{"title":"Improving SOGI Asylum Adjudication: Putting Persecution Ahead of Identity","authors":"M. Dustin, N. Ferreira","doi":"10.1093/RSQ/HDAB005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/RSQ/HDAB005","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article addresses the concern that decision-making in sexual orientation or gender identity (SOGI) asylum claims in Europe is often unfair, and that one way to remedy this is by improving the guidance provided to decision-makers when interpreting the Refugee Convention in respect of these claims. We begin by interrogating a number of different decision-making guidelines and models to assess whether they contribute to a fairer asylum system. We show that, for claims based on SOGI, success invariably depends on the decision-maker’s assessment as to whether a claimant is, or would be perceived in their home country to be, a member of a SOGI minority, and so belongs to a Particular Social Group. Such focus risks neglecting analysis of the actual risk of persecution. We set out our own recommendation for a fairer approach based on prioritising SOGI-specific Country of Origin Information (COI) and the risk of persecution, rather than focusing on whether applicants are ‘genuinely’ members of a SOGI minority. We argue that this will lead to fairer outcomes that are less likely to be overturned on appeal and more consistent with the Refugee Convention’s spirit and letter.","PeriodicalId":39907,"journal":{"name":"Refugee Survey Quarterly","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44441496","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On Critical Localism and the Privatisation of Refuge: The Resettlement of Syrian Newcomers in Canada","authors":"Suzan Ilcan, Laura Connoy","doi":"10.1093/rsq/hdab006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdab006","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Increases in displacement and forced migration is an enduring feature of many countries. Resettlement is a policy response to displacement, that relocates refugees from a country of asylum to a safe third country. Canada’s Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program is noteworthy. It allows non-profit organizations and volunteer groups to support newcomers during their first year in Canada and has especially aided resettlement of Syrian refugees on an international scale. We take a critical look at this programme by focusing on the social implications of private sponsorship and Syrian newcomers’ experiences of resettlement. We view private sponsorship initiatives as furthering processes that privatise decision-making, identify specific sponsorship groups as objects of policy, and transfer public authority to private citizens and non-profit organizations to encourage refugee resettlement. We argue that the privatising processes defining private sponsorship are further complicated within localised settings. Based on scholarly, policy, and programme documents, and extensive semi-structured interviews with Syrian newcomers in southern Ontario, Canada, we illuminate what we call “localising the privatisation of refuge,” which calls attention to the various networks, activities and relations of power that define and shape the local, and the processes and experiences of refuge that take place within.","PeriodicalId":39907,"journal":{"name":"Refugee Survey Quarterly","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49457809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How a Policy Network Matters for Refugee Protection: A Case Study of Japan’s Refugee Resettlement Programme","authors":"J. Akashi","doi":"10.1093/rsq/hdab001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdab001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In 2010, Japan became the first Asian country to launch a refugee resettlement programme. The programme continues today, and the government expanded the scheme to accept more refugees through the resettlement channel in 2020. How Japan, a country known for its reluctance to accept refugees, has strengthened its commitment to its refugee resettlement programme has been insufficiently investigated. Based on surveys of literature that mainly involved primary resources and interviews with key stakeholders of the programmes, this study reveals that the development of a policy network that mediates local constraints on refugee protection processes is a key determinant of the state’s capability to accept refugees as well as how well the refugee protection programme functions. Retracing the decade-long history of Japan’s resettlement programme, this study argues that the performance of the programme has hinged on local actors and in part on a non-governmental organisation that acts as an intermediary between the state and municipalities, whereas institutional settings in Japan remain the greatest hindrance to the effective participation of NGOs in national humanitarian initiatives.","PeriodicalId":39907,"journal":{"name":"Refugee Survey Quarterly","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41648814","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Entrepreneurial Systems of Syrian Refugees as Stimulators of Host Economy: Case of Ouzaii (Lebanon)","authors":"Batoul Yassine, Howayda Al-Harithy","doi":"10.1093/RSQ/HDAA013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/RSQ/HDAA013","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article investigates the impact of the Syrian displacement on the economic and urban transformation in Ouzaii, a major informal settlement in the southern suburbs of Beirut that is characterised by a complex socio-political structure. It explores the potential of “entrepreneurial systems” that emerge when Syrian refugees become part of the host community and its economy. These systems include Syrian refugees as either part of the lower labour force, business owners, or entrepreneurs. The article locates these entrepreneurial systems within the spatial networks and investigates how Syrian refugees create opportunities for themselves and the host community given the specificity of the market that is subject to legal setups and mediated by the political party of Hezbollah. It uses the construct of “mixed embeddedness” by Kloosterman et al. and the notion of “quiet encroachment” by Asef Bayat to understand how the Syrian refugees were able to infiltrate into Ouzaii’s economy and become part of the “entrepreneurial systems” that stimulate the economic cycle and revitalise the urban space.","PeriodicalId":39907,"journal":{"name":"Refugee Survey Quarterly","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/RSQ/HDAA013","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45786623","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Government-led Resettlement after Natural Disasters as a Durable Solution? The Case of Cyclone Idai","authors":"Carolien Jacobs, B. Almeida","doi":"10.1093/rsq/hdaa041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdaa041","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Thousands of people had to flee their homes when Cyclone Idai hit Mozambique in 2019. In its aftermath, the government resettled more than 80,000 people from high-risk areas to safer ground. This article analyses resettlement as a durable solution to disaster response. The question of durable resettlement due to climate-related displacement is especially pertinent in the light of ongoing climate change. Based on empirical research, we show that, although the government succeeded in providing a short-term response to the disaster, there are two major impediments to using resettlement as a durable solution: the lack of citizen participation in the decision-making process leading to resettlement; and the gap between the short-term humanitarian perspective and a longer-term development viewpoint. Resettlement can hardly be seen as a durable solution to climate-related displacement as long as key principles are not respected.","PeriodicalId":39907,"journal":{"name":"Refugee Survey Quarterly","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2020-12-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/rsq/hdaa041","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44903444","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}