that is often located in important role in finding durable solutions marginal areas along the coast and rivers. for the current and future millions of climate- Article 53 of the Land Management Manual displaced persons in Bangladesh. However, (1991) provides that any landless family it is equally clear that there is a severe is eligible to receive khas land. However, shortage of land in Bangladesh, coupled with programmes to distribute it have met with dramatic overcrowding in the major cities mixed success due to illegal occupation of and slums. For this reason, it is essential that khas land, a lack of political will, inefficiencies the government is able to utilise all land in in the local and national administration, providing solutions to climate-displaced and the absence of an updated, systematic persons. At present it is only possible for the and universally accepted source of government to grant legal title to agricultural information on land resource availability. land for landless persons. The government Currently, the state is estimated to control is restricted under the Land Management 3.5 million acres of khas land – of which 25% is Manual (1991) to granting simple leases over agricultural, 50% is non-agricultural and 25% non-agricultural land to landless persons. is covered by water – and it is clear that this With the effects of climate change land could play an important part in creating decreasing the amount of available durable solutions for climate-displaced agricultural land, the need for policy and persons. Programmes for the distribution of legislative change to allow the grant of khas land to landless persons should involve non-agricultural land to climate-displaced the participation of affected communities in persons is even clearer; the vast majority of their design, and the ability to review adverse the 1.75 million acres of non-agricultural decisions should be clear and accessible. khas land could be made available to climate- 90 General articles FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017 UNHCR/Shaiful Huq Omi

People displaced by the effects of climate change have moved to Cox’s Bazar, making temporary shelters on the government-owned beaches. displaced persons with enhanced security international communities contribute of tenure. to ensuring the implementation of an Fifthly, develop and implement effective effective institutional framework – through return, relocation and rehabilitation financial and technical cooperation, as well programmes for climate-displaced persons: as ongoing monitoring and evaluation of Currently, there are no comprehensive the legal and policy responses to climate programmes in Bangladesh to ensure displacement. Land lies at the core of any the effective return of climate-displaced approach to resolving climate displacement persons to their homes or places of habitual – and meeting the need to ensure land for residence, nor to facilitate their relocation the current and future millions of climate- to other parts of Bangladesh. There are also displaced persons requires action now. no comprehensive programmes to ensure Unlike many countries facing climate the effective rehabilitation of climate- displacement, Bangladesh already has a displaced persons upon return or relocation. system in place to distribute state-owned Experience has shown that there are many land to landless people. With a number of critical livelihood and other challenges key improvements to the implementation to such rehabilitation. It is essential that of these laws and policies, the state-owned such return, relocation and rehabilitation land distribution processes in Bangladesh programmes are designed in a rights-based could both provide an important component manner and implemented immediately. of more comprehensive solutions to finding new homes and land for those displaced Conclusion by the effects of climate change and also Although it is difficult to agree on the provide a potentially useful model and numbers of persons who will be affected interesting example for other countries to by climate change-related displacement in consider in formulating their own approach Bangladesh, it is clear that Bangladesh must to land solutions to climate displacement. put in place a comprehensive institutional Prabal Barua [email protected] framework in order to meet this challenge Monitoring and Evaluation Officer and to ensure that the rights of all climate- displaced persons are protected. It is Mohammad Shahjahan [email protected] equally essential that different stakeholders Head, Knowledge Management for Development in Bangladesh and in the regional and Department General articles 91 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

Mohammed Arifur Rahman 1. https://germanwatch.org/en/download/16411.pdf [email protected] Chief Executive 2. Published by the Ministry of Environment and Forests www.iucn.org/content/bangladesh-climate-change-strategy-and- Morhsed Hossan Molla [email protected] action-plan-2009 Associate Research Officer 3. For example, the joint Government of Samoa and UNDP project (2010) Human rights monitoring of persons internally displaced by the All above with Young Power in Social Action, 2009 tsunami in Samoa http://pacific.ohchr.org/docs/IDP_report.pdf Bangladesh www.ypsa.org 4. Such legislation includes The National Environment Policy (1992); The National Land Use Policy (2001); The Coastal Zone Syed Hafizur [email protected] Policy (2005); The National Adaptation Programme of Action (2005); The Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan Professor, Department of Environmental (2009); The National Plan for Disaster Management (2010-2015); Sciences, Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, and The Disaster Management Act (2012) Bangladesh www.juniv.edu/envsci

