Refugee Review:

Social Movement

An e-publication of the New Scholars Network

www.refugeereview.wordpress.com

Volume 1, Number 1, September 2013

The opinions and statements found in Refugee Review: Social Movement are solely those of the authors

and do not represent the views of the New Scholars Network or its editors, peer reviewers, supporters, or

other participating contributors.

This material is protected through a Creative Commons copyright, Attribution Non Commercial No Derivs

3.0 Unported license. Please contact refugeereview@gmail.com with questions.

To reference work within this e-journal, please use the following attribution style (or a standardized

variation that includes the following information): Author, “Article Title,” Refugee Review: Social

Movement, Vol.I, No.I (2013): Page Number, accessed date, url.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

ii

Table of Contents

Working Papers: Social Movements

The Paradoxical Power of Precarity: Refugees and Homeland Activism……………... 1

Susan Banki

‘We Didnae Do Anything Great…’ Discursive Strategies for Resisting Detention

and Deportation in Scotland and the North East of England…………………... 20

David Bates and Steve Kirkwood

Refugee Empowerment and Legal Aid ……………………………………………... 31

Christian Pangilinan

Practitioner Reports: Action and Activism

Innovation in Education: Borderless Higher Education for Refugees……………… 44

Allison Magpayo

Adaptation and Modification of Funeral Services for Immigrants and Refugees

in Sherbrooke, Quebec ………………………………………………………………… 49

Javorka Zivanovic Sarenac

Hard Hearts: A Critical Look at Liberal Humanitarianism in Refugee

Support Movements…………………………………………………………………….. 58

Danielle Every and Martha Augoustinos

Comparing Racist Colonial Discourse in the Tamil Canadian Protests

and the Idle No More Movement………………………………………………………. 65

Harini Sivalingam

In Conversation

Discussion Series Volume 1: How, Why, and With Whom?. ……………………………………………. 74 Amna Arabi, Danielle J. Grigsby, Edward Ou Jin Lee, Guiomar Acevedo López, Allison Magpayo, Andrea Pacheco Pacífico, Kataryna Patsak, Oana Petrica, Martina Vodikcova, Brittany Lauren Wheeler Volume 2: How Has Refugee Law Become Politicized? ……………………………... 84 Yukari Ando, Bríd Ní Ghráinne, Hillary Mellinger, Harini Sivalingam

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

iii

Interviews Migration and the Social Order………………………………………………………... 92 Ian Williams

Forced Migration Issues in the European Union……………………………………….. 102 Adriano Silvestri

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

iv

Editorial Statement

Refugee Review: (Social) Movement . Vol. 1 No.1 . September 2013

e welcome readers to the e-publication of the New Scholars Network's inaugural issue

of the Refugee Review journal. This open-source, peer-reviewed journal—based at no

particular institution and tied to no particular location—is the product of collaboration

between a growing and global group of new scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and activists

in the field of forced migration and refugee studies. We are proud not only to introduce practice

and theory being undertaken and considered in this field, but to do so in a way that is fully

supportive of shared knowledge production.

The creation of this journal was a labor of love—not because there is pleasure to be taken in a

field of work and study that exists in part due to the many injustices found within the human

experience, but because the work surrounding forced migration is in large part being performed

by persons like the contributors found here, who seek to understand how to proceed with ethical,

equitable, and appropriate actions. And they seek to know others who are doing the same.

This journal is a publication that is important to us, but its power and purpose is not to be found

in the mere fact that it has been published online. It was published because migrants need

improved methods for caring for and interring their dead (see Sarenac), because better theory and

practice is needed as nation states make decisions that weigh national security and the provision

of a safe haven of asylum (see Every and Mellinger), and because durable solutions need to

address the populations they actually seek to—and acknowledge the way these populations

engage in activism (see Banki). It was published because legal aid is expanding to be more than

legal aid (see Pangilinan), because activists are sometimes neighbors who witness asylum

seekers being removed from their homes in the early morning (see Bates and Kirkwood) and

because there are wide-ranging and systematic global structures that affect migration and

migration politics (see Williams). It was published because language (see Sivalingam, Bates and

Kirkwood), economics (see Ghráinne), the interpretation of statistics (see Ando), and access to

higher education (see Magpayo) are important to refugees and all those that work with them.

Social activism, and the thinking behind it, is present in each of the following contributions to

this journal. Our inaugural journal is about ‘social movements’ because people move, and their

agency moves with them. Our journal is committed to representing various types of writing, and

we believe this varied work helps us in carrying out our mission to foster the professional

development of new scholars and advance research in the field of forced migration.

It can be difficult for new scholars to find a place for their ideas, or to feel the confidence to

share them. Likewise, it can be difficult to engage with more established scholars, some of whom

have also contributed to the publication of this journal. For these reasons, we hope this

multidisciplinary compilation will resonate widely with new scholars and we look forward to

you telling us what is next as we continue these discussions.

The New Scholars Network Executive Committee Brittany Lauren Wheeler, Petra Molnar Diop and Oana Petrica

W

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

v

Acknowledgements

The New Scholars Network would especially like to thank the following individuals and groups:

Contributors

Yukari Ando

Amna Arabi

Martha Augostinos

Susan Banki

David Bates

Petra Molnar Diop

Don Dippo

Danielle Every

Bríd Ní Ghráinne

Wenona Giles

Danielle Grigsby

Steve Kirkwood

Guiomar Acevedo López

Allison Magpayo

Hillary Mellinger

Kataryna Patsak

Oana Petrica

Edward Ou Jin Lee

Andrea Pacheco Pacífico

Christian Pangilinan

Javorka Zivanovic Sarenac

Adriano Silvestri

Harini Sivalingam

Martina Vodikcova

Brittany Lauren Wheeler

Ian Williams

Editors and Peer Reviewers

Petra Molnar Diop

Danielle Grigsby

Abetha Mahalingam

Oana Petrica

Kimberly Veller

Brittany Lauren Wheeler

Ian Williams

Jennisha Indria Wilson

Supporters

Negin Dahya

The International Association for the Study

of Forced Migration (IASFM)

Susan McGrath

Michele Millard

Paula Popovici

The Refugee Research Network (RRN)

The Social Sciences and Humanities

Research Council (SSHRC)

Aditi Surie von Czechowski

The New Scholars Network would particularly like to thank the Refugee Research Network and the funding support it has received through the related SSHRC Strategic Research Clusters Grant. This

funding has allowed members of the Executive Committee of the New Scholars Network to travel several times to meet with one another and to liaise with others in the field, at conferences such as the Canadian

Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (CARFMS) and the International Association for

the Study or Forced Migration (IASFM). This funding has also allowed the NSN to provide several

research assistantships to York University students, which have aided a number of New Scholars Network

initiatives.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

1

The Paradoxical Power of Precarity: Refugees and Homeland Activism

SUSAN BANKI*

ABSTRACT

This paper offers a theoretical treatment of the argument that refugees who live in situations of

varying precarity are uniquely positioned for transnational political action focused on reforming

the home country from which they have fled. The paper undertakes four tasks. First, it explores

classical social movement concepts to explain mobilisation of the refugee population. Second, it

offers a typological and theoretical treatment of refugee transnational space, arguing that current

typologies fail to capture the nuance of refugee transnational sites. Third, it develops a concept of

refugee precarity as an alternate model for understanding transnational political space. Fourth,

the paper hypothesizes as to the relationship between precarity and various elements of

mobilisation. The paper suggests that precarity and mobilisation are correlated, indicating the

paradoxical power of precarity for refugee activists. It concludes with implications for both

researchers and policymakers.

KEY WORDS

Homeland activism; political transnationalism; refugee transnationalism; refugee social

movements; refugee precarity

* Susan Banki’s research interests lie in the political, institutional, and legal contexts that explain the roots of and

solutions to international human rights violations. In particular, she is interested in the ways that questions of

sovereignty, citizenship/membership and humanitarian principles have shaped our understanding of and reactions to

various transnational phenomena, such as the international human rights regime, international migration and the

provision of international aid. Susan’s focus is in the Asia-Pacific region, where she has conducted extensive field

research in Thailand, Nepal, Bangladesh and Japan on refugee/migrant protection, statelessness and border control.

She is currently investigating the local, regional and international mechanisms (and the interactions between them)

that serve as potential levers for change.

Susan is the recipient of a multi-year Discovery Early Career Research Award funded by the Australian Research

Council, studying transnational activism among refugee populations. She has also won numerous prizes for her teaching, in her Faculty (2012), at the University (2013), and nationally (2013).

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

2

INTRODUCTION

Refugees flee their home countries to escape war and/or ethnic conflict, to seek refuge from

human rights violations, or to locate adequate socio-political conditions away from persecution

and generalised violence. In cases where the home state fails in its duty to protect and/or

becomes a threat to people seeking refuge, discontent with home government policies often leads

to refugee participation in collective action aimed at reforming the home country, referred to

henceforth as homeland activism. These activities, which may include transborder investigations,

activating media interest, implementing human rights education, and lobbying regional and

international bodies, are clearly transnational in scope. However, the character of the

transnational field where refugee activists engage has been theorised poorly.1

This paper draws from social movement theory and the migration literature to offer the

foundations of a theoretical argument for the role that refugees play in homeland activism.

Specifically, this paper utilises the notion of precarity and the precariat to argue that refugees

who experience varying levels of precarity are uniquely positioned for transnational political

action focused on reforming the home country from which they have fled. The paper undertakes

four tasks. First, it places refugee activism squarely in the discipline of sociology by using

classical social movement concepts to explain mobilisation of the refugee population. Second, it

offers a typological and theoretical treatment of refugee transnational space, arguing that current

typologies fail to capture the nuance of refugee transnational sites. Third, it develops a concept of

refugee precarity as an alternate model for understanding transnational political space. Fourth,

the paper hypothesizes as to the relationship between precarity and various elements of

mobilisation. The paper suggests that precarity and mobilisation are correlated, indicating the

paradoxical power of precarity for refugee activists. It concludes with implications for both

researchers and policymakers.

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: FROM NATIONAL TO TRANSNATIONAL

There is an ample and well-cited literature that examines activities focused on undermining a

government or advocating changes in home government policies. Charles Tilly identified this as

a ‘national social movement’ – a ‘constituency lacking formal representation… that make(s)

publicly-visible demands for changes in the distribution or exercise of power… against people

who run a national state’ (Tilly 1982, 26). What triggers these constituencies (Maney, 2000;

McAdam, Tarrow et al., 2001), how they mobilise (McAdam, 1996; McAdam, Tarrow et al.,

2001), the means by which they develop their messages (Snow, Benford et al., 1992; Gamson

and Meyer, 1996), and the resources they require to do so (McCarthy and Zald, 1977; Edwards

and McCarthy, 2004; Bob, 2005) have fed into a significant literature on social movements.

Early works examined traditional movements such as the civil rights and women’s movements.

New rights advocacy has expanded that field to include broader economic, social, and cultural

rights which may or may not be global in character (Nelson and Dorsey, 2008).

1 Readers will be familiar with the difficulties associated with defining refugees. For the purposes of this paper, a

broad view is taken, encompassing all forms of forced migrants, including Convention Refugees, trafficked persons,

and migrants whose motivations stem from an absence of ‘positive original motivations’ (Kunz, 1973, p. 130).

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

3

A significant body of work has also developed around the dynamics that facilitate political

mobilisation. Scholars have categorised the ‘political opportunity structures’ (POS) available to

collective actors in analyses of a variety of issues, including the anti-nuclear movement

(Kitschelt, 1986), the women’s movement (Costain, 1992) and the labour movement (Caraway,

2006). However, the POS literature has been critiqued for its overly broad scope (Gamson and

Meyer, 1996; Goodwin and Jasper, 2004) and for its inability to explain why variations in culture

and mentality among actors produce different mobilisation outcomes (Tapscott, 2010; Choe and

Kim, 2012). Despite this, POS as a concept holds enduring appeal because, in its best-expressed

form, it notes the dynamic inter-relationship between collective actors and structural factors at

the local, national, and international levels. That is, a comprehensive understanding of POS

recognises the iterative nature of agents and structures responding dynamically to one another

(Koopmans, 2005).

Nowhere is this iterative dynamism more salient than in the case of refugee homeland activists.

These refugees, who wish to reform their homeland, reside by definition outside the state that

they want to change, thus imparting a transnational character to their actions. The literature on

social movements has now recognised the significant role of transnational activism in shaping

the mechanisms and messages of political mobilisation (Smith, Chatfield et al., 1997; Keck and

Sikkink, 1998; della Porta and Tarrow, 2005; Tarrow, 2005). Implicitly, transnational research

acknowledges the role of actors located outside the state where change is desired. Thus studies of

‘diaspora politics’ (Shain, 1999), ‘exile politics’ (Wahlbeck, 2002) and ‘homeland politics’

(Ostergaard-Nielsen, 2003) all focus on the ways that external actors mobilise for change back

‘home.’

The literature points to several ‘mobilisation elements’ (the author’s term) – i.e., factors that

contribute to heightened homeland activism, both directly and indirectly. Individual and

collective motivation on the part of activists is a virtual precondition for participation, whether

that motivation is driven by social justice goals, personal financial gain, desire for recognition, or

a search for identity (Melucci, 1996; Noakes and Johnston, 2005). Keck and Sikkink (1998) note

the critical value of information politics, in which local actors have the ability to share specific

facts, stories, and testimony about the troubles and human rights violations at home. Access to

resources, such as cash, credit, technology, and communications equipment is the premise of

resource mobilisation theory (for example, McCarthy and Zald, 1977; Hammond, 1993; Edwards

and McCarthy, 2004). Later iterations of resource mobilisation emphasize the importance of

access to media and other gatekeepers who can leverage home country troubles (Bob, 2005). An

entire subliterature has developed around the ways in which activists can use international

institutions to promote reform in their home countries (Slaughter and Crisp, 2008; Simmons,

2009). These bolded mobilisation elements will be taken up later in the article as we develop a

model for transnational political mobilisation, specifically as it relates to refugee actors.

TROUBLED TYPOLOGIES

How is transnational political mobilisation currently understood and how can we supplement

current understandings? Transnationalism by definition describes activities that function across

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

4

borders, and this feature, it is argued here, has led to an overemphasis on the importance of

geography, and particularly the country where the transnational actor resides. But transnational

politics also must recognise structural, economic, political, legal, and identity differences among

transnational actors in order to understand the means and modes of political action. As this

section demonstrates, the frameworks currently available to describe transnational political

mobilisation are insufficient to capture these complex differences. What follows is a review of

the ‘troubled typologies’ that currently exist and, in response, the construction of a new model of

transnational political space based on criteria that go beyond geography.

The Home-Diaspora Dichotomy

The first way that transnational political space has been understood is to view the home-diaspora

connection as a spatial dichotomy, consigning ‘homeland’ and ‘diaspora’ to two poles and

identifying political actions that cross this divide as transnational. This understanding emerges

from a longstanding approach in diaspora studies that tends to theorise the diaspora as a

homogenous unit, and differentiate diasporas based not on the countries to which they have

emigrated, but based on where they have departed: the homeland. For example, Brubaker’s

otherwise excellent review of the diaspora literature lists the diasporas by their origins: Jews,

Greeks, Nigerians, Chinese, for example, failing to note the places they have arrived (Brubaker,

2005, p. 2). The nuance of politics played out in different diaspora countries is thus lost.

The Durable Solutions Typology

The second way that transnational political space may be understood differentiates among

different diaspora countries, and comes specifically from the refugee literature. This typology

has been promulgated by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The

conception offered by the UNHCR divides international responses to refugee situations into three

possible ‘durable solutions’: return (repatriation) to the home country; local integration in the

‘neighbouring country of refuge (NCR)’2; or resettlement to a country of the Global North

2 “Neighbouring country of refuge (NCR)’ is the author’s term and is suggested as a replacement in the literature for

the previously used ‘country of first asylum.’ The term ‘country of first asylum’ is inaccurate because very often the

country in question is not the ‘first’ to which refugees flee, nor are refugees able to apply for asylum there. NCR

Transnational Political Space

Home

Diaspora

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

5

(Gordenker, 1987; Keely, 2001). While this model has been problematised by many scholars

(Loescher, 1989; Van Hear, 2006), its flaws bear repeating because they have so strongly

impacted our current understanding of refugee action.

Transnational Political Space

HomeCountry

Country of first asylum/local integration

ResettlementCountry

The most problematic element of the durable solutions typology is the one committed by

omission, i.e., that the three durable solutions fail to describe the experience of the vast majority

of refugees in the world today. A conservative estimate of refugee figures reveals that of 25.2

million refugees protected globally by UNHCR in 2010, about 198,000 (0.8%) returned to their

home countries and about 108,000 (0.4%) resettled to a country in the Global North (UNHCR,

2010, p. 2). Whether the third solution, local integration, is defined by a durable legal status, as

was assumed by early UNHCR texts, or in terms of adaptation (i.e, the ability to integrate,

assimilate, or acculturate) (Kuhlman, 1991), the vast majority of refugees cannot be said to have

locally integrated. Thus, the great majority of refugees, and the transnational sphere in which

they operate, are unnamed in UNHCR’s durable solutions.

The durable solutions typology also suggests that we understand refugee diaspora populations

based on their geographical locations. For logistical and administrative reasons, this is practical:

distribution of aid and allocation of staff, for example, necessitate a division of UNHCR area

bureaus by continent.3 Furthermore, the division is accepted conceptually, as both migration and

geography scholars agree that viewing transnationalism through spatial or ‘place’ lenses is useful

(for example, Forrest, Paulsen et al., 2006; Gielis, 2009). Empirically, however, geography, and

particularly country-specific information, is not sufficient to underscore the similarities and

differences that inform sites of transnational activism. Countries that are geographically close

vary in many ways relevant to homeland activism, such as having different opportunities for

better describes the ‘not homeland/not resettlement country’ geographic space without making assumptions about its

precarity. (It may seem paradoxical that an article that argues for a non-geographical understanding of refugee

situations would also include an argument for a better geographical definition, but precision in one topical area can

only lead to precision in others.) While ‘protracted refugee situations’ and ‘warehoused refugees’ have also been

used to describe NCRs where refugees live, these are problematic for reasons listed later. NCR effectively describes

those initial and intermediate places to which refugees flee once they cross a border, and should thus gain traction in

the literature. 3 See Bureaux box in UNHCR’s organizational chart (bottom right), http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646c98.html

(accessed 31 May 2012).

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

6

assembly, communication, and mobility of all kinds, as well as different levels of access to

policymakers and the international human rights regime.

The Pentatonic Model

Underscoring the need to understand the differences in opportunities listed above, Faist observed

that “physical location and geographical distance are not the only grid upon which migrants map

collective political action, cultural codes, and economic cooperation” (2000, p. 197). Faist

instead suggests a pentatonic model of transnational social space that incorporates government

and civil society actors: transnational migrants and refugees; the government of the immigration

state; civil society organisations in the country of immigration; the rulers of the country of

emigration; and civil society groups in the emigration state.

Transnational Social Space (based on Faist 2000)

Immigration State Government

Transnational migrants and refugees

Civil Society in the Immigration State

Civil Society in the Home State

Home State Rulers

Faist’s five-node model usefully eschews country-specific geography in considering the possible

actors who occupy transnational space, and it rightly notes that juridical and political regulations

inform how and when these actors may operate (2000, p. 213). This is important because it

acknowledges the formal channels that permit actors to communicate, transport themselves, and

exchange a host of resources such as funds, goods, and information. However, this model

neglects to incorporate the informal, clandestine, and unregulated activities through which

political transnational actors, and refugees in particular, may attempt to achieve their polit ical

aims.

This paper suggests that a model of transnational political space built around a continuum of

precarity more effectively captures how refugees (as transnational actors) engage in homeland

activism.

THE CONDITION OF PRECARITY AMONG REFUGEES4

4 This paper uses the words ‘precarious’ and ‘imprecarious’ as the adjective forms of precarity and imprecarity. The

existential use of ‘precarious’ by Butler (2006) is not the subject of this work.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

7

The theme of precarity has emerged in recent years to describe the precariat ‘class-in-the-

making’, comprising both working class and highly skilled workers unable to obtain regular

employment (Standing, 2012, p. 588). The term has since expanded beyond economic

conditions, becoming a ‘rallying call and connecting device for struggles surrounding

citizenship, labour rights, the social wage, and migration’ (Neilson and Rossiter, 2005, n.p.). This

same precarity is of course easily applicable to refugee and migrant situations; indeed, the

concept of insecurity runs so strongly through the corpus of refugee and migration literature that

it is difficult to contain. It is often linked to legality (Guarnizo, Portes et al., 2003; Eberle and

Holliday, 2011; Goldring and Landolt, 2011), but is also found in numerous contexts in which

unofficial arrangements provide the backdrop for varying levels of security and protection for

refugee and migrant populations (see, for example, Grundy-Warr and Wong, 2002, p. 111; Brees,

2010).

Three recent attempts made within the refugee literature aim to better define situations of

precarity, although not by this name. The first is the concept of ‘warehousing,’ which in its initial

inception noted the ways in which ‘refugees are denied the right to integrate in the asylum state,

yet are unlikely to be restored to meaningful membership in their home community’ (Hathaway

and Neve, 1997, p. 131). Later the concept was adopted and promoted by the advocacy

organisation US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI). USCRI linked the concept

to the rights set out in the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (UN, 1951). For

example, following Articles 26 and 17 in the Refugee Convention, refugees who are warehoused

are unable to exercise internationally recognised rights such as the freedom of movement and the

freedom to work (Chen, 2005). The concept of warehousing, linked as it is to both integration

and legal mechanisms, offers a constructive foundation for understanding precarity, and it is used

widely among advocates, political commentators, and policy evaluators (Crisp, 2004; Ruiz and

Berg, 2005; Chandrasekharan 2006). The term has not been used significantly in academia,

possibly because it seems to connote that refugees are dispossessed of their agency concerning

their circumstances. USCRI material on warehousing (particularly their World Refugee Survey

reports from 2005 to 2009, which regrettably have not been produced since 2009) noted not only

the legal gaps in domestic legislation that protected or limited international rights to work and

move, but also graded countries based on the actual ability of refugees to access these rights

(USCRI, 2005; USCRI, 2006; USCRI, 2007; USCRI, 2008; USCRI, 2009; USCRI, 2009).

A second way in which precarity has come to be understood is through the label of ‘protracted

refugee situations’ (PRS). PRS are defined as situations where refugees have lived ‘5 years or

more after their initial displacement, without immediate prospects for implementation of durable

solutions’ (UNHCR, 2009, p. 3). The literature notes many factors that explain the complexity of

PRS, including international strategic priorities that treat refugees as political pawns (Loescher,

Milner et al., 2008), social identity conflicts (Adelman, 2008) and/or economic inequality

(Castles, 2010). PRS are not technically defined by their location, although the populations who

experience PRS reside almost exclusively in the Global South. Today, two-thirds of the entirety

of the global refugee population reside in protracted refugee situations, conditions that describes

precarity in the geographic, legal, temporal, and identity-related realms for the individuals who

remain therein. The number of refugees worldwide in PRS is currently estimated at 7.1 million in

26 different countries (UNHCR, 2011, p. 2).

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

8

A third way in which refugees are understood to be precarious (or in precarious situations, used

interchangeably hereafter) is through the social forces that guide their lives. Here, social

networks play a key role, although whether their absence or presence contributes to precarity can

depend on the nature of the network. It has been argued that migrant networks can help to

minimize the risk of precarity (Massey, Arango et al., 1993) or equally that they can contribute to

processes of exclusion (Zelizer, 2002). While precarity related to social status is in no way

unique to refugee populations, the difficulties refugees face in navigating new social codes and

cultural norms may compound other forms of precarity. These difficulties, stemming from

informal and extralegal sources, suggest that elements such as family power relations, religious

traditions, and gender mores in refugee communities should be better incorporated into a notion

of precarity. For example, work that examines the particular vulnerabilities of refugee women

notes both the legal and social restrictions to which refugee women are exposed (Pittaway,

2005).

The preceding paragraphs note the ways in which refugees have been conceptualised in terms of

their precarity, and this paper concludes that none of these approaches offer a comprehensive

definition suitable for refugee precarity. Therefore the definition of precarity offered below takes

into account legal restrictions, as does Goldring and Landolt’s (2011), and then builds on Neilson

and Rossiter’s (2005) extension of the term to encompass elements outside the workplace.

Finally, it acknowledges that social networks are a key but unpredictable variable.

Thus, in this paper precarity is defined as:

‘Forms of vulnerability and impediments to security and stability that stem from both

formal (legal, political) and informal (social, cultural) processes.’5

Quite deliberately, the term ‘permanence’, with its temporal implications, has been discarded.

Similarly the term ‘security’ is insufficient to serve as a pole against which to compare precarity

lest the concept be confused with ‘human security,’ whose focus on overcoming individual

deprivation and poverty suggests a developmental, rather than society-focused model.

LEVELS OF PRECARITY

Four ideal types are suggested in the application of precarity to refugee situations, on a

continuum of low levels of precarity to high. The definitions below will indicate that refugees in

each category are not defined exclusively by their geographical location, and certainly not by the

country in which they reside. Depending on the availability of documentation, informal networks

and social protection, refugees with varying precarity levels can be found in the same countries,

or even the same regions. Thus these four ideal types suggest a model of homeland activism

centred not exclusively around geography, but around the precarity of its participants/activists.

Low precarity is characterised by formal legal and permanent status, generally through gaining

access to citizenship, most commonly in resettlement countries but also when integrated into

5 Imprecarity is defined as precarity’s opposite: the formal processes and informal arrangements that permit security

and stability

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

9

NCRs. Mid precarity describes a situation of security where the means of assuring refugees’

ability to reside, move, and transact openly are informal and/or temporary. Refugees in a

situation of mid-precarity are those with temporary security, either through documentation or

access to effective social networks. Mid precarity can occur in any country where temporary

security is a possibility, including both countries of the Global North and Global South, and both

urban and rural areas. High precarity is characterised by a limited ability to reside, move, and

transact openly, where refugees are in a state of vulnerability, but with some measure of

protection through either local or international agencies. The clearest example of refugees in

situations of high precarity are registered camp refugees, but urban refugees with no

documentation and limited social protection may fall into this category as well. Extreme

precarity describes a situation in which refugees are extremely insecure and have access to

neither documentation nor effective networks, such as unregistered camp populations or

undocumented urban refugees with no identification or networks. Undocumented migrants in

countries of the Global North also fit into this category.

These definitions immediately bring two points to the fore: first, while certain spaces have been

identified as being more likely to host populations of specific levels of precarity, the place of

residence, and particularly the country of residence, is not a sufficient factor to predict precarity

levels. Second, in reality, shades of precarity would locate many refugees who would fall in the

grey zones between these four types, or would appear to fall into more than one category. In

particular, differentiating between mid and high precarity levels may prove difficult for some

populations. Nevertheless, this model is valuable because it allows for the identification of

important criteria in thinking about precarity and permits us to infer patterns between precarity

and homeland activism, a topic to which we now turn.

PRECARITY AND POLITICAL MOBILISATION

Evidence demonstrating the relationship between precarity and political mobilisation has both

theoretical and empirical sources and reveals some ambiguity about the strength and direction of

the relationship: is there a correlation at all, and if so, is it positive or negative? The more

common claim asserts that precarity as expressed through the absence of political opportunity

structures (what we might call political constraint dynamics) discourages political mobilisation.

