Invisible Integration: How Bureaucratic, Academic and Social Categories Obscure Integrated Refugees

Journal of Refugee Studies, Vol. 20 (2), 2007

The paper traces the early history of refugee research and shows how, from originally being prime movers in the research, refugees today have largely been reduced to invisibility. In the South, access to refugees held in camps is controlled by local government bureaucracies and by lead agencies, and may be severely restricted or completely denied; in the North, refugees held in detention centres are equally difficult to access and even more disempowered. Examples are given of studies carried out in Sierra Leone, Sudan, Egypt, Kenya, Greece and the Former Soviet Union. The paper also considers barriers to disseminating refugee research, and concludes that now more than ever the duty of the researcher is to speak on behalf of refugees.

This article examines the reception of Chin refugees from Myanmar in Mizoram State in northeast India through the framework of boundaries and belonging. Strong historical, cultural and ethnic connections between Chin and Mizo might suggest a strong claim to belonging. This has been true to some extent but the reception of Chin in Mizoram has also been shaped by perceived otherness. This article explores the co-existing discourses of Chin as other/brother in relation to processes of boundary-making, boundary policing and boundary manipulation. It argues that these contrasting narratives illustrate a dynamic relationship between national borders and boundaries of belonging that speak to deeper truths about the legitimacy of the nation state and the role of place, politics and identity in the construction of insiders and others. This case study generates several conclusions of wider relevance to refugee studies, namely the flexibility of perceptions of belonging, the possibility of deliberately reshaping perceptions of belonging and the existence of multiple, overlapping identities (i.e. citizenship , faith, ethnicity and culture) that are accorded different weight and value at different times.

Journal of Refugee Studies, 2018

Whilst sexual violence against men in armed conflicts has long been marginalized in research and policy, the recognition that it is far more widespread than previously understood is slowly gaining ground. Based on research carried out in Uganda in 2015, this article explores how a group of male refugee survivors of sexual violence have been able to organize, heal and become activists, and reflects on how we should understand and engage with this struggle. We hear how these men have begun to heal through mutual support and politicized collective action, and how humanitarian organizations and service providers can play crucial roles in support. The authors call for: challenging binary views of gender that permeate much current policy; developing open-ended, survivor-driven psycho-social support models; and supporting refugee male survivors' activism through action research into advocacy and global networking strategy, to continue destabilizing the silence over male victimization in conflictrelated sexual violence.

Journal of Refugee Studies, Vol. 20 (2), 2007

The paper traces the early history of refugee research and shows how, from originally being prime movers in the research, refugees today have largely been reduced to invisibility. In the south, access to refugees held in camps is controlled by local government bureaucracies and by lead agencies, and may be severly restricted or completely denied; in the North, refugees held in detention centres are equally difficult to access and even more disempowered. Examples are given of studies carried out in Sierra Leone, Sudan, Egypt, Kenya, Greece and the Former Soviet Union. The paper also considers barriers to disseminating refugee research and concludes that now more than ever the duty of the researcher is to speak on behalf of refugees.

International Journal of Refugee Law, 2008

Social Entrepreneurship in the Age of Atrocities, 2012

Journal of Refugee Studies, 2019

Social workers are confronted with a contradictory task: that of acting as state parents for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, in an era of hostile migration policies and austerity. Mobilizing Young's (2006) concept of 'responsibil-ity', we ask: how is state parental responsibility towards unaccompanied minors given meaning, and with what consequences, for both frontline workers and unaccompanied minors alike? Drawing on interviews with frontline workers and unaccompanied minors in the United Kingdom (n ¼ 107), we delineate three modes through which responsibility operates: namely outcomes, capacity and morality. We argue that the underlying logic of responsibility shifts the blame from sociopolitical structures to migrant children themselves, with crucial consequences for questions of social justice.

Journal of Refugee Studies, 2021

This is a review of "Asylum for Sale: Profit and Protest in the Migration Industry" by by Siobhan McGuirk and Adrienne Pine (Eds.) Published in 2020 by PM Press.