When money speaks: behind asylum seekers’ consumption patterns Jonathan Goh, Sophie Kurschner, Tina Esmail and Jonathan van Arneman

The goods and services purchased by asylum seekers who were given an unconditional cash transfer demonstrate how their consumer behaviour extends beyond the fulfilment of immediate needs to addressing broader desires for community and belonging.

Germany has witnessed a dramatic increase immediate family within the country, and in numbers of asylum applications. Aid their employment status. For asylum seekers organisations’ resources are stretched receiving less than €400 a month, the largest thin and they are unable to provide spending category was clothes and shoes. individualised – more targeted – For those receiving more than €400, however, assistance. So we developed a project none of the transfer was spent on clothes using unconditional cash transfers to see if or shoes. Spending on food was relatively better understanding of refugee spending even across all income levels, and there patterns could help aid organisations was spending on gifts across all incomes. create more effective aid programmes. Out of the 30 participants, all had lived Partnering with two language schools in camps upon their arrival in Germany in Munich, we distributed €60 each to but seven now lived in houses, 14 in 30 participants of diverse demographic temporary government flats, and nine still backgrounds to spend without constraint over in camps. Furthermore, even though cooked a period of ten days. On average, participants food is provided in most of the camps, spent about 40% of the cash transfer on there was no significant relation between clothing and shoes, the largest spending spending on food between groups. category. The second largest category was food, with average spending of 22%. The Why clothing, food and gifts? third largest was gifts, at close to 9%. Clothing: Participants said that while To better understand the nuances in clothing was not an immediate need, the our data, we divided our sample according process of selecting and buying clothes is to three monthly income levels: those an important medium for self-expression receiving social welfare of less than €275, and empowerment. Many participants those receiving between €275 and €400, and received one-off donations of clothing on those receiving more than €400. The level of their arrival in Germany. For some, these social welfare received is determined by a donations were essential because they had recipient’s country of origin, the size of their been able to carry very little with them on 92 General articles FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

their journeys. However, as the length of living in a camp is the catered food. Most time spent in Germany increased, there was camp residents are not allowed to cook a greater need for different clothing options. for themselves and participants expressed Limited financial resources for necessities distaste for the catered food because it is like clothing place a direct limitation on the neither culturally appropriate nor appetising. ability of participants to navigate different “We didn’t have money, so we were just eating settings such as job interviews or changes in from the camps. And normally, they cook for the weather. Having to wear the same second- everyone, not individually. ...I don’t like lots of hand clothing every day, participants felt the food provided by the camp, so sometimes we stigmatised and unable to divorce themselves didn’t eat…We had doubts about the meat. What is from the label of ‘refugee’, thus considered in it? Did they cook it in our way, like how we cook? need of charity. If we had money at that time, we could cook for Most participants felt that they had ourselves.” little control over their lives in Germany; they could not control where they lived, Issues like the uncertainty about halal worked, what they ate, what they wore or meat fostered tensions between the catering what they studied. In this context, the act staff and camp residents. The catered food of choosing their own clothes and being in the cafeteria-style environment of the able to express some individuality takes camp at fixed times of the day means that on an almost exaggerated importance. those who eat there relinquish control over who they eat with and how they regulate “I received second-hand clothing and it was a their eating schedule. When the participants strange feeling. So the first thing I did was to go elaborate on the meanings associated with to [named store] and buy some clothes that I could food, a clear link between eating practices choose and I can dress in and I can feel comfortable and mental health begins to emerge. In in and be happy with.” response, rather than eating food provided at The decision of where to shop and the camp, many of our participants chose to what clothing items to buy allowed this use some of the cash to buy their own food. participant to share the same fashion Given the centrality of food in cultural choices as people in local social groups, thus identity formation, going to the grocery providing an opportunity for social mobility store is a pathway for asylum seekers to and an increased sense of belonging. integrate and to feel independent. Cooking, Participants expressed how, through and the independence that comes with it, is purchasing their own clothes, they were possible primarily for those living in flats and given the choice of how they wanted houses. The absence of this option is one of others in the community to perceive the many reasons why people would like to them and their status. The stores where move out of the camp. The ability to choose purchases are made can have an impact food demonstrates resilience – and freedom on this perception. For example, some from a form of dependency on the state. participants spent their unconditional cash Eating is also a social act, a medium used transfers at a higher-end clothing store. by many participants to form community ties. Participants in our sample used a significant “In my opinion, you always have to be your amount of the money spent on food to best self.” cook with other people. Even those living Food: Choosing what to eat and who to in camps with catered food often bought eat with represents one of the most accessible supplies to contribute to communal cooking. avenues for fostering community and attaining independence for participants. Yet “I bought these groceries because then I can cook asylum seekers living in camps have little and eat with my friends. We all share... you buy, control over the practices and processes then I cook and you cook and then we eat all of the food they receive. A key feature of together. For Ramadan we cooked together.” General articles 93 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