This, it is argued, is because precarious actors do not have the status to take advantage of

structures such as electoral rights and access to lawmakers, or other common elements that

scholars cite as a basis for political action (Guarnizo, Portes et al., 2003; Smith and Bakker,

2008; Inclan, 2009). Much empirical data supports this claim, in particular evidence that points

to the precarity and immobilisation of undocumented migrants in countries such as Japan (Sellek,

1994), Canada (Goldring and Landolt, 2011), and Thailand (Eberle and Holliday, 2011).

Yet it is also noted that precarity and its associated discontent provides the motivation for

collective action (Tilly, 1978; Burgerman, 2001; Tarrow, 2005). While the value of applying a

political opportunity structure model to precarious migrant populations has been questioned

(Ostergaard-Nielsen, 2001), the empirical evidence nevertheless points to repeated situations in

which political dissent and precarity are not only correlated but causally linked. For example,

migrants in Calais advocate for open borders (Millner, 2011) and female migrants in the UK

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

10

advocate for informal roles as advisors to local councils (Sales, 2002) precisely because their

situations are precarious.

At the heart of the resolution of these two competing claims is the heterogeneity of both

collective actors and their repertoires of contention. Just as Hammar (1990), Soysal (1994) and

Faist (1995) differentiate between varying types of citizenship that accord rights of a different

nature to denizens and social citizens, it can also be argued that variance in precarity plays a role

in mobilisation outcomes: there is no single precariat, and political mobilisation has many root

factors. In addition, the kinds of mobilisation, as suggested by Brees (2010) are likely to vary,

and the level of precarity (as described below) can feed into that variance. Thus activists with

varying levels of precarity have different motivations and potential for political mobilisation, and

political structures utilised by imprecarious collective actors may take a back seat to other

repertoires of contention such as, for example, clandestine data gathering.

ELEMENTS OF MOBILISATION AND LEVELS OF PRECARITY

Let us now return to the aforementioned elements that engender mobilisation (motivation,

information, resources, media, and international institutions) and the four ideal types of precarity

(low, mid, high, extreme). In the following section, each mobilisation element is examined, and

hypotheses are offered with respect to the relationship between precarity of refugee populations

specifically, and each mobilisation element. The comparisons here between precarity levels

indicate the outcomes with respect to one another. That is, if the model indicates that low

precarity refugees have ‘high’ access to resources, this does not mean that all low precarity

refugees are wealthy. It only means that they have greater access to resources as compared to

high precarity refugees. Examples are provided where possible, and sources of evidence are

suggested that could be utilised to test the direction of these hypotheses in the future.

Motivation to participate in homeland activism is likely to be affected by precarity levels. On

the one hand, those experiencing extreme precarity may see their home country as a liability and

choose to eschew homeland activism. On the other hand, they may have the most to gain from

improvements at home, and recognise that reforms in the home country are the only way out of

their situations of precarity. While motivation is an individual choice, this paper hypothesizes

that the latter argument holds greater sway: motivation is hypothesized to be at its highest level

among the most precarious refugee populations, and decreases as precarity decreases. While this

hypothesis may be tempered by ‘extreme deprivation’ as noted by Eberle and Halliday (2011, p.

375), the power of collective political activist identity is strong among refugee populations, as

exemplified by O’Kane’s examination of Burmese activist-refugees whose motivations to expose

their own political trauma and that of their compatriots is deeply embedded in their

deterritorialised identities (2007). The strength of their motivation is amplified by the fact that

they do not have a homeland where they can escape that identity or choose another. Sources of

evidence that could confirm or reject this hypothesis include comparative interviews, focus

groups, or surveys of refugees from each category that inquire about motivation.

The ability to collect information about home country troubles or violations is of course related

to motivation in some instances, as knowledge about human rights violations in a homeland may

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

11

spur political mobilisation. But access to information also offers the opportunity for gathering

raw testimony, once motivation is present, which provides a critical tool in homeland activists’

arsenal (Keck and Sikkink, 1998). It is hypothesized here that physical proximity to the

homeland helps to facilitate the gathering of testimonial information directly and quickly,

because such information is exchanged by those who are physically able to hear it and record it

in person. Yet the ability to access information does not follow a linear precarity pattern. Those

most likely to have physical and networked proximity to the homeland are those refugees who

have most recently fled or, lacking any documentation, move back and forth across the homeland

border because they have less to lose, i.e., those in the extreme precarity category. The other

category with excellent access to information is that of mid-precarity, where persons can move

and transact with relative ease. Conversely, low and high precarity refugees are likely to have

less access to testimonial information. Low precarity populations can generally travel anywhere

but home, and high precarity refugees (such as those in camps) jeopardize risking the little

protection they have if they cross borders.

An example of the relationship between information and precarity comes from the Tibetan

diaspora, where, it has been noted, those in India (in situations of mid precarity) collect

testimonials of ex-political prisoners (often, having just arrived, in situations of extreme

precarity) (Houston and Wright, 2003). Sources of evidence that could confirm or reject this

hypothesis include grey literature that critiques the homeland, and the identification of the

precarity levels of those who write and source that grey literature.

Access to resources among differentiated precarity levels varies according to the type of

resource. Two types of resources are discussed here as a starting point. The first is financial

resources, which is at the core of resource mobilisation theory, and simply states that money

allows mobilisers a better chance to carry out their tasks. It is hypothesized that refugees with the

greatest access to money to spend on activism are not, as might be expected, those in situations

of low precarity. This is because their disposable income is reduced under the assumption that

once in a permanent situation, a large percentage of money is spent on housing, health,

education, and savings. (In some resettlement countries, the post-arrival stage allows a short-

term mitigation of the requirement to pay bills, but the pressure is significant to become

economically self-sufficient quickly). Rather, those in situations of mid precarity are

hypothesized to have the most disposable income in the short- to-intermediate term, with

networks and informal sources allowing the ability to earn income, and fewer expense

requirements, while those in situations of extreme precarity must use what little resources they

have to secure protection. One method for confirming this hypothesis would be a survey that

determines disposable income of populations of varying precarity.

The second resource considered is access to technology, examined here because of increasing

claims in the transnational and social movement literatures about its importance (see, for

example, McGahan, 2010). One can hypothesize that the best access to technology could provide

the fastest internet speeds and the best computer programs to build websites, for instance.

Technology is hypothesized to be conversely related to levels of precarity, based on the

assumption that the best technology requires stability and permanance (a home phone and

internet connection, with an annual plan, for example). Thus, those with the lowest precarity

have the best access to technology while those in situations of high and extreme precarity have

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

12

the least access.6 Sources of evidence that could confirm or reject this hypothesis include budget

line items from funding bodies and comparative interviews, focus groups, or surveys of refugees

from each category.

It is hypothesized that those in situations of low precarity have the most difficulty in accessing

media and reporters, despite the fact that they may live in countries from which international

media outlets operate. Conversely, refugees in situations of mid and high precarity are more

likely to access the media, because they are secure enough to meet reporters, and reporters are

more likely to want to interview them and use their stories as they represent the problems

emanating from the homeland. A fine example of this is a recent article published in the New

York Times by a Bhutanese refugee who wrote his opinion piece while living in a refugee camp

in Nepal. Despite the fact that over 60,000 Bhutanese refugees now live in situations of low

precarity in countries of resettlement, (out of a total population of 110,000 displaced from

Bhutan) the New York Times chose to air the voice of a refugee whose immediate situation

suggested both precarity and proximity to the source of the conflict (Mishra, 2013). Thus it is

suggested that mid and high precarity refugees have the highest access to media because, over

time, reporters begin to rely on them in the field for stories and contacts. Sources of evidence

that could confirm or reject this hypothesis include a comparative examination of media sources,

and interviews, focus groups, or surveys of reporters.

International institutions are of course highly relevant to the study of transnational political

mobilisation because they are the gateway through which local claims are made known in the

international arena. The ability of refugee populations to access international institutions is very

much dependent on their precarity levels, but this mobilisation element requires further

disaggregation. First, there are refugees who are in close contact with international aid

agencies, relevant because most have their own advocacy and lobbying arms or branches. One

example is the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which engages in advocacy as well as

humanitarian aid and development. International aid agencies are clearly most easily accessed by

refugees who are the recipients of their aid, and by definition these are defined as high precarity

refugees. Those in the extreme precarity category, i.e. unregistered refugees, are less likely to

have access to aid, although this may vary from situation to situation. Similarly, low precarity

refugees are not aided by international aid agencies, although in the early stages of resettlement,

this may be a grey zone; the IRC, for example, assists both refugees in camps and those in the

early stages of resettlement in the United States. Despite the fact that refugees of different

precarity levels receive assistance from the same organisation, within the IRC these are very

different branches whose substantive and administrative work rarely, if ever, overlap.

The second category within international institutions is regional and international meetings of

these institutions, relevant for the obvious reason that international/regional policy is made and

lobbying is performed at these levels. Examples include the meetings that take place at the

United Nations, such as the Universal Periodic Review at the Human Rights Council or the NGO

consultations at the Executive Committee of UNHCR. This category likely requires further

disaggregation depending on the meetings, but it is important to note that it is not only those of

the lowest precarity that are able to attend; mid precarity refugees find ways to travel to regional

6 An alternate hypothesis might suggest that geography plays a larger role in determining technology access than

precarity, because cities and countries either have the infrastructure to support technology, or they don’t.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

13

and international meetings. These meetings are, however, out of reach for the extremely

precarious. Sources of evidence that could confirm or reject this hypothesis include interviews,

focus groups, or surveys of aid workers and international officials.

Table 1 summarises the above discussion, and also indicates by colouring where the highest

levels of mobilisation are hypothesized to be found. The areas of darkest shading indicate the

highest levels of mobilisation, while the lightest shading indicates the least likely performance of

particular mobilisation elements. The table offers two suggestions. First, the elements of

mobilisation are spread out among various members of the refugee population. That is, no one

precarity group (i.e., resettled refugees, or those in camps) has the best access to the entire suite

of tools available to advocates. Second, the table demonstrates that in many cases, high levels of

mobilisation align with refugees in situations of mid, high, and extreme precarity.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

14

Table 1: Precarity Levels and Mobilisation Elements

Low Precarity

(formal

permanent legal status)

Mid Precarity

(temporary

security with informal means of

assuring ability to

reside/transact/ move)

High Precarity

(limited ability to reside/transact/

move)

Extreme Precarity

(extremely insecure; unregistered

populations with no

access to longstanding effective networks)

Possible locations for precarity level

Any country where

permanent

security is

assured; most likely in

resettlement

countries

Neighbouring countries of

refuge, likely in

urban areas, or

countries of the Global North or

transit countries

while the refugee has temporarily

secure status

Refugee camps where persons are

registered but

have no other

permissions

Unregistered camps or urban locations where

populations are

undocumented or have

no identification

Motivation to focus

on homeland activism

Low Medium Medium High

Access to first-hand

information about HR violations in

home country

Low High Medium High

Access to money to

spend on homeland

activism

Medium High Medium Low

Access to technology

High Medium Low Low

Connections to

reporters in media Low High High Medium

Access to international aid

agencies

Low Medium High Low

Access to regional

and international meetings (i.e.,

regional hegemons,

UN)

High High Low Low

Table 1 indicates the power of precarity for refugees engaged in homeland activism. Particularly

for those who have not resettled and obtained permanent secure residence/citizenship, the

varying situations of precarity in which refugees live, work and transact inform their motivation

and ability to press for reform at home.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

15

CONCLUSION

As a starting point for understanding the modes and mechanisms of homeland activism as

practiced by refugees, this paper has proposed a mobilisation model centred on refugee precarity.

It has suggested four ideal levels of precarity that are not exclusively related to geography. Seven

elements of mobilisation have been drawn from the social movement literature, and these have

been compared to refugee precarity levels. A positive relationship between precarity and

homeland activism has been hypothesized, and sources of evidence, both primary and secondary,

have been suggested to test these hypotheses in the future.

This paper has implications for the current debate about the relationship between precarity and

immobilisation, and it may point to ways in which homeland activism differs from other kinds of

activism in its relationship to precarity. While some suggest that precarity is an immobilising

factor, these studies have focused on activism directed at the host country, rather than the home

country (Eberle and Holliday, 2011; Goldring and Landolt, 2011). Studies of homeland activism,

however, yield a more nuanced conclusion that locates political transnational participation even

among precarious populations (Banki, 2006; Brees, 2010). This paper’s model speaks directly to

that debate, and seeks to locate the variables with the most weight in determining homeland

activism.

This paper does not wish to make the argument that refugees are the only, or even the most

powerful, homeland activists. Nor does it claim that the mobilisation elements that refugees

possess are of higher quality or quantity than non-refugee activists. These claims could only be

tested with a model that included activists in situations of non-precarity, such as student activists

from other countries. The paper instead argues that precarity offers a useful lens through which

to understand how refugees engage in homeland activism, and the possible choices they make

about the activities in which they engage.

Further, this paper suggests that while precarity may staunch certain forms of political

mobilisation for some refugees because access to legal channels is impossible, its very existence

encourages other forms. These alternative forms of mobilisation performed by precarious

refugees may be, by the fact of their clandestine nature, more powerful. Future research into this

topic would offer important insights into social movement tools for all precarious populations,

not only refugees.

Finally, it would be a mistake to conclude from this analysis that precarity ought to be endowed

with a ‘positive’ value because of its suggested paradoxical power. Instead, in the context of our

current global refugee regime, where the largest share of refugees are in fact in precarious

situations, it is crucial that international actors concerned with encouraging state reform

acknowledge the agency of refugee activists and understand in-depth the channels through and

tools with which they operate.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

16

REFERENCES

Adelman, H. (2008). Protracted Displacement. Protracted Displacement in Asia: No Place to Call Home. H.

Adelman. London, Ashgate: 1-25.Banki, S. (2012). UNHCR’s Durable Solutions: Regime Theory and

Institutional Survival. Bangkok, Mahidol University.

Bermudez, A. (2011). "The “Diaspora Politics” of Colombian Migrants in the UK and Spain." International Migration 49(3): 125-143.

Bob, C. (2005). The Marketing of Rebellion: insurgents, media and international activism. Cambridge, Cambridge

University Press.

Brubaker, R. (2005). "The ‘diaspora’diaspora." Ethnic and Racial Studies 28(1): 1-19.

Burgerman, S. (2001). Moral Victories: How Activists Promote Multilateral Action. Ithaca, Cornell University

Press.

Butler, J. (2006). Precarious life: The powers of mourning and violence. London, Verso Books.

Caraway, T. L. (2006). "Political Openness and Transnational Activism: Comparative Insights from Labor

Activism." Politics and Society 34(2): 277-304.

Castles, S. (2010). "Understanding Global Migration: A Social Transformation Perspective." Journal of Ethnic and

Migration Studies 36(10): 1565-1586.

Chandrasekharan , S. (2006). Bhutan: Refugee Issue- Stalemate continues- Update No.55, South Asia Analysis

Group (SAAG).

Chen, G. (2005). A Global Campaign to End Refugee Warehousing. World Refugee Survey 2004. M. Smith.

Washington DC, USCRI: 21.

Choe, H. and J. Kim (2012). "South Korea's democratization movements, 1980–1987: political structure, political

opportunity, and framing." Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 13(1): 55-68.

Costain, A. N. (1992). Inviting Women's Rebellion: A Political Process Interpretation of the Women's Movement.

Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press.

Crisp, J. (2004). The local integration and local settlement of refugees: a conceptual and historical analysis. New

Issues in Refugee Research. Geneva, UNHCR: 1-11.

della Porta, D. and S. Tarrow (2005). Transnational Processes and Social Activism. Transnational Protest and

Global Activism. D. Della Porta and S. Tarrow. Lanham, Maryland, Rowman & Littlefield: 1-17.

Eberle, M. L. and I. Holliday (2011). "Precarity and Political Immobilisation: Migrants from Burma in Chiang Mai,

Thailand." Journal of Contemporary Asia 41(3): 371-392.

Edwards, B. and J. D. McCarthy (2004). Resources and Social Movement Mobilization. The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. D. A. Snow, S. A. Soule and H. Kriesi. Malden, MA, Blackwell: 116-152.

Faist, T. (1995). "Ethnicizatlon and racialization of welfare-state politics in Germany and the USA." Ethnic and

Racial Studies 18(2): 219-250.

Faist, T. (2000). The Volume and Dynamics of International Migration and Transnational Social Spaces. Oxford, Clarendon Press.

Forrest, J., M. Paulsen, et al. (2006). "A "multicultural model" of the spatial assimilation of ethnic minority groups

in Australia's major immigrant-receiving cities." Urban Geography 27(5): 441-463.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

17

Gamson, W. A. and D. S. Meyer (1996). Framing Political Opportunity. Comparative Perspectives on Social

Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framings. D. McAdam, J. D.

McCarthy and M. N. Zald. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press: 275-290.

Gielis, R. (2009). "A global sense of migrant places: towards a place perspective in the study of migrant

transnationalism." Global Networks 9(2): 271-287.

Goldring, L. and P. Landolt (2011). "Caught in the Work–Citizenship Matrix: the Lasting Effects of Precarious

Legal Status on Work for Toronto Immigrants." Globalizations 8(3): 325-341.

Goodwin, J. and J. M. Jasper (2004). Caught in a Winding, Snarling Vine: The Structural Bias of Political Process

Theory. Rethinking Social Movements: Structure, Meaning, and Emotion. J. Goodwin and J. M. Jasper.

Lanham, Maryland, Rowman & Littlefield: 3-30.

Gordenker, L. (1987). Refugees in international politics. London, Croom Helm.

Grundy-Warr, C. and E. Wong (2002). "Geographies of Displacement: The Karenni and the Shan Across the

Myanmar-Thailand Border." Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 23(1): 93-122.

Guarnizo, L. E., A. Portes, et al. (2003). "Assimilation and Transnationalism: Determinants of Transnational

Political Action among Contemporary Migrants." American Journal of Sociology 108(6): 1211-1248.

Hammar, T. (1990). Democracy and the Nation-State: Aliens, Denizens and Citizens in a World of International

Migration. Aldershot, Avebury.

Hammond, J. (1993). "War-Uprooting and the Political Mobilization of Central American Refugees." Journal of

Refugee Studies 6(2): 105-122.

Hathaway, J. C. and R. A. Neve (1997). "Making International Refugee Law Relevant Again: A Proposal for

Collectivized and Solution-Oriented Protection." Harv. Hum. Rts. J. 10: 115-333.

Houston, S. and R. Wright (2003). "Making and remaking Tibetan diasporic identities." Social & Cultural

Geography 4(2): 217-232.

Inclan, M. (2009). "Sliding Doors of Opportunity: Zapatistas and their Cycle of Protest." Mobilization 14(1): 85-106.

Keck, M. and K. Sikkink (1998). Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca,

Cornell University Press.

Keely, C. B. (2001). "The International Refugee Regime(s): The End of the Cold War Matters." International Migration Review 35(1): 303-314.

Kitschelt, H. P. (1986). "Political opportunity structures and political protest: Anti-nuclear movements in four

democracies." British Journal of Political Science 16: 57-85.

Koopmans, R. (2005). "The missing link between structure and agency: outline of an evolutionary approach to social movements." Mobilization: An International Quarterly 10(1): 19-33.

Kuhlman, T. (1991). "The Economic Integration of Refugees in Developing Countries: A Research Model." Journal

of Refugee Studies 4(1): 1-20.

Loescher, G. (1989). Introduction. Refugees and International Relations. G. Loescher and L. Monahan. New York, Oxford University Press: 1-33.

Loescher, G., J. Milner, et al., Eds. (2008). Protracted refugee situations : political, human rights and security

implications. Tokyo; New York, United Nations University Press.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

18

Maney, G. M. (2000). "Transnational Mobilization and Civil Rights in Northern Ireland." Social Problems 47(2):

153-179.

McAdam, D. (1996). Comparative perspectives on social movements :political opportunities, mobilizing structures,

and cultural framings. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press.

McAdam, D., S. Tarrow, et al. (2001). Dynamics of contention. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

McCarthy, J. D. and M. N. Zald (1977). "Resource Mobilization and Social Movements: A Partial Theory." American Journal of Sociology 82(6): 1212-1241.

McGahan, K. (2010). "Digital Diasporas: Identity and Transnational Engagement." Journal of Politics 72(3): 920-

922.

Melucci, A. (1996). Challenging codes: collective action in the information age. Cambridge England; New York,

Cambridge University Press.

Millner, N. (2011). "From "refugee" to "migrant" in Calais solidarity activism: Re-staging undocumented migration

for a future politics of asylum." Political Geography 30(6): 320-328.

Mishra, V. (2013). Bhutan is No Shangri-La. New York Times. New York, The New York Times Company: A19.

Neilson, B. and N. Rossiter (2005) "From precarity to precariousness and back again: labour, life and unstable

networks." fibreculture 5.

Nelson, P. J. and E. Dorsey (2008). New rights advocacy: changing strategies of development and human rights

NGOs. Washington DC, Georgetown Univ Pr.

Noakes, J. A. and H. Johnston (2005). Frames of Protest: A Road Map to a Perspective. Frames of Protest: Social

Movements and the Framing Perspective. J. A. Noakes and H. Johnston. Lanham, Maryland, Rowman &

Littlefield: 1-29.

O'Kane, M. (2007). "Blood, sweat and tears: The political agency of women activist-refugees of Burma."

Intersections 15.

Ostergaard-Nielsen, E. (2001). "Transnational political practices and the receiving state: Turks and Kurds in

Germany and the Netherlands." Global Networks 1(3): 261.

Ostergaard-Nielsen, E. (2003). "The Politics of migrants' transnational political practices." International Migration

Review 37(3): 760-786.

Pittaway, E. (2005). Ensuring the Effective Protection of Refugee Women at Risk. UNHCR Discussion Paper No.

1/2005. S. Whyte and A. Rummery. Canberra, UNHCR-Canberra: 15.

Ruiz, H. A. and M. Berg (2005). Unending Limbo: Warehousing Bhutanese Refugees in Nepal. World Refugee

Survey 2004. M. Smith. Washington, DC, US Committee for Refugee and Immigrants: 98-105.

Sales, R. (2002). Migrant Women, citizenship and political action. Protest and Globalization: Prospects for

International Solidarity. J. Goodman. Annandale, Pluto Press: 91-107.

Sellek, Y. (1994). Illegal Foreign Migrant Workers in Japan: Change and Challenge in Japanese Society. Migration:

The Asian Experience. J. M. Brown and R. Foot. Oxford, St. Martin's Press: 169-201.

Shain, Y. (1999). Marketing the American Creed Abroad: Diasporas in US and their Homelands. Cambridge,

Cambridge University Press.

Simmons, B. A. (2009). Mobilizing for human rights: international law in domestic politics. Cambridge, Cambridge

University Press.

Slaughter, A. and J. Crisp (2008). A surrogate state? The role of UNHCR in protracted refugee situations. Protracted

refugee situations : political, human rights and security implications. G. Loescher. Tokyo; New York,

United Nations University Press: 123-140.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

19

Smith, J., C. Chatfield, et al., Eds. (1997). Transnational Social Movements and Global Politics: Solidarity Beyond

the State. Syracuse, Syracuse University Press.

Smith, M. P. and M. Bakker (2008). Citizenship across borders : the political transnationalism of el migrante. Ithaca,

Cornell University Press.

Snow, D. A., R. Benford, et al. (1992). Master Frames and Cycles of Protest. Frontiers in Social Movement Theory.

Anonymous. New Haven, CT, Yale University Press: 133-155.

Soysal, Y. N. (1994). Limits of citizenship: migrants and postnational membership in Europe, University of Chicago

Press.

Tapscott, C. (2010). Social mobilization in Cape Town: a tale of two communities. Citizenship and Social

Movements: Perspectives from the Global South. Zed Books: London. L. Thompson and C. Tapscott.

London, New York, Zed Books: 260-278.

Tarrow, S. (2005). The New Transnational Activism. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Tilly, C. (1978). From Mobilization to Revolution. Reading, MA, Addison-Wesley.

UN (1951). Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Geneva, UN.

UNHCR (2009). Conclusion on Protracted Refugee Situations. Geneva, UNHCR. No. 109 (LXI) - 2009: 1-5.

UNHCR (2010). UNHCR Global Trends. Geneva, UNHCR: 1-25.

UNHCR (2011). UNHCR Global Trends. Geneva, UNHCR: 1-25.

USCRI (2005). World Refugee Survey 2004. Washington DC, US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants

(USCRI).

USCRI (2006). World Refugee Survey 2005. Washington DC, US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants

(USCRI).

USCRI (2007). World Refugee Survey 2006. Washington, DC, US Commitee for Refugees and Immigrants

(USCRI).

USCRI (2008). World Refugee Survey 2007. Washington, DC, US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants

(USCRI).

USCRI (2009). 2009 World Refugee Survey. Washington, DC, US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants

(USCRI).

USCRI (2009). World Refugee Survey 2008. Washington, DC, US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants

(USCRI).

Van Hear, N. (2006). "Refugees in diaspora: from durable solutions to transnational relations." Refuge 23(1): 9-15.

Wahlbeck, O. (2002). "The concept of diaspora as an analytical tool in the study of refugee communities." Journal

of Ethnic and Migration Studies 28(2): 221-239.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

20

‘We Didnae Do Anything Great…’

Discursive Strategies for Resisting Detention and Deportation

in Scotland and the North East of England

DAVID BATES*

STEVE KIRKWOOD**

ABSTRACT The arrival of people seeking asylum in the United Kingdom has been a contentious issue in

early twenty-first century Britain. Numerous opinion polls indicate widespread hostility to

asylum seekers and extensive support for tougher immigration controls, including more

removals. While much of the research on asylum in the UK has focused on the isolation and

hardship faced by asylum seekers, relatively little has been written about the numerous

campaigns mounted by local people in solidarity with those at risk of detention and deportation.

The following article aims to address this gap in the literature by exploring some of the

discursive strategies employed by asylum rights activists involved in campaigns against the

detention and deportation of asylum seekers whose claims have been rejected. Extracts from

interviews with campaigners are examined using discourse analysis in order to explore how

asylum is discursively constructed in such a way as to challenge the legitimacy of the UK’s

asylum process. This material is presented in the form of two case studies, each of which deals

with an individual asylum rights campaign, one from Scotland and the other from the North of

England. The article concludes with a critical evaluation of the effectiveness of the discursive

strategies employed by campaigners in differing social contexts.

*David Bates is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Research in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of

Sunderland, UK. His main research interests are racism, migration, asylum and multiculturalism in Britain.

Between 2005 and 2010, David volunteered and worked in a paid capacity for the North of England Refugee

Service, a charity based in the North East of England. His academic work has been published in a number of

postgraduate journals and he is the co-author of a chapter which appeared in Jonathan Pugh’s edited collection

What is Radical Politics Today?, published in 2010 by Palgrave Macmillan.

