{"title":"Power, Mobility, and Space: Human Security for Venezuelan Refugees in Colombia","authors":"James Rochlin","doi":"10.1177/23315024231202492","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23315024231202492","url":null,"abstract":"Executive Summary The near collapse of the Venezuelan economy since 2015 and the concomitant erosion of public order have led to an exodus of over seven million people by mid-2023, the largest forced migrant flow in recent Latin American history and the second largest globally after Syria. It occurs against a global backdrop of a 400 percent increase in persons displaced across borders between 2010 and 2021. Colombia hosts the largest number of Venezuelan refugees — with about 2.5 million officially recorded by the government. This has occurred during a politically tumultuous period in Colombia, which has featured the reconfiguration of competing illegal armed groups since the signing of the 2016 Peace Accord between the government and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), a major COVID-19 outbreak in 2020–2021, and a crippling and protracted national strike in 2021. Within the hemispheric context, Colombia serves as a stop-gap to stem the flow of Venezuelan refugees northward, roughly similar to the role played by Mexico to intercept and diminish migration to the United States. This has especially been the case since the January 5, 2023 announcement by US President Biden, which specified that refugees cannot declare asylum in the US if they attempt to cross the US border without first seeking asylum in their initial transit country. For Venezuelan refugees, the first country they enter is typically Colombia. Further, in May 2023, the Biden administration announced it was considering sending US troops to the Darien Peninsula in Panama, and will perhaps train Colombian forces, to diminish the “trafficking” of Venezuelan refugees and other refugees passing through Colombia and headed north. The result, according to leaders of NGOs and other who work directly with refugees, has been more pressure on Colombia to retain them. The argument here is twofold. First, human security threats for Venezuelan refugees should be viewed intersectionally in the particular spaces through which they pass — from the collapse of order in their home countries (which qualifies them as refugees), through the borderlands with Colombia that pose specific threats to their safety and wellbeing, and to their destinations within Colombia that offer their own peculiar array of opportunities and human security challenges. Second, regularization programs such as the Estatuto Temporal de Protección de Migrantes Venezolanos (ETPMV) are the best way to promote human security for refugees in Colombia in the short and medium terms, but this process needs to be more inclusive.1 The first half of this paper discusses the conceptual underpinnings that link power/mobility/space to human security for refugees. The second part brings those concepts to life through interviews with an assortment of refugees. The paper draws from a database of interviews with 72 Venezuelan refugees in Colombia in 2022 and 2023 regarding the intersectional nuances of human security. It also re","PeriodicalId":90638,"journal":{"name":"Journal on migration and human security","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136114568","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":"Health Care Experiences of Stateless People in Canada","authors":"Jocelyn Kane, Gezy Schuurmans, Miho Kitamura","doi":"10.1177/23315024231200200","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23315024231200200","url":null,"abstract":"Statelessness in Canada is an emerging site of inquiry with recent investigations into its causes and consequences, focusing on legislative and policy analyses and the lived experiences of stateless persons. Yet, health care experiences generally and access to mental and physical health care in particular remain under-researched. This study attempts to bridge this gap by examining how statelessness impacts physical health, mental health, access to health care services, and overall well-being. To answer these questions, we conducted semi-structured interviews with stateless or formerly stateless persons to understand their views and experiences. The study reports on negative health outcomes in four broad areas: The limited ability of stateless persons (SPs) to access health care. Mental health challenges. The failure to treat health issues until they have reached a dangerous point and the reliance on self-care strategies. The negative impact of lack of status on four social determinants of health: employment, education, housing, and food security. From these findings, the paper makes three arguments: Legal Status is a key determinant of health and lack of status leads to negative health outcomes. SPs heavily depend upon others for their life-needs, which can lead to exploitation and encourage forms of adaptive and negotiated agency. SPs in Canada experience a physical and mental liminality [a condition of uncertainty]. The paper concludes that Canada should recognize stateless individuals either as stateless or as Canadian nationals, and should implement a context-tailored institutional response to statelessness.","PeriodicalId":90638,"journal":{"name":"Journal on migration and human security","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135688114","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":"An Analysis of Trends in the US Undocumented Population Since 2011 and Estimates of the Undocumented Population for 2021","authors":"Robert Warren","doi":"10.1177/23315024231202504","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23315024231202504","url":null,"abstract":"In 2021, the undocumented population residing in the United States (US) increased slightly to 10.3 million, compared to 10.2 million the previous year. The gradual decline or near-zero growth of this population has continued for more than a decade. However, the large increases in apprehensions at the southern border in recent years, along with continued legislative