Forced Migration Online: Blog

The Digital Library and Journals sections of this website were relaunched in December 2008, with substantial modifications and upgrades including moving the content to new servers (for better long term preservation) and a more precise search facility. This work was undertaken as part of the JISC funded OARS project, the aim of which was to improve the management of the underlying Digital Library content and make it more open and accessible to external systems such as Google. Searching and browsing Digital Library content is now faster and more accurate than before, and this content is accessed through an improved user interface. The FMO team welcomes feedback from our users.

• Digital Library
• Journals

A special issue of Forced Migration Review ‘Ten Years of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement’ is now in the digital library (FMR is one of five journals available).

This 40-page special issue of Forced Migration Review (FMR), published by the Refugee Studies Centre of Oxford University, reflects discussions at the international conference on the Ten Years of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (‘GP10’) held in Oslo on 16-17 October 2008.

The FMR special issue includes shortened versions of some of the conference presentations, plus a selection of other articles, most of which present case studies on the application of the Guiding Principles in different countries.

Full Issue

• FMR 2008, Special Issue: Ten Years of the Guiding Principles

Individual Articles

• The genesis and the challenges
• Achievements, challenges and recommendations
• Assessing the impact of the Principles: an unfinished task
• The Guiding Principles and the Responsibility to Protect
• Achievements and limitations of the Guiding Principles in Burma
• Protecting IDPs in Europe
• Experience of the Guiding Principles in Georgia
• Africa: from voluntary principles to binding standards
• Can the Guiding Principles make a difference in Kenya?
• Uganda’s response to displacement: contrasting policy and practice
• Guiding Principle 29 and the right to restitution
• Obstacles to realising Guiding Principle 29 in Afghanistan
• Seeking electoral equality for IDP voters
• Time to apply the Guiding Principles in Nepal
• Returnees in Sierra Leone
• Guiding Principle 27 and Philippine typhoon response
• Internal displacement in the Central African Republic
• UNHCR and the Guiding Principles
• Training to strengthen protection of IDP rights
• The future of the Guiding Principles

Increasingly, there is widespread recognition that the environment, people’s lives and livelihoods are being transformed as a result of climate change. This has been linked to increased levels of environmental and weather-related disasters and higher levels of displacement. The RSC has produced a set of resources which debate the issues – including numbers, definitions and modalities – and the tension between the need for research and the need to act. Prepared to complement Forced Migration Review 31 and the FMO Research Guide on Climate Change and Displacement, FMO also hosts a new Resource Summary on the topic which provides links to many key resources, websites and documents related to climate change, environmental change, disasters and forced migration.

• Resource Summary
• Research Guide
• Forced Migration Review 31

This research guide provides an in-depth examination of local integration as a durable solution and focuses on three key developments within research, policy and practice. Firstly, it looks at local integration at a policy level, as a potential durable solution to the impasse of protracted refugee situations. Secondly, it examines the increased policy, scholarly and advocacy interest related to the issue of self-settled refugees. Thirdly, contemporary work on ‘refugee livelihoods’ has revealed that integration can be a form of livelihood strategy for refugees.

• Local Integration Research Guide

Issue 30 of Forced Migration Review with its feature theme on Burma is now in the digital library. FMR is one of five journals available.

With the ‘Saffron revolution’ of September 2007, Burma was catapulted into the centre of international attention. It was briefly headline news as people monitored the regime’s response and watched for hints of progress towards democracy and the restoration of rights. With little action on either front (and no visible resurgence of violence or protest), interest has since waned. This issue of FMR aims to help bring the crisis of forced displacement of Burmese people back into the international spotlight.

The feature section on Burma includes 29 articles exploring the extent of the displacement crisis, factors affecting displaced people and the search for solutions. The issue also includes 19 articles on other aspects of forced migration.

• FMR 30: Burma’s displaced people

To mark International Migrants Day on 18th December 2007, Oxfam Publishing is providing free online access to Oxfam books, journal articles, policy papers and programme learning on migrants and migration.

The resources can be found on the Oxfam
Publishing website.

• Oxfam Publishing: Free resources on Migrants and Migration

Issue 29 of Forced Migration Review with its feature section on ‘Humanitarian reform: fulfilling its promise?’ is now in the digital library (FMR is one of five journals available).

As with any reform, says UN Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes in his article in this issue, “you have the believers, the sceptics and the opponents”. The perspectives of all three camps are reflected in the 25 articles that make up this issue’s feature section on humanitarian reform – which we hope will contribute to a constructive and fruitful debate around the world. FMR 29, which will be published in English, Arabic, Spanish and French, also includes 16 other articles on a wide range of subjects.

• FMR 29: Humanitarian reform: fulfilling its promise?

A special issue of Forced Migration Review: Iraq’s displacement crisis: the search for solutions is now in the digital library (FMR is one of five journals available).

The countries of the Middle East are now host to the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world. Violence has displaced two million inside Iraq and over two million have crossed its borders. Most refugees are in Syria and Jordan – which host the largest number of refugees per capita of any country on earth. The vast majority are surviving with little or no assistance from the international community. Few, if any, enjoy their rights as refugees.

This special issue of FMR presents 26 articles from governments, UN agencies and civil society examining the extent of the displacement crisis and the search for solutions. The Editors have worked in close consultation with UNHCR’s Iraq Unit and are grateful for funding support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation, the International Organization for Migration, Islamic Relief Worldwide and the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement.

• Iraq’s displacement crisis: the search for solutions