Communal food preparation and eating store-like setting and sold at discounted – but also cooking culturally appropriate prices. Asylum seekers would then be food – are a source of comfort for a number able to make their own choices. The store of participants. Several participants had could also be managed by asylum seekers. already identified specialty shops in the city Vouchers to already existing clothing where they could purchase ingredients that stores could also be an alternative. are not available in German grocery stores. Pair asylum seekers with local Frequenting specialty shops promotes a families: We met a number of asylum greater sense of belonging in the city, while seekers in Munich who have connected cooking familiar foods together cultivates with local German families. Through these a sense of mental and relationships, asylum physical well-being. “I didn’t come from poverty, seekers find stability and Gifts: For the guidance by spending giver, the act of I wasn’t hungry. I am time with the families in giving represents an only fleeing because of a location that is not the expression of cultural camp, and also improve and personal values war. … We aren’t all here their German language while strengthening just to eat. We want to skills. The local families, the connectivity do more with our lives.” in turn, are able to the individual has serve as mentors, learn with others. Some (Hisham, from Syria, 25 years old) about a new culture, participants spent a and engage in dialogue. portion of the unconditional cash transfer More relationships like these could on gifts regardless of their income level. be created through a formalised For example, Haroon explained that in ‘host family’ programme. Pakistan he would give his niece a present Support adaptation to the reality for her birthday but this year it was nearly of long-term residence in camps: Many impossible to do so. As an asylum seeker of the camps where asylum seekers live receiving social welfare, he is prohibited were originally designed as short-term by law from sending this money or other reception centres. However, the reality is items back to his family in Pakistan. To get that the camp becomes a longer-term home around these restrictions Haroon used the and, as such, its physical infrastructure cash transfer to buy a pair of shoes, which he as well as arrangements such as catering then gave to his roommate, who then phoned should be adapted to this reality if asylum his brother in Pakistan and asked him to seekers are to maintain their physical and send a doll to Haroon’s niece on his behalf. mental health. Service providers should, for Gifts, whether they be a box of dates example, recognise the dual roles of cooking, for Ramadan or a coffee-maker for a buying and eating food both as a way for girlfriend, are an avenue through which maintaining previous cultural practices and they can foster supportive communities. simultaneously as a basic way for learning to navigate and belong in a new place. Recommendations Jonathan Goh [email protected] All the participants used the unconditional cash transfer to enhance individual control Sophie Kurschner [email protected] over their immediate surroundings, and Tina Esmail [email protected] this finding can inform recommendations for supporting successful integration: Jonathan van Arneman Develop avenues for independent [email protected] clothing purchases: For all asylum seekers The authors are university students at with a monthly income of less than €400, Macalester College, St Paul, Minnesota donated clothes could be arranged in a www.macalester.edu 94 General articles FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017 Migrant, refugee or minor? It matters for children in Europe. Kevin Byrne

The capacity of child-rights institutions and children’s services in many European countries needs to be strengthened considerably if governments are to meet their commitments to refugee and migrant children.