gridlock in Congress, could portend a new era of growth of this population. Unfortunately, the data needed to determine whether the population will enter a period of growth after 2021 — or whether the era of near-zero growth will continue — will not be available for at least a year or two. The most accurate demographic estimates of the undocumented population are derived from data collected in the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Estimates of the size of the undocumented population in 2022 will not be available until early 2024. This report focuses on the most significant trend in the undocumented population in the past decade — the remarkable decline of 1.9 million in the undocumented population from Mexico from 2011 to 2021. The decline for Mexico in this period was 600,000 more than the total population increase from the seven countries (in order) with the fastest growing US undocumented populations: Guatemala, Honduras, India, Venezuela, El Salvador, Brazil, and China. This paper finds that: The long-term decline, or near-zero growth, of the total undocumented population that began in 2008 continued in 2021. The percent of undocumented residents in the total US population declined from 3.8 percent in 2011 to 3.1 percent in 2021. The undocumented population from Mexico declined from 6.4 million in 2011 to 4.4 million in 2021, a drop of 1.9 million in 10 years. A total of 2.9 million, or 47 percent, of the US undocumented population from Mexico in 2011 had left the undocumented population by 2021. The drop in the undocumented population from Mexico from 2011 to 2021 occurred nationwide, and the decline affected the undocumented population in nearly every state. The fastest growing undocumented populations by country in the last 10 years were from Guatemala, Honduras, India, El Salvador, Venezuela, and Brazil. The combined undocumented populations from these six countries grew by 1.2 million. Countries that had declining populations after 2011 included Poland, Peru, Ecuador, Korea, and Philippines, in addition to the large drop for Mexico. California had the largest decline in undocumented residents — 665,000 from 2011 to 2021. The undocumented population from Mexico living in California during this period declined by 720,000. The combined undocumented population in California, New York, and Illinois fell by more than one million from 2021 to 2011.","PeriodicalId":90638,"journal":{"name":"Journal on migration and human security","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135690837","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}
Anoji Ekanayake, R. Lakshman, Brad K. Blitz, Jiyar Aghapouri, A. Javed, M. Malik, Kiran Rahim
{"title":"Gender and Forced Displacement in Humanitarian Policy Discourse: The Missing Link","authors":"Anoji Ekanayake, R. Lakshman, Brad K. Blitz, Jiyar Aghapouri, A. Javed, M. Malik, Kiran Rahim","doi":"10.1177/23315024231189487","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23315024231189487","url":null,"abstract":"This paper reports on a study that examines how gender has been referenced in United Nations (UN), supranational and state documents on forced migration over the past 40 years. It is motivated by the premise that humanitarian protection discourses reflect broader institutional priorities and ideologies and may therefore expose gaps that reveal the relative importance given to the category of gender. The evidence presented below is the result of an extensive review of policy documents on Afghanistan, Kurdistan Region-Iraq (KRI), and Sri Lanka contained in the Refworld database. 1 The study sought to understand how gender is mentioned in terms of 1. governmentality — a top-down policy preference, which emphasizes the management of humanitarian protection; 2. empowerment — a bottom up policy preference, which emphasizes self-actualization and self-determination: we seek to understand how agency is expressed, including how opportunities for participation feature in policy discourse; 3. inclusion — the scope of coverage of different gender categories in policy discourse; and, 4. differentiation — the particularization of needs, wishes, and demands made by women, men, and girls and boys in displacement settings. The paper finds: • Where gender and displacement are discussed together, there is greater emphasis on governmentality, which crowds out other objectives, including advancing opportunities for gender empowerment and participation. • Internally displaced persons (IDPs) tend to be treated as an operational challenge alongside security and peacebuilding. The nature of their displacement is implicit in these documents, associated within the recurring themes of land, violence, empowerment, and livelihoods. The documents mention violence, but do not widely cover maternal, sexual, and reproductive health. • The documents offer little insight into the identities of the displaced — whether female, male, children, or members of LGBT communities — and are mostly silent on their specific protection needs. Overall, the paper finds remarkably little integration of gender within the humanitarian literature on forced displacement. In spite of much advocacy by the UN, the concept of gender has not been effectively disaggregated to address the specific needs of IDPs, especially in the discussion of children. This paper argues that taking gender seriously means recognizing how protection needs may be shaped by power relationships, and how policy and practice would be enhanced by a more nuanced understanding of how vulnerabilities and opportunities are structured by gender and the specificities of the displacement context. It recommends that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and partner UN agencies continue to find opportunities to bring humanitarian policy on gender and forced displacement into conversation in order to strengthen protection. To this end, it suggests that the concept of gender should be disaggregated to address the speci","PeriodicalId":90638,"journal":{"name":"Journal on migration and human security","volume":"169 