**Steve Kirkwood is a lecturer in Social Work at the University of Edinburgh, UK. He completed a PhD in

Psychology at the University of Edinburgh in 2012, focusing on discourse, identity and the integration of refugees

and asylum seekers in Scotland. He is originally from New Zealand, where he completed an MSc in Psychology at

Victoria University of Wellington on the topic of identity and indigenous rights. He has undertaken research on a range of topics broadly related to notions of justice and identity and has been published in a variety of journals

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

21

including the Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, the European Journal of Criminology and the

British Journal of Social Psychology.

INTRODUCTION

The arrival of people seeking asylum in the United Kingdom has been a contentious issue in the

early twenty-first century. Numerous opinion polls indicate widespread hostility to asylum

seekers and extensive support for tougher immigration controls, including more removals (see

Finney and Peach 2004: 10; Jolley 2013). Although research suggests that many people are

sympathetic towards genuine claims for asylum (Independent Asylum Commission 2008), the

creation in media discourse of a simplified binary entailing ‘bogus’ and ‘genuine’ asylum

seekers (Lynn and Lea 2003) has led to a situation in which most asylum seekers are seen to fall

into the former category (Lewis 2005). As a result, asylum remains a highly charged political

issue, one which the current Government has vowed to tackle as part of an overall strategy to

minimise ‘abuse’ of the system and reduce overall levels of immigration (Gower 2012).

Such widespread hostility, however, has rarely been universal. Historians of migration have

argued that campaigns for migrant rights and solidarity have long existed even in the face of

overwhelming hostility from the majority (see Fryer 1984; Kushner 2006; Kushner & Knox

1999). More recently, Sivanandan (2008) has written of the ‘communities of resistance’ which

have been mobilised in support of migrants and minorities in working class communities across

the UK, echoing the migrant solidarity campaigns which have emerged elsewhere across

Western Europe and America (Fekete et al. 2011; Sanders et al. 2013). As the critic Arun

Kundnani writes: ‘Increasingly it is through networks of support established through schools,

churches and community campaigns that the efforts of the Home Office to remove failed asylum

seekers are being thwarted’ (Kundnani 2007: 163).

The aim of this article is to explore some of the discursive strategies employed by asylum rights

activists in localized campaigns such as those described by Kundnani. While much of the

existing research on experiences of asylum in the UK has focused on issues such as racism,

isolation and destitution among asylum seekers (for an excellent overview see O’Neill 2010),

relatively little work has been carried out on the role of community campaigns against the

detention and deportation of those whose asylum claims are refused. (Some exceptions to this

can be found in the work of historian David Renton (2007), whose work has documented past

migrations to the North East of England, and sociologist Tom Vickers (2013), whose research

has explored contemporary anti-deportation campaigns in England).

By focusing on the words of the campaigners themselves, including teachers, residents and

others with whom asylum seekers have forged social relationships, it is hoped that this article

may shed light on a previously understudied area. Extracts from interviews with campaigners are

examined using discourse analysis (McKinlay & McVittie 2008; Potter & Wetherell 1987) in

order to explore how asylum is discursively constructed in such a way as to challenge the

legitimacy of the UK’s asylum process. This material is presented in the form of two case

studies, each of which deals with an individual asylum rights campaign, one from Scotland and

the other from the North of England. Both of these cases involve the detention or deportation of

asylum seekers whose claims for asylum have been rejected. The article concludes with a critical

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

22

evaluation of the effectiveness of the discursive strategies employed by campaigners in differing

social contexts.

METHODOLOGY

The material on which this article is based originates in two separate studies concerning the

integration of asylum seekers and refugees in Scotland and the North East of England, each of

which identified campaigns against detention and deportation as examples of ‘organic

integration’ in action (Bates 2012; NERS 2000). In Scotland, the research involved semi-

structured interviews with a total of 45 people living in Glasgow, including: workers in

organizations that support asylum seekers and refugees; local Scottish people who live in the

areas where asylum seekers are housed; and asylum seekers and refugees from 11 different

countries in Africa and the Middle East. Similarly, in the North East of England the research

involved semi-structured interviews with a smaller number of respondents (25 in total), including

5 asylum seekers and refugees and 20 individuals involved in the ‘asylum-migration-community

nexus’ (O’Neill 2010), such as youth workers, school teachers, activists and community leaders.

Interviews were conducted in-depth, lasting up to two hours at a time, and interviewees were

encouraged to talk freely about any aspect of their life in the UK that they wished. These

research participants were selected on the basis of connections previously forged by the

researchers through working and volunteering with local refugee-supporting organizations,

groups and individuals. In the North of England many of the respondents were already known

personally by the first author, and although Spradley (1979) warns of the dangers associated with

such personal familiarity in research settings, it was judged that the advantages entailed by this

closeness, such as pre-established relationships of trust and rapport, far outweighed any possible

disadvantages (Roseneill 1993).

The interview questions in both studies focused on the experiences of asylum seekers and

refugees in the host society, including the challenges they faced as they progressed through the

legal process of claiming asylum and the way they were perceived by the local community.

Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed using an abbreviated version of Jeffersonian

notation (Jefferson 2004). Participation in the studies was voluntary and confidential; identifying

information has been removed and the interviewees have been assigned pseudonyms. The

interview extracts featured below are examined using discourse analysis (McKinlay & McVittie

2008; Potter & Wetherell 1987), paying particular attention to how asylum is constructed in such

a way as to challenge the legitimacy of the asylum process itself.

The transcriptions use the following conventions:

[ ] Overlapping speech.

(0.8) Pauses in seconds.

(.) Very short pause.

right= Latching: no pause between speakers.

never Stressed sounds.

↑ Rising intonation.

(( )) Transcriber’s description.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

23

RESISTING DETENTION IN SCOTLAND

The arrival of asylum seekers in Glasgow began shortly after the introduction of ‘compulsory

dispersal’, a measure whose legal basis was established in the 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act

(Hynes 2006). Under this new system, people who lodged a claim for asylum were ‘dispersed’ to

different parts of the UK while they awaited a decision from the Home Office. By 2002 there

were approximately 5000 asylum seekers accommodated by the National Asylum Support

Service (NASS) in the city, a figure which by 2011 had fallen to around 2400, reflecting national

trends (COSLA 2011). Research has indicated that the experience of asylum in Glasgow has

mirrored the national experience in key respects, with asylum seekers encountering social

isolation, economic marginalization and racism (Barclay et al. 2003; Kirkwood 2012; Mulvey

2009).

Voluntary and community support networks for asylum seekers and refugees, however, were

established early on (Wren 2004), including campaign groups such as the Glasgow Asylum

Rights Campaign, formed in 2000, and Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees. A number of

independent campaigns against detention and deportation appeared in Glasgow throughout the

2000s, many of them gaining a national profile (see, for example, the case of the ‘Glasgow

Girls’). Indeed, in November 2010 the local press reported claims by ‘senior political sources’

that the decision to reduce asylum seeker numbers in Glasgow had been made because of the

‘public outcry’ prompted by the prior detention and deportation of Glasgow-based asylum

seeking children and families.

The following extracts are from an interview with two friends and members of a local

community in Scotland whose experiences of asylum include active participation in the relatively

successful campaigns against dawn raids on asylum seekers. The dawn raids involved agents of

the UK Border Agency (UKBA), the immigration wing of the Home Office, entering the homes

of asylum seekers in the early hours of the morning to forcibly remove them to detention centres,

often with the intention of removing them from the country. In their local area, the interviewees

became actively involved in protests against the dawn raids and helped introduce a system

whereby residents would warn asylum seekers if UKBA vehicles were sighted, allowing them

time to vacate their homes and avoid being detained (Farrier 2012).

These extracts have been selected for analysis because they provide the interviewees’ account of

their actions and their motivations for their actions, allowing for an exploration of how such

actions against the asylum system are legitimised through discourse. The first extract is presented

primarily to provide contextual information, and involves one of the interviewees describing the

actions they took to disrupt the dawn raids. The more detailed analysis will focus on the second

extract, in which the interviewees explain their motivations for being involved in these actions.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

24

Extract 1

1 L2 we started a morning ritual (.)

2 SK okay

3 L2 (.) uh some mornings (.) we would both go out (.) if if ((husband’s name))

4 would man the phones, other mornings I would be here, ((L1)) would go (0.8)

5 walkin’ (0.9) and we would watch (0.8) minute she saw a van coming into the

6 [community]

7 SK [mm-hmm]

8 L2 she’d phone me, ((L2’s name)) (0.8) such and such a van (0.7) at block fifty or

9 block sixty=

10 SK =mmm

11 L2 tell them to get out

12 SK mmm

13 L2 and I would phone all the numbers that I had=

14 SK =right

15 L2 (.) move, get out, come down the back stairs coz they would be going up in

16 the lift

17 SK mmm

18 L2 and they would come with their armoured gear and their [helmets]

19 SK [mmm]

20 L2 it was hor::rific

21 SK mm-hmm

22 L2 and fortunately (.) we were very successful

23 SK yeah

24 L2 and stopped quite a lot of those families from being taken

Extract 2

1 L1 [imagine your son in handcuffs]

2 L2 [imagine you wake up] (.) you watch [two you watch little] (0.9) boys

3 L1 [(unclear) handcuffs]

4 L2 (.) come doon like that with their night- their pyjamas on (0.9) and the boys

5 were separated from their mum=

6 L1 =yep=

7 L2 =they had to go with the father=

8 L1 =they went [with the father

9 L2 [they were pushed into a (.) a big van

10 SK yeah

11 L1 in a cage

12 L2 ((high pitched squeaky voice)) what have they done? (.) not

13 L1 in a cage [in the] back of a van

14 SK [yeah] right yeah

15 L2 and as my husband said (.) just think that if that was your grandchild

16 SK mmm

17 L2 I said I couldnae watch it

18 SK mmm

19 L2 so that was what we did so as I say so (1.0) we only done I think what any

20 decent human being would say well Christ no I cannae watch it let’s do- and

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

25

21 we had time on our hands as I say I dear say if we’d had to go to work we

22 couldnae have done it but we didnae↑ (0.9) we could go back up the road and

23 have a wee nap so

24 SK hhh hhh=

25 L2 =but we didnae do anything great↑ (.) we didn’t think so, still don’t to this day

26 don’t think I’ve done anything great

This first extract provides an account of the actions the interviewees took in response to the dawn

raids, watching for the UKBA vehicles and notifying asylum seekers so they could avoid being

detained. One of the noteworthy aspects of this extract is the way in which the interviewee

describes UKBA agents. Specifically, in line 18 she refers to ‘their armoured gear and their

helmets’. This description brings attention to aspects of their appearance that relate to physical

confrontation. Moreover, the interviewee evaluates this as being ‘hor::rific’ (l. 20), emphasising

the extremely unpleasant nature of such experiences. In this extract, the interviewees’ actions

describe their assistance to the asylum seekers while portraying the agents of UKBA as a threat.

This aspect is also explored in the second extract.

In the second extract, the interviewees begin their account with the word ‘imagine’ (ll. 1-2),

which locates them in an empathetic position in relation to the asylum seekers who were being

detained, and encourages the listener to do the same. Local 1 uses empathy to position the

listener in the place of a parent of a child who is being taken away: ‘imagine your son in

handcuffs’ (l. 1). In a slightly different way, Local 2 requests the listener to imagine watching

little boys coming down with ‘their pyjamas on’, being separated ‘from their mum’ and ‘pushed

into a (.) a big van’ (ll. 4-9). References to the small size of the boys and their pyjamas highlight

the fragile condition of these children. Moreover, the use of terms such as ‘little boys’ and

‘mum’ relates them to a notion of family. As other research has highlighted (Goodman 2007;

Kirkwood, McKinlay & McVittie 2013), notions of children and families have a range of

positive connotations, including the implication that people in these groups should not be

separated from each other and that children are inherently innocent. Terms such as ‘handcuffs’ (l.

1), ‘a big van’ (l. 9) and ‘a cage’ (l. 11) describe severe forms of intervention and restraint that

appear out of proportion in relation to those they restrain, the ‘little boys’ in their ‘pyjamas’ (ll.

2-4). In this case, the juxtaposition of these specific descriptions works to present the actions of

UKBA as inappropriate and unjust.

Furthermore, the children are more explicitly presented as innocent through the rhetorical

question: ‘what have they done?’ (l. 12). It is important to note that the interviewees make no

reference to the nationality or immigration status of either the children or the parents concerned.

Rather, the account relies on general assumptions about the ethical treatment of children as

children, rather than the ethical treatment of ‘asylum seekers’ as such.

This narrative leads into Local 2’s account of why she and Local 1 became actively involved in

campaigning to end the dawn raids. In the reported conversation with her husband, Local 2 is

positioned as a grandmother of one of the children who was being detained. By saying ‘I

couldnae watch it’ (l. 17), she justifies her actions through a stated inability to avoid taking

action. In saying ‘we only done I think what any decent human being would’ (ll. 19-20) and ‘we

didnae do anything great’ (l. 25), Local 2 does not present her activities as heroic or politically

motivated, but rather as normalised behaviour stemming from a natural sense of empathy and a

sense of human decency.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

26

Overall, this extract illustrates how an imagined and empathetic relationship with the children of

asylum seekers, coupled with the depiction of dawn raids as harsh forms of intervention, might

lead to a critical view of such events and, further, to the normalisation and legitimization of the

actions of local people who campaign against them. Although these accounts do not necessarily

prescribe what other people should do in similar situations, they do provide insight into the kind

of narratives local people might construct and, by extension, the discourse that others involved in

grassroots campaigns may seek to adopt (e.g., Every & Augoustinos, 2008).

RESISTING DEPORTATION IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND

As in Glasgow, the dispersal of asylum seekers to the North East of England began shortly after

the enactment of the Immigration and Asylum Bill in 1999. By 2011, there were approximately

2000 asylum seekers accommodated across the region, concentrated mostly in Teesside

(Middlesbrough and Stockton-on-Tees) and Tyne and Wear (Newcastle and Sunderland).

Throughout the 2000s, a fairly extensive network of organisations emerged across the region

which provided varying levels of support to asylum seekers and refugees. These included

Tyneside Community Action for Refugees, which campaigns against the detention and

deportation of asylum seekers in Tyneside; Justice First, which offers help to asylum seekers in

Teesside whose claims have been rejected; and North of England Refugee Service, a charity

funded partially by the Home Office to perform advocacy work on behalf of asylum seekers

across the region. Like Glasgow, the North East also saw its share of independent asylum rights

campaigns in this period, which rallied communities and often gained the attention of the local

press.

The following case study encompasses extracts from an interview with a head teacher whose

secondary school organized a campaign to prevent the removal of two students and their mother

after their application for asylum was refused in 2009. During the interview, the head teacher

described how staff and students at the school rallied to the support of the two teenage girls by

organizing a petition, a letter-writing campaign and publicity in the local media. In the following

extract the interviewee explains how he was informed about the students’ plight in the midst of

an external inspection by the schools’ regulator Ofsted:

Extract 1

1 ((A teaching assistant)) came to the door and basically started telling me this story and

2 then said what are you going to do about it? (.) So that’s how I got involved (.) erm

3 (.) in the case and I think it was (.) you know (.) it was such an extreme predicament

4 for these girls to be in (.) I mean obviously I was aware of them because they’d

5 arrived in the school and aware of the background (.) but then they tended to just

6 become part of the school and part of the student community (.) erm (.) and it was

7 really when she came in and said their appeal’s been turned down so theoretically

8 they could be deported anytime from now (.) so what are we going to do about it that

9 it really brought it all to the fore (.) erm (.) and I think (.) erm (.) raised the question

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

27

10 what are we about as a Catholic school and what are we about in terms of our mission

11 and our belief and our values (.) erm (.) and that’s right at the centre of it so I had no

12 hesitation really in making it a top priority for me as the head (.) but in effect then

13 making it a top priority for the school.

In this extract the teacher employs a number of discursive strategies that justify his participation

in the campaign and result in a challenge to the legitimacy of the asylum process. This is

illustrated primarily through the teacher’s construction of the school as a community. O’Neill

(2010: 13) has noted that the concept of community can be used to refer to ‘a sense of place,

space, belonging and the togetherness of elective communities bound by shared interests or

identity, as well as the intersection or combination of all three aspects.’ In this instance the

concept is brought into play by the interviewee in order to express a sense of belonging based on

shared space and shared values; a school community which is inclusive of all students regardless

of nationality or immigration status. In this sense, the construction of community here is partly

symbolic, and is accompanied by a sense of moral obligation, arising from the school’s Catholic

identity, which ultimately overrides immigration categories. The teacher mentioned early on, for

example, that he was previously only aware of these students’ arrival and of their general

background. Following their arrival, he noted, they ‘tended to become part of the school, part of

the student community’ (l.8). This establishes a form of belonging in which the two children

become part of a community which is violated by the actions of the Home Office. The campaign

to halt the deportation is thus constructed as a defensive course of action.

The construction of community is also given a religious dimension in this extract. The possible

deportation of two students and their mother is said to the raise the question of ‘what are we

about as a Catholic school and what are we about in terms of our mission and our belief and our

values’ (ll.12-13), and was evidently enough of a motivating factor for the head teacher to mount

a fully fledged campaign to retain the students. We can pose the question of whether this is an

example of what Snyder (2010), following Smith (1996), refers to as ‘transcendent motivation.’

Transcendent motivation concerns situations in which theological reasoning advances and

sustains support for the plight of asylum seekers and refugees, and the inspiration for such

engagements is seen to be rooted in ‘ultimate, divine meaning’ (Snyder 2011: 574). Elsewhere in

the interview, the head teacher develops this theme further:

Extract 2

1 Where’s our model of asylum? (.) Well the holy family Jesus Mary and Joseph (.)

2 What were they at the start of his life? (.) They were asylum seekers (.) They had to

3 flee their land because his life was in danger.

Snyder observes that faith-based organisations often adopt spiritual strategies in their work with

asylum seekers and refugees, where religion offers ‘an alternative theological vision to the way

things are now’ (2011: 574). In referring to ‘our’ model of asylum, the head teacher envisions the

school community as one whose values are guided by Christian teaching. With this theological

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

28

grounding of his perspective, the teacher and the school can question the legitimacy of the

official asylum process and adopt a new ‘model of asylum’ in which the students’ plight is seen

to echo that faced by ‘the holy family.’

CONCLUSION

A number of insights can be gleaned from the above case studies which may prove useful for

activists and campaigners engaged in struggles for asylum rights in the future. In both cases,

campaigners have challenged the legitimacy of the asylum process through the adoption of

certain identifications with asylum seekers and refugees. These identities establish common

ground based on shared experiences and appeal to the common values of refugee and non-

refugee communities. Both case studies illustrate ways in which identities may be mobilized to

encourage and justify the actions of different constituencies (Reicher & Hopkins 1996) in

defiance of immigration authorities.

In the first case study, solidarity with asylum seekers and refugees is justified on the basis of

empathic relations and the basic rights of children, with an emphasis on common humanity. In

the second case, solidarity is justified through the discursive construction of a community

imbued with Christian values, with an emphasis on the school’s Catholic identity. The first

example has the strength of drawing on general humanitarian values that would apply in similar

situations regardless of religion, yet may be limited in terms of their applicability to a wider

section of the population, including those who may disagree that such values overcome

differences in nationality (Every 2008). The second example demonstrates how a figure with

some institutional and theological authority was able to mobilize a school community in keeping

with the faith-based ethos of the institution over which he presides. Both can be seen as

examples of what Squire (2011: 292) describes as ‘enactments of solidarity in which [dominant]

cultural categories and legal distinctions disappear or are relatively unimportant.’

It could be argued that the analysis of these discursive constructions of asylum ignores the

deeper structural bases of the injustices faced by asylum seekers and refugees in the UK and

globally (Marfleet 2006), as often occurs when sympathetic coverage is granted by the mass

media (Steimel 2010). Nevertheless, there is much to be said for examining campaigns in which

the legitimacy of the asylum process is challenged in this way. These case studies highlight a

belief in the rights of children and families whose status as human beings overrides some of the

divisions embodied in restrictive and exclusionary immigration practices (Every & Augoustinos

2008; Lynn & Lea 2003).

REFERENCES

Barclay, A., Bowes, A., Ferguson, I., Sim, D., & Valenti, M. (2003). Asylum Seekers in Scotland. Edinburgh: The

Stationery Office. Available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/47032/0025606.pdf. Accessed:

23rd May 2012.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

29

Bates, D. (2012). In it together: Asylum, multiculturalism and grassroots integration in twenty-first century Britain.

eSharp, Special Issue: The 1951 UN Refugee Convention – 60 Years On, 113-139.

COSLA (2011). Asylum seekers in Scotland. Available at: http://www.migrationscotland.org.uk/migration-info-

centre/migration-statistics/asylum-seekers-scotland. Accessed: 23rd May 2012.

Every, D. (2008). A reasonable, practical and moderate humanitarianism: The co-option of humanitarianism in the

Australian asylum seeker debates. Journal of Refugee Studies, 21, 210-229.

Every, D. & Augoustinos, M. (2008). ‘Taking advantage’ or fleeing persecution? Opposing accounts of asylum

seeking. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 12, 648–667.

Farrier, D. (2012). Everyday exceptions. Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 14, 429-442.

Fekete, L., Bouteldja, N. & Müh, N. (2010). Alternative voices on integration in Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. London: Institute of Race Relations.

Finney, N. & Peach, E. (2004). Attitudes towards asylum seekers, refugees and other immigrants: A literature

review for the Commission for Racial Equality. London: Commission for Racial Equality.

Fryer, P. (1984). Staying Power: The history of black people in Britain. London: Pluto.

Goodman, S. (2007). Constructing asylum seeking families. Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across

Disciplines, 1, 36-50.

Gower, M. (2012). Immigration and asylum policy: Government plans and progress made. London: House of

Commons Library. Available at: http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN05829. Accessed: 23rd May 2012.

Hynes, P. (2006). The Compulsory Dispersal of Asylum Seekers and Processes of Social Exclusion in England –

Summary of findings. London: Middlesex University. Available at:

http://www.mdx.ac.uk/Assets/Compulsory%20dispersal.pdf. Accessed: 23rd May 2012.

Independent Asylum Commission (2008). Saving Sanctuary – The Independent Asylum Commission’s first report of

conclusions and recommendations. London: IAC.

Jefferson, G. (2004). Glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction. In G. H. Lerner (Ed.), Conversation

analysis: Studies from the first generation (pp. 13-31). Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins

Publishing Company.

Jolley, R. (2013). State of the Nation – Where is bittersweet Britain heading? London: British Future. Available at:

http://www.britishfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/State-of-the-Nation-2013.pdf. Accessed 2nd

April 2013.

Kirkwood, S. (2012). Negotiating the dilemmas of claiming asylum: A discursive analysis of interviews with

refugees on life in Scotland. eSharp, Special Issue: The 1951 UN Refugee Convention – 60 Years On, 87-

112.

Kirkwood, S., McKinlay, A. & McVittie, C. (2013). The mutually constitutive relationship between place and

identity: The role of place-identity in discourse on asylum seekers and refugees. Journal of Community and

Applied Social Psychology. [Early view]

Kushner, T. (2006). Remembering refugees: Then and now. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Kushner, T. & Knox, K. (1999). Refugees in an age of genocide: Global, national and local perspectives during the

twentieth century. London: Frank Cass.

Kundnani, A. (2007). The End of Tolerance? Racism in 21st century Britain. London: Pluto.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

30

Lynn, N. & Lea, S. (2003). ‘A phantom menace and the new Apartheid’: The social construction of asylum seekers

in the United Kingdom. Discourse & Society, 14, 425-452.

Marfleet, P. (2006). Refugees In A Global Era. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

McKinlay, A. & McVittie, C. (2008). Social psychology & discourse. Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.

Mulvey, G. (2012). ‘Even among asylum seekers we are the lowest’ – Life on Section 4 Support

in Glasgow. Glasgow: Scottish Refugee Council. Available at:

http://stillhumanstillhere.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/src-life-on-section-4-support-oct-20092.pdf.

Accessed: 2nd April 2013.

NERS (2000). A Trans-national Network: Hearing the voices of Refugees in Policy and Practice in the European

Union. Available at: http://www.refugeevoices.org.uk/assets/files/Reports%20&%20Publications/fullreportof_transanational.pdf

. Accessed: 2nd April 2013.

O’Neill, M. (2010). Asylum, Migration and Community. Bristol: Policy Press.

Potter, J. & Wetherell, M. (1987). Discourse and social psychology: Beyond attitudes and behaviour. London: Sage.

Reicher, S., & Hopkins, N. (1996). Self-category constructions in political rhetoric: An analysis of Thatcher’s and

Kinnock’s speeches concerning the British miners’ strike (1984-5). European Journal of Social

Psychology, 26, 353-371.

Renton, D. (2007). Colour Blind? Race and Migration in the North East of England Since 1945. Sunderland: University of Sunderland Press.

Roseneil, S. (1993). Greenham Revisited: Researching Myself and My Sisters. In Hobbs, D. & May, T. (1993).

Interpreting The Field: Accounts of Ethnography. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 177-208.

Sanders, L., Martinez, R., Harner, M., Harner, Me., Horner, P., & Delva, J. (2013). Grassroots Responsiveness to

Human Rights Abuse: History of the Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights. Social Work.

[Early view]

Sivanandan, A. (2008). Racism, liberty and the war on terror. Race and Class, 14 (4), 45-96.

Smith, C. (1996). Introduction: Correcting a Curious Neglect, or Bringing Religion Back In. In C. Smith (Ed.),

Disruptive Religion: The Force of Faith in Social Movement Activism (pp. 1-25). New York and London:

Routledge.

Snyder, S. (2011). Un/settling Angels: Faith-Based Organizations and Asylum-Seeking in the UK. Journal of

Refugee Studies, 24 (3), 565-585.

Squire, V. (2011). From Community Cohesion to Mobile Solidarities: The City of Sanctuary Network and the

Strangers into Citizens Campaign. Political Studies, 59, 290-307.

Steimel, S. (2010). Refugees as people: the portrayal of refugees in American human interest

Stories. Journal of Refugee Studies, 23 (2), 219-237.

Vickers, T. (2013). Developing an independent anti-racist model for asylum rights organizing in England. Ethnic

and Racial Studies, forthcoming.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all of those who took part in the interviews for this research.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

31

Refugee Empowerment and Legal Aid

CHRISTIAN PANGILINAN*

ABSTRACT

Using research gathered while working as a refugee legal aid lawyer in Dar es Salaam,

Tanzania, and drawing literature on community lawyering and legal empowerment, this

article reflects on the position of legal aid lawyers in refugee mobilization and

empowerment movements. Lawyers may play a significant role in creating awareness

among refugees about refugee identity and refugees as rights-bearers. However, the

presence of lawyers can also dampen refugees’ own organizing efforts. Instead of serving

as their own advocates, refugees may surrender to others the responsibility for advocacy

on their behalf, which can lead to refugee disempowerment. This article argues that

refugee legal aid lawyers must seek to empower refugees to serve as their own advocates

and provides suggestions for fostering such refugee advocacy.

*Christian Pangilinan is a C.V. Starr Lecturer at the Peking University School of

Transnational Law. Previously, he was a Legal Fellow and then Interim Legal Services

Manager at Asylum Access Tanzania. He earned his J.D. from Georgetown University

Law Center.