Child-rights and migration and asylum The principle of ‘a child first and foremost’ agencies in the European Union (EU) are is still not being enforced consistently or now working actively together to redress comprehensively across Europe. Despite the acknowledged lack of child focus a supportive framework of EU legislation and gender mainstreaming in the initial and policy, and numerous models of good responses to a steep rise in the number of practice in some countries, there are still children arriving in Europe. These rose chronic deficiencies in most European from about 20% of all arrivals in 2015 countries’ migration, asylum and child- to 35% by March 2016. But because EU rights structures, systems and services. provisions and safeguards for children are These deficiencies impede their ability to spread across different, often disconnected, provide the support and protection that directives and regulations, children in host refugee and migrant children need and are countries can find themselves subject to entitled to under international and EU law. a diverse and inconsistent set of national For children, the distinction between laws, policies and entitlements at different ‘migrant, ‘refugee’ and ‘asylum seeker’ stages of the asylum and migration is not just a matter of semantics. The process, although their needs, interest accumulated legislation, legal acts and and rights remain the same throughout. court decisions which constitute the body of Furthermore, the importance EU law – known as the acquis – in the field assigned by national legislation to the of asylum and migration are open to an child’s migration or asylum status in interpretation at national level that allows determining their entitlement to services children to be streamed into categories is at odds with the proven effectiveness that in practice confer different levels of of the holistic, child-centred approach legal status and entitlement. Placement generally adopted by children’s agencies. in a particular category remains a major The generic term ‘migrant’ is increasingly determinant of a child’s access to health, used in public discourse to describe children protection and education services in their who crossed the Mediterranean to Europe host country. As a result, families have in 2015-16 as part of the justification for this to negotiate an unpredictable system approach to children’s rights. It not only of access to children’s services as they reflects and reinforces a change in public move (or are moved) within and between attitude that enables a less compassionate migration and asylum processes, and their response but also downplays children’s children are denied the kind of consistent, experience of displacement and conflict and coherent and integrated support available thus, by implication, their host countries’ to other children living in the country. obligation to offer protection. Using ‘migrant’ as a blanket description also obscures Education and health care their primary status as a child, with all For instance, the right of all children to that that implies in terms of their needs, basic education is recognised under EU rights and entitlements to the basic services migration law but the amount, type and required for safe, healthy development. quality of schooling offered to refugee and General articles 95 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

migrant children depend more on where requirements or other administrative barriers. they are at in the migration or asylum Housing and employment restrictions process than on their educational needs. imposed on migrant and asylum-seeking In the case of asylum seekers, national families affect children too, and national education authorities can legally postpone social welfare systems frequently do children’s access to school for up to three not provide an adequate safety net. months after their application for asylum, States’ duty to assure the effective and/or provide classes – that may not protection of children implies a responsibility meet the same teaching standards as that to adopt special measures and safeguards to provided by local schools – in reception or that end but migrant and refugee children’s accommodation centres. The situation is differential entitlements to services based even worse for undocumented children. on their legal status leave many of them Only ten EU Member States have explicitly at risk. The EU has enacted measures in recognised undocumented migrant children’s relation to cross-border crimes, specifically entitlement to basic education, while five against violence, child pornography, explicitly exclude them from schooling. In child trafficking and forced labour.1 But, other States, their entitlement to education despite their acknowledged vulnerability is uncertain. Access to non-compulsory to violence, exploitation, sexual abuse and education, early childhood education, trafficking, migrant and refugee children vocational training, further learning and are not classified as a particularly high higher education is particularly difficult. risk group under EU child protection While refugees and migrants are legislation (except for unaccompanied guaranteed access to emergency health care children), although all children are defined all across Europe, access to general child as vulnerable under the migration acquis. health services tends to be ranked by legal status. Children of parents from outside the Conclusions EU may have to acquire permanent residence The hardship, trauma and sometimes before they can access health services, and abuse suffered by children on their journey even then their entitlement may be restricted. to Europe, and the continuing stress and Under EU law, Member States have to uncertainty of their lives after arrival, provide access for refugee and asylum- should clearly qualify them for additional seeking children to appropriate health care on support and protection, but this needs to an equal basis as nationals but, again, this can be translated into national child protection be limited to ‘core benefits’. Unaccompanied strategies and action plans. In principle, children are entitled to emergency treatment migrant and refugee children are not and medical care in 25 EU States but not excluded from national child protection necessarily to child health, development systems; however, the policies, regulations or vaccination services. Undocumented and resources are not always in place to migrant children are also legally entitled ease their access to mainstream protection to emergency health care in all EU States services. In most EU countries, for instance, but only eight grant them the same level of shelters for the homeless are only accessible health care as the children of its own citizens. to those who have a residence permit or Six restrict their entitlements to emergency social security registration and this can leave care only and twelve allow undocumented refugee and migrant women and children migrants limited access to specialist services trapped in violent or abusive relationships. like maternity care and treatment of HIV Despite some inherent weaknesses, the and/or infectious diseases. Some countries acquis provides a good option for promoting also grant extra entitlements to certain fair and equitable access to services for all categories of undocumented children but children, regardless of their legal status. in others the legal entitlement to health Although it was not specifically designed care is de facto negated by health insurance as a child rights framework, the acquis is 96 General articles FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