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88447691","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":"Access to Justice, the Rule of Law, and Due Process in the US Immigration System: A Tribute to Juan Osuna","authors":"Donald M. Kerwin","doi":"10.1177/23315024231179424","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23315024231179424","url":null,"abstract":"This paper introduces a special collection of papers on access to justice, the rule of law, and due process in the US immigration system. The collection honors Juan Osuna, a devoted public servant and former director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which is the agency in the US Department of Justice (DOJ) that administers the Immigration Courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), and legal orientation, assistance, and representation programs. The collection consists of five articles published in the Journal on Migration and Human Security and six CMS essays, written by some of Osuna’s close colleagues and friends. Section I provides a brief biography of Juan Osuna’s life, recites his titles and professional accomplishments, and outlines his views on some of the topics covered in the papers. The section draws heavily from two events that book-ended Osuna’s tenure as EOIR Director, which were organized by the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS). The first took place on February 16, 2012 1 and the second on July 18, 2017, 2 just before Osuna’s untimely death at the age of 54 on August 15, 2017. This section also includes remembrances and reflections from Osuna’s colleagues at a November 15, 2018 event in Washington, DC, devoted to","PeriodicalId":90638,"journal":{"name":"Journal on migration and human security","volume":"50 1","pages":"228 - 237"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90806651","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}
Catalina Correa-Salazar, K. Page, A. Martinez-Donate
{"title":"The Migration Risk Environment: Challenges to Human Security for Venezuelan Migrant and Refugee Women and Girls Pre- and Post-Migration to Colombia","authors":"Catalina Correa-Salazar, K. Page, A. Martinez-Donate","doi":"10.1177/23315024231162356","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23315024231162356","url":null,"abstract":"The Venezuelan crisis has unleashed multiple forms of sociopolitical violence against its population and created a context of unmet needs, insecurity, and human rights violations. Outward migration caused by this situation has been linked to health emergencies in neighboring countries. Venezuelan migrant and refugee women and girls (VMRWG) are among the most affected. We conducted a cross-sectional qualitative and Participatory Action Research (PAR) project to characterize the risk environments for VMRWG across migration phases, analyzing pre-departure, transit, border crossing, and resettlement risk factors for health and security through semi-structured interviews (n = 30) and human cartographies (n = 16). We found cross border risk and protective factors that inform cross-border health initiatives, migration policies, and human rights efforts for both the migrant and host communities. Findings and Recommendations Migratory trajectories of VMRWG from Venezuela to Colombia represent a risk environment for women and girls, connecting cross-border contexts through armed actors’ control, culturally reinforced gender roles and limited social and economic resources. Long-term sustainable migratory policies that are culturally sensitive and include a gender-approach to health should operationalize how gender roles are intimately connected to HIV risk and mental health disparities through reinforced structural factors. Such policies must address these structural factors. The public health system needs to incorporate and align with programmatic efforts implemented by international platforms (United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), AID4AIDS, and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) also known as Doctors Without Borders) targeting screening for infectious diseases (including HIV and mental health disparities) in border crossings and borderlands. Sustainable policies to bridge gaps between services and populations and to decrease growing HIV cases depends on these strategies. Policies and programs of local governments (city and municipality level) addressing mental health disparities need to be expanded through peer leaders and civil society networks of care to guarantee wellbeing and quality of life after resettlement. International efforts and collaborations should capitalize on the re-opening of the border to establish inter-sectoral collaborations with Venezuelan NGOs and civil society organizations on both sides of the border to address gender-based violence, follow-up of cases, and access to services in sending and receiving communities. In order to broach gaps and tackle access barriers in resettlement communities in Colombia, services must be provided in peripheric territories and neighborhoods where some vulnerable migrants resettle. These services must rely on health sector-community collaborations. Public health sector efforts should be integrated and coordinated with family and child services on a local and national level Instituto Colombiano de Bien","PeriodicalId":90638,"journal":{"name":"Journal on migration and human security","volume":"5 1","pages":"175 - 193"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76960995","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":"The US Immigration Courts, Dumping Ground for the Nation’s Systemic Immigration Failures: The Causes, Composition, and Politically Difficult Solutions to the Court Backlog","authors":"Donald M. Kerwin, Evin Millet","doi":"10.1177/23315024231175379","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23315024231175379","url":null,"abstract":"The US immigration court system seeks to “fairly, expeditiously, and uniformly administer and interpret US immigration laws” (DOJ 2022a). It represents the first exposure of many immigrants to due process and the rule of law in the United States, and occupies an integral