INTRODUCTION

Refugee legal aid lawyers have made significant contributions in the past decade to refugee

protection on the African continent. In Kenya, the Refugee Consortium of Kenya – an

organization that provides legal counseling and other services to refugees – played a key role in

mobilizing support for the passage of Kenya’s Refugees Act of 2006.7 In Uganda, the Refugee

Law Project advocated relentlessly for refugees’ rights both before and after the passage of the

7 Eva Ayiera, Bold advocacy finally strengthens refugee protection in Kenya, 28 FORCED MIGRATION REV. 26, 26-27

(2007).

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

32

country’s lauded Refugee Act of 2006.8 In South Africa, despite serious issues relating to refugee

protection,9 some lawyers and NGOs have been able to engage in groundbreaking litigation in

domestic courts.10

Asylum Access Tanzania, where I worked from January 2012 to April 2013,

has also made some progress in advocating that refugees be allowed to live outside of refugee

camps.11

These legislative and policy changes have generally been seen as positive developments

and were achieved despite major challenges.12

In addition to these legislative and policy reform initiatives, refugee legal aid organizations have

provided legal aid to thousands of refugees every year. Working in coalitions, refugee legal aid

organizations have also accomplished a number of notable achievements. For example, in 2005,

refugee legal aid organizations succeeded in pressuring UNHCR to publicly release its

procedural standards for refugee status determination (RSD).13

Refugee advocates had long been

critical of UNHCR RSD,14

and the released procedural standards clearly specified for the first

time that asylum seekers had some right to counsel.15

Some refugee advocates have since

formalized their coalitions into advocacy networks including the Southern Refugee Legal Aid

Program (SRLAN) and the Asia-Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN).16

Both these

networks place advocacy for refugee rights at the core of their work.17

Despite legal and policy successes and advocacy for refugees, many of the world’s refugees still

face harsh conditions. In Kenya and Uganda, advocacy for urban refugees has led to new

legislation. The new legislation has not, however, eliminated continuing protection concerns for

urban refugees such as xenophobia and discrimination, harassment by immigration and law

8 Jesse Bernstein & Moses Chrispus Okello, To Be or Not To Be: Urban Refugees in Kampala, 24 REFUGE 46, 46

(2007). 9 See, e.g., Loren B. Landau, Protection and Dignity in Johannesburg: Shortcomings of South Africa’s Urban

Refugee Policy, 19 J. REFUGEE STUD. 308 (2006). 10 South Africa: Reprieve for xenophobia refugees, MAIL AND GUARDIAN, Aug. 18, 2008,

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-08-15-reprieve-for-xenophobia-refugees; Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, Press

Release, Court finds closure of Cape Town refugee office unlawful, Mar. 19, 2013, http://scalabrini.org.za/wp-

content/uploads/2012/11/SCCT-Press-Release-Court-finds-CT-RRO-closure-unlawful.pdf. 11 Refugees to live outside camps-Official, PESA TIMES, Jun. 24, 2013, http://www.pesatimes.com/news/legal-

environment/refugees-to-live-outside-camps - .UckLjj5Nuid. 12 Emily E. Arnold-Fernandez, Mauro De Lorenzo, Barbara Harrell-Bond & Rachel Levitan, Starting a movement

for refugee rights in the Global South: Asylum Access and beyond, in SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE AGE OF

ATROCITIES: CHANGING OUR WORLD 39, 40 (Zachary D. Kaufman, ed., 2012). 13 Barbara Harrell-Bond, Building the Infrastructure for the Observance of Refugee Rights and the Global South, 25

REFUGE 12, 16 (2008). 14 Michael Alexander, Refugee Status Determination Conducted by UNHCR, 11 INT’L J. REFUGEE L. 251, 255-56

(1999); Michael Kagan, Frontier Justice: Legal Aid and UNHCR Refugee Status Determination in Egypt, 19 J.

REFUGEE STUDIES 45, 48 (2006). 15 Michael Kagan, The Beleaguered Gatekeeper: Protection Challenges Posed by UNHCR Refugee Status

Determination, 18 INT’L J. REFUGEE L. 1, 9 (2006). 16 Fahamu Refugee Programme, About SRLAN, http://www.refugeelegalaidinformation.org/about-srlan(last

accessed July 12, 2013); Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network, http://www.aprrn.info/1/, (last accessed Aug. 14,

2013). 17 Fahamu Refugee Programme, supra n. 10; Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network, Who we are,

http://www.aprrn.info/1/index.php/about-us/who-we-are(Jan. 21, 2011).

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

33

enforcement authorities, and lack of access to employment.18

Some research concerning urban

refugees in Southern and Eastern Africa has resulted in the argument that it is of primary

importance to consider criteria other than legal status as a determinant of refugees’ success in

their countries of residence.19

Researchers have pointed to other factors such as refugees’ social

networks as major determinants of refugees’ survival and success.20

Such research reinforces the

point that legal and policy reform alone are unable to meet all refugees’ needs and raises

questions about what refugee legal aid lawyers can do to supplement their existing legal work in

order to better assist refugees.

Based on research conducted with Congolese urban refugees in Dar es Salaam, I argue that

refugee legal aid providers must adopt strategies aimed at empowering refugees to serve as

advocates for themselves and their communities. Focusing on providing traditional legal aid

alone, especially that which does not encourage refugee involvement, runs the risk of

disempowering refugees by fostering dependence on lawyers to act as their representatives and

sole advocates. Drawing on literature on community lawyering and legal empowerment, I argue

that refugees have the ability to serve as their own advocates. Lawyers can adopt strategies that

also aim to increase refugees’ agency.

REFUGEE LEGAL AID: THE LEGAL ASSISTANCE ONLY MODEL AND BEYOND

Legal aid providers do not come in a “one-size fits all” model. The kinds of legal assistance

provided can range from help with client testimonies to strategic or impact litigation – the use of

litigation to advance broader social goals that affect a large number of beneficiaries or promote

legal reform.21

Legal aid providers may help refugees access a country’s or UNHCR’s RSD system by providing

information about asylum applications or assisting them with writing their personal and flight

histories.22

They may also provide direct legal representation to refugees, acting as legal

representatives before government bodies or UNHCR--or simply accompanying them to

government or UNHCR offices.23

Legal memoranda produced by legal aid providers might argue

for the acceptance of a particular claim by providing supporting country of origin information or

arguing for specific interpretations of refugee definitions.24

18 See, e.g., Sara Pavenello, Samir Elhawary & Sara Pantuliano, Hidden and exposed: Urban refugees in Nairobi,

Kenya 7 (Humanitarian Policy Grp. Working Paper, 2010); Abdi Nur, I am a Refugee, and I Have Rights, REFUGEES

INT’L BLOG, Apr. 10, 2013, http://refugeesinternational.org/blog/i-am-refugee-and-i-have-rights. 19 See, e.g., Loren B. Landau & Marguerite Duponchel, Laws, Policies, or Social Position? Capabilities and

Determinants of Effective Protection in Four African Cities, 24 J. REFUGEE STUD. 2, 2-3 (2011) (arguing that “legal

status is [not] a reliable predictor of effective protection”). 20 Id. 21 See Abram Chayes, The Role of the Judge in Public Law Litigation, 89 HARV. L. REV. 1281, 1302 (1976); Lawyers for Human Rights, Strategic Litigation Unit, http://www.lhr.org.za/programme/strategic-litigation-unit(last

accessed July 13, 2013). 22 Kagan, supra n. 8, at 45, 55-56. 23 Kagan, supra n. 8, at 49-51. 24 Kagan, supra n. 8, at 49-51.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

34

In contexts where RSD is unavailable or inaccessible, such as those countries where

governments do not conduct RSD, refugee legal aid providers might advocate for refugees’

release from detention or represent refugees in deportation proceedings. Some activities

performed by legal aid providers may take place in formal judicial proceedings that are not in a

court setting, but are quite similar to judicial proceedings. Others may take place in less formal

contexts, such as in administrative proceedings before government officials, informal discussions

with officials or in written communications.

In East Africa, legal regimes tend to allow little space for the representation of refugees by

counsel in administrative or judicial proceedings. In Kenya, UNHCR conducts RSD, but

UNHCR generally restricts refugees’ legal representatives from making short statements at the

end of an RSD interview.25

In Uganda and Tanzania, refugees are not entitled to counsel in

government RSD proceedings.26

In those countries, refugees cannot have their lawyers present

when presenting their claims. In such environments, lawyers may feel forced to identify

alternative means to serve their clients, either by serving refugees’ non-legal needs or providing

innovative legal services outside the RSD context.27

Refugee legal aid providers in the Global

South may aim, among other more traditional legal objectives, to expand legal services and push

for policy changes and legal reform. Many legal aid providers in the Global South have

expanded their work to include psychosocial counseling, for example.28

This expansion may

reflect the diminished expectation on the part of aid providers that host country governments will

or can provide important services to non-nationals, in addition to the perception that refugee

clients require psychosocial counseling before they can access legal options.29

Thus, while some organizations focus on traditional legal aid,30

others provide services that are

more responsive to local conditions. Moving away from legal assistance-only models may be a

product of restrictive legal environments in the Global South that restrict the effectiveness of

legal aid services alone.

Further, not all legal aid work is done by those qualified to serve as or recognized as lawyers,

solicitors or barristers in the jurisdiction where they work with refugees. However, the Nairobi

25 UNHCR, Procedural Standards for Refugee Status Determination under UNHCR’s Mandate § 4-7 (2003). 26 Uganda Refugees Act 2006 s.13; Tanzania Refugees Act 1998 s.9. 27 For example, Asylum Access Tanzania worked to enable more than a hundred self-settled refugees in Dar es

Salaam to obtain legal status through immigration channels rather than through RSD. Asylum Access, Forging a

New Path for Urban Refugees, Feb. 2012, http://asylumaccess.org/AsylumAccess/news-and-

updates/archives/winter-2012-a-new-path-to-legal-status-for-urban-refugees-in-tanzania; Michael Kagan, AMERA-

Egypy, Flagship fo the Refugee Legal Aid Movement, Struggles for Financial Survival, RSDwatch, Mar. 22, 2013,

http://rsdwatch.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/amera-egypt-flagship-of-the-refugee-legal-aid-movement-struggles-for-

financial-survival/. 28 Refugee Law Project, http://www.refugeelawproject.org/(last accessed July 13, 2013); AMERA,

http://www.amera-egypt.org/(last accessed July 13, 2013); Frontiers Ruwad Association,

http://www.frontiersruwad.org/(last accessed July 13, 2013); 29 Refugee Law Project, Legal Aid & Counselling Annual Report 2005,

http://www.refugeelawproject.org/strategy/LACannualreport05.pdf 7-8 (last accessed July 13, 2013). 30 Hong Kong Refugee Advice Centre, What we do, http://www.hkrac.org/what-we-do/ (last accessed July 13,

2013); Asylum Access, Our Model, http://asylumaccess.org/AsylumAccess/who-we-are/our-model(last accessed

July 13, 2013); Lawyers for Human Rights, Refugee and Migrants Rights Programme Additional Information,

http://www.lhr.org.za/programme/refugee-and-migrant-rights-programme-rmrp/information(last accessed July 13,

2013).

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

35

Code, a voluntary code of ethical conduct, was adopted by several refugee legal aid providers in

2007. This code provides standards for legal training for those working in refugee legal aid. In

addition to lawyers, legal aid providers may employ individuals with legal training or paralegals

– community-based legal aid providers that provide basic legal aid.31

The former may include

individuals with legal training from the Global North. The latter appear to be less common. For

the purpose of this paper, the term “lawyer” includes persons providing legal services who are

qualified in a particular jurisdiction, possess education qualifications and are effectively serving

as lawyers. I hypothesize that this group is more likely to provide services traditionally provided

by fully qualified lawyers and to be perceived as professionals and decision-makers by refugees.

LEGAL AID AND REFUGEES IN DAR ES SALAAM

As part of a broader project on prospects for local integration, a refugee research assistant and I

sought feedback on Asylum Access Tanzania’s legal aid work among Congolese urban refugees

in Dar es Salaam. Our aim was to better understand refugee livelihoods and survival strategies,

relationships with host communities and the long-term goals of refugees. We conducted ten

unstructured interviews with key informant Congolese urban refugees selected for their

knowledge of other Congolese refugees, four focus groups with twenty-five refugees, engaged in

limited participant observation with three refugees, and surveyed fifty-one Congolese urban

refugees.

For many respondents, the legal assistance previously provided to help them obtain some legal

status in Dar es Salaam was key to what they asserted was a freer expression of their Congolese

identity, their access to more formal employment, and, in rarer cases, their ability to establish

businesses. The research suggests that legal aid can serve critical functions for refugees,

indicating that traditional legal aid can be valuable for refugees).

Moreover, legal aid providers like Asylum Access Tanzania can serve the function of both

creating awareness of refugee claims and establishing linkages between refugees.32

For example,

one woman explained that it was not until Asylum Access interviewed her previously that she

understood that she had a refugee claim:

I am a refugee here at Asylum Access – known as a refugee. Before I came here, I

was a refugee “non-identifiée.” It was here that I was identified.33

Group workshops and various trainings for refugees were also credited with being important

opportunities for refugees to assemble.

Asylum Access brings us together. Your work is good. Because by gathering at

Access, you can meet your longtime missing relatives.34

31 Kagan, supra note 8, at 56. 32 Surveys, NN/SURV/31, Mar. 19, 2013; NN/SURV/34, Mar. 22, 2013; Interview, CP/CL/01, Jan. 28, 2013. 33 Interview, CP/CL/09, Mar. 12, 2013. 34 Survey, NN/SURV/34, Mar. 22, 2013.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

36

I have not seen any problems with Asylum Access. You do well as you assemble

us Congolese and teach us many things.35

The comments above, however, do not reflect all refugee perceptions that the provision of legal

aid did not address other needs and many called for assistance in obtaining food, housing, access

to education for their children and health care:36

. . . I think you should also think beyond legal services. There are other needs that

people have. We have people who fled the DRC who never went to school. They

don’t know anything about legal services, but they are suffering.37

Others sought assistance that would help improve their livelihoods, from access to starting

capital for a business to access to savings schemes to training in particular enterprises.38

Obtaining legal status remained important for many who did not have some form of legal status

and feared being returned to the Democratic Republic of the Congo or eventually wanted to seek

resettlement.39

But for others, living in Dar es Salaam imposed other chronic difficulties that

legal assistance alone had not been able to address.

Having legal status did not address, for instance, discrimination, the low social

perceptions of refugees or fears of exploitation as a result of refugees’ nationality or status—

persistent concerns of Congolese refugees in Dar es Salaam. Many of these concerns continue to

exist for refugees with legal status.40

These are in addition to difficulties such as equal access to

health services, access to education and access to credit. It is difficult to imagine legal and policy

reform alone sufficiently addressing refugees’ marginalization.

A colloquy with Congolese refugees about policy advocacy and efforts to encourage the

Tanzanian government to adopt an urban refugee policy that would permit refugees to legally

reside with refugee status outside refugee camps depicts a gap between advocacy efforts and

refugees’ needs:

Author: If the government had that [urban refugee] policy, would any of you

consider applying for that?

Respondent: Yeah so do you think—before answering that question—do you

think that an urban refugee policy will be a solution to that kind of

discrimination? And people will not have as a matter of policy not

accommodating or employing refugees?41

35 Survey, NN/SURV/31, Mar. 19, 2013. 36 E.g., Surveys, NN/SURV/02, Feb. 19, 2013; NN/SURV/04, Feb. 21, 2013; NN/SURV/13, Mar. 1, 2013. 37 Focus Group with Refugee Women, Feb. 8, 2013. 38 Surveys, NN/SURV/20, Mar. 8, 2013; NN/SURV/23, Mar. 12, 2013; NN/SURV/26, Mar. 13, 2013; NN/SURV/42, Apr. 5, 2013; NN/SURV/44, Apr. 5, 2013; Interview, CP/PO/01, Feb. 13, 2013. 39 Surveys, NN/SURV/11, Feb. 28, 2013; NN/SURV/16, Mar. 5, 2013; NN/SURV/25, Mar. 14, 2013; Focus Group

with Refugee Men, Feb. 5, 2013. 40 Focus Group with Refugee Women, Feb. 15, 2013; Focus Group with Refugee Men, Mar. 12, 2013. 41 Focus Group with Refugee Men, Mar. 12, 2013.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

37

Advocates of such a policy may argue that legal and policy reform may be able to address some

of the aforementioned problems. Advocates may also argue that many of the hardships faced by

refugees stem from the inadequate provision for and enforcement of refugees’ rights. After all,

refugees have rights under the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees that, if

respected, can serve as the basis for access to education and employment.42

When policy

centered upon refugees is followed or created, one could argue, refugees will in theory be able to

access the services they require.

The argument may also be made that fostering rights-consciousness is one of the purposes that

lawyers frequently work towards. In Dar es Salaam, one refugee community leader described

bringing refugees to Asylum Access specifically to “know their rights as refugees.”43

In

individual cases, lawyers can work with refugees to address issues such refugees being

detained.44

Instances where refugees are not able to exercise those rights, it can be argued, do not

mean that legal aid is ineffective, but rather demonstrate that more aid and advocacy are needed.

An approach that relies solely on legal and policy reform, however, is inadequate for at least two

reasons. First, with the financial constraints that refugee legal aid providers face, it is simply

impossible for legal aid providers to address every individual rights violation that refugees

experience. Legal aid providers cannot protect every refugee from discrimination even if law and

policy reform are put in place. Second, it is possible that viewing refugees as persons who are in

need of lawyers’ assistance may obscure the role that refugees themselves can play in accessing

their rights—and that they may be more effective at doing so. By emphasizing the role of

lawyers, the role of refugees might be diminished to that of victims who become beneficiaries of

their lawyers.

The discussions held with refugees in Dar es Salaam led to frequent statements by refugees that

they had no rights or lacked freedom regardless of their legal status.45

As one refugee described,

her sense of long-term marginalization had left her worn out:

I think we are all old. I think we are tired of all this kind of treatment that people

are showing to us. We are not well cared for. We are not well treated. At my age I

see someone saying, “you just go away, you are just a simple refugee.” There is

not even respect for age. And I think we are tired. We are just tired.46

Yet in a few instances, refugees described being able to assert rights in a way that was

independent of their lawyers. While several refugee women complained about discrimination in

the arena of health care, one woman who had trained as a nurse in the DRC recounted how she

asserted herself in a health care setting:

42 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, July 28, 1951, arts. 17-19, 22, 189 U.N.T.S. 150. 43 Interview CP/CL/02, Jan. 30, 2013. 44 Interview CP/CL/03, Feb. 2, 2013. 45 Surveys, NN/SURV/25, Mar. 14, 2013; NN/SURV/26, Mar. 14, 2013; NN/SURV/27, Mar. 15, 2013;

NN/SURV/37, Mar. 26, 2013; NN/SURV/40, Apr. 4, 2013. 46 Focus Group with Refugee Women, Feb. 15, 2013.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

38

When I was about to deliver my daughter, I was asked by a nurse what tribe I was

from in Tanzania. This was after she identified my broken Swahili. Since I know

medical ethics, I just stopped her and asked for her assistance. She continued to

assist me and didn’t ask me any question again.47

By drawing on her knowledge of the ethical responsibilities of the nurse, she was able to obtain

assistance without reporting the experience of further discrimination. Another refugee spoke

about using his legal status as a way of obtaining police assistance after he was the victim of

theft.48

No other refugee respondents, however, even those that had been victims of crime in Dar

es Salaam, described going to the police voluntarily. While such accounts are very few in

number, they suggest that refugees can serve their own interests without needing intervention

from their lawyers.

Advocacy that refugees perform for their own interests has another added value: by representing

themselves, they can dispel myths about refugees. During a presentation before a national legal

aid organization (one that had assisted organizing focus groups with non-refugees for our study),

one of the organization’s legal officers expressed concern about allowing refugees to live outside

camps. Allowing such a change, she imagined, could endanger her own safety. My research

assistant, who is a registered refugee, had accompanied me to the presentation, but had not

introduced himself as a refugee. Pointing to himself, he responded, “Did you think I was a

refugee when I came in here?” He emphasized that fear of refugees was often unjustified.

Speaking as a refugee, he helped challenge the common perceptions that refugees were violent

and to be feared. By speaking as a refugee, he could help refute that perception better than I

could.

In our discussions with refugees, some seemed prepared to leave responsibility for advocacy to

their lawyers. In a discussion about differences in approach to urban refugees in Uganda and

Tanzania, for example, participating refugees called for Asylum Access to “fight for us as they

[the Refugee Law Project] did for refugees in Kampala.”49

One refugee called for the

organization to serve as their intermediary in all conversations with government officials.50

The

latter sentiment, of course, is understandable given legitimate fears of the government by foreign

nationals, some of whom may lack legal protections. Avoiding all contact with government

officials, however, may also result in diminishing opportunities for refugees to speak on their

own behalf.51

Another refugee called for Asylum Access to put into effect an urban refugee policy in Tanzania

as had been “promised.”52

Such statements appear to hold lawyers accountable for enacting

wide-reaching legal reform, and may also indicate that refugees do not see a role for themselves

47 Survey, NN/SURV/38, Mar. 28, 2013. 48 Interview, CP/CL/30, Feb. 7, 2013. 49 Focus Group with Refugee Women, Feb. 15, 2013. 50 Id. 51 For examples of refugee mobilization, see Elizabeth Holzer, A Case Study of Political Failure in a Refugee Camp,

25 J. REFUGEE STUDIES 257 (2012); Paula Worbly, Lessons learned from UNHCR’s involvement in the Guatemala

refugee repatriation and reintegration programme (1987-1999) (1999), available at

http://www.alnap.org/resource/2951.aspx. 52 Survey, NN/SURV/16, Mar. 5, 2013.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

39

in that work. “We thought it could take over all of our problems,” one woman explained to me

when she talked about Asylum Access opening in Dar es Salaam.53

Providers of legal aid thus

must walk the line between effective advocacy that solves problems and encourages advocacy by

refugees themselves without, by introducing and discussing such topics, creating the expectation

that legal aid can solve all the problems laid before refuges.

EMPOWERMENT AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Although scholarship exists on relationships between refugees and academic researches that

empower the former, little appears to exist about relationships between lawyers or legal aid

organizations and refugees that do so.54

The discussions with refugees I describe above show that

there is a need to examine the strategies that legal aid providers are using as well as whether

these strategies are serving refugees’ expressed needs in a way that involves them. Two related

streams of scholarship concerning lawyers working with the communities they intend to

benefit—the literature on “community lawyering” and “legal empowerment”—are particularly

useful as starting points for thinking about this relationship and the fostering of refugee

empowerment.

The diffusion of community lawyering models of public-interest advocacy—largely emanating

from an U.S. civil rights context—has drawn attention to alternative modes of lawyering in

which lawyers work within social movements.55

“Social movements”, for their part, are

commonly defined as consisting of collective action with the goal of some social end, such as a

redistribution of resources or recognition of a particular social group.56

Community lawyering

models blur lines between practising law and community organizing. Instead of emphasizing

lawyers’ ability to alter relationships of power and distributions of resources through litigation,

community lawyering models stress that effective solutions to structural inequalities must come

from broader societal changes and from encouraging community members to serve as their own

advocates.57

More recently, scholars have stressed partnerships between lawyers and the

communities they serve, where legal advocacy complements other strategies for reaching

particular outcomes, such as organizing protests or affecting policy decisions made by the local

government.58

53

Interview, CP/CL/03, Feb. 2, 2013. 54 E.g., Eileen Pittaway, Linda Bartolomei & Richard Hugman, ‘Stop Stealing Our Stories’: The Ethics of Research

with Vulnerable Groups, 2 J. HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICE 229 (2010). 55 See Scott L. Cummings & Ingrid V. Early, A Critical Reflection on Law and Organizing, 48 UCLA L. REV. 443,

446-47 (2001); Thomas Hilbink, The Profession, the Grassroots and the Elite: Cause Lawyering for Civil Rights and

Freedom in the Direct Action Era, in CAUSE LAWYERS AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS 60 (Austin Sarat & Stuart A.

Scheingold eds., 2006). 56 Nina A. Kohn, The Lawyer’s Role in Fostering an Elder Rights Movement, 37 WM. MITCHELL L. REV. 49, 56

(2010); William Eskridge, Channeling: Identity-Based Social Movements and Public Law, 150 U. PA. L. REV. 419,

423-25 (2001); Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Elites, Social Movements, and the Law: The Case of Affirmative Action, 105

COLUM. L. REV. 1436, 1439 (2005). 57 Cummings & Early, supra note 49, at 447 (“In general, this new framework offers a vision of social change

directed by community-based organizations in which lawyers are ancillary to the definition and implementation of a

transformative agenda.”). 58 Scott L. Cummings & Ingrid V. Eagly, Review Essay, After Public Interest Law, 100 NW. UNIV. L. REV. 1251,

1275 (2006).

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

40

Legal empowerment has been defined as an approach that uses “legal services and related

development activities to increase disadvantaged populations’ control over their lives.”59

Legal

empowerment approaches prioritize, among other goals, increasing the agency of community

members, focusing attention on the needs of communities rather than top-down strategizing,

using both formal and informal tools, and working with all levels of government and community

leadership structures.60

Legal empowerment can differ from traditional legal aid and advocacy by

focusing less on litigation and law reform. It is worth considering that litigation and legal reform

may be less effective at promoting access to justice on a daily basis as a result of the scarcity of

access to lawyers or because the results of law reform and litigation can take time to be actually

felt.61

In practice, legal empowerment approaches may see lawyers working to train community-

based paralegals to help community members organize or access basic services like health and

education, explain accountability and complaint mechanisms of NGOs and other decision-

makers to their beneficiaries, and negotiate with local leaders.62

The functions that lawyers might serve in legal empowerment as community lawyers are very

similar to roles that are observed in social movements. Legal education programs can bring

refugees together to inform refugees of their rights and compare the legal content of those rights

to their actual implementation.63

Education programs also can also prompt participants to think

critically together about the institutional structures that affect the lives of refugees.64

Enabling

marginalized people to interrogate such structures can encourage them to take action.65

In doing

so, refugee legal aid providers may be pushing refugees to mobilize around a particular social

identity, which can serve as a precursor to mobilization.66

Even litigation has a role in social

movements as it can serve as a means of validating and crystallizing rights claims.67

59 Stephen Golub, Beyond Rule of Law Orthodoxy: The Legal Empowerment Alternative 3 (Carnegie Endowment for

International Peace Rule of Law Series Working Paper No. 41, 2003). 60 Id. at 25-26; Vivek Maru, Between Law and Society Paralegals and the Provision of Justice Services in Sierra

Leone and Worldwide, 31 YALE J. INT’L L. 427, 464 (2006); Meena Jagannath, Nicole Philips & Jeena Shah, A Rights-Based Approach to Lawyering: Legal Empowerment as an Alternative to Legal Aid in Post-Disaster Haiti, 10

NW. J. INT’L HUM. RTS. 7, 8 (2011). 61 Vivek Maru, Allies Unknown: Social Accountability and Legal Empowerment, 12 HEALTH AND HUM. RTS.