underpinned by the UN Convention on pass through, the impact of the acquis has the Rights of the Child and the EU’s own been fragmented and diluted. The options commitment to children’s rights as laid for establishing a specific child-oriented down in the EU Agenda for the Rights set of policies across Europe could include of the Child.2 It promotes and supports a significant rewrite of the present asylum an integrated, coherent, consistent and and migration acquis, development of a child-centred approach to migration and separate asylum and migration framework asylum at the national level by laying solely for children, or incremental reform down a series of minimum standards to of the existing acquis through a planned, be met, and by providing a framework prioritised upgrade and expansion that of support and guidance in relation to target those areas where migrant and development, implementation, enforcement refugee children are most vulnerable. and enhancement of child-related laws, Kevin Byrne [email protected] policies, structures and practice. Independent Expert – Child Rights Perhaps because it has not developed 1. For full details of EU legislation in these areas see EU Agency to date in a logical and coherent manner for Fundamental Rights (2015) Handbook on European law relating to across the various policy domains or the rights of the child http://bit.ly.com/FRA-child-rights statuses that child migrants and refugees 2. http://bit.ly/EUagenda-child-rights

Statelessness determination: the Swiss experience Karen Hamann

While a detailed law on statelessness determination is recommended by UNHCR and others, Swiss practice in statelessness determination has evolved without one. Despite this, Swiss practice has been shown to be rather progressive, at least in some areas of statelessness recognition, and includes better treatment of the stateless in comparison with refugees.

On 1st February 2014, a revised asylum law Another case with significant came into force in Switzerland, abolishing consequences for the number of statelessness the right for recognised refugees to receive applications followed in May 2014, when a permanent residence permit. This a landmark decision by the Swiss Federal permanent permit is the most attractive Administrative Court paved the way for residence permit that Swiss law provides recognising Syrian Kurds (so-called Ajanib) for foreigners, attainable after five years as stateless as they could not be required of lawful stay in Switzerland. The Federal to go back to Syria in order to apply for Council had previously expressed its citizenship, although a 2011 presidential intention to apply the same restrictions to decree had opened up the opportunity for recognised stateless persons; however, by Ajanib to apply for Syrian citizenship. In some oversight, the restrictions for stateless this case, a recognised refugee of Kurdish persons were not established and as a result descent was recognised as stateless too. stateless persons retained their right to a With this decision, the Court opened up permanent residence permit. As statelessness the opportunity generally for recognised recognition also qualifies the person for the refugees to apply for statelessness status, right to an immediate temporary residence a request that had previously been denied. permit under Swiss law, and because it is With the arrival of thousands of persons often more swiftly determined than refugee from Syria into Switzerland, hundreds of status recognition, statelessness status is Syrian Ajanib have acquired the right to an currently more attractive for applicants immediate residence permit in Switzerland. in Switzerland than refugee status. In contrast, the majority of Syrian nationals General articles 97 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

