June 23rd, 2009 by The Forced Migration Online Team
International Conference: 11-12 December 2009
Over the last decade many states across the world have boosted their legal and institutional capacity to deport noncitizens residing on their territory, including failed asylum seekers, illegal migrants, and convicted criminals. Scholars have analysed this development primarily through the lens of immigration control. Deportation has been viewed as one amongst a range of measures designed to control entrance, distinguished primarily by the fact that it is exercised inside the territory of the state. But deportation also has broader social and political effects. The practice provides a powerful way through which the state reminds noncitizens that their presence in the polity is contingent upon acceptable behaviour. Furthermore, immunity from deportation is increasingly one of the few privileges that citizens enjoy that distinguishes them from permanent residents.
The aim of this conference is to encourage interdisciplinary and comparative scholarship on deportation, broadly conceived as the lawful expulsion power of states, both as an immigration control and as a social control mechanism. The conference will serve as a vehicle for bringing together scholars from a range of disciplines, including politics, sociology, history, international relations, law, criminology and anthropology, interested in the study of deportation.
June 19th, 2009 by The Forced Migration Online Team
The Refugee Studies Centre, in collaboration with the Humanitarian Policy Group at the Overseas Development Institute, is organising an international conference on Protecting People in Conflict & Crisis: Responding to the Challenges of a Changing World (22-24 September).
Refugee Week is a UK wide series of events and activities that celebrate the contribution made by refugees to UK life and seek to promote a better understanding of why people become refugees.
Refugee Week takes place every year in June during the same week as World Refugee Day on June 20th. The main focus of Refugee Week activities in 2009 is the Simple Acts Campaign, which is about inspiring people to use small, everyday actions to change perceptions of refugees.
Martin Bell is interviewed by Andy Brown, Unicef UK. Martin Bell, former BBC war correspondent, is UNICEF UK’s Ambassador for Humanitarian Emergencies. In this interview he reflects on his visit to Puntland province, Somalia in May 2009 where the greatest concentration of IDPs displaced by the ongoing conflict are located. More than 50 per cent of Somalia’s population is under the age of 18 and Bell describes UNICEF’s work helping conflict affected and displaced children. Security constraints are such that UNICEF is one of the few humanitarian agencies currently operational in Somalia.
This podcast was recorded at the International Gender Studies Centre’s Kaberry Commemorative Lecture which was on Thursday 27th May 2009 at St Anne’s College, University of Oxford. The Rt Honourable Professor The Baroness Afshar gave the lecture on the subject of Peace and Reconstruction in the Middle East: Where are the Women?
This podcast was recorded between September 2002 and October 2007 in Algeria, Switzerland and the UK. The podcast includes comments from Philip Luther, Amnesty International, Christian Viret, BIRDHSO and Sidi Omar, Polisario representative to the UK and Ireland as well as former Sahrawi disappeared Daoud El Khadir and other Sahrawis with family members still missing.
The Implications for Sustainable Peace and Democracy
Two-Day Workshop, University of Oxford. 21st – 22nd May 2009
This two-day workshop aims to examine how a ‘non-negotiated solution’ to the Colombian conflict might impact on the country’s political and economic future, and on the social fabric which has been so damaged by decades of violence.
Jointly organized by the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford and the International Centre for Participation Studies at the University of Bradford, the workshop will bring together in Oxford prominent speakers from Colombia, the US and Europe.
Space is limited so please register early. Further details and registration forms can be obtained from Alexandra Abello Colak at: a.abellocolak@bradford.ac.uk
A ‘stateless person’ is someone who is not recognised as a national by any state. They therefore have no nationality or citizenship and are unprotected by national legislation, leaving them vulnerable in ways that most of us never have to consider. This latest issue of FMR includes 22 articles by academic, international and local actors debating the challenges faced by stateless people and the search for appropriate responses and solutions.
The issue also includes 17 articles on other aspects of forced migration, among which are a mini-feature (comprising four articles) on refugee status determination and articles on European migration policies, Colombia, Ecuador, disaster IDPs, Europe-Africa cooperation, trafficking in Iran, cash grants for refugees and reproductive health care in emergencies.
Forced Migration Online have launched a new resource summary to commemorate 10 years since the launch of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. This Resource Summary was prepared to complement Forced Migration Review’s special edition GP10: Ten Years of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.
This is a post about the new Spanish language version of ‘Guatemalan forced migration: The politics of care in representing refugees’
La exhibición fotográfica “Migración Forzada de Guatemaltecos: Las políticas de caridad en la representación de refugiados” explora los mecanismos de representación usados para migrantes forzados, mostrando identidades apropiadas de refugiados para justificar la necesidad de apoyo humanitario. La exhibición responde a estos cuestionamientos a través de un trabajo documental con fotografías de migrantes forzados indígenas procedentes de Guatemala, viviendo en el asentamiento de La Gloria, anteriormente un campamento de refugiados, en el estado de Chiapas en México. El proyecto es una colaboración entre el fotógrafo, Manuel Gil, y Candidato a Doctor en Sociología, Óscar F. Gil-García.
Las fotos y descripciones están disponibles para ver en La Revista Migraciones Forzadas. Las fotos son acompañadas por una entrevista (podcast) en donde Óscar F. Gil-García es entrevistado sobre su trabajo en el proyecto.
