Forced Migration Online: Blog

Forced Migration Online has recently published a new resource summary, focusing on Angola.

The Republic of Angola is on the west coast of south-central Africa, and has an estimated population of around 13 million people. Wealthy in natural resources, it is now one of the fastest growing economies in Africa, fuelled mainly by its oil production.

Despite this apparent wealth however, the country faces enormous socio-economic problems. These are the product of a 27-year long civil war, which raged from 1975 to 2002 between the governing MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) and UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola). At the height of the civil war, it is estimated that over 4 million people were displaced.

All our summaries provide links to key resources, websites and documents exploring contemporary debate on on key issues, in forced migration as well as links to wider issues concerned with human rights and displacement.

Our full collection of resource summaries, focusing on specific regions and themes, can be accessed from the links below.

• Angola resource summary
• Regional Resource Summaries
• Thematic Resource Summaries

Cover of FMR 35: Disability

Issue 35 of Forced Migration Review (FMR) is now available in the FMO digital library. This issue focuses on the topic of “Disability and Displacement”.

The World Health Organisation estimates that persons with disabilities account for 7-10% of the world’s population. This would imply that there are three to four million persons living with disability among the world’s 42 million displaced. It is not (yet) common practice, however, to include people with disabilities among those who are considered as particularly vulnerable in disasters and displacement and who therefore require targeted response.

Forced Migration Online’s latest resource summary, which complements FMR 35, is also available to view online. It provides links to key resources, websites and documents exploring contemporary debate on this issue as well as links to wider issues concerned with human rights and displacement.

Issue 35 of Forced Migration Review also contains a mini-feature on Brazil, as well as articles on: accountability, mobility, reproductive health in Darfur, repatriation decision-making and protection in natural disasters.

• FMR 2010, 2010, No. 35: Disability and Displacement
• FMO Resource summary: Disability

On 26 May Professor Saskia Sassen gave the Refugee Studies Centre’s annual “Elizabeth Colson Lecture”.

Prof. Sassen spoke on the topic of “The complexity of Powerlessness: What makes human rights law perform?”

A podcast of this lecture is now available to listen to on Forced Migration Online.

Prof. Sassen is the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology and a Member of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University. She spoke about the limits of power and the complexities of powerlessness, using the examples of immigration and human rights to help to explore these abstract issues.

The Elizabeth Colson Lecture is held annually in honour of Professor Elizabeth Colson, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.

• Listen to the podcast
• Subscribe via iTunes

A new series of podcasts, recorded at a regional presentation in Amman, on the situation of Iraqi refugees, is now available from Forced Migration Online. The presentation was jointly organized by the Refugee Studies Centre and the Regional Human Security Centre (RHSC) in Amman, Jordan.

Based on a recent RSC Policy Briefing on Iraq’s refugees – beyond tolerance, this one-day event provided a platform for an open discussion  on the situation of Iraqis displaced internally and Iraqis displaced in the region.

The keynote address was given by HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan. Other participants included:

• Dr Nasir Al-Samaraie, Adviser to the Iraq Head of Delegation, International Committee of the Red Cross
• Dr Philip Marfleet, Associate Director, CMRB, University of East London
• Dr Dawn Chatty, Deputy Director, RSC, University of Oxford
• Professor Adel Tweissi, Secretary General of the Higher Council of Science and Technology
• Mr Abed El-Baset Al Kabariti, Ministry of Interior, Government of Jordan
• Mr Arafat Jamal, UNHCR Deputy Representative in Jordan
• Ms Liana Paris, Displacement Monitoring Officer, IOM Iraq Mission

Key principles for consideration by policy makers were presented and discussed. The emphasis was on protection and durable solutions to displacement.

• Listen to the Podcasts
• Read: “Iraq’s refugees – beyond tolerance”
• Subscribe via iTunes

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?

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

FMO has launched a series of podcasts recorded at the Romani Mobilities in Europe conference, held by the Refugee Studies Centre between 14th and 15th January 2010 at Harris Manchester College, Oxford. The event was made possible by a grant from the John Fell Oxford University Press Fund and the generous support of ERSTE Foundation. Further details about the event can be accessed on the Conference Blog.

• Podcasts
• Subscribe via iTunes

11-12 December 2009
Department of International Development, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TB

We are pleased to inform you that it is now possible to register in order to attend the conference on Deportation and Development of Citizenship on 11-12 December at the University of Oxford (map).

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.

Confirmed guest speakers include Prof. Daniel Kanstroom, Prof. Antje Ellermann, Prof. Annemarie Sammartino, Prof. Catherine Dauvergne, Prof. Deirdre Moloney and Dr. Darshan Vigneswaran.

The programme of the conference (PDF file) is available and you can register online.

If you have any questions, please e-mail emanuela.paoletti@qeh.ox.ac.uk

• Conference
• Conference programme (provisional) (PDF file)

The film ‘Silk Road to Guantanamo: The Story of Adel Hakimjan‘ is now available to view online. Silk Road to Guantanamo shows the plight of ex-Guantanamo Bay inmate Adel Hakimjan, a Chinese Uighur, who was abused, persecuted, traded, and falsely imprisoned. There will be a screening of the film at the Blue Boar Lecture Theatre, Christ Church College, University of Oxford, on Tuesday, 17th November 7.30pm-9.30pm. After the screening there will be a Q & A with the film’s director S L James and Enver Tohti, chairman of the UK Uyghur Association.

• Silk Road to Guantanamo: The Story of Adel Hakimjan
• Screening in Oxford
• Subscribe via iTunes

Two new resource summaries are now available on Forced Migration Online. The summaries on ‘Islam, Human Rights and Displacement’ and ‘Statelessness’ complement the 2009 Special Issue and Issue 32 of Forced Migration Review and provide links to related key resources, websites and documents.

• Islam, Human Rights and Displacement
• Statelessness