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Political Participation of Refugees: Bridging the Gaps Political Participation of Refugees: Bridging the Gaps Political Participation of Refugees: Bridging the Gaps Political Participation of Refugees: Bridging the Gaps Lead authors: Armend Bekaj and Lina Antara Contributors: Tarig Adan, Jean-Thomas Arrighi de Casanova, Zeina El-Helou, Ezra Mannix, Mukondeleli Mpeiwa, Caleb Otieno Opon, Nora Jasmin Ragab, Shoaib Sharifi and Tigranna Zakaryan As part of the Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Democracy project, this report was made possible by funding from the Robert Bosch Stiftung. © 2018 International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance International IDEA publications are independent of specific national or political interests. Views expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the views of International IDEA, its Board or its Council members. The electronic version of this publication is available under a Creative Commons Attribute- NonCommercialShareAlike 3.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) licence. You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the publication as well as to remix and adapt it, provided it is only for non-commercial purposes, that you appropriately attribute the publication, and that you distribute it under an identical licence. For more information visit the Creative Commons website: <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/>. International IDEA Strömsborg SE–103 34 Stockholm Sweden Telephone: +46 8 698 37 00 Email: [email protected] Website: <http://www.idea.int> Cover illustration: Joshua Sowah Interior illustrations: KSB Design Design and layout: International IDEA ISBN: 978-91-7671-148-4 Created with Booktype: <https://www.booktype.pro> International IDEA Contents Abbreviations ............................................................................................................. 6 Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................... 8 Preface ....................................................................................................................... 10 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 12 Methodology ......................................................................................................... 13 Overview of case studies ........................................................................................ 17 Part I. Political Participation of Refugees in their Host Countries ....................... 23 1. Formal political participation of refugees in their host countries ................... 25 Access to citizenship .............................................................................................. 25 Access to electoral rights and political parties ......................................................... 35 2. Non-formal political participation of refugees in their host countries ........... 49 Consultative bodies ............................................................................................... 50 Participation in civil society organizations ............................................................. 54 Protests and grassroots initiatives ........................................................................... 64 Part II. Political Participation of Refugees in their Countries of Origin ............... 70 3. Formal political participation of refugees in their countries of origin ............ 72 Electoral rights and out-of-country voting ............................................................. 73 4. Non-formal political participation of refugees in their countries of origin .... 81 Civil society and diaspora organizations ................................................................ 82 Protests and other forms of transnational political activism ................................... 88 Conclusion and recommendations ........................................................................ 92 Recommendations ................................................................................................. 93 References ................................................................................................................ 96 Legislation ........................................................................................................... 115 Annex. Glossary of terms ....................................................................................... 117 About the authors .................................................................................................. 120 Lead authors ........................................................................................................ 120 Contributors ....................................................................................................... 121 About the Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Democracy project .......................... 124 About International IDEA ....................................................................................... 125 Political Participation of Refugees: Bridging the Gaps Abbreviations ANC African National Congress BAGFA Federal Association of Volunteer Agencies (Germany) CCSA Congolese Community in South Africa CCWC Congolese Community in the Western Cape CDU Christian Democratic Union of Germany CoRMSA Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa CSO Civil society organization CSU Christian Social Union (Germany) HDP People’s Democracy Party (Turkey) DRC Democratic Republic of the Congo IOM International Organization for Migration NCSROF National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces 6 International IDEA Abbreviations NGO Non-governmental organization OCV Out-of-country voting OPM Office of the Prime Minister (Uganda) RQA Return of Qualified Afghans programme SAP Social Democratic Party (Sweden) SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany SSNP Syrian Social Nationalist Party (Lebanon) UCC Ugandan Constitutional Court UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UCICA Citizenship and Immigration Control Act (Uganda) International IDEA 7 Political Participation of Refugees: Bridging the Gaps Acknowledgments As part of the Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Democracy project, this report was made possible by funding from the Robert Bosch Stiftung. We are particularly indebted to Ana Bojadjievska for her remarkable dedication and support throughout the implementation of the project and for thoroughly peer reviewing this report. Additional thanks go to the Robert Bosch Stiftung’s staff members Claudia Fisches and Markus Lux for the excellent collaboration. We wish to express our sincere gratitude and appreciation to Jean-Thomas Arrighi de Casanova for producing a thought-provoking, insightful and engaging review of the relevant academic literature which has been instrumental in bringing this report to life. We also gratefully acknowledge the valuable contributions of the eight case study authors: Tarig Adan (The Case of Syrian and Somali Refugees in Sweden), Zeina El-Helou (The Case of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon), Ezra Mannix (The Case of Syrian Refugees in Turkey), Mukondeleli Mpeiwa (The Case of Congolese Refugees in South Africa), Caleb Otieno Opon (The Case of Somali and South Sudanese Refugees in Kenya), Nora Jasmin Ragab (The Case of Afghan and Syrian Refugees in Germany), Shoaib Sharifi (The Case of Afghan Refugees in the United Kingdom) and Tigranna Zakaryan (The Case of South Sudanese and Congolese Refugees in Uganda). Special acknowledgment goes to Professor Michael Collyer and Dr Reuven Ziegler for peer reviewing the report and providing valuable feedback during its development. We also thank the participants in the ‘Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Democracy’ round table held on 5–6 September 2017 in Stockholm: Micheline Minani Muzaneza Bagona, Luis Martinez Betanzos, Myriam Chilvers, Adam Elsod, Malin Frankenhaeuser, Dina Mansour-Ille, Sonja Meyer, Awil Mohamoud, Erik Nilsson, Victor Nyamori, Eva Østergaard-Nielsen, Scott Pohl 8 International IDEA Acknowledgments and Ana Maria Vargas. Their fresh ideas and insights informed the development of this report. We are especially grateful to our International IDEA colleagues Nathalie Ebead, Rosinah Ismail-Clarke, Helena Schwertheim and Thomas Smith for their support and assistance during various stages of the content development of this report. We would also like to thank Lisa Hagman, Frank McLoughlin and David Prater who have generously given their time, ideas and support during the conceptualization, editing and production process. Finally, we would like to extend our thanks to Andrew Mash for his professional input in providing timely editing of this report. International IDEA 9 Political Participation of Refugees: Bridging the Gaps Preface A great variety of studies and reports examine the humanitarian and security aspects of the lives of refugees and asylum seekers. It is indeed very important to bring these issues to the public debate, particularly considering the ongoing bloody conflicts that result in millions of people becoming displaced or seeking shelter in other countries. However, the political inclusion of refugees and asylum seekers in decision-making, or the normative framework that enables or inhibits such participation, is largely left to the individual discretion of host or origin countries. There are a number of differing norms and practices that enable or inhibit asylum seekers and refugees from taking part in political life. Quite often, their opportunities for participation are rather limited, which in turn perpetuates their marginalized status in society. For this reason, there
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