role in the larger US immigration system. Yet it labors under a massive backlog of pending cases that undermines its core goals and objectives. The backlog reached 1.87 million cases in the first quarter of FY 2023 (Straut-Eppsteiner 2023, 6). This paper attributes the backlog to systemic failures in the broader immigration system that negatively affect the immigration courts, such as: Visa backlogs, United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) application processing delays, and other bottlenecks in legal immigration processes. The immense disparity in funding between the court system and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies that feed cases into the courts. The failure of Congress to pass broad immigration reform legislation that could ease pressure on the enforcement and court systems. The lack of standard judicial authorities vested in Immigration Judges (IJs), limiting their ability to close cases; pressure parties to “settle” cases; and manage their dockets. The absence of a statute of limitations for civil immigration offenses. Past DHS failures to establish and adhere to enforcement priorities and to exercise prosecutorial discretion (PD) throughout the removal adjudication process, including in initial decisions to prosecute. The location of the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which oversees US immigration courts, within the nation’s preeminent law enforcement agency, the Department of Justice (DOJ). The misconception of many policymakers that the court system should primarily serve as an adjunct to DHS. A past record of temporary judge reassignments and government shutdowns. The paper supports a well-resourced and independent immigration court system devoted to producing the right decisions under the law. Following a short introduction, a long section on “Causes and Solutions to the Backlog” examines the multi-faceted causes of the backlog, and offers an integrated, wide-ranging set of recommendations to reverse and ultimately eliminate the backlog. The “Conclusion” summarizes the paper’s topline findings and policy proposals.","PeriodicalId":90638,"journal":{"name":"Journal on migration and human security","volume":"1 1","pages":"194 - 227"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89698789","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":"Between Humanitarian Assistance and Externalizing of EU Borders: The EU-Turkey Deal and Refugee Related Organizations in Turkey","authors":"L. Pries, Berna Safak Zülfikar Savci","doi":"10.1177/23315024231156381","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23315024231156381","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines whether multilevel transnational cooperation makes a difference in refugee protection, especially in protracted displacement. In response to the forced migration of millions of Syrians to Turkey starting in 2011, the EU and Turkish government published a joint statement in March 2016. The so-called EU-Turkey deal (EUTD) provided a substantial flow of money (EUR 6 billion in four years) from the EU to Turkey. In return Turkey had to commit to contain and control migration movement toward the EU. In social science, there are quite diverse evaluations of the EUTD. Whereas some studies focus on its effectiveness and efficiency in reaching the outlined goals, other publications stress its geo-political effects on migrants’ mobility and (externalized) border control. Meanwhile some studies look for points to improve the EUTD while others criticize it fundamentally. This article analyzes the involvement of different types of international governmental and non-governmental organizations (IGOs and INGOs) in the four main action fields of the EUTD and its implicit side effects on the Turkish regime of migration management. It first summarizes some crucial findings and pending questions in the social science literature. Based on analysis of available documents and our own interviews in Turkey, we then shed light on the organizations involved in the implementation of the EUTD and its effects on the Turkish regime of refugee protection. In 2022, Turkey hosted some 3.7 million Syrian refugees of a total of almost four million registered international forced migrants. The EUTD of 2016 was mainly a response by the EU to the large numbers of Syrian refugees arriving in its members’ territories. When more than 1.2 million asylum seekers were registered in the then EU-28 in 2015 alone — more than twice the number in the preceding year — some EU member states (MS) negotiated with the Turkish government (Eurostat 2015, 2016). Based on a meeting of the European Council and its “Turkish counterpart” the so-called “EU-Turkey statement” was published on March 18 in 2015 (European Council 2016). From the very beginning, this EUTD was controversial — both in public discussions and in the social science literature. Was it primarily a payment from the EU to the Turkish government for externalizing its responsibilities of refugee protection? Or was it an appropriate measure for sharing the burden of an urgent humanitarian crisis? Was the money spent for refugee-oriented humanitarian aid and development expenses or was it instrumentalized by the Turkish government for its own ends? How did refugee related IGOs and INGOs participate in the management of the EUTD? In the following sections, we focus on some selected aspects of the role of national and international, governmental and non-governmental organizations active in the field of refugee protection, specifically the role and cooperation dynamics of these refugee related organizations (RRO) in implementi","PeriodicalId":90638,"journal":{"name":"Journal on migration and human security","volume":"162 1","pages":"57 - 74"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74105686","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":"Somali Refugees, Informality, and Self-initiative at Local Integration in Ethiopia and Kenya","authors":"Abdirahman A. Muhumad, Rose Jaji","doi":"10.1177/23315024231156390","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23315024231156390","url":null,"abstract":"As