applying for asylum in Switzerland are not decision of the Federal Administrative Court. recognised as refugees, and are therefore The numbers peaked in 2014 when, according being granted temporary admission only. to the SEM, more than 300 applications for statelessness recognition were filed, of which Background 66% were accepted. In 2015 there were about Until 2008, in Switzerland as in other 250 cases and again the majority of cases European countries, a formal statelessness resulted in statelessness recognition and determination procedure did not exist, the immediate right to a residence permit. although Switzerland had ratified the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Procedure Persons. Some individuals were considered A person applying for statelessness status in stateless by the migration authorities and Switzerland is not required to have entered were granted travel documents. There Switzerland legally or to prove some form was, however, no procedure and no legal of lawful stay in the country, a question that framework for the determination of has been the subject of heavy debate in other statelessness, although the law that governs countries, such as Hungary and Italy. This the activities of all administrative agencies point is crucial for a stateless person who is including government agencies does lay out largely unable to fulfil the conditions required the basic (yet fragmentary) legal grounds for to prove a lawful stay in the host country. the procedure. In 1999 competence for the Applicants in the statelessness determination of statelessness was moved determination procedure also receive better to the former Federal Office for Refugees treatment in comparison with individuals (now the State Secretariat for Migration, applying for refugee recognition when it SEM, the same entity that handles all asylum comes to the right to appeal; whereas the claims), yet the legislative framework Asylum Act limits the right to appeal in remained fragmentary. Even today, aside refugee recognition matters to the Federal from the rules on competence, the only Administrative Court, statelessness legal provision dealing specifically with decisions may also be appealed against stateless persons is article 31 of Switzerland’s before the Federal Supreme Court. Federal Act on Foreign Nationals, which There are also disadvantages to not provides for the right of the stateless person having a detailed law on statelessness in to a temporary residence permit upon place. The Federal Administrative Court recognition as stateless and the right to has held that the standard of proof in the permanent residence after five years. In area of statelessness determination is higher contrast to other countries with detailed laws than in refugee determination procedures. on statelessness determination, there are no Whereas refugee status only has to be specific rules in place in Switzerland for the ‘credibly demonstrated’, individuals applying determination of statelessness. Therefore, the for statelessness recognition must provide recent surge in numbers of cases happened full proof of their statelessness. It remains to in the absence of a clear legal basis. be seen how this recent decision will affect The number of cases of statelessness statelessness recognition in Switzerland. determination had been very low for years; A crucial area of concern is that, to date, compared with the large number of cases there is no clarification of the legal status of treated in the asylum procedure, statelessness an individual with a pending statelessness determination was of small importance for determination procedure. For example, the migration authorities. A first surge in the questions around whether a person has number of applications was seen in 2013, even a right to stay, can work or is entitled to before the legal changes and the milestone health and social security benefits remain judgment described above. The surge then unresolved. In the majority of cases this became enormous and the numbers clearly has not been an issue, as most applicants show the effect of the legal changes and the either enjoy a so-called procedural right 98 General articles FMR 54 www.fmreview.org/resettlement February 2017

