Divided Island: Haitian Refugees in the Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic resumes mass deportations of Haitians after a one year moratorium since the devastating earthquake in Haiti. This 15-minute short video, produced by PBS, investigates reports that Haitians are being wrongfully removed from the country. Human Rights activists say race plays a role in the treatment of Haitians in the Dominican Republic.
The 2005 film ‘Ecuador: Migration and Remittances‘ is now available to view on Forced Migration Online.
This short video offers a general overview of current Ecuadorian migration to Europe and the United States. The work touches on relationships between migrant and employer and the impact on the Ecuadorian family unit, both abroad and at home. A commentary is provided by Andres Vallejo, a PhD candidate at Cambridge University.
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.
Issue 33 of Forced Migration Review: Protracted displacement is now available in the digital library (FMR is one of five journals available).
Increasingly, growing numbers of displaced people remain displaced for years, even decades. This latest issue of FMR includes 29 articles by academic, international and local actors which assess the impact of such situations on people’s lives and our societies and explore the ‘solutions’ – political, humanitarian and personal.
The issue also includes a spotlight on the ‘internment camps’ in Sri Lanka and a mini-feature on Collective centres, plus a selection of articles on other aspects of forced migration such as rights and responsibilities in Darfur, smuggling in South Africa, IDP health needs in Colombia, climate change agreement talks, peace mediation, and community resilience in East Timor.
FMR is also published in French, Spanish and Arabic and the other language editions will follow soon.
A resource summary to complement FMR 33 is now available on Forced Migration Online and provides links to related key resources websites and documents.
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
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.
This podcast was recorded at the Refugee Studies Centre’s Astor Lecture which was on Thursday 5th March 2009 at Rewley House, University of Oxford. Professor Audrey Singer, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution gave the lecture on the subject of Obama’s policy challenges and the future of US immigration.
‘The State, Nation, Citizen: rethinking repatriation’ by Katy Long, the latest in the series of Refugee Studies Centre Working Papers, is now available online.
This paper offers a recontextualisation of the problems posed by the idea of repatriation within the structures of the liberal-democratic international community by providing a historical contextualisation for the political concepts underpinning repatriation. This demonstrates that the essential difficulty in understanding refugee repatriation as a “solution” to displacement is a result of the fundamental problems of attempting to reconcile a political philosophy of universal human rights with the principle of nation-state sovereignty. The paper then argues that post-1985 attempts to reconceptualise repatriation were fundamentally flawed not only because they were largely prompted by a narrowing of the political space for asylum and the need to find alternative practical solutions rather than any foundational approach, but because in reducing theory to practice, repatriation was depoliticised into “return”, reducing the likelihood of durable solutions based on citizenship and the remaking of state-citizen bonds which required an explicitly political context. Examining empirical evidence, in particular from the case of Guatemalan “organised and collective” return from January 1993, the paper makes clear that refugee groups are often highly-organised political communities, whose decision-making abilities have long-been recognised (particularly in studies of unassisted repatriation)8 but rarely encompassed within official pathways to return. It argues that as demonstrated in Guatemala, recognition of this more direct and politicised refugee engagement in displacement resolution offers an opportunity to strengthen both concepts of refugee dignity and the durability of return.
The photographic exhibition Guatemalan forced migration: the politics of care in representing refugees explores the mechanisms of representation used for forced migrants that stage appropriate refugee identities to justify the need for humanitarian care. The exhibition explores these issues through photo-documentary work with indigenous Guatemalan forced migrants living in the former refugee camp of La Gloria in the state of Chiapas in Mexico. The project is a collaboration between photographer, Manuel Gil, and doctoral research student in Sociology, Oscar F. Gil-García.
The photos and descriptions are now available to view on Forced Migration Online. The photos are complemented with a podcast in which Oscar F. Gil-García is interviewed about his work on the project.
Between 21st April and 3 May 2008 the University of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre (RSC) held a photographic exhibition looking at the subject of Forced Migration in Guatemala, the venue was The Gallery at Oxford Town Hall. The photographer Manuel Gil worked in collaboration with Oscar Gil, a Visiting Study Fellow at the RSC and doctoral candidate at the University of California at Santa Barbara. To find out more, you can download and view a PDF file of the RSC’s 2008 Programme of Events.