Forced Migration Online: Blog

The Refugee Studies Centre, (at the Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford) is pleased to announce that Professor Saskia Sassen will give the Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture on 26 May 2010.

Saskia Sassen is the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology and Member, The Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University. Her latest books are “Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global” “Assemblages” (Princeton University Press 2008) and “A Sociology of Globalization” (Norton 2007). She has recently completed a five-year project for UNESCO on sustainable human settlement, the results of which have been published as one of the volumes of the “Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems” (Oxford: EOLSS Publishers).

The lecture will be entitled “The complexity of Powerlessness: What makes human rights law perform?” Saskia Sassen will speak about the limits of power and the complexities of powerlessness – the direct or mediated resistances that the powerless can deploy knowingly or not.

Immigration and human rights help to explore these more abstract issues – especially in powerful countries vis-à-vis undocumented workers, who are among the most vulnerable subjects in those same countries. And yet, under certain conditions, the powerless can make history, even if they do not gain power in this process. She will discuss two institutional domains where powerlessness can become complex and the powerless have made history.

The lecture will take place at the Bernard Sunley Lecture Theatre, St Catherine’s College, Manor Road, Oxford (0X1 3UJ). The event will start at 5pm and will be followed by a drinks reception.

For more information or to reserve a seat, please contact Wouter te Kloeze: wouter.tekloeze@qeh.ox.ac.uk, +44(0)1865 281726

• The complexity of Powerlessness: What makes human rights law perform?

On 12 May Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, will be delivering a lecture entitled ‘Enriching the Arguments: the Refugee Contribution to British Life’.

Dr Rowan Williams will speak at UCL’s (University College London) Bloomsbury Theatres in London on the topic of: ‘Enriching the Arguments: the Refugee Contribution to British Life’. His talk will be followed by a drinks reception.

This event is organized by UCL, in partnership with the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA). To attend, please RSVP by 5 May. RSVP is essential and places will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis.

Programme:
18:15 Registration, UCL Bloomsbury Theatre
19:00 Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams
20:00 Reception
21.00 Close

Venue:
UCL Bloomsbury Theatre, 15 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AH

• Enriching the Arguments: the Refugee Contribution to British Life

Back issues of many working papers and policy briefings published by the Humanitarian Policy Group are now available from the Forced  Migration Online digital library.

Published between 2000 and 2009 by the Humanitarian Policy Group, part of the Overseas Development Institute, these documents focus on topics such as: aid coordination, cooperation with affected governments, security, terrorism, HIV/AIDS and land use .

The Humanitarian Policy Group is dedicated to improving humanitarian policy and practice through a combination of high-quality analysis, dialogue and debate.

• Browse documents from the Humanitarian Policy Group

The latest in FMO’s growing selection of podcasts focuses on a new Chinese government policy, recruiting young Uyghur women from majority Uyghur areas of East Turkestan, and transferring them to work in factories in urban areas of eastern China.

Under this policy, thousands of Uyghur women have been removed from their families and placed into substandard working conditions thousands of miles from their homes. Though official propaganda slogans promote the program as an overwhelmingly positive experience for these women, less than two years after the initiation of the policy, it has already left a history of broken promises and shattered families. Local leaders, who are subject to intense pressure from higher levels of the PRC government, have used deception, pressure, and threats in order to recruit women to participate in the program.

In this podcast, four experts talk about the impact this programme is having on these women:

• Dr. Michael Dillon, visiting professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing
• Omer Kanat, Uyghur Service at Radio Free Asia
• Amy Reger, Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP)
• Enver Tohti, chairman of the UK Uighur Association

These interviews were recorded between September 2008 and July 2009, by film-maker S L James.

• Podcast
• Subscribe via iTunes

We are pleased to announce that the ‘photo gallery’ section of Forced Migration Online has been re-launched. In addition to enjoying an improved layout when browsing individual albums, users will also be able to search our full database of photographs.

There are now over 600 photographs in the FMO image database, including a new album of photos on the topic of “Self-Settled and Settlement Refugees in Uganda” (© Ayla Bonfiglio, 2008).

Uganda is one of the few countries to allow refugees to either settle themselves within the national population, or to live in a refugee settlement. This collection of photographs was taken during a comparative study on self-reliance among refugees from these two settlement contexts.

If you have a collection of photographs relating to forced migration and are interested in submitting them for inclusion on FMO please visit our submissions page.

• FMO photo gallery
• New album: Self-settled and settlement refugees in Uganda

The right to work is a fundamental human right recognized in many international and regional human rights instruments. However, in many countries, refugees are denied access to the labour market and opportunities for self-employment.

The Fifth Michigan Colloquium on Challenges in International Refugee Law (November 2009) has produced a set of guidelines with the aim of assisting states in the proper implementation of the right to work for refugees and other similarly situated persons. The guidelines are intended for use by national policy and decision makers for example, those responsible for designing and implementing national asylum laws and national labour law.

Writing in the Michigan Journal of International Law (Vol.31 No.2), Penelope Mathew said:

“Unable to return to their country of origin or nationality, and being without the protection of their own country, refugees must have rights to work in the country of refuge. … Yet, the right to work is often denied to refugees and others seeking protection, compounding the persecution, fear, and displacement they have already suffered. … In order to uphold the right to work for refugees and others seeking protection, we have engaged in sustained collaborative study and reflection on the international legal norms and state practice relevant to refugees’ right to work.”

The guidelines were published in the Michigan Journal of International Law (Vol.31 No.2). A copy is available from the FMO Digital Library, where you can also read an explanatory note which accompanies the guidelines.

• The Michigan Guidelines On The Right To Work
• Explanatory note on the Michigan Guidelines