to stay under Swiss law because they are the human-rights based guarantees of non- simultaneously applicants in an asylum refoulement, as for example in the European procedure, or because they already enjoy Convention on Human Rights. At a minimum, either refugee status or some other form Swiss authorities therefore are required to of subsidiary protection in Switzerland. assess whether the expulsion of an individual However, the issue becomes critical in a pending statelessness determination in cases where a person who has already procedure would violate Switzerland’s received a negative decision in the asylum international human rights obligations. procedure – and is confronted with a deportation order – and then files for Conclusion statelessness recognition. There is some The shortcomings described above certainly concern that granting the right to stay during need to be fixed. The question of whether a the statelessness determination procedure person has a right to stay during a pending could result in a big rise in manifestly procedure needs to be clarified. Yet the ill-founded applications. Statelessness fixes could be implemented by inserting determination could, in other words, be provisions in the existing laws instead of abused in order to evade a deportation advocating for a specific law on statelessness order from a preceding asylum procedure. that might take away some of the advantages Despite this concern, the Swiss authorities that stateless persons enjoy today. have so far refrained from deporting such Sceptics assume that it is likely that individuals. In most cases it will anyway the Swiss legislature – in order to correct be impossible in practice to expel the the defect – will abolish the right for a person because of lack of travel documents. permanent residence permit after five years However, there is no legal guarantee under of legal stay for those recognised as stateless domestic law that an expulsion order would and thereby even out the legal outcomes not be carried out while the person is still of refugee determination and statelessness in awaiting statelessness determination. determination. Yet it is just as likely that The protection that international law potential applicants, legal representatives, provides for the stateless person is also UNHCR and NGOs will recognise the different from the protection that refugees benefits of statelessness recognition beyond enjoy. One of the most striking differences the right to a permanent residence permit. between the 1951 Convention on the Status of Karen Hamann [email protected] Refugees and the 1954 Convention Relating Legal specialist, Swiss State Secretariat for to the Status of Stateless Persons is that the Migration www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home latter does not include a non-refoulement guarantee. For now, the only protection This article is written in a personal capacity and available to the individuals concerned are does not necessarily reflect the views of the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration.

FMR International Advisors Advisors serve in an individual capacity and do not necessarily represent their institutions.

Lina Abirafeh Jeff Crisp Rachel Hastie Steven Muncy Lebanese American Independent consultant Oxfam Community and Family University Mark Cutts Lucy W Kiama Services International Guido Ambroso OCHA HIAS Kenya Kathrine Starup UNHCR Eva Espinar Khalid Koser Danish Refugee Council Alexander Betts University of Alicante GCERF Richard Williams Refugee Studies Centre Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh Erin Mooney Independent consultant Nina M Birkeland University College London UN Protection Capacity/ProCap Norwegian Refugee Council News from the Refugee Studies Centre 99 FMR 54 February 2017 www.fmreview.org/resettlement

Colson lecture: Thomas Spijkerboer Refugees are Migrants: new research project 10 May 2017, 5pm, Oxford Dr Cathryn Costello has been awarded an ERC The annual lecture in honour of Professor Elizabeth Starting Grant for the project Refugee Mobility, Colson will be given this year by Thomas Spijkerboer, Recognition and Rights, to start in March 2017. This Professor of Migration Law at the Vrije Universiteit project will, firstly, re-examine refugee protection Amsterdam. through a lens of mobility and migration and, secondly, bring scholarship on refugee law into International Summer School in Forced conversation with the practices of the refugee Migration regime, in particular to subject the latter to legal 2-14 July 2017, Oxford scrutiny. It will re-examine three key aspects of The RSC’s International Summer School enables refugee law – access to protection, refugee status people working with refugees and other forced determination (RSD), and refugee rights – in light migrants to reflect critically on the forces and of the refugee regime’s norms and practices on institutions that dominate the world of the displaced. responsibility sharing and solutions. It will focus on Now in its 28th year, and restructured to fit into protection in Europe, Turkey, Lebanon, Kenya and two weeks, this intensive course combines Oxford South Africa. University’s academic excellence with a stimulating and participatory method of critical learning and Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System reflection. The course is principally designed for New publication, due out late March 2017 policymakers and practitioners with several years of Professor Alexander Betts (Refugee work experience in refugee protection and related Studies Centre) and Paul Collier issues. Fee: £3,050. Early-bird fee (apply and (Blavatnik School of Government) register by 31 March 2017): £2,950. show how international policymakers can deliver humane, sustainable Architectures of Displacement: results that are better for refugees new research project and host countries. Drawing upon This new research project, led by Dr Tom Scott- field research and solutions that Smith, will explore the lived experience of temporary have already been successfully accommodation for refugees in the Middle East trialled, they outline a vision of how and Europe. It brings together experts in forced refugees can be empowered to help displacement, archaeology, anthropology and themselves, contribute to their host architecture to study refugee shelter across six societies, and even rebuild their countries. The project is a partnership with Oxford’s countries of origin. Pitt Rivers Museum and has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Arts For details on all the above, please visit and Humanities Research Council of the UK. www.rsc.ox.ac.uk