PRACTICE 83, 84 (2010). 62 See supra n. 54. 63 See, e.g., Refugee Law Project, Information Sessions,

http://www.refugeelawproject.org/information_sessions.php(last accessed July 16, 2013); Asylum Access, Ecuador,

http://asylumaccess.org/AsylumAccess/who-we-are/ecuador(Apr. 16, 2013). 64 Focus Group with Refugee Men, Feb. 5, 2013. 65 Tiernan Mennen, The mystery of legal empowerment: livelihoods and community justice in Bolivia, in LEGAL

EMPOWERMENT: PRACTITIONERS’ PERSPECTIVES 64, 66 (Stephen Golub, ed., 2010). 66 Cf. Eskridge, supra n. 50, at 425. 67 Sandra A. Levitsky, To Lead with Law: Reassessing the Influence of Legal Advocacy Organizations in Social

Movements, in CAUSE LAWYERS AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS 146 (“Litigation can raise expectations, spark indignation

and hope, and stimulate a rights consciousness among movement constituents and supporters; it can help legitimize

a movement’s goals and values, publicize the movement’s causes, and provide leverage in bargaining with powerful

elites.”).

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

41

Some organizations already involve refugees in community organization or provide them with

the training to function as paralegals.68

Refugee paralegals in Egypt provided services that

assisted refugees to access RSD, such as transcribing refugees’ flight histories.69

Community-

based paralegals can be a key component of legal empowerment programs, extending access to

justice within the communities they serve.70

In Tanzania, refugee paralegals based in refugee

camps aimed to empower refugee women and girls to address sexual and gender-based

violence.71

In the latter case, paralegals’ work encouraged refugee women to bring their claims to

law enforcement officers and to press them to take their cases seriously.72

It is crucial to take into account, however, the ways in which legal restrictions shape the

possibilities for such work with refugee social movements and empowerment. The law not only

defines the extent of refugees’ and asylum seekers’ general political rights but it may also play a

role in prescribing their places of residence, eligibility for employment, opportunities for

education and their opportunities for political or social activism.73

In Africa, the 1969

Organization of African Unity Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa

was designed with one of its aims being that of controlling refugees’ political activities.74

It

requires refugees to “abstain from any subversive activities” without defining which activities

might be deemed “subversive.”75

One of its stated goals is eliminating the source of “refugee

problems” as a “source of friction among many Member States.”76

Likewise, domestic laws

impose limitations on refugee activism. In Tanzania, for example, the restrictive Refugees Act of

1998 restricts refugees’ physical liberty and their freedom of assembly.77

This narrows the

options available for refugees to make their voices heard and creates additional challenges for

legal aid providers.78

There are at least a few ways by which legal aid providers can contribute to or themselves be

part of social movements by or for refugees. The training of refugee paralegals, the

implementation of accountability mechanisms that hold legal aid providers to account in the

communities they serve, and involving refugees in developing strategic priorities are all ways for

legal aid providers to strengthen refugee voices.79

Lawyers may provide refugees with training

on community organizing tactics, preemptive counseling regarding refugees’ campaigns, and

legal support for the formation and registration of refugee organizations or refugee-run

68 Kagan, supra n. 8, at 49-50; Juliet Kaira Chibuta, Women’s Legal Aid Centre (WLAC) Final Evaluation of the

“Access to Justice for Refugee Women and Girls” Project in Tanzania 2008-2011,

http://www.baringfoundation.org.uk/IntevalOneworldaction.pdf. 69 Kagan, supra n. 8, at 49-50; 70 Maru, supra n. 54 at 466-67. 71 Chibuta, supra n. 62. 72 Chibuta, supra n. 62, at 42-43. 73 Jeff Crisp, No solutions in sight: the problem of protracted refugee situations in Africa 11-13 (UNHCR Evaluation

and Policy Analysis Unit Working Paper No. 75, 2003). 74 George Okoth-Obbo, Thirty Years On: A Legal Review of the 1969 OAU Refugee Convention, 8 AFR. Y.B. INT’L L.

3, 57-64 (2000). 75 1969 Convention, Sept. 10, 1969, art. 3(1), 1001 U.N.T.S. 45. 76 1969 Convention, Preamble s.3. 77 Khoti Kamanga, The (Tanzania) Refugees Act of 1998: Some Legal and Policy Implications, 18 J. REFUGEE

STUDIES 100, 110-11 (2005). 78 Chibuta, supra n. 62, at 44. 79 See Maru, supra n. 54, at 442.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

42

institutions. In such collaborations, refugees and lawyers may more closely approach a condition

of equality in which lawyers are specifically engaged by refugees for their technical expertise

and then supervised by them.80

Legal education programs, as described above, can continue to provide refugees with knowledge

about their rights. But a focus on empowerment require doing more than providing refugees with

knowledge about legal options that they can exercise through their lawyers. Instead, legal

education programs can provide refugees with knowledge about legal options and strategies that

they can use everyday when accessing healthcare, negotiating transactions, and communicating

with authorities. Lawyers can first learn from refugees about the justice issues they face regularly

and then begin to understand how some refugees have been able to meaningfully respond to

those issues. Such solutions can be incorporated into educational programs, where, for instance,

refugees are enlisted to educate other refugees. In this way, education programs can be

collaborations that highlight refugee agency.

Bringing refugees together may be valuable in itself. While counseling refugees on an individual

basis makes sense in terms of individual legal aid, it does little to assist refugees in the

development of social networks amongst one another. Helping refugees develop their own

support networks may do more to allow refugees to access effective protection through access to

social support.81

It should be emphasized, however, that the nature of legal empowerment

activities will undoubtedly differ from context to context, depending on what refugees find

significant and the interventions that might be available. In Dar es Salaam, issues like

identification, education and livelihoods appear particularly relevant.

Whether legal empowerment can facilitate the formation of a social movement is more difficult

to foresee. Social movements may be understood as “dense informal networks of individuals and

organizations” that “cannot be fully represented or controlled by a single entity or organization,”

and thus require more than one organization or actor to lead, organize or implement their

causes.82

A movement requires participation by many, and legal empowerment activities for

refugees could conceivably be represented by one or a few organizations from which refugees

might not necessarily operate independently. In addition, social movements—especially if they

are to be based around refugee rights or identity—would also require refugees to mobilize

specifically around those issues rather than, for example, another characteristic like ethnicity.83

As Amisi and Ballard note, in South Africa, Congolese refugees appeared to mobilize as

Congolese or as members of specific Congolese ethnic groups rather than as refugees.84

If a refugee social movement does arise, lawyers will have to face questions about their role

within a social movement. As others have noted, cooperation between lawyers and social

80 Scott L. Cummings, Law in the Labor Movement’s Challenge to Wal-Mart: A Case Study of the Inglewood Site

Fight, 95 CAL. L. REV. 1927, 1966 (2007). 81 Landau & Duponchel, supra n. 13, at 13. 82 Kohn, supra n. 50, at 56-57. 83 See Baruti Amisi & Richard Ballard, In the Absence of Citizenship: Congolese refugee struggle and organisation

in South Africa (2005), available at http://ccs.ukzn.ac.za/files/Amisi Ballard Refugees Research Report.pdf. 84 Id.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

43

activists poses risks for both.85

For non-lawyers, working with lawyers poses the risk of control

or domination by legal professionals.86

Perceived as experts or as elites, lawyers may be able to

take control of and direct advocacy. Legal aid providers that work with refugees and asylum

seekers in social movements may find themselves working with individuals who are their current

clients. Lawyers may need to take steps to preserve the integrity of the individual lawyer-client

relationship, especially the clients’ control over their own case. This may include creating

internal divisions between legal counselors and organizers and greater efforts to clarify lawyers’

responsibilities to clients.

CONCLUSION

The increase in the number of refugee legal aid organizations in the Global South represents an

opportunity to not only assist refugees through traditional lawyer-client relationships and policy

advocacy, but also to empower refugees and contribute to their mobilization. This paper has

focused on the ways that lawyers and legal aid organizations have and might, in the future,

increase refugee agency and aid refugees in advocating for themselves. Certainly, encounters

with refugee legal aid providers should not result in refugees feeling more helpless or vulnerable

than they did before, especially given the hardships that refugees have necessarily already had to

overcome and their ability to find solutions to these challenges.87

Instead of assuming that

traditional legal aid and policy advocacy are the sole ways that refugee legal aid providers can

assist their clients, providers need to consider the ways in which refugees already do serve as

their own advocates and work to expand their capacity to do so.

85 E.g., Austin Sarat & Stuart Scheingold, Introduction, What Cause Lawyers Do For, and To, Social Movements, in

CAUSE LAWYERS AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS 2-3. 86 Levitsky, supra n. 61; Cummings & Early, supra n. 49, at 457-58. 87 Nondo Nobel Bwami, It Takes Courage to be a Refugee, Realizing Rights, July 6, 2012,

http://realizingrights.wordpress.com/2012/07/06/it-takes-courage-to-be-a-refugee/.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

44

.

Innovation in Education: Borderless Higher Education for Refugees

ALLISON MAGPAYO*

The Dadaab refugee camps lie in the North-Eastern province of Kenya, roughly 80 miles south

of the Kenyan-Somali border. Made up of six different camps housing nearly half a million

people, its immense size is matched only by its longevity; founded in 1992, this once temporary

camp has become a permanent fixture in Kenya’s geo-political and social landscape. Despite the

longstanding presence of the encampment, Dadaab refugees have little opportunity for

integration into Kenyan economies. With the exception of a few “incentive jobs” offered by the

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR], for which they are paid less than

the local Kenyans, refugees are prohibited from working in Kenya and forced to rely on

international aid for their basic needs. Dadaab refugees are also prohibited from moving beyond

the camps without a permit, limiting their freedom of mobility and making them, in effect,

prisoners within the camps. “Without access to higher education, the choice of occupations is

very limited for refugee youth. The alternatives for young men and women are in very precarious

forms of employment such as working for a militia, working for the pirates, drug running,

working as a prostitute,” says Professor Wenona Giles. Professor Giles and Professor Don

Dippo, both from York University in Toronto, lead the Borderless Higher Education for

Refugees [BHER]. Though still in its infancy, BHER is developing the world’s first program to

provide innovative, equitable, and internationally accredited university education to encamped

refugees.

*Allison Magpayo is an undergraduate student at York University, where she also works as a research assistant in

the York Centre for Asian Research. She is concurrently enrolled in York’s Refugee and Migration Studies

Certificate and is preparing her honors dissertation on the diasporic discourses of Filipino domestic workers in

Israel. She will be starting the Masters program in Human Geography at York University in the fall of 2013.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

45

THE BHER

MANDATE

(1) Improve the equitable

delivery of quality education

in refugee camps and local

communities through accredited university

programs, to prepare a new

generation of male and female

teachers and professionals

(2) Create targeted, continuing

opportunities for young men

and women in university

programs that will enhance

their employability through

portable certificates, diplomas

and degrees;

(3) Build the capacity of Kenyan academic institutions that

already offer onsite/on-line

university degree programs to

vulnerable and marginalized

groups.

The BHER team is comprised of a global consortium of

NGOs and academic institutions committed to improving the

quality and accessibility of education for refugees. At

present, they administer education initiatives with refugees

along the Thai-Burma border and are developing a program

within the Dadaab refugee camps. The impetus behind the

Dadaab branch of BHER came from Dr. Marangu Njogu of

Windle Trust Kenya, the NGO responsible for running

secondary schools in the Dadaab refugee camps. Long

frustrated by the limited education in the camps, Njogu

envisioned a new program that would provide teacher

training for primary and secondary school teachers in order

to improve the overall quality of education in Dadaab. In

2008, pursuit of this vision lead him to Philip Landon,

African director of the World University Service of Canada,

an organization best known for offering scholarships for

refugees to study at Canadian universities. As Giles shares,

“WUSC was also interested in expanding what they could do

beyond individual scholarships. Scholarships tend to be more

of a drop in the bucket- there are not many for the number of

refugees that need them.” So, in 2008, Landon and Njogu

traveled to York University in Toronto, a WUSC partnership

university with a specialized research centre focused on

refugee issues. It was there they met with Professor Giles

and and Professor Dippo, both of the Centre for Refugee

Studies.

Giles and Dippo were excited about Njogu’s ideas on

improving teacher training in Dadaab, but realized the

potential for installing a program that went beyond just

teacher certification. In fact, Giles had recently concluded a

study with York University Professor Jennifer Hyndman on

the Globalization of Protracted Refugee Situations, which

looked at the living situations in long-standing refugee

camps like Dadaab. She was struck by the lack of schooling

options available to refugees, noting that, “beyond secondary

education, most refugees all around the world in refugee

camps have practically no access to higher education.” The inconsistency or unavailability of

quality education for refugees stems largely from the fact that education is not prioritized within

the array of emergency responses in refugee situations. Funding from NGOs and international

agencies tend to go toward the most basic survival needs like food rations, shelter, and

emergency health care. This problem is exponentially compounded, however, by the increasing

lengths of refugee situations.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

46

THE BHER VISION

Year 1: Admitted students enter the 30 credit Instep program, a program to designed to prepare students for

university.

Year 2: Students will take a 30 credit module to obtain a certificate in education.

Year 3: Students who choose to continue on from year 2 will now complete another 30 credit module, earning

them a Diploma in Education. This 60 credit diploma in education is the Kenyan standard for teacher

certification.

Years 4 and 5: Students who choose to continue their studies may apply their 60 credit diploma toward a

bachelor’s degree one of the following disciplines: Business, Education, Science, Public Administration,

Health, and Community Development.

THE COMMUNITY RESEARCHER

At the heart of BHER is the community researcher. Using the participatory action research

model, the BHER team headed to Dadaab to recruit refugees and local Kenyans to act as eyes

and ears on the ground. Throughout the winter and spring of 2012, BHER community

researchers spoke extensively with individuals and focus groups, providing a comprehensive

picture of how the residents of Dadaab would like their education system to take shape. With this

input, BHER plans to offer Dadaab refugees courses from partnership universities via a

combination of internet, DVD, and on-site learning. The first cohort of BHER students will be

those already teaching in the primary and secondary schools in Dadaab, most of whom cannot

afford lengthy periods of time off to upgrade their skills. Studying via BHER’s flexible delivery

framework will allow the teachers to upgrade their skills without sacrificing their income. It will

also enable them to apply the new material they are learning in to their primary and secondary

school classrooms. By this arrangement, BHER will improve the quality of education for the

children and youth of Dadaab while opening the door for teachers to gain post-secondary

accreditation.

It is hoped that community engagement in BHER, present from the start through its community

researchers, will increase naturally as the program matures. “I don’t think it’s out of the question

for us to think that there might be some community researchers who earn degrees in our

program, who end up teaching or assisting in our program,” says Dippo. Additionally, the design

of the project will pair up BHER researchers working in partnerships universities with people

living in the camps. This will help to keep teaching methods relevant to the community-specific

cultural and social needs, as well as provide more opportunities for people who live there to

participate in the project in more important and meaningful ways.

WORKING TOWARD EQUITY

Although BHER was envisioned to meet the educational needs of Dadaab’s refugees, the

program is fully accessible to Kenyan nationals from both Kenyan and Somali descent. This is

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

47

important because while Dadaab’s refugees and Kenyans live in similarly dire conditions of

poverty, refugees are eligible to receive international aid in the form of food rations or

healthcare, while the local Kenyan residents are not; a fact that has been an ongoing point of

contention in the community. “They are living in a situation that is structured in very glaring

unfairnesses,” nods Dippo. Given these inequities, Dippo was initially surprised at the ease with

which the Dadaab locals and refugees worked together during BHER’s two week community

researcher training session in Nairobi. Giles offered an explanation of her own: “the thing about

education is that it brings people together.

Giles and Dippo admit, however, that while inter-group relations between Kenyan citizens and

refugees is more amicable than they had anticipated, gender discrimination in the community is

still severe and pervasive. For instance, UNHCR data from 2012 indicates that only 26.5 percent

of school-age girls attend primary schools. At the secondary school level the percent of school-

age girls enrolled drops to only 3.7 percent. The dearth of education for girls aggravates their

marginalization in the community as it limits their access to employment and scholarships for

further schooling. This is a problem BHER hopes to redress. “You can’t just declare you’re

getting 50/50 [fifty percent male students and fifty percent female students] and then get it. Even

in order to begin to make the smallest shift in the gender dynamics, women are going to have an

awful lot of challenges,” says Dippo.

To transition toward more equal representation, the BHER project plans to incrementally

increase the proportion of women in their program each year. By training more women teachers

through the BHER program, it will strengthen the role of women in education and provide

academic role models for younger girls in the primary and secondary schools. BHER stresses the

need for innovation and flexibility in the delivery of education for women and girls. “It’s a lot of

navigation and a lot of listening,” says Giles. As Dippo shares, the education of girls has often

been seen as a lesser priority than that of boys. Indeed, girls’ education has often been

constrained by domestic duties, early marriages, safe transportation, or even a lack of sanitary

napkins. BHER will offer things like MP3 players for at-home study and buses for safe transport,

while keeping student security a top priority. “Whatever it is that is offered as an explanation for

why the participation rate of girls is low, we have to be prepared to shift what we’re doing

around in order to address it,” says Dippo. According to Giles, the community researchers have

been crucial in formulating different ways to optimize inclusivity in learning initiatives. For

instance, community research in the Dadaab context suggests that a women’s only computer lab

will help foster a safer, comfortable, and conducive learning environment.

The New Scholars Network [NSN] will also play an important role in providing support to

women in the BHER program through their online student mentoring program. The NSN will be

teaming up with BHER to provide one-on-one mentoring to students in the Dadaab camps,

pairing them up with students and scholars from across the globe. Access to academic role

models and peers is especially important for the young women of Dadaab, who face an uphill

battle in accessing education. Dippo is also quick to point out the reciprocity of the mentorship

relationship, suggesting that, “Given the online modality that technologies like Skype offer, I

think it could be very, very productive and very satisfying for both parties.”

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

48

WORKING FOR THE FUTURE

The portability of BHER degrees will offer refugees something that has thus far eluded them:

options. The degrees will be fully accredited and universally accepted, allowing them to continue

in to graduate schooling should they so choose. For those hoping to resettle elsewhere, this

foundation may also make them more attractive as privately sponsored refugee applicants.

For many of the young Somalian refugees in Dadaab, education is deeply embedded within their

hope for return to their homeland. “One of the things when we talk to people there is that they

really live in the most profound hope for return. I mean, people who were born there [in Dadaab]

are looking forward to the day when they will be able to return [to Somalia]. They are all

imagining that they’re preparing themselves for the day when they’re able to return,” shares

Dippo. In an interview with BHER, Education Officer Maureen Kopiyo of the UNHCR, put it

another way, “education is the only thing the refugees can take back home with them. So it is

only fair to give them the best.”

On a more immediate level, however, BHER is concerned with contributing to efforts to improve

the overall quality of life in the camps. As Dippo states, “you may be returning, but it’s not going

to be tomorrow.” It is hoped that short of return, BHER can help to restructure the camps in

significant ways. As Giles points out, “It’s a small, well, not so small city”. “So how do you run

a city?” she asks. “Humanitarian agencies are not really experienced in running cities. So what

we’re doing will hopefully help in that regard. It will contribute to imagining a better space for

people to live in. There are lots of aspects of living there that can be re-envisioned.”

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

49

Adaptation and Modification of Funeral Service

for Immigrants and Refugees in Sherbrooke, Quebec

JAVORKA ZIVANOVIC SARENAC*

INTRODUCTION

The fact that I belong to a different ethnic group of Quebec has made me realize that life as an

immigrant brings a different way of living. Therefore, it creates a different attitude to religion,

death, funeral rites and the choice of the place of burial. I noticed that in my Serbian community,

in the case of death, family members did not know how to organize a funeral. There are some

people who want to be buried in their country of origin, but families do not know the process, do

not know where to turn for information or do not have enough financial support.

Some families have chosen Quebec as the place of burial for their loved ones, but many rituals

are not respected. Some family members did not know where to bury their loved ones and they

lived with a sense of guilt that the burial place was not well chosen. The family suffers after such

a sad event. It is not surprising that after such an event we see the appearance of depression,

anxiety and nervousness.

I wondered if all immigrants, after their death, wanted to be buried here in Quebec. We know

that there are immigrants who came voluntarily to live in Quebec, but that does not mean they

want to be buried here. We also know that there are refugees who were forced to leave their

country, but that does not mean that, after their death, they have no right to be buried in their

home country.

*Javorka Zivanovic Sarenac, Master of Social Work, is a Research Assistant at the University of

Sherbrooke, Quebec.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

50

In fact, I had so many questions in my head: Where do immigrants want to be buried? I

wondered whether the choice of a burial place tells us something about a sense of belonging or

acceptance by the host society as experienced by immigrants or refugees. Are the rituals of

different cultures respected in Quebec? I also wanted to know if there was a great demand for the

repatriation of the body to another country. If there was, why was it important for the immigrant

to be buried in their own country? In a case where the body of the family member cannot be sent

to the homeland, what can the family do? How do they live if the last wish of the deceased has

not been fulfilled?

Desiring to answer all these questions, at the end of

2010 I went to explore the subject of death among

immigrants in Quebec. Unfortunately, very soon I

realized that there were no articles about this topic. I

accidentally found a working paper on the internet,

“Rites and rights in death: contemporary management

of the repatriation of African humans remains,”

presented by a student at a conference in Dakar,

Senegal earlier in the year. The paper spoke of the process of repatriating the remains of

immigrants from South Africa to their respective home countries, and I found that this article

mentioned many of the concepts that I wanted to explore here in Quebec. The author’s e-mail

address was available on the Web, and I felt free to write her. I explained my project and asked if

she knew of articles that talked about death and the repatriation of the remains of immigrants to

their home country. Thus began a cooperation between us, and our exchange of information

concerning the projects we currently work on. This article followed from that collaboration.

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT

At about the same time that my interest was growing around this issue, I continued my master’s

education at Sherbrooke University. My personal observations, as well as my professional

involvement in the health and social services system in Quebec, led me to involve myself

seriously with this issue. I shared my ideas and questions with my supervisor at the social service

department for mental illness at The Health and Social Services Centre – University Institute of

Geriatrics of Sherbrooke (CSSS-IUGS). She agreed that this issue seemed very pertinent because

she herself worked with immigrants.

With my great desire to work on this issue and with her knowledge of social networks, she first

sent me to a professor who deals with immigration issues at the academic level, Michéle Vatz-

Laroussi, professor titular at the University of Sherbrooke’s Department of Social Work. Second,

she sent me to a social worker, Anne Caron, who works at the Department of Community Action

at CSSS-IUGS. The community organizations of the CSSS-IUGS, along with citizens, partners

and co-workers, work to enhance the ability of individuals and communities to take action to

reduce social and health inequalities (often around education, housing, poverty, etc.).

The project’s goal was to identify and document, from the perspective of different ethnic

communities (immigrants and refugees), the needs surrounding the issue of death. These

Where do immigrants want to be buried?

What can the family do? How do they

live if the last wish of the deceased has

not been fulfilled?

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

51

included repatriation to another country, the burial of their dead in Quebec, the possible

incorporation of important funeral and cultural rites, and financial and other assistance. The

secondary goal of the project was to identify the questions and needs of professionals associated

with immigrant families who have lost their loved ones (nurses, doctors, social workers,

advisers).

The most important goal of our project, however, was

to share the realities and needs of ethnic communities,

and those expressed by professionals associated with

immigrant families, with partners working in the field

of immigration and those involved in the management

of funerals. For example CSSS- IUGS, the Ministry

of Immigration, Cooperative Funeral in Estrie, SANC

(Help Service for New Canadians), and the Clinic for

Refugees, were all identified as potential partners. We

aimed to stimulate discussions about death, funeral

rites, the choice of burial and the mourning process

among immigrants and refugees in Sherbrooke and to

take into account the importance that these issues have among members of ethnic communities.

BASIC METHODOLOGY

After a thorough explanation of my pre-project to Ms. Vatz-Laroussi and Ms. Caron, we decided

to bring this project to light at the close of 2011. We determined that the project had to meet

several criteria, such as being of interest and use to immigrant communities, being acceptable to

CSSS-IUGS, and being an appropriate and manageable project for a master’s degree with limited

duration.

After the project was accepted by University of Sherbrooke and CSSS-IUGS, Ms. Caron and I

officially formed a committee which included representatives from CSSS-IUGS, the Ministry of

Immigration, Cooperative Funeral in Estrie and SANC. From September 2012 on we worked

together to recruit communities or families from different countries wishing to participate in the

project. At the same time, we organized individual interviews with professionals (nurses,

doctors, social workers, spiritual guides and advisers). Our plan was that by the end of November

2012, interviews with members of five communities (from Algeria, Bhutan, Colombia, the

Democratic Republic of the Congo and Serbia; the largest immigrant groups in the city) and a

number of professionals would be complete. In December 2012 we would start to analyze the

results.

During my interviews with the five communities, I tried to understand their beliefs surrounding

the time of death and the afterlife. To better understand the rituals that are practiced in their

country, I divided my questions into four parts: Questions surrounding death rituals at the

moment of death; Questions about rituals occurring between the moment of death and the

ceremony; Questions about the ceremony itself; and finally, Questions concerning the days and

weeks after the funeral ceremony.

The project’s goal was to identify and

document, from the perspective of

different ethnic communities, the needs

surrounding the issue of death…The

secondary goal of the project was to

identify the questions and needs of

professionals associated with immigrant

families who have lost their loved ones

(nurses, doctors, social workers,

advisers).

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

52

I then asked these representatives of ethnic communities what rituals they are able to practice

here in Sherbrooke. I identified the consequences experienced by ethnic communities when some

of the rituals they wish for are not able to be practiced here. From here, these communities had a

chance to share desired improvements and to enumerate their needs.

PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES IDENTIFIED

After analyzing the results, we identified the fact that ethnic groups deal with many difficulties

during the organisation of a funeral here in Sherbrooke. I identified several problems and needs

in each community. The following listed problems are common among many or all of the five

ethnic communities, but it is also important to note that these problems represent only a small

portion of those identified[1]. The problems include:

Difference in perceptions of disease and death between themselves and the host

community (all communities)

The need for there to be only a short time between the death and burial (In Algeria, for

instance, burials must occur within 24 hours.)

