“The growing number of foreign nationals that find themselves in a legal limbo whereby they are not officially members of the host country, yet cannot be deported, raises a number of important questions. What explains the fact that the state is unable to deport a significant number of deportable people? How does this affect our understanding of the state’s social regulative function and capacity? What does this tell us about the rights and obligations that link the state and non-deportable people? How can the link between the state and non-deportability be conceptualised? These questions are the at the core of this paper whose starting assumption is that deportation and non-deportability can be treated as two distinct concepts which shed light on shifting notions and practices of membership.”

Read the paper:

• ‘Deportation, non-deportability and ideas of membership’ (PDF file 148 KB)
• Refugee Studies Centre Working Papers

• state fragility and forced migration;
• the economics of forced migration;
• environmental displacement;
• displaced groups with specific needs;
• durable solutions;
• humanitarian space and spaces of protection;
• realising protection: legal and institutional challenges.

The document also identifies areas likely to demand attention in the future.

Prepared by Dr Katy Long, a researcher at the RSC, the document also benefited from inputs by senior RSC staff and researchers and some external policy partners of the RSC.

It is hoped that this overview will be instrumental in informing the research agenda, policy priorities and institutional practices of the wider academic community and policy stakeholders, helping improve international humanitarian action and conflict prevention, and addressing the rights and needs of forced migrants.

The RSC would welcome receiving your feedback on the relevance and usefulness of this document. We also encourage you to contact the RSC should you wish to discuss a specific topic further, share information on a particular area, or support our research. Kindly direct your feedback or queries to the RSC’s Policy Programme Officer, Ms Héloïse Ruaudel, at rscpolicy@qeh.ox.ac.uk.

• Forced migration: Current policy trends and future directions

The course was devised by RSC staff member Dr Alice Edwards, in close cooperation with the Statelessness Unit of UNHCR Headquarters in Geneva. The international legal framework will be led by Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill.

This short course will be facilitated by some of the leading experts on this issue, including:

• Dr Alice Edwards, Lecturer in International Refugee and Human Rights Law, University of Oxford
• Dr Matthew Gibney, Reader in Politics and Forced Migration, University of Oxford
• Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill, Senior Research Fellow and Professor of Public International Law, University of Oxford
• Gábor Gyulai, Refugee Programme Coordinator, Hungarian Helsinki Committee, Budapest
• Bronwen Manby, Senior Programme Adviser – Africa, Open Society Justice Initiative
• Mark Manly, Head, Statelessness Unit, UNHCR Geneva
• Abbas Shiblak, Research Associate at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford; working for several years on the issue of statelessness, in particular in the Middle East.

Personal and professional interest and commitment are the key criteria for participation.

Apply online, or visit the Refugee Studies Centre website for more information.

Human Security and Non-Citizens: Law, Policy and International Affairs is a new co-edited collection by Carla Ferstman, Director of REDRESS and Dr. Alice Edwards of the Refugee Studies Centre. The official launch will be on 24th February 2010 as part of RSC’s Wednesday Seminar series.

The past decades have seen enormous changes in our perceptions of ‘security’, the causes of insecurity and the measures adopted to address them. Threats of terrorism and the impacts of globalisation and mass migration have shaped our identities, politics and world views. This volume of essays analyses these shifts in thinking and, in particular, critically engages with the concept of ‘human security’ from legal, international relations and human rights perspectives. Contributors consider the special circumstances of non-citizens, such as refugees, migrants, and displaced and stateless persons, and assess whether, conceptually and practically, ‘human security’ helps to address the multiple challenges they face.

• Human Security and Non-Citizens

Applications are invited for this year’s International Summer School in Forced Migration, to be held at Wadham College, Oxford. Apply by 1 March (bursary applicants), 1 May (self-/employer-funded applicants).

Now in its 21st year, the course offers an intensive, interdisciplinary and participative approach to the study of forced migration. It aims to enable people working with refugees and other forced migrants to reflect critically on the forces and institutions that dominate the world of the displaced.

• International Summer School in Forced Migration

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

‘Iraq’s refugees – beyond tolerance’ by Dr Philip Marfleet and Dr Dawn Chatty, the latest in the series of Refugee Studies Centre Forced Migration Policy Briefings, is now available online.

This policy brief considers the situation of displaced populations within Iraq’s national borders and of communities of Iraqis living under difficult circumstances in a number of Middle Eastern states.

The paper suggests that despite military and policy discourses of renewed stability in Iraq, the crisis is far from over and that mass return is unlikely as long as security remains a key concern. It presents some key principles for consideration by policy makers in government, in migration agencies and in the humanitarian networks and recommends that further research should be conducted on the scale, circumstances and patterns of movement of Iraqis within and beyond the Middle East.

• Policy brief

This podcast was recorded at the Refugee Studies Centre’s Annual Harrell-Bond Lecture which was on Wednesday 18th November 2009 at the Museum of Natural History, University of Oxford. The Harrell-Bond Lecture is held annually in honour of Dr Barbara Harrell-Bond, founding former director of the Centre and of the academic field of refugee studies or forced migration studies. Jan Egeland, former UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator and currently director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs gave the 2009 lecture on the subject of political deals and durable solutions for the displaced.

• Podcast
• Subscribe via iTunes

Some “reflections” (PDF file) on the key themes that emerged from the conference have been developed by Simon Addison, Senior Research Officer & Policy Programme Manager at the Refugee Studies Centre.

We invite you to share your thoughts and reflections on what were for you the most relevant and innovative themes and issues presented and discussed. We would also welcome receiving your suggestions and recommendations on how to move the protection debate forward at a research, policy and practical level. Please add your thoughts, suggestions and recommendations to this page.

• Leave a Reply
• Reflections on an International Conference (PDF file)

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)