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Thank you to all FMR's donors in 2016-17 FMR is wholly dependent on external funding to cover Ministry of Foreign Affairs • Mohammed Abu-Risha all of the project’s costs, including staffing. We are • Norwegian Refugee Council • Open Society deeply appreciative to all of the following donors for Foundations • Oxfam • RefugePoint • Swiss Federal their support and collaboration. Department of Foreign Affairs • UNHCR • Women’s Refugee Commission ADRA International • Catholic Relief Services-USCCB • DanChurchAid • Danish Refugee Council • Global We would also like to thank all those who have Protection Cluster • Government of Denmark • supported the production and dissemination of Government of the Principality of Liechtenstein • FMR by making individual donations through our Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada online giving site at www.fmreview.org/online- • International Committee of the Red Cross • giving. Even small donations help to keep FMR International Organization for Migration • Luxembourg going, so please do consider making a donation. Iraqi refugees in Spanish-speaking Californian communities Ken Crane and Lisa Fernandez

Cultural orientation is necessary but needs to be appropriate for the realities of the place where refugees are resettled. Many of the Iraqi refugees resettled in California are Young Iraqis in particular were quick to recognise that in areas where there is a dominant ‘Latino’ Spanish- they had many things in common with Spanish-speaking speaking cultural environment. They have to meet students, who were also struggling to learn English. the challenges of life by building bridges with their They recognised that Latinos were less conservative Spanish-speaking neighbours (as well as other ethnic than themselves in their public demeanour but they groups), not just the English-speaking ones, in order to did not see the cultural differences between them as adjust to their new life. Success at integrating requires insurmountable. Parents and older adults clearly had a individuals to forge ties beyond their own group, and more difficult time adjusting. adults had a more difficult time achieving this than the The resettlement agency provided cultural orientation to youth, who quickly made a diverse set of friends and all new arrivals. However, these sessions tended to be learnt both Spanish and English. poorly attended and focused primarily on the practical During cultural orientation in places like Istanbul, the issues of dealing with social welfare agencies, securing refugees were told that although “not everyone in a driver’s licence, following immigration laws, setting America will look the same”, learning to master English up bank accounts, and so on. The cultural component was essential to their success in America. What they was weak, only discussing generic notions of ‘American found however, was that the Spanish language was culture’ such as being on time for appointments; it did equally advantageous when it came to finding a job and not address the actual social geography of the region. they were frustrated with having to negotiate a Spanish- The agency therefore requested help from a local speaking community as well as an English one to find university to develop a ‘Latino cultures’ component for a job. their training. An important factor in creating a more When I first came here, I went to some store, looking for culturally grounded orientation was the use of a ‘bridge a job. I thought: California, all the people are American, person’ – a representative of those communities, you know …I’m looking for a job, and they said, “You trained in cross-cultural skills – who acts as a kind of speak Spanish?” so I said, “No, I’m living in California, I cultural emissary between communities. Other agencies don’t need Spanish.” He [the employer] said, “No, here can learn from this experience but the challenge may the first language is Spanish.” still be that attendance for cultural orientation trainings has been generally disappointing. Some older adults felt it was a waste of time to go to English language classes where all the other students Ken Crane [email protected] were Spanish speakers. Some complained about not Associate Professor, Department of History, Politics, being able to practise English with their neighbours and Sociology, La Sierra University – and were unable to communicate in Spanish with https://lasierra.edu/history-politics-and-sociology/ them. What they found problematic was not cultural differences but being economically disadvantaged in Lisa Fernandez [email protected] the labour market, because of both their lack of English Graduate student, Oregon State University fluency and their lack of ability in Spanish. http://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/slcs/wgss Nserrano https://commons.wikimedia.org Nserrano https://commons.wikimedia.org Los Angeles, California.

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