Impossibility of the family performing ablutions at the moment of death (DRC)

Inability to gain access to the deceased, whether in the home or as part of an overnight

vigil (Colombia, DRC, Serbia, Algeria)

Problems with cemeteries (For instance, the deceased not being buried in the correct

orientation (Algeria, Serbia) or the closure of the cemetery for services on Saturday

afternoons and Sundays)

The need for rituals to be performed over several days (9 nights among Colombians)

Difficulty within the neighborhood, when crying or noise are not well accepted by the

host community

Lack of legal information (such as information on mandates in cases of incapacity, wills,

bank accounts, and, in all interviewed communities, the procedures to follow after death)

The challenges surrounding repatriation of remains in the country of origin (all

interviewed communities)

Lack of information about the health system and social services (all interviewed

communities), including a lack of information about their rights in connection with work-

related leave to act as a caregiver or to attend the funeral in the home country (Algeria,

Serbia, Colombia))

Insufficient funding given by the government for people on social assistance to fund a

funeral ($ 2500), such that the weight rests on the community

Following this, I asked each ethnic community to enumerate their needs. The problems and

enumeration of needs strongly correspond because if some rituals are not practiced, family

members may live with the fear and the feeling that they will be punished in some way or that

the deceased person will not find peace in the afterlife. The stated needs include:

To bring the deceased to the church the day before the funeral in order to be able to hold

a vigil with the remains at night (DRC, Colombia, Serbia)

To be able to perform ablutions, either in the hospital or the Cooperative Funeral (DRC)

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

53

To make changes concerning several problems surrounding cemetery and interment

policies, including facing the deceased to the desired side, installing a temporary wooden

cross during the preparation of the tombstone, leaving flowers on the grave for a duration

of time, installing a small fence around the grave so that the grave is not walked upon

(Serbia), finding another cemetery or a place within current cemeteries for Muslims

(currently Muslims cannot be buried at the Catholic cemetery in Sherbrooke), being

allowed to stay beside the grave until the end of the ceremony (Colombia, Serbia), and

being present and active during an incineration (Bhutan)

To be understood and tolerated by neighbors (Algeria, DRC, Columbia, Serbia (“A, C, C,

S”))

To learn about resources in the health system and social services (A, C, C, S), including

the issuance of an immigrant guide for what to do and where to go at the moment of

death (A, C, C, S)

To learn about the repatriation process (A, C, C, S)

To learn about the testaments, workers rights, and leave opportunities to help a family

member at the end of life (Algeria, Colombia), including the right to attend the funeral of

a colleague / friend / neighbor in Quebec during working hours (Colombia) and without

the threat of job loss (Colombia, Serbia)

To have the information and assistance to organize their own mandir (Bhutanese church)

in Sherbrooke (Bhutan)

I also held individual interviews with eleven professionals: a spiritual leader at the CSSS-IUGS,

two social workers, two nurses, two doctors, and two counselors and two directors at the Funeral

Cooperative. The difficulties identified by professionals included:

Language barriers and difficulties with finding good translators

A lack of knowledge of different cultures (including lifestyle, food habits, values, man-

woman relations, notions of privacy, etc.),

Lack of suitable services and interventions for immigrants (Current problems include too

many interventions and professionals focused on one family, very regulated and formal

interventions, and complications due to differences in preference for helping an

individual versus a family)

Following from this, the common needs of professionals are:

Intercultural training, including a brochure or document summarizing key information

about different cultures living in Sherbrooke (such as concepts of disease and death)

To have more immigrants working as official translators, and gaining a more specific

vocabulary to help the translator

PROJECT REALISATION

After we realized that there are many difficulties on several levels, from January 2013 we split

our project into three smaller sub-projects.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

54

Sub-Project 1: The first sub-project is related to the health and social services system.

We will work on getting to know professionals that are knowledgeable about different

cultures and their understanding of illness and death. This will help professionals in our

health and social system to adapt their interventions to the needs of ethnic communities.

Sub-Project 2: In the second sub-project we will work on introducing our project to the

broad population of our city and aim to contact new partners who are knowledgeable on

relevant issues.

Sub-Project 3: The third sub-project will directly involve the ethnic groups in our city.

The Cooperative Funeral Estrie took the initiative on this sub-project, and is organizing

oral presentations by ethnic communities in September 2013. Each ethnic community

will have the opportunity to share the funeral rituals of their country. These presentations

will be open to the general public, including professionals who work with immigrants,

and advisers from cooperatives. We believe this will be a great opportunity for Quebec

society and our city to learn and to become familiar with the rituals of other countries.

We realize that this project is huge, and that it will take time, financial support, and most of all,

patience and persistence. Fortunately, the four leading individuals working on this project

recognize that the importance of the issues surrounding death, rituals and the selection of burial

site are as important for immigrants as their adaptation and integration in a new country. For

these reasons, we will continue to work on this project. We are already very satisfied with what

we have achieved, but are also aware that the toughest time is yet to come.

APPENDIX: DIFFICULTIES NAMED BY COMMUNITY

The Algerian community

The placement of the deceased person at the time of death: The members of the Algerian

community are not certain that this ritual is done according to the rules of their religion

(in the hospital, nursing homes, hospice, etc.).

The deceased person is alone at night, so the community cannot hold a vigil with the

remains at night.

In their country the deceased person is buried without a coffin, but here, it is mandatory

to have one.

A very important issue is that the Muslim Algerians are buried in Montreal. In

Sherbrooke, there is no Muslim cemetery and as Muslims they cannot be buried at the

Catholic cemetery (they also do not want to be buried among Catholics).

Another problem identified is that the embalming of a body that is not accepted by Islam,

but is mandatory here in Quebec. (If the deceased person is not buried within 24 hours of

death, it is mandatory for the person to be embalmed.) Very often, funeral organizers

cannot do this in such a short time; because of this the Algerians are torn between the

laws of Quebec and religious laws.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

55

The needs of this cultural community are mainly to have a cemetery in Sherbrooke or places in a

cemetery for Muslims – purchased or leased. Such a cemetery would allow for the quick and

easy organization of a funeral and, at the same time, respect the rules and laws of Quebec. Also,

the Algerian community needs to know more about the resources surrounding the “end of life” in

Sherbrooke, including administrative processes after death (testaments, mandates in the case of

incapacity, repatriation insurance) and the possibilities for accompanying family members in the

grieving process. A guide for what to do and where to go for immigrant Muslims would be

helpful.

The Bhutanese community

To date, in Sherbrooke, there has not been a death in the Bhutanese community. Therefore, I

could not identify their current problems in the same way.

However, they realize that their ritual cremation of the body next to a river will not be possible

here. They are willing to change their ritual and adapt to the laws of Quebec. They want to

attend the cremation at the Cooperative and for the eldest son in the family–if he can not start a

fire–to press the button for cremation. Thus far, the Cooperative Funeral Estrie has not accepted

the presence of family members during the cremation.

The community identified another problem surrounding the tradition of family members staying

at their home for 13 days after the death of a loved one; something which has already created

problems when the death of a family member occurred in their home country. According to

Quebec laws, each person has three to five days of leave in the case of a death. After this period

a person has to return to work or school.

Lastly, the community needs help for organizing (or building) their own temple here in

Sherbrooke, as well as information on the health system and social services in Quebec, which

they do not currently know well.

The Colombian community

The deceased person is left alone during the night until the funeral.

Family and community members can not to hold a vigil with the remains at night

Colombians have many problems with the neighborhood: Quebec neighbors do not

tolerate noise during the nine nights of prayer, when many people come to the house of

the bereaved family.

Community members cannot walk from the Cooperative to the cemetery and they cannot

bury their loved ones with shovels.

Opening hours of the St. Michel cemetery are problematic because they do not have

access to the graves of their loved ones whenever they want.

The community lacks information on health system and social services (services for end

of life support for bereaved members, etc.), wills, the rights in connection with work

leave, asset management (freezing bank accounts) and other administrative processes

following death (especially concerning repatriation to the country of origin).

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

56

Their explicit demands are to have the right to be with the deceased in the church the night

before the funeral and then be able to hold a vigil; to have the opportunity to walk from the

Cooperative (where the deceased resides) to the cemetery; to bury their deceased with a shovel;

that the neighborhood be more tolerant; that they have the opportunity to attend the funeral of a

family member without the threat of job loss; that they become aware of all the services provided

by the health system and social services in Sherbrooke.

The Congolese Community (DRC)

They mention that they cannot be present at the time of death or a few minutes before

death. In fact, if the patient is in the hospital and if he / she is dying in the night, no one

notifies the family. Thus, the family cannot accompany the dying person with prayers and

cannot make the necessary rituals at death.

There is a lack of accessibility to the deceased and an inability to hold a vigil with the

body during the night

he community has had great difficulty with some neighbors who do not support the

crying and noise during the evening following a death

A problem specifically identified in the Congolese community is the dilemma regarding

the choice of burial place. They believe that their rightful place is next to their ancestors

in their country of origin, but on the other hand, the repatriation of the body to the DRC is

very expensive. Because of the judgment of family members in the home country, who

believe that such a large sum of money could be better spent—or would go so far as to

feel a whole village at home for half a year–burials generally take place in Quebec.

Another problem identified is that family members are often isolated in their grief

process and will not seek the help of official institutions.

The Congolese community requests to accompany the dying person and to be advised that the

last time has come (if possible). They also asked that the neighbors try to tolerate cultural rituals.

They also ask that professionals involved in health and social services use a different approach

and find an effective way to join the Congolese mourners who stay at home, very isolated. They

also need to be informed about the services provided by the health system and social services.

The Serbian Community

They identified similar problems within the neighborhoods in which they live

There is an inability to hold a vigil during the night with the deceased, leaving the Serbs

with a feeling of not having performed the final acts of respect for the deceased.

In the Funeral Cooperative, they are unable to light candles due to this action activating

alarms in the building.

In the cemetery, the deceased person is not located to the east, leaving the members of the

Serbian community with a sense that the person is buried upside down. Also, in the

cemetery, a temporary wooden cross cannot stay until the installation of the headstone.

The tomb has no small fence, so everyone can walk on the grave, which is forbidden in

the Orthodox religion. Also, they cannot leave flowers on the grave.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

57

Serbs in general require awareness, tolerance and understanding from their neighborhoods. They

ask to transfer the deceased person from the funeral home (or hospital) to their church, and they

seek to hold a vigil for the person at night. For non-practitioners, Serbs ask to have the

opportunity to escort the body from the cooperative to the cemetery. At the cemetery, their

explicit requests are that the deceased is buried looking east, that they can install a temporary

wooden cross during the preparation of the headstone, that they can leave flowers on the grave

and that they can install a small fence so that the grave is not walked over. They too need

information on the repatriation of the body to the home country, as well as information on the

testament, bank accounts, their rights as workers in the event of death, and other information

about existing services at the end of life.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

58

Hard Hearts: A Critical Look at Liberal Humanitarianism in Refugee Support Movements

DANIELLE EVERY*

MARTHA AUGOUSTINOS**

Increasingly, political responses to asylum seekers and refugees have become more punitive and

exclusionary in many receiving countries. This hardening reflects a broader shift to the right:

toward an emphasis on national security and borders, on economic rationalism, and

monoculturalism.

How can people who are campaigning for less exclusionary policies and laws respond? We

review an ethnographic case study in the town of Woodside, South Australia and the first

author’s discursive research on the political speeches of Australian politicians. These suggest

that pragmatic interventions emphasizing win/win solutions and mainstream appeals are useful.

Danielle Every is a Senior Research Fellow at the People, Place and Migration Unit, Appleton Institute,

Central Queensland University. She specialises in research on anti-racism, immigration, refugee

advocacy and activism, particularly analysing discourse and language in these fields and applying these

to develop more effective advocacy practices.

Martha Augoustinos lectures and researches in the School of Psychology, University of Adelaide. She

specialises in work on racism, particularly in mapping the changing discourses of contemporary racism.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

59

Two of these interventions, which we review in this paper, are: 1) creating social and economic

benefits for both asylum seekers and residents in the communities in which they are housed,

based upon an evidence base developed by establishing the social and economic impacts of

asylum seeking; 2) using discourse and rhetoric that presents arguments and interventions made

on behalf of asylum seekers as practical, pragmatic and moderate.

These strategies are focussed on enacting broad-based change via appeals to the mainstream,

which is not the goal of all advocacy or activism, and is not appropriate in all circumstances. The

interventions that we propose for community engagement also require that we reconcile the

sometimes conflicting needs of asylum seekers and refugees and the residents of communities in

which they are housed, which is not always possible. Despite these limits to the applicability of

these strategies and interventions, our research suggests that they can create positive changes in

attitudes towards asylum seekers and refugees.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF IMMIGRATION IN HOST COMMUNITIES

Previous research on responses to immigration, though not always specifically focused on

asylum seekers and refugees, has identified a pervasive public belief that immigration negatively

impacts the economy and social cohesion (e.g. Every et al. 2012; Esses, Brochu & Dickson

2012; Goodall 2010; Dawson 2009). Research conducted in the United States on the relationship

between beliefs about economic impacts and attitudes towards immigration, summarised in

Esses, Brochu and Dickson (2012), found that negative attitudes increased when immigrants

were perceived to be competing with members of the host society for economic resources.

Goodall’s ethnographic research in Stoke-on-Trent in the United Kingdom suggests that the

relationship between economic impact and attitudes towards immigration is also likely to affect

attitudes towards asylum seekers. Her conclusion, drawn from interviews and observations, was

that where there are no discernible economic benefits for the host population, but rumours about

asylum seekers receiving unfair benefits proliferate, hostility and violence in the form of graffiti,

letters to the editor, and organised campaigns against asylum seekers escalated (Goodall 2010).

In relation to social impacts, research in the United Kingdom on attitudes towards immigration

found that the belief that immigration reduces social cohesion was a more significant factor in

negative attitudes towards immigration than concerns about negative economic impacts (Card,

Dustmann & Preston 2012).

The above research, based in the UK and the US, has predominantly focussed on immigration as

a whole. The research project led by the first author (Every et al. 2012), and summarised below,

sought to explore the relationship between social and economic impacts and attitudes towards

asylum seekers in the South Australian town of Woodside, which houses a new asylum seeker

detention facility. The project’s focus on these impacts was prompted by the previous research,

which demonstrates the implications of such attitudes. It was also inspired by an initial scoping

study which found that opposition to new arrivals in Woodside was formulated as a concern with

social and economic impacts by the host population. The interviews, ethnographic observations

and analyses of media such as letters to the editor revealed that residents of Woodside argued

that their town was struggling economically, suffering from poor health services and reduced

education quality. They feared that asylum seekers would further weaken this social and

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

60

economic infrastructure, and the immigration facility would have negative economic and social

impacts on the town. Consider the following examples from the local debate in Lobethal, South

Australia about the economic and social experience of those living in the town, as compared to

what they believed were those of asylum seekers:

… they will be getting 24 hour emergency services in that so called detention centre. I

have two young children that I have to drive down to the Women’s and Children’s

Hospital at midnight … to wait in there for eight hours but they’ve got it at their

doorstop, they don’t even have to get out of their house.

… what we see from the outside looking in, is a free education…my child has a $10

excursion and they get theirs for free…why [are] community outsiders coming in, getting

a free ride and getting favouritism over us who pay taxes, the residents?[1]

…the people smugglers, what is that’s actually happening that’s making their lives

harder, like it makes our lives harder?

…can someone give us a guarantee that our kids’ education and valuable starts to life

won’t suffer. Can somebody give us a guarantee that they won’t be pushed out of

programs, that they won’t, in any shape, way or form, have their education level dropped

and suffer?

These extracts illustrate the fears and concerns of the local population about the social and

economic impacts of the new immigration detention facility.

Were these fears borne out? The first author led the research team that undertook the social and

economic assessment in Woodside to evaluate these impacts. Using interviews, ethnographic

observations, media analysis and economic analysis, the assessment found that the arrival of

asylum seekers did not have any negative impacts on the local economy, health and education

services, policing or social cohesion (Every et al. 2012).

How is this research relevant to advocacy campaigns in relation to asylum seekers? Firstly, the

findings themselves are an evidence base which can be drawn upon in debates about asylum

seeking. Impact assessments can be used to allay people’s fears by presenting them with research

on the actual impacts. Secondly, the research also considered the factors and interventions that

mediated negative impacts. This knowledge can be used for planning interventions.. The

important preventive factors in Woodside included: 1) the use of targets for local employment

quotas and business contracts by the management of the detention facility; 2) increased

government funding for schools and health services to supply equipment and staff in areas where

the new arrivals created further demand (importantly, these funds were utilised to benefit the

whole of the community; for example through a new ultrasound machine and new teaching

staff); and 3) local leadership from health providers, educators and the local council which

provided significant opportunities for the new arrivals and for residents to meet. These initiatives

were found to be critical in not only minimising any potential negative social and economic

impacts, but also in reducing local residents’ hostility to asylum seekers.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

61

This research highlights the potential of engaging with and addressing the social and economic

concerns of host communities, particularly in ways which create a win/win situation for both the

new arrivals and the existing residents. Such an approach has also been advocated by those

researchers we reviewed at the beginning of this section who found links between impacts, both

perceived and actual, and negative attitudes.

Based on this, we propose that refugee supporters might engage with concerns about economic

and social impacts as another way to decrease hostility towards asylum seekers. First,

engagement with these concerns can occur through undertaking research on the very questions

that local communities raise–namely, how do refugees and asylum seekers affect the local

economy, health services, education, policing and social cohesion? Social and economic impact

assessments (SEIA) can be used to do this (Every et al., 2012). Second, engagement with these

concerns about impacts requires acting on this research. Whether there are negative or positive

effects found, these should be communicated to the host community. Where negative effects are

found, these can be addressed through programs and policies that benefit both the host and

asylum communities.

In the next section of this paper, we look at another practical intervention which may be useful in

campaigning and promoting or conducting activism around refugees and asylum seekers. This

intervention focuses on language, discourses and rhetoric. In particular, we look at the use of the

language of humanitarianism and its benefits and disadvantages. We report on our research that

analysed the political speeches made by politicians in Australia that argue for more humanitarian

policies towards asylum seekers.

HUMANITARISM

Much of the support for refugees and asylum seekers, and many of the campaigns created to

increase support in the wider population, are based on appeals to humanitarianism (Dauvergne

2005; Every 2008; Gibney, 2004; Hyndman, 2000). That is, in establishing that they are people

in need, advocates can then appeal to citizens’ compassion, and call on them to uphold their

national ethics of Good Samaritanism and meet their obligations as international citizens. We

can see this reflected in two extracts from our research with Australian politicians advocating for

more favourable policies for asylum seekers. In these speeches, politicians focus on the duty

Australia (and other host countries) owe to asylum seekers as people in need:

…this is a human problem and the Christian reaction to this situation would be to care

for and assist these people in need. Let us recognise that it is not just a legalistic

argument; this is an issue of humanity.[2]

We are telling the world that international law has no place here, that Fortress Australia

is more important to us than responding compassionately to human need.[3]

Although their advocacy is based in arguments that appeal to humanitarianism, this can be a

problematic basis for creating greater support for asylum seekers. Dauvergne (1999), Gibney

(2004) and Gosden (2007) propose that, historically, humanitarianism embodies two conflicting

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

62

principles: a duty to others, which is emphasised in appeals like those above, but also a concern

with what this duty will cost our selves or our nation. Dauvergne (1999) translates this as a

‘minimal moral duty,’ where there is a duty to assist others only when the cost to one’s self is

small. Shacknove (1988: 134) provides this definition of humanitarianism:

When persons or associations can improve the conditions of the destitute at little cost to

themselves, they bear a heavy moral obligation to do so. By the same token, as the burden

increases, the obligation to assist the destitute diminishes. These are the dictates of good

samaritanism, known more formally as the principle of ‘mutual aid’.

Gibney (2004) argues that, although the principle of mutual aid is proposed to be a balance

between these two competing ideals, it is the second (the duty to self and nation) that holds more

weight. His theory is supported by discursive research mapping the dominant discourses that

construct humanitarianism in relation to asylum seekers. In this research, which covers political

speeches, media, interviews and focus groups in the UK, Europe and Australia, a recurring theme

appears. Host countries are characterised as already doing more than enough, the research

shows, whilst there are few examples where politicians, media or residents emphasise duties and

obligations to the less fortunate (e.g. Corlett 2002; Jones, 2000; Wodak & van Dijk, 2000).

One theory is that these narratives dominate the discourse about asylum seeking and immigration

more generally because they reflect pervasive social norms and values related to the liberal

philosophical binaries of reason versus emotion, pragmatism versus idealism and moderation

versus excess. This theory proposes that the values of individualism, reason, practicality and

moderation are highly prized in Western liberal thought and everyday thinking, whereas

emotion, idealism and excess are less acceptable (Billig 1982; Dauvergne 1999, 2000, 2005;

Gergen 1991; Wetherell and Potter 1992). Thus the individualist argument, applied to

humanitarianism and asylum seekers and refugees, is powerful because it can be presented as

reasonable, practical and balanced. Within this narrative, those appealing to a ‘duty to others’ are

often positioned as emotional, impractical and excessive in their demands by those who respond

negatively to asylum seekers and refugees (Every 2008).

What does this mean for refugee advocates? One conclusion we may draw is that appeals that

focus on a ‘duty to others’ may not be persuasive. Another conclusion to consider is that emotion

must be used with care. In particular, statements that resonate with emotional, impractical and

excessive sentiments, such as, “We should open our arms to these newcomers” and “They can

come and live in my house,”[4] have the potential to be used against advocates.

Understanding how the opposition’s arguments draw upon liberal philosophical ideas can be a

useful point around which to develop advocacy discourses and practices. For example, if the

opposition emphasises reason, moderation and practicality, can supporters’ arguments be framed

similarly? As just one example, many refugee supporters argue for increasing the number of

refugees and asylum seekers under Australia’s immigration quotas. Rather than arguing for this

using the rationale of fairness and humanitarianism, it may alternatively be presented as a

solution that balances the needs of refugees and the claims of citizens, and may thereby be more

likely to be evaluated as moderate, practical and reasonable (Gibney 2004).

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

63

CONCLUSION

This paper emphasises a reconsideration of community engagement, and presents two

interventions that are based upon research surrounding the economic and social impacts of

asylum seekers and the use of humanitarian language when engaging the opposition. The paper

has included suggestions of using caution when employing emotional language that may alienate

the opposition, and constructing campaigns and interventions that demonstrate an understanding

of the social and economic concerns of the home community.

Such approaches bring significant challenges, not least of which are negotiating the long-

standing tension between the sometimes competing demands of host communities and asylum

seekers and, further, seeking broad-based change in the wider population and more radical

campaigns and actions. However, we suggest that understanding the opposition’s arguments –

concerns about social and economic impacts, and the liberal philosophical basis of arguments

based on practicality, pragmatism and moderation – provides more possibility for engagement

for refugee supporters and advocates. Although not appropriate for all situations and issues, these

interventions were found to be effective in reducing hostility towards asylum seekers and

refugees in a community in Australia.

REFERENCES

Adelman, H. (1991). The policy maker and the advocate: case studies in refugee policy. In Making Knowledge

Count Advocacy and Social Science, Peter Harries-Jones (ed), McGill Queen’s University Press, pp. 54-73

Augoustinos, M., Tuffin, K., & Every, D. (2005). New racism, meritocracy and individualism: constraining

affirmative action in education. Discourse & Society, 16(3), 315-339.

Billig, M. (1982). Ideology and Social Psychology: Extremism, Moderation and Contradiction. Oxford: Basil

Blackwell.

Billig, M. (1991). Ideology and Opinions: Studies in Rhetorical Psychology. London: Sage.

Corlett, D. (2002). Asylum seekers and the new racism. Dissent, 8, 46-47.

Dauvergne, C. (1999). Amorality and Humanitarianism in Immigration Law. Osgoode Hall Law Journal 37(3):

597–623.

Dauvergne, C. (2000). The Dilemma of Rights Discourses for Refugees. University of New South Wales Law

Journal 23(3): 56–74.

Dauvergne, C. (2005). Humanitarianism, Identity and Nation: Migration Laws of Australia and Canada.

Vancouver, Canada: UBC Press.

Dimitrov, R. (2008). Acting Strategically: Skilled Communication by Australian Refugee Advocacy Groups.

Global Media Journal Australian Edition, online at:

http://www.commarts.uws.edu.au/gmjau/iss2_2008/Roumen_Dimitrov%20v2_2%202008.html

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

64

Every, D. (2008). A reasonable and practical humanitarianism: The co-option of humanitarianism in the Australian asylum seeker debates. Journal of Refugee Studies. 21(2), 210-229

Every, D., Rainbird, S., Procter, N. Sebben, B., Thompson, K. (2012) Social impacts of the Inverbrackie Alternative Place of Detention on the local community. Department of Immigration and Citizenship. Canberra, Australia. http://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/research/_pdf/social-impacts-of-inverbrackie-alternative-place-of-detention-on-woodside-and-surrounds.pdf

Gergen, K. (1991). The Saturated Self. USA: Basic Books.

Gibney, M. J. (2004). The Ethics and Politics of Asylum: Liberal Democracy and the Response to Refugees. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Goodall, C. (2010). The coming of the stranger: asylum seekers, trust and hospitality in a British city. New Issues in Refugee Research, UNHCR Policy Development and Evaluation Service

Goodwin-Gill, G. S. (1989). The Language of Protection. International Journal of Refugee Law 1(1): 6–19.

Gosden, D. (2007). From Humanitarianism to Human Rights and Justice: A Way to Go. Australian Journal of Human Rights, 13(1):149–176.

Hyndman, J. (2000). Managing displacement: refugees and the politics of humanitarianism. University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis.

Lupton, D. (1998). The Emotional Self. London: Sage.

Lutz, C. (1990). Engendered Emotion: Gender, Power and the Rhetoric of Emotional Control in American Discourse. In Lutz, C. A. and Abu-Lughod, L. (eds) Language and the Politics of Emotion, pp. 69–91. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mitchell, M., Every, D. and Ranzijn, R. (2011) Everyday antiracism in interpersonal contexts: Constraining and facilitating factors for ‘speaking up’ against racism. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology. 21(4) 329-341.

Nairn, R. G. and McCreanor, T. N. (1991). Race Talk and Common Sense: Patterns in Pakeha Discourse on Maori/Pakeha Relations in New Zealand. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 10(4): 245–261.

Shacknove, A. E. (1988). American Duties to Refugees: Their Scope and Limits. in Gibney, M. (ed.) Open Borders? Closed Societies? The Ethical and Political Issues, pp. 131–150. New York: Greenwood Press.

Wetherell, M. and Potter, J. (1992). Mapping the Language of Racism. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.

Wodak, R. and van Dijk, J. (2000). Racism at the top: Parliamentary discourses on ethnic issues in six European states. Drava Verlag: Austria

[1] Meeting at Lobethal Town Hall, South Australia, 24 November 2011

[2] Senator Andrew Bartlett, Australian Democrats, Senate Hansard, 28/8/01, p. 26784

[3] Senator Vicki Bourne, Australian Democrats, Senate Hansard 24/9/2001, p. 27712

[4] Meeting at Woodside Town Hall, South Australia, 21 October 2011

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

65

Comparing Racist Colonial Discourse in the Tamil Canadian Protests and the Idle No More Movement

HARINI SIVALINGAM*

For several months beginning in January 2009, members of the Tamil Canadian community

held public demonstrations in various Canadian cities in an attempt to draw attention to what

they saw as a grievous humanitarian tragedy taking place in their homeland. These were not the

first demonstrations held by Tamil Canadians, but they were perhaps the most vocal and

emotionally charged. At that point in time, the almost two year old ceasefire between the Sri

Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was broken, and the

bloody and violent three decade civil conflict had resumed.[1]

As the Sri Lankan military’s onslaught against the LTTE intensified, so did the level of protests

and demonstrations by members of the Tamil diaspora around the world. At the conclusion of

the armed conflict in mid-May 2009, during which the UN estimates that tens of thousands of

Tamils had lost their lives primarily due to government shelling, several hundred Tamils escaped

Sri Lanka with the intention of seeking asylum in Western nations.[2]

On August 13, 2010, a cargo ship carrying 492 Tamil men, women and children seeking asylum

in Canada was escorted by two navy tugboats into a Canadian forces base, Esquimalt. The

ship, MV Sun Sea, was entering the traditional territory of the Songhees First Nation in what is

now Victoria, British Colombia.[3] When the ship docked in Canada, the Tamil refugees on

board were met by two different groups of Canadians with two very different messages.