the number of refugees has continued to grow in post-independence Africa, host governments across the continent have developed stringent refugee policies that are detached from historical transborder relationships in which refugees and host communities interact. The stringent policies are underpinned by the assumption that host communities view refugees from the state-centric perspective of non-citizens as undesirable foreigners or outsiders. Host governments’ insistence that the solution lies in refugees eventually repatriating to their countries of origin drives refugee policies that undermine solutions instead of building and capitalizing on solutions generated at the level of host communities. The exclusion of local histories and social dynamics in host regions has led to policies that neither hold up to humanitarian standards nor serve their intended non-integration objectives. Some host governments are reluctant to implement local integration and have maintained exclusionary policies for a long period of time when the realities in the host communities show that refugees are included and participate in various community activities. Host governments perpetuate this disjuncture between policy and local practice by assuming or pretending that refugees will wait for repatriation instead of finding solutions in the host countries where some of them have lived for decades. Contrary to the non-integration objectives of official encampment policies and scholarship that assumes that the absence of official integration policies deters integration, many refugees have defied the stereotypical portrayal of refugees as “bare life” which denotes prioritization of mere survival as opposed to the quality of life. They have managed to find solutions and live their lives as active and productive members of their host countries. This article specifically addresses the situation of Somali refugees in Ethiopia and Kenya. It argues that the absence of local integration policies or reluctance by host governments to implement them where they exist does not automatically mean that refugees are unable to integrate in their host countries. Host government policies against integration are mediated by refugees’ self-initiative and resourcefulness. These characteristics are facilitated by host communities whose ties and mutual dependence with refugees, cultivated pre- and post-flight, play an important role in engendering solidarity and circumventing policies that hamper refugees’ quest for long-term solutions. Based on the research findings, the paper recommends that host governments pursue policies that are informed by the shared needs and interests between refugee and host communities and that build on the social dynamics and relationships in refugee-hosting regions.","PeriodicalId":90638,"journal":{"name":"Journal on migration and human security","volume":"65 1","pages":"75 - 88"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83750240","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}
Mohammad Azizul Hoque, Tasnuva Ahmad, S. Manzur, Tasnia Khandaker Prova
{"title":"Community-Based Research in Fragile Contexts: Reflections From Rohingya Refugee Camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh","authors":"Mohammad Azizul Hoque, Tasnuva Ahmad, S. Manzur, Tasnia Khandaker Prova","doi":"10.1177/23315024231160153","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23315024231160153","url":null,"abstract":"This commentary examines community-based research in fragile settings based on the authors’ experience working with Rohingya and host community researchers in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. This iteration of a community-based approach to research focuses on putting community researchers at the center and emphasizes their involvement at each stage of the research process – from design to implementation to analysis – alongside external researchers. Community researchers contribute their expertise to increase understanding of nuances that might otherwise be lost to external researchers. Integral to this approach is building and nurturing the trust of researchers, respondents and community members through innovative means such as an informal “trust network.” Also central to the community-based approach, especially in fragile 1 settings, is a sustained emphasis on community researchers’ learning and skills-building. The commentary article describes methods developed by the Centre for Peace and Justice, Brac University (CPJ), implemented with Rohingya refugees and host community researchers in Cox’s Bazar. The article suggests: Putting community members at the heart of learning and research approaches helps to amplify marginalized voices and emphasize their needs and choices. The political and economic atmosphere of a refugee setting can change rapidly. In such circumstances, community-based research can be vital to policymakers that seek to understand emerging concerns and issues. Community-based experiential education and research approaches hold potential to promote grassroots leadership among refugee youth in situations of protracted displacement. Strengthening the capacities of community researchers is crucial to this approach. Community researchers often lack language skills, especially writing and reading, and translating from local dialects to English or any other preferred language. The acquisition of research skills can also pave a durable and critical pathway toward meaningful youth engagement. Trust and familiarity between refugee interlocutors and researchers require long-term engagement. Creating a culture of mutual respect and dignity is of utmost importance. The community expects researchers to respect their religious beliefs and cultural values. The two-way exchange between community researchers and respondents enhances the learning process and can help discover areas for further inquiry.","PeriodicalId":90638,"journal":{"name":"Journal on migration and human security","volume":"70 1","pages":"89 - 98"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85305211","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}