*Harini Sivalingam is currently a PhD Candidate in the Socio-Legal Studies program at York University. She obtained her LL.B. at Osgoode Hall Law School and was called to the Ontario Bar in 2006. Harini

completed her LL.M. in International Comparative Law at McGill University in 2009. Her research

interests include immigration and refugee law and securitization of borders.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

66

One group held signs reading: Tigers: don’t unpack, you’re going back and Send them back.[4]

At the same time, some residents of the Esquimalt First Nation held spiritual prayers welcoming

the safe arrival of these newcomers into their traditional territories.[5] In addition, refugee rights

groups as far away as Toronto and Montreal dropped banners that read, Welcome Tamil

Migrants.[6]

These differing responses echo the division in sentiments across Canada regarding the mass

arrival of racialized[7] refugees such as these Tamil refugees. The responses further fueled a

heated debate about Canada’s refugee determination system. Even further, these reactions reflect

the complex relationship that still exists between First Nation peoples and the Canadian state,

spurring a conversation not only about current immigration policies but also about the long-term

consequences of white settler colonialism.

RACE, LAW AND COLONIALISM

Sherene Razack, a critical race theorist, argues that a national mythology is generated and

propagated through laws that portray white European settlers as the original inhabitants of the

nation through a “disavowal of conquest, genocide, slavery, and the exploitation of the labour of

peoples of colour”.[8] Western laws and legal institutions played an important role in the

establishment of colonial states in the first instance, in part through a disposition of indigenous

lands and peoples that continues to affect Canada and other white settler nations today[9].

Incentivized migration has historically been utilized as a tool to populate or settle colonized land

with white Europeans and, both during and after this process, to perpetuate the myth of the white

nation state.[10] Migration laws have also paved the way to exploit racialized labour in the

process of nation building by regulating foreign arrivals.[11] Such systems within Western laws

may limit the rights of indigenous peoples and racialized immigrants.

The mythology behind the white settler colonial state that Razack speaks of is in fact a form of

creation myth. Western laws are used to not only deny the history of genocide, racism and

slavery as part of the nation-building project of the past, but also to continue to justify the

modern state’s existence and its racist present. Such a mythology often relies on new myths to

maintain and sustain the original myth. Over time these myths become regarded as truths when

they are institutionalized within an official version of the law, and by other social institutions.

The institutionalization of a policy of multiculturalism in Canada reveals one such new

myth. As Nandita Sharma argues, the discourse of multiculturalism in present day Canada

legitimizes discourses that both “obliterate the distinctions between colonizers and immigrants”,

and “conflate the process of colonization with that of [all] migration”.[12] One rhetorical tool

bound up in this discourse is the slogan “we are all immigrants”[13], which seeks to erase

indigenousness and the racial inequalities of migration policies by equating the experiences of

white Western European migrants with those of differently racialized migrants.[14] This effort

also conflates the experiences of different types of migrants, ignoring the important distinctions

between immigrants and forced migrants, such as refugees. As Sharma indicates, the result of

such a discourse is the depoliticization of “the process of constructing a racialized Canadian

nation state though colonial practices.”[15]

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

67

Those who study Canada’s history will observe that the Canadian nation state was established

and sustained though a legal system based on racial hierarchy. There are numerous instances of

this, and migration laws are only one example. In examining the historical institutionalization of

racism in Canadian law Constance Backhouse writes that “[i]mmigration laws shaped the very

contours of Canadian society in ways that aggrandized the centrality of white power”[16]. In the

modern state, maintaining controls and restrictions on borders becomes an important and

essential component of the nation state’s identity. The ability to exercise control over borders

affirms and asserts the nation state’s sovereignty, with the exclusion of undesirable migrants

being a critical tool for the regulation of racialized migration. In Canada, there are many

examples of exclusionary migration policies and laws that have been implemented throughout its

history, such as the continuous journey regulation, the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act, and

the refusal to allow the SS St. Louis carrying Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi concentration camps

during World War II to enter a Canadian port. We also see this actively taking place in present

day Canada through the government’s agenda on immigration and refugee reform–in particular

the efforts to drastically alter the refugee determination system after the arrival of the two boats

of Tamil asylum seekers.[17] We see this effect trickling into the fabric of social institutions and

Canadian society’s treatment and policies towards Aboriginal peoples and racialized migrants.

COMPARING REACTIONS TO THE TAMIL PROTESTS AND IDLE NO MORE

Two movements will be used to illustrate the multiple facets of race, colonialism and the law in

the context of migration by examining how the myth of colonial nation-building continues in the

present day through the subjugation of Canada’s indigenous peoples and stigmatization of

racialized asylum seekers. The first example examines the responses to the months of

demonstrations by Tamil Canadians to raise awareness of the humanitarian situation in the

Tamil’s homeland. The second example explores the discourse surrounding reactions by some

members of the Canadian public to social movements organized by First Nations peoples in

Canada under the banner of Idle No More.

While these are two distinct forms of social movements with different objectives, from

differently marginalized groups, there are also similarities within the movements and their

reception by members of the Canadian public and officials of the state apparatus. This paper

largely examines online commentary and reaction to the Tamil protests and the Idle No

More movement. Online sources were examined both because of the widespread availability of

such communications, and the anonymity of online technology that may allow for racist

sentiments to be overtly displayed without fear of repercussion.[18] There are limitations to

examining only this form of public sentiment, and methodological questions might arise around

anonymity and sample bias in a more thorough treatment of this topic. Nonetheless, this brief

discussion concerning the prolific amount of online commentary that used racist

characterizations of the groups represented in these social movements is warranted, and has the

potential to be expanded in the future.

THE WINTER OF TAMIL PROTESTS

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

68

Beginning in January 2009, in response to the humanitarian tragedy that was unfolding before

their eyes, Tamil Canadians organized protests, rallies, and demonstrations to draw attention to

the civil war between the LTTE and the government of Sri Lanka.[19] These protests were

organized by a cross-section of Tamil Canadian community organizations, and took various

forms in locations from coast to coast. One group of protesters camped out across the street from

the U.S. Consulate on University Avenue in Toronto for several months, including weeks after

the armed conflict was declared over in May 2009.[20]

After several months, culminating in the occupation of the major artillery highway, the Gardiner

Expressway, on Mother’s Day 2009, the Tamil protestors began to be viewed with increasing

hostility.[21] When the LTTE was militarily defeated by the GOSL in mid-May 2009, the Tamil

Canadian protests dwindled, although a small, dedicated group of protestors continued a steady

vigil for weeks at University Ave.[22]

Public reactions to the Tamil Canadian protesters were often mixed, as expressed in online news

articles and commentary covering the protests.[23] Some members of the public believed that

the Tamil protesters had a right to peacefully express their opinions.[24] Others felt that the

protesters were in fact breaking the law by impeding traffic flow with their demonstrations and

favoured an approach that would shut down the protests entirely.[25] Some of those voices who

were critical of the protesters included racist expressions that echoed a colonial discourse. [26]

The Tamil Canadian protesters were portrayed and perceived as being pre-modern, uncivilized,

and barbaric in a number of online comments. They were often associated with their

counterparts back home (the LTTE), who were also characterized as primitive and barbaric. This

was especially the case concerning the blockage of the Gardiner Expressway, which was viewed

with extreme hostility by some Torontonian commenters. This is vividly displayed in response

to a moderated blog posting about the Gardiner Expressway being blocked:

…these people need to compose themselves in a proper manner if they want to get

anything across to the government. On that note, from the footage I have seen on the

news websites, these Tamils are BARBARIC!!!!! in that case I agree that some of them

need to get arrested or at least get a ticket.

Comment by canadian chick[27]

Comments such as these were also common on news talk radio, in letters to the editor, in online

comments responding to news articles, and in statements made to protesters and reporters

covering the protests.[28]

Public comments made during the Tamil Canadian protests expressed racist sentiments about

Tamil Canadians. For example, many public comments stated that the protesters were bringing

their baggage to Canada, and that they should go back to where they came from.[29] These

comments ignored the fact that many of those who were protesting were young people who were

born and raised in Canada and had never even been to their parent’s homeland.[30] This

reaction may be interpreted as part of a national myth wherein it is reinforced that Tamil

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

69

Canadian protesters and the larger Tamil Canadian community are not considered authentic

Canadians because they have an attachment to their (or their parents’) homeland.

THE IDLE NO MORE MOVEMENT

While the discourse around the Tamil Canadian protests at times invoked a belief that protesters

should return home or stop bringing their homeland’s conflict into Canada, much of the

discourse surrounding the First Nations Idle No More movement ignores the fact that First

Nations peoples were the original inhabitants of Canadian land.

The Idle No More movement emerged in 2012 and was a grass-roots movement sparked by four

First Nations women in Saskatchewan. They held teach-ins to educate the community around

omnibus bills, such as Bill C-45, which impacts indigenous treaty rights and territories by

making it easier for the federal government to take control of reserve land and otherwise affect

land management.[31] First Nations communities across Canada were not consulted on these

proposed legislative measures and sought to meet with political leaders in the federal

government so that their concerns could be heard. The Idle No More movement’s message

spread to other First Nations communities across Canada and sparked a national and

international movement.

Similar to the Tamil Canadian protests, the Idle No More movement took various different forms

across the nation. The movement included flash-mob dances, a liquid-only hunger strike by

Attawapiskat Chief Teresa Spence, and blockades of railway lines and bridges to express

frustration with the lack of consultation with First Nations communities about matters

concerning their governance.[32]

Similar to the Tamil protests, the Idle No More movement at first intrigued some members of the

public via the media attention it received. Social media campaigns helped spread the message

of Idle No More, sparking the aforementioned similar movements.[33] However, as the

coverage of the movement’s activities faded in the media, so did its impact on the public

consciousness. Yet, the Idle No More movement continues to educate the public about the

continued colonization of the indigenous peoples in Canada.[34]

A similar racist and colonialized discourse was also evident in examining the public reaction to

the Idle No More movement. Indigenous protesters, like the Tamil Canadian community, were

also characterized by their otherness. Many of the comments and reactions from the public to

the Idle No More movement relied on racist stereotypes of First Nations peoples. Some reactions

to the Idle No More movement also portrayed the First Nations protesters as being “terrorists in

their own country”.[35] First Nations peoples were also often characterized as being lazy,

unproductive members of society that are a drain on public resources.[36] For example, in

response to a news article on the Idle No More protests, a commenter stated:

Idle no more/occupy movement or whatever. Makes no difference. It’s time [for] folks to

get real. Participate in Canadian life. Cut the welfare nation.. GET a job, pay taxes. And

contribute.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

70

Comment by Mach1[37]

In addition, many online commenters stated that the authorities were slow to respond to shut

down the Idle No More activities and argued that had the protesters been white Canadians, the

police would have used force.[38] In fact, several commenters on an online news item echoed

the rationale of an Ontario Superior Court Judge who expressed dismay at the provincial police

for being passive.[39] An online commenter exemplary of this sentiment stated:

We have laws against blockading roads, railways and bridges. We all know what would

happen if a bunch of non-natives tried to block them for political reasons.

Comment by Mike Miller[40]

This discourse insinuates that the police were unable to take appropriate actions because the

protesters were racialized in a way that meant their treatment as protestors was different from

that of white Canadians. Similar comments were also made during the Tamil protests and police

were criticized by some members of the public for failing to take stronger and swifter measures

to clear up the Gardiner blockage. One online commenter linked the Tamil Canadian protest on

the Gardiner Expressway to the Idle No More protest on a railway line stating:

Since Chris Lewis (the coward OPP commish) came out yesterday and basically told the

natives that they can do whatever they want, this will get nasty. Just like the Tamils that

shut down a major highway in Toronto while the cops stood there and watched.

Comment by A-Chord[41]

In comparing the reaction to these two different social movements, the Tamil Canadian protests

and the Idle No More movement, issues of race emerge as an important point of analysis.

CONCLUSION

First Nations peoples and other racialized migrants challenge the status quo and mythology of

the white settler colonial state in Canada, especially through the social movements they organize

around issues that affect them deeply. Through public protests and demonstrations, these groups

raise awareness, within larger Canadian society, of the Canadian government’s failures to

adequately address their legitimate concerns and grievances. First Nations peoples and other

racialized migrants also have a commonality in their experiences when Canadian laws and

policies continue to delegitimize their status and the public, as expressed above, questions their

right to do so. Strong alliances between First Nations peoples and other racialized migrant

communities must continue to be forged, lest the Canadian state succeed at a divide-and-conquer

strategy wherein racialized migrants do not see their commonality.[42] It is especially important

for new racialized migrants to be aware of and understand the history of colonization, genocide

and slavery that formed the basis of the present Canadian state that is excluded from most

official versions of history and the law.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

71

Multiculturalism, immigration, and humanitarianism all form an integral part of the mythology

of Canada’s national story. Canada prides itself as being an immigrant country and promoting

humanitarian values through what it perceives as a generous refugee protection program. Despite

restrictions and exclusions placed on migration throughout its history, the Canadian immigration

system has led to the diversity of present-day Canada and sets the stage for its multicultural

polices. However, imagining Canada as a fully humanitarian nation ignores periods of

inhumanity, such as the genocidal treatment of First Nations peoples, anti-Asian immigration

laws such as the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act, and the internment of thousands of

Canadians of Japanese, Italian and German decent during World War II. More recently,

however, Canadian humanitarian values are being undermined by ideological reforms to

immigration and refugee programs and a failure to address self-governance issues regarding

First Nations peoples. Protest movements by First Nations communities and Tamil Canadians

challenge these government policies and advocate for more inclusive policies. The narrative of

Canadian multiculturalism and humanitarianism is clearly tested by the underlying issues fueling

events such as these protest movements.

[1] Buerk, Roland. “Sri Lanka ceasefire formally ends” BBC News: 16 January 2008. <http://news.bbc.co.uk>

[2] United Nations. Report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka. 31 March

2011. <http://www.un.org>

[3] Quan, Douglas. “Two years on, MV Sun Sea migrants still moving slowly through the legal pipeline”. The

Vancouver Sun: 18 May 2012. <http://www.vancouversun.com>

[4] “Protesters gather in Victoria to protest the arrival of MV Sun Sea” News1130 14 August

2010. <http://www.news1130.com>

[5] Anandasangaree, Gary. Panel Discussion at Tamil Studies Conference. Toronto: 14 May 2011.

[6] “Toronto Welcomes Tamil Migrants” Noone is Illegal Toronto 21 August

2010. <http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org>

[7] The term racialized is used throughout this paper to denote the process of attributing, constructing and producing racial categories upon non-Aboriginal peoples of colour, and “the attendant experience of oppression as opposed to

the seemingly neutral use of the terms ‘visible minorities’ or ‘racial minorities,’ which have the effect of masking

the oppressions.” Galabuzi, Grace-Edward. Canada’s Economic Apartheid: The Social Exclusion of Racialized

Groups in the New Century. (Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2006) at xvi, note 1.

[8] Razack, Sherene. Race, Space, and the Law: Unmapping a White Settler Society (Toronto: Between the Lines,

2002) at 2.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

72

[12] Sharma, Nandita. “Canadian Multiculturalism and its Nationalisms” in Home and Native Land: Unsettling

Multiculuralism in Canada (Toronto: Between the Lines, 2011) at 86.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Backhouse, Constance: Colour coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900-1950: (Toronto: Osgoode

Society for Canadian Legal History, 1999) at 15.

[17] In February 2012, the Canadian government introduced Bill C-31, Protecting Canada’s Immigration System

Act, an omnibus immigration bill that refugee rights advocates argue has created “a two-tier system of refugee

protection in Canada.” Canadian Council for Refugees: <http://www.ccrweb.ca>

[18] Tien, Lee. “Who’s Afraid of Anonymous Speech – McIntyre and the Internet” 75 Or. L. Rv. 117 (1996) at 119.

[19] “Tamil protesters urge Ottawa to help stop war” Toronto Star, 21 April 2009. Available

online: <www.thestar.ca>

[20] “Tamil Protest will keep part of Toronto’s University Avenue closed indefinitely” CBC News (29 April 2009)

Available online: <http://www.cbc.ca>

[21] Goldstein, Lorrie. “Protest backlash unearths racism” Toronto Sun: 14 May, 2009. Available online:

<http://www.torontosun.com>

[22] Bonnar, John “Toronto Tamils continue protest outside U.S. Consulate” Rabble.ca 20 May 2009. Available

online:< http://rabble.ca>

[23] — “More voices on Tamil protests” Toronto Star: 13 May 2009. Available online: <http://www.thestar.com>

[24] — . “Tamil protest winds down peacefully” Toronto Star: 13 May 2009. Available

online: <http://www.thestar.com>

[25] Ingram, Mathew. “Tamil protests: Free speech or illegal outrage?” The Globe and Mail: 11 May 2009.

Available Online: <http://www.theglobeandmail.com>

[26] Goldstein, Lorrie. “Protest backlash unearths racism” Toronto Sun: 14 May 2009. Available online:

<http://www.torontosun.com&gt;

[27] Micallef, Shawn. “Tamil Protest: The taking of the Gardiner Expressway” Blog: SpacingToronto, 10 May

2009. Available online: <http://www.spacingtoronto.ca&gt;

[28] Thurairajah, Kalyani. “The Narrative of Cultural Identity: An Opening for Collective Action among the Sri

Lankan Tamil Diaspora in Toronto” Working Paper: June 2009. Available online: <<http://www.inter-

disciplinary.net>.

[29] Supra Note 18.

[30] Supra Note 28, at 7.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

73

[31] — “9 questions about Idle No More” CBC News: 5 Jan 2013. Available online: <http://www.cbc.ca>

[32] —. “Idle No More protests irritating to some, inspiring to others” CBC News: 28 Dec 2012. Available

online: <http://wwwww.cbc.ca>

[33] Canadian Press. “Idle No More spreading beyond Canada’s borders” CBC News: 1 Jan 2013. Available

online: <http://www.cbc.ca>

[34] Warren, Jeremy. “Idle No More hosts flash mob during Canada Day celebrations in Saskatoon”. The Star

Phoenix: 1 July 2012. Available online: <http://www.thestarphoenix.com>

[35] Canadian Press. “Idle No More: Manitoba newspaper gives thumbs-down to corrupt, lazy Aboriginal

‘terrorists” Toronto Star: 16 Jan 2013. Available online: <http://www.thestar.com>

[36] Ibid.

[37] Davidson, Terry. “Idle No More protests at the Toronto Sun.” Toronto Sun: 19 Jan 2013. Available

online: <http://www.torontosun.com>

[38] For example, an anonymous commenter to a news item on the Idle No More protests stated “Simple solution:

Arrest people taking part in illegal actions, no matter what race or religion they are.” Comment by TOGuy13 in

Galloway Gloria and Oliver Moore. “Idle No More protests, blockades spread across country” The Globe and Mail:

16 Jan 2013. Available online: <http://www.theglobeandmail.com>

[39] Blactchford, Christie. “Judge slams Ontario police for not breaking up Idle No More protests” The National

Post: 7 Jan 2013. Available online: <http://news.nationalpost.com>

[40] Ibid.

[41] Ibid.

[42] Progressive Tamil Canadian organizations and activists have had longstanding alliances with First Nations

communities in Canada. Recent solidarity actions include First Nations groups who attended the Tamil protests and

a teach-in with Tamil community members. “6 Nations/Tamil Activists Publish Joint Solidarity Statement” (2013).

Available online: <http://basicsnews.ca/2013/01/6-nations-tamil-activists-publish-joint-solidarity-statement&gt;

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

74

Allison Magpayo is an

undergraduate student at York

University, where she also works

as a research assistant in the

York Centre for Asian Research.

She is concurrently enrolled in

York’s Refugee and Migration

Studies Certificate and is

preparing her honors dissertation

on the diasporic discourses of

Filipino domestic workers in

Israel. She will be starting the

Masters program in Human

Geography at York University in

the fall of 2013.

Martina Vodikcova is a student

at Masaryk University in Brno,

Czech Republic, where the focus

of her PhD concerns the

educational system for refugee

children in the Czech Republic.

Until recently, she worked as a

social worker at the SOZE

organization. She continues her

practical work on behalf of

migrants as the coordinator of

the project “The increasing of

learning and professional

perspectives of children and

young people from socially

disadvantaged backgrounds”.

Since 2009 she has worked as an

assistant within the Department

of Social Pedagogy (Masaryk

University in Brno, Czech

Republic).

Discussion Series (Volume 1) How, Why and With Whom?

In the first Discussion Series, the New Scholars Network

asked the following scholars and practitioners–ranging from

undergraduates to established professionals–about how they

entered the field of forced migration. The following nine

individuals gave us insight into their personal connections to

the work they have done and hope to do, as well as their

professional aspiration and advice on doing meaningful work.

How did you enter the field of refugee studies?

Guiomar Acevedo López: Coming from a Spanish Civil War

Refugee family, my life and my work have always been

deeply bound to the everyday experiences of exile-hood…

My scholarly work points to the crosshatching of the familial

and the historical analysis of forced displacement.

Allison Magpayo: One day while on vacation in Beirut in

2009, my friends and I decided to grab a cab to find a nearby

beach. A combination of road closures, unfamiliarity with the

area, and a chatty cab driver landed us as far away from the

beach as possible, smack dab in the middle of a Palestinian

refugee camp. While I’m embarrassed to admit it, at that time

I had never really given much thought to the Israeli-

Palestinian conflict nor the status of refugees in

general…When I got home I began to do research. Soon I was

noticing refugee issues, people, and places where I hadn’t

noticed them before: my new boyfriend casually remarked

that his father worked in a refugee welcome centre; an old

friend expressed surprise, “Didn’t you know my family and I

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

75

Dr. Andrea Pacheco Pacífico is

Associate Professor of

International Relations (with

emphasis on forced migration

and refugee issues) at Paraiba

State University, Brazil, where

she co-founded and leads the

Study and Research Centre on

Environmentally Displaced

Persons (NEPDA).

Guiomar Acevedo López is a historian born in 1984 and living in Mexico City. She graduated with distinction from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and is currently obtaining an MA

degree from El Colegio de México. Her work focuses on the historical analysis of social disruption processes and forced displacement in the twentieth century. She has studied both Spanish and Bengali cases of these phenomena and is the author of Entre memoria y

olvido: ochenta años del pasado contemporáneo español (Between Memory and Oblivion: Eighty Years of Contemporary

Spanish Past).

fled here as refugees?” For me all this signaled something

very important—the status of refugees affects us all. After that

summer I went back to school.

Martina Vodikcova: I entered the field about 9 years ago as a

volunteer for the NGO Nesehnuti which was organising

leisure activities for refugees in refugee camps in the Czech

Republic. Then I had refugee issues as my main topic in my

Master’s thesis at the university. Now, I still study migration

issues during my PhD. studies (the topic of my PhD. thesis is

the education of the refugee pupils in the Czech Republic). I

still cooperate with the Czech NGO´s on the campaigns for the

public, and I still work with the migrant kids during their

leisure times.

Brittany Wheeler: I entered the field very gradually. I had

been working in the museum field for a few years, on the

educational and interpretive end, and became more actively

interested in issues of migration when I spent time interpreting

an exhibit on Colonial slavery in the United States. I became

very interested in finding parallels to modern society, and

often talked to visitors at the museum about social justice in

past centuries and now. In conjunction with this, I one day

came across an employee page for an interesting organization,

and found a woman who had studied Forced Migration at the

University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. It was

suddenly quite clear that I should start hunting the

administrator of this programme, and find out what I could

about this new direction.

Edward Ou Jin Lee: My first experiences supporting

refugees was when I met a gay refugee claimant while I was

living in Calgary. This refugee spoke about his experiences at

an LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer) human

rights conference and his story really impacted me. A few

months later, I moved to Montreal to pursue my masters in

social work. I ended up being hired as a research coordinator

for an LGBTQ refugee research project. Interestingly, I

continued to assist this gay refugee claimant and even

participated in a long term campaign for him to gain residency

through an H & C (Humanitarian and Compassionate) permit,

after he was initially refused in his refugee claim. Five years

after I met him and six years after he arrived in Canada, his H

& C was finally accepted!

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

76

Edward Ou Jin Lee is the Research Coordinator at the Speak Out! LGBTQ Refugee Research Project, a doctoral candidate at the McGill School of Social Work, and a board member of Action LGBTQ with

Immigrants and Refugees (AGIR).

Brittany Wheeler is the Repatriation Specialist at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and part of the Executive Committee of the New Scholars Network. She holds a Master’s degree in

Forced Migration Studies from the University of the Witwaterand in South Africa in 2011, conducting research on the repatriation of migrant bodies in the U.S. and South Africa and assisting with the facilitation of

the Hotel Yeoville Project.

Amna Arabi is a Senior Protection Assistant for the UNHCR in Khartoum, Sudan. She can be reached at afarabi2005@yahoo.com

Danielle Grisby: Through a series of fluke events. While

tenured in Moscow teaching theatre to Russian students, I

began to work with refugees and forced migrants from outside

the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) who were

living in temporary accommodation centres and pseudo

refugee camps north of Moscow city limits. Never before had

I experienced people so complex, work so nuanced and

interesting.

Oana Petrica: In September 2006 I arrived from Romania to

Canada to start a PhD program in Women’s Studies.

However, like many other Romanian colleagues, pursuing a

graduate degree in Canada is just a safer and easier means of

actually migrating there. As a female migrant studying in the

School of Women’s Studies, I thought I would find a feminist

network of support right there in the department between my

community of women. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the case.

Although there was some curiosity in getting to know me,

there was also lots of cornering on the grounds of my ‘white’

Eastern European, and supposedly ‘privileged’

background…In the field of refugee studies I found other

migrant women for whom the experience of migration or

refugee[hood] centrally structured their life, and through

whose generosity and care I became integrated into a work

and study community.

Amna Arabi: I started some free reading on refugee studies

while I was working for The Sudanese Popular Committee for

Relief and Rehabilitation (SPCR) in Nyala, South Darfur in

2004. Then I had the opportunity of working with UNHCR in

community services and protection sections since 2008. The

daily interaction with refugees and forced migrants has

encouraged me to research more in-depth on what are the

gaps between the needs met and the ones remaining, unmet?

And what can be done to better address these gaps?

Andrea Pacheco Pacífico: I had never heard about the

refugee dilemma before 1998/1999, when, though being a

lawyer, I moved to the UK to study my LLM/MA at

Lancaster University. There, I took a course on Politics and

IR in the Middle East and was introduced to the Palestinian

refugees’ dilemma…Two years later, in early 2002, I moved

to Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, to start my PhD in

Comparative Studies in the Americas at the University of

Brazilian, with the aim to do my research on the integration of

refugees in Brazil, particularly Muslim refugees… Some

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

77

Danielle J. Grigsby has over a decade of practical and academic

work in the field of forced migration. Grigsby’s prior experience spans the realm of direct-service provision to urban forced migrants in Moscow, Russia; education development in South Africa; resettlement policy in the USA; and refugee-

rights activism in Thailand and the Asia Pacific. Grigsby is a current PhD Candidate in Political Thought with emphasis in Migration; she holds a Masters in International Social Welfare, and a certificate in Forced Migration Studies from

Oxford University. Grigsby’s original research on service delivery models for urban forced migrants in hostile environments is published in several journals, and has presented at a plethora of conferences across the globe.

Oana Petrica is a PhD candidate (ABD)in the School of Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies at York University in Toronto. She is finalizing a thesis that applies a feminist critique of the current brain drain phenomena by examining

Romanian women’s role among highly skilled Romanian migrants to Canada. Her research interests include international migration, refugee issues, feminist political economy and transnational feminism.

other opportunities came to me after taking the 2004 Summer

Course at the Oxford University Refugee Studies Centre, the

six-month period as a visiting fellow at York Centre for

Refugee Studies in 2007, the twelve-month Post-Doctorate at

York Centre for Refugee Studies in 2009, and a twelve-month

period as a visiting research fellow at Oxford University

Refugee Studies Centre.

Kataryna Patsak: I have for a long time been passionate

about human rights. While I myself have not experienced

anything even close to any of the hardships that refugees face

I can identify with perhaps a certain aspect which is migration

as I immigrated to Canada from Ukraine. I had come to

Canada when I was around 8 and had found the transition

rather difficult and for some time had remained hopeful that

we would go back home. Remembering this inspires me to

not only academically venture further into the field of

refugee and migration studies but to also volunteer and lend

my time and effort to programs and organizations which aim

to help those who may be facing such hardships in their

recent move to Canada whether it be voluntary or forced.

Do you think particular fields of study or work experience

currently lend themselves to refugee studies more than

others?

Allison Magpayo: …With the implementation of new

security policies in the post 9/11 paradigm, migration has

become increasingly politicized. Thus, fields of study like

political science and law have become increasingly engaged

with refugee studies. However, fields as far ranging as health

studies and linguistics all lend themselves to working with

refugees and I have had the pleasure of meeting with students

in various disciplines who have honed their research to focus

on refugees and migration.

Brittany Wheeler: Once you are working in “a field” or have

“an expertise,” it is easy to lose sight of things around you, as

you bury yourself in your work. It’s important to always try

to recognize the stake others have in what you are doing.

Many museums, for example, are being created or re-defining

themselves to speak to social issues through their collections

or lack thereof. This overlaps with the field of migration in

some direct and some indirect ways. Though I wouldn’t

suggest that groups that have very divergent goals or lack

common ground and common goals force a relationship,

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

78

well-managed relationships that are inclusive of the idea of sharing insights, theory or practice

that crosses fields can be crucial to growth.

Danielle Grigsby: I am one of the first social workers most forced migration academics have

encountered while presenting at conferences, or via my original research and publications.

While not alone, my background makes me something of a minority in the academic side of this

field. However, social work allows me, academically, to conduct original research, present my

findings and then ask the, often times crucial, “so what” of my results. It is the “so what” that

can be used to influence policy, service delivery, etc.

Oana Petrica: I still think that there are huge gaps between all the elements involved in the

refugee process. There is lots of communication that needs to be done, and lots of room to look

for more partnerships and building up more connections. …In my opinion, the education system

needs to do better in terms of training and developing more ethical imaginaries and much more

compassionate subjectivities that are more connected to human rights and social justice issues,

especially in the fields of science and engineering as well as business degrees.

Andrea Pacheco Pacífico: Yes, of course. The refugee

dilemma is not new, though the current refugee regime

(rules, norms, procedures and institutions) have been

created after the World War II. The problems seems to

be the same: people are persecuted, are forced to leave

their country of origin, need permission to enter

another country, need local and international assistance

to be adjusted and integrated in the host place and have

their basic human rights protected wherever they are

settled.

Kataryna Patsak: I believe that through using critical

reflexivity academia may advance the field of refugee

and migrations studies greatly. Just as I believe that all fields of study can lend themselves to

refugee and migrations studies, I also believe that almost all types of work experience can also

lend themselves to the refugee and migrations field.

What has been your greatest accomplishment so far? Can you also name some of the most

problematic challenges you have faced?

Danielle Grisby: I gain the most satisfaction from an international advocacy campaign I was

able to orchestrate through the Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Network in the UK. This campaign

led to the resettlement of 16 Somali refugees who had been held, without status, inside a terminal

in an airport in Moscow for 15 months. It brought together advocates from the US, UK,

Switzerland, Russia, and Sweden and was orchestrated using blogs, emails, and telephone calls.

Martina Vodikcova: Nowadays, I work with refugees in the field of education. I’m always

happy when one of my clients finishes the grammar school or the university, when I can help

“There is a lot of work to be done, little

money to do it or to be paid to do it, and

it’s discouraging to see so many people

want to help, but not know how. This is a

continual discovery process–how to be

effective, and how to get on track to

begin with. It takes courage, dedication

and luck.”

Brittany Lauren Wheeler

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

79

them with the difficult process of nostrification, because I think education is one of the ways for

their better future. The same issues are also the biggest challenges because sometimes the

bureaucracy is against you…

Allison Magpayo: I have been fortunate to be involved with several student conferences and

organizations dealing with refugee and migrant rights…I am very proud of my community

involvement and currently have the privilege of working with the YMCA Canadian Post-

Secondary Access Partnership (CPSAP) on a project designed to address how CPSAP can help

to increase post-secondary access and outcomes for refugee youth… One of the things I have

found challenging is balancing volunteer responsibilities, work, school, family, and social life.

Taking on too much, especially in a field which can be emotionally overwhelming, doesn’t

benefit anyone in the long run as your quality of work may be compromised and your health and

relationships may suffer…

Brittany Wheeler: Interacting with the city of

Johannesburg and turning my degree into something

more than an academic exercise or a cloistered foray

into a foreign country or continent was something that

felt like progress to me. I was able to work in a

migrant community on an art project with a great

group of people after simply being participatory on a

particular listserv. I conducted research that revealed

new information on community leaders from

numerous African nations in regard to repatriation,

and was funded to travel to Senegal to present my

research at a conference. I think the biggest challenge,

for myself and many others I know, is knowing what

to do in the field, and even more so, how to do it.

There is a lot of work to be done, little money to do it

or to be paid to do it, and it’s discouraging to see so

many people want to help, but not know how. This is a continual discovery process–how to be

effective, and how to get on track to begin with. It takes courage, dedication and luck.”

Oana Petrica: My greatest accomplishment in the field of refugee studies relates more to

gathering some people together and working for common purposes, whether that means activism,

advocacy, or research. For example, last year I organized a graduate student conference on

refugee issues at York University. It wasn’t anything of gigantic proportions or impact, but

young people got together and, for two days, unified their thoughts and energies into improving

the refugee system worldwide.

Andrea Pacheco Pacífico: My greatest accomplishments so far have been, on one hand, the

feeling of being helpful for refugees and asylum seekers and, on the other hand, their gratitude.

These vulnerable people know how to demonstrate their feeling even when they are under

pressure. To have access to their lives and problems and being able to assist those in need have

given me strength and power to struggle for a better life for refugees and asylum seekers in host

places as well as for improvements in domestic legislations where they are settled, making them

“…such a dialogue should not only

allow room to different academic

approaches, but also allow and

encourage the participation of

practitioners and refugees themselves.

By bringing together seemingly

contradictory narratives, which unfold

on terrains public as well as familial,

refugee studies can help vindicate deeply

significant and obscure histories, which

affect everyday realities.”

Guiomar Acevedo López

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

80

feel like full citizens wherever they are. Additionally, I am proud of the accomplishments that

the Study and Research Centre on Environmentally Displaced People (NEPDA/UEPB) has

achieved.

Kataryna Patsak: Thus far I am relatively new to the field and am still at a learning stage. I

have volunteered with some initiatives and programs designed to help newcomers to Canada and

participated in conferences which had some discussion on refugee and migration issues.

Fortunately I do not feel as if thus far I have faced any major or notable challenges. Some of the

more minor problems or challenges that which I have come to face are: striking a balance

between the academic and non-academic field and doing what I believe to be meaningful work in

both, focusing or choosing only one field or area of study, or not being able to learn in an

interdisciplinary manner.

How do you see academic, practitioners, migrants, and refugee themselves working

together most adequately for a successful future? Do you have any practical examples?

Guiomar Acevedo López: My very own experience

tells me that in order to truly unravel the complexity of

refugee studies, a dialogue between disciplines is key.

But such a dialogue should not only allow room to

different academic approaches, but also allow and

encourage the participation of practitioners and

refugees themselves. By bringing together seemingly

contradictory narratives, which unfold on terrains

public as well as familial, refugee studies can help

vindicate deeply significant and obscure histories,

which affect everyday realities.

Amna Arabi: Academics continue to

provide…theoretical analysis [as] to the root causes of

the issue of refugee and forced migration, which with

no doubts has enshrined the field of refugee studies

with up-to-date knowledge and research…Practitioners

in the field have enormously contributed to the

protection of the refugees by providing valuable direct

assistance by implementing good practices, contested

at the field level and found to be workable to certain refugee’s situations. Refugees and migrants

have remained the central focus for both academics and practitioners envisioning their future to

better address their problem and enabled their voices to be heard! However many experts can

argue that refugees and forced migrants are not being fully engaged on the decision making for

the issues affecting their own lives and most of these proposed solutions have been made on their

behalf! The only way to interconnect the gaps between academics, practitioners and refugees

efforts is through building constructive partnerships… For example, a community-based

approach is one of the useful tools to build partnership within communities, practitioners and

policy makers.

“The only way to interconnect the gaps

between academics, practitioners and

refugees efforts is through building

constructive partnerships… For

example, a community-based approach

is one of the useful tools…”

Amna Arabi

“Ideally, it would be great if refugees

and migrants could participate directly in

the process of knowledge production.

For example, community-based research

projects usually have an advisory

committee that is made up of various

stakeholders, including refugees

themselves.”

Edward Ou Jin Lee

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

81

Edward Ou Jin Lee: Ideally, it would be great if refugees and migrants could participate

directly in the process of knowledge production. For example, community-based research

projects usually have an advisory committee that is made up of various stakeholders, including

refugees themselves. Another kind of research process would be participatory action research

projects. ..However, it is important to acknowledge the importance of knowledge produced that

specifically addresses the legal and policy level of refugee studies.

Andrea Pacheco Pacífico: From my point of view, academic, practitioners, migrants, refugees,

as well as local governments and international organisations, such as the UNHCR, should be

closer partners and work closer to one another in order to improve protection and promote

human rights implementation. Migrants in general, as well as refugees and asylum seekers, need

to take an active role in the integration process before, during, and after moving.

Kataryna Patsak: I believe that there must also be focus placed on the means through which

refugees are created. Those which can be changed must be focused on. For example, in the

Development field there is a focus on natural resources and their role in fueling conflicts, which

displace many people and create many refugees. This focus then attempts to address the problem

through various means. It seems to be extremely important to look for both long term and short

term solutions to various problems as well as focus on local as well as global issues.

What advice would you give to new scholars or practitioners for inserting themselves into

meaningful work?

Allison Magpayo: I’m more used to seeking advice,

rather than giving it! Keeping up to date with relevant

issues and news (through lectures, listservs, etc) has

been crucial in maintaining ongoing engagement and

facilitating opportunities for meeting like-minded

people. I also encourage new scholars to go out on a

limb when it comes to volunteer work. Many

organizations are (sadly) underfunded and

understaffed. A willingness to learn coupled with a

respectful, yet persistent manner can open many avenues for collaboration or observation…

Danielle Grisby: Be creative! Be brave. Network! Read the work of today’s experts. Take

opportunities, and create your own when none arise. Pursue advanced degrees. Also, be

persistent!

Brittany Wheeler: Keep a very active ear to the ground. The more you do this, the more a habit

it will become. At the same time, know what you can handle, work-wise and emotionally, and be

present in what you do, rather than half-committed and uninformed. Send out emails to people

that you find interesting; so many people, even people that seem amazing and remote, will reply

to you (not all of them of course, but may well find yourself surprised). Keep defining and re-

defining what interests you and thinking about where it could apply. Find out what is happening

in different geographical areas—find out what is making people angry, what people are

accomplishing—and try to incorporate it into your worldview, your conversations and your

“Be creative! Be brave. Network! Read

the work of today’s experts. Take

opportunities, and create your own when

none arise.”

Danielle Grisby

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

82

efforts. Try not to have the mentality that things are beneath you as you search and do actual

work; you can learn something from almost anything. Don’t apologize for your age, or feel

you’re too old to embark on something, but also don’t get wrapped up in yourself as a young

person that thinks they can do everything. No one else is going to do ‘it’ for you, and you’ll have

to do it over and over again. Endlessly adjust.

Oana Petrica: I would say it’s important to always

throw yourself out there for any opportunity that

might show up around. I mean, exposing oneself

might mean a lot of vulnerability, but also lots of

satisfaction and fulfillment (if it is a volunteer project,

or anything of that sort, do not be afraid to jump in).

Also, don’t be afraid that your age, gender, immigrant

status, foreign accent, or expertise are insufficient or

not good enough for what you want to pursue: don’t

be deterred by the ones who want to demean your

courage, energy, or your good will. You’re always

‘good enough’ for fighting your marginalization, or

acting in solidarity with the oppression of others!

Working in groups, and in solidarity is also important since you get to be confirmed in your

enthusiasm and actions, and don’t end up feeling lonely and isolated. Of an equal importance is

having time to take care of oneself at the end of a burdensome day. Being involved in refugee

and forced migration issues can be a burdening thing, so make sure you have time to pamper

yourself at the end of the day, or let others reward you with conversation, company, tea, etc.

Also, be sure to never forget that it’s in our hands to fight injustices, and that now more than ever

we can stand against them. Together!

Amna Arabi: I strongly advise new scholars and practitioners joining this field to uphold the

key principles including provisions of physical security and restoration of human dignity. It

involves supporting communities to rebuild their social structures by realizing their rights and

finding durable solutions. In order to master this field new scholars may need to consider linking

academics knowledge with practical working experiences at the field level to enhance the scope

of international protection.

I strongly advise new scholars and practitioners joining this field to uphold the key principles

including provisions of physical security and restoration of human dignity. It involves supporting

communities to rebuild their social structures by realizing their rights and finding durable

solutions. In order to master this field new scholars may need to consider linking academics

knowledge with practical working experiences at the field level to enhance the scope of

international protection.

Andrea Pacheco Pacífico: The first and main advice I would give them is to ally theory and

practice– that is, never stop studying and reading updated information published from official

sources, doctrine, field reports, legal norms, rules and procedures–particularly those regarding

their local workplace. Secondly, do as many courses as you can in different places, in order to

know how people from different places and with different backgrounds think about the same

“You do not need to publish only

academic papers, because your ideas are

the most important, particularly if you

are a practitioner and your daily

activities, challenges and experience will

make a difference for bureaucratic civil

servants and scholars doing research in

the field.”

Andrea Pacheo Pacífico

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

83

issue, as well as to meet people and to establish links with future partners. Thirdly, I would say:

Publish! Don’t forget to publish your ideas, your experience, or your findings. You can publish

them orally, through presenting papers in seminars or conferences, or publish them in academic

journals or local websites. You do not need to publish only academic papers, because your ideas

are the most important, particularly if you are a practitioner and your daily activities, challenges

and experience will make a difference for bureaucratic civil servants and scholars doing research

in the field. Lastly, practice and observation are of paramount importance. In the end, never

forget those people you met during your career and helped you to be what you will be in the

future – or you are already today – since networks of cooperation and trust are at the top of any

personal and professional career.

Kataryna Patsak: Although I am a new scholar myself, I believe that it is important to use

personal experiences, strengths, and things which impassion you in order to immerse yourself in

meaningful work. It is also very important to not only actively participate in the academic field

but also to venture outside of it and interact with the practical field, which will allow you to see

and understand the realities which academics address.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

84

Discussion Series (Volume 2)

How Has Refugee Law Been Politicized?

YUKARI ANDO*

BRÍD NÍ GHRÁINNE**

HILLARY MELLINGER***

HARINI SIVALINGAM****

In the second Discussion Series, the New Scholars Network asked new scholars to contribute

their opinion to an international discussion around the question, How has refugee law been

politicized? With this question, we wished to examine the directions that refugee law and

legislation are taking around the world. In particular, we were interested in how new legislative

changes being intertwined with political, social and economic considerations. Does such a

consideration provide any answers to questions such as, Why may one group or claim be

designated as ‘bogus’ as opposed to another? Why are ‘safe third country’ agreements set up

between certain countries and not others? Who are the ‘desirable’ refugees and why?

*Yukari Ando is a Specially Appointed Assistant Professor at Osaka University, Japan. Her main research interest

is the principle of Non-Refoulement under the Convention against Torture, the International Covenant on Civil and

Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. Before joining Osaka University, she served as a

programme adviser in the Cabinet Office of Japan. During this period, she was involved in the General Election in

Sudan in 2010 and the Southern Sudan Referendum in 2011 as an international observer.

**Bríd Ní Ghráinne is undertaking a Doctorate of Philosophy in Law at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford.

Her thesis is supervised by Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill and its focus is on the relationship between refugee law

and the protection of internally displaced persons. Bríd also holds a BCL (International) and a Diploma in Legal

Irish from NUI, Galway, an LLM in Public International Law from Universiteit Leiden, and a Diploma in Legal

French from the Law Society of Ireland. She is the current coach of the University of Oxford Jessup Moot Court

team and prior to coming to Oxford, she worked as a legal trainee at the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs.

***Hillary Mellinger is currently a graduate student at George Mason University, where she is pursuing an MA in

political science. The focus of her research is on forced migration, comparative judicial systems, and international

law. Hillary received her BA in International Relations and Modern Languages from Beloit College. She intends to

pursue a PhD in political science.

****Harini Sivalingam is currently a PhD Candidate in the Socio-Legal Studies program at York University. She

obtained her LL.B. at Osgoode Hall Law School and was called to the Ontario Bar in 2006. Harini completed her

LL.M. in International Comparative Law at McGill University in 2009. Her research interests include immigration

and refugee law and securitization of borders.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

85

The Irish economy, formerly known as the “Celtic Tiger” was one of the largest success stories

of the recent boom. In 2008, however, Ireland entered into recession after 24 years of continuous

growth, which resulted in the collapse of the property market and what has been described as

“one of the most expensive banking crises in history”. Today, Ireland faces a 14.6%

unemployment rate (as of January 2013), harsh austerity measures, and widespread immigration.

Although Ireland has one of the lowest refugee

recognition rates in Europe, refugees and asylum-seekers

are seen as an unnecessary fiscal burden on a country

steeped in recession. This culture of resentment is most

evident in the headlines concerning asylum-seekers: most,

if not all, deal with what is portrayed as “excessive” or

“incredible” expenditure. Take, for example, the payment

of €89.5m to the owner of Mosney, a former holiday

camp providing accommodation for asylum seekers in

County Meath, in the east of Ireland. Another story

focuses on the payment of €620,000 to a lawyer for work

as a member of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, which hears the appeals of asylum-seekers who

have had their claims rejected. Significantly, none of these large payments were made to asylum-

seekers themselves.

In stark contrast to these figures is the dire poverty facing the individual asylum-seeker. The

system of “direct provision” is described by the Reception and Integration Agency of the

Department of Justice as “full board and accommodation free of utility or other cost” intended

“to ensure material needs [of asylum seekers] are met”. This entails a weekly allowance of just

€19.10 a week for adults and €9.60 a week for a child. In 2012, more than 60% of asylum -

seekers had been dependent on “direct provision” for over three years. In addition, unlike other

EU countries, asylum-seekers do not have the right to seek work. The most disturbing aspect of

the system of direct provision, however, is that the weekly allowance has remained the same for

12 years – thus even when Ireland was riding on the crest of an economic wave, a family of four

asylum-seekers were living on less than €3,000 a year.

Change in legislation concerning asylum-seekers has been on the agenda, however. The failed

Asylum, Residence and Immigration Bill 2010 provided numerous reforms, including the

introduction of a single protection procedure, replacing the current two-step process whereby

subsidiary protection may only be applied for after an asylum claim has failed. Unfortunately,

the Bill neglected to address the system of direct provision. Considering that the system of direct

“The most disturbing aspect of the

system of direct provision…is that

the weekly allowance has remained

the same for 12 years – thus even

when Ireland was riding on the crest

of an economic wave, a family of

four asylum-seekers were living on

less than €3,000 a year.”

An Irish Perspective

Bríd Ní Ghráinne

Doctoral Candidate, University of Oxford

Brid.nighraine@sant.ox.ac.uk

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

86

Source：Immigration Bureau, Ministry of Justice (19 March 2013)

http://www.moj.go.jp/nyuukokukanri/kouhou/nyuukokukanri03_00094.html

provision remained unchanged in the boom years, it is unlikely that positive change is on the

horizon in the current economic climate and significant further expenditure on behalf of asylum-

seekers seems a no-go area insofar as the Irish politician is concerned.

The Immigration Bureau, Ministry of Justice, Japan has recently announced its 2012 data. 2,545

applications for recognition of refugee status have been submitted—a 36% increase compared

with 2011. 18 persons were granted refugee status—a 15% decrease compared with 2011. 1,738

persons filed an appeal when their requests were denied. The number of both asylum

applications and appeals were the highest they have been since the system was created in 1982.

The top ten countries of origin are: 1. Turkey, 2. Myanmar, 3. Nepal, 4. Pakistan, 5. Sri Lanka, 6.

Bangladesh, 7. India, 8. Nigeria, 9. Ghana, and 10. Cameroon. The highest number of applicants

have been from Myanmar for a long time, but in 2012, this shifted to applicants from Turkey.

The applicants from Africa, such as Nigeria, more than doubled, and Ghana did not even appear

the top ten in 2011.

What do these numbers tell

us? Which kind of messages

do we receive? Has the

Immigration Control and

Refugee Recognition Act

been politicised in Japan?

It is true that we must be

aware of the trick of

numbers, and that we must

take into account every

individual case and consider

whether s/he has met a well-

founded fear of persecution.

I feel, however, a little strange that the graph curves are not parallel—namely, why have the

number of persons granted refugee status decreased, while the refugee applications and appeals

have increased?

We cannot deny that Japan has been facing a critical period after the Great East Japan

Earthquake on 11 March 2011. What do the following economic numbers tell us?

A Japanese Perspective

Yukari Ando Specially Appointed Assistant Professor at Osaka University

ando@glocol.osaka-u.ac.jp

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

87

GNI per capita (in dollars)*

ODA (in millions of dollars)**

Unemployment Rate (%)***

2008 37,840 9,601 4.0

2009 37,580 9,457 5.1

2010 42,050 11,021 5.1

2011 44,900 10,831 4.6

Sources: *http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GNP.PCAP.CD

**http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/gaiko/oda/shiryo/jisseki.html

***http://www.stat.go.jp/data/roudou/sokuhou/tsuki/index.htm

I am actually surprised

by this data, since

newspapers are often

telling us “How severe

the economic situation

is!” or that the

“Livelihood protection

subsidy has recorded

the highest numbers,”

etc. I can imagine that

many people have

almost the same

impression. Certain people in Japan tend to think: Why must we receive people from abroad,

while people in Fukushima are displaced due to nuclear power plants and are really suffering?

Why we must use money, while we need to reconstruct Japan after the tragic natural disaster?

Those people probably have an understanding of the situation only in specific areas or particular

regions of Japan, but are not considering the entire country. While we should be facing the

severe situation after the tsunami, this cannot be a justifiable excuse to exempt Japan from the

obligations of the 1951 Refugee Convention as a State Party. This example of the discrepancy

between applications for recognition of refugee status and the acceptance rate in Japan has made

me realise how mass media influences the image of events which is likely to establish the wider

public opinion. This consequently politicizes refugee policy and affects amendments of refugee

law or legislation in the future.

Another interesting phenomenon in Japan is the pilot

case of third country resettlement. Japan has received

several families (45 persons) since 2010 for 5 years as

a pilot project. This screening process is ad hoc, and it

is not an ordinary refugee determination process. 16

persons from three families, however, declined to

come to Japan under the third country resettlement

programme, and no one else came under the scheme

of third country resettlement in 2012. These three

families had participated in pre-departure/cultural

orientation outside of the Mae La Refugee camp in Thailand, and they experienced heightened

anxiety due to leaving their aged grandparents behind in the camp. Then, on 8th March 2013, the

Government of Japan broadened the concept of family, with the intention of broadening third

country resettlement. The initial concept of family included only the applicant, their spouse, and

their children. The current concept, however, includes parents and unmarried sisters and brothers

of the applicant and applicant’s spouse. Having said that, persons considered eligible for third

country resettlement are still limited to only those from Myanmar who stay at specific refugee

camps in Thailand, such as Mae La, Noh Poe or Umpiem Mai.

Although the number of persons settled through third country resettlement is not big, this is the

first third country resettlement project in Asia. The third country resettlement project is not based

“Another interesting phenomenon in

Japan is the pilot case of third country

resettlement. Japan has received several

families (45 persons) since 2010 for 5

years as a pilot project. This screening

process is ad hoc, and it is not an

ordinary refugee determination process.”

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

88

on the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act in Japan. It entirely relies on politics.

If Japan would like to take a role of leadership in Asia, Japan must take initiate good practice. It

might have the effect of broadening this to the other Asian countries. I hope it will have a

positive effect on a brighter future in refugee resettlement in the entirety of Asia.

Migration laws have historically been a means for nation states to regulate their population

levels as well as control migration into the country. These laws are often created, sustained and

reformed due to political, economic and social-cultural motivations and rationales. Asylum laws

concerning vulnerable refugee populations are at the most risk of being politicized by refugee

receiving countries around the world.

One recent trend in how refugee laws have been increasingly politicized is the

extraterritorialization of migration laws to screen out undesirable refugee populations. While

visas have historically been used to control who is allowed entry into states, Western nations

who receive large refugee influxes, such as Canada and Australia, have increasingly been

extending their migration laws outside the confines of their borders to monitor and regulate the

flow of refugees into their states.

There are two ways in which extraterritorialization of

borders is being executed in Australia. The first is

outsourcing the processing of refugees from the refugee

receiving state. The Australian government

implemented the Pacific Solution, a strategy to process

asylum seekers off-shore on small islands, some of

which were excised from Australia for the purpose of

refugee processing. Part of this strategy involved the

interdiction of boats carrying asylum seekers by

intercepting boats destined for Australia and diverting

them to small Pacific islands or third countries such as

Indonesia. More recently, Australia has undertaken

another form of extraterritorialization of its asylum laws by outsourcing its refugee resettlement

efforts to third party countries, such as Malaysia, through a refugee swap program. In exchange

for receiving unprocessed (and unwanted) refugees from Australia, Malaysia (a country that has

not signed the 1951 Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees) will send refugees already

processed and approved by the UN into Australia.

The Extraterritoriality of State Responsibilities Towards Refugees: An Australian and Canadian

Perspective Harini Sivalingam PhD Candidate, Socio-Legal Studies

York University, harini06@yorku.ca

“In exchange for receiving

unprocessed (and unwanted) refugees

from Australia, Malaysia (a country

that has not signed the 1951 Geneva

Convention on the Status of Refugees)

will send refugees already processed

and approved by the UN into

Australia.”

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

89

Another method of extraterritorialization of migration laws is the extension of a state’s presence

into another state, as seen in Canada. These methods of border control measures have been used

in preventing refugee flows as well as enforcement. After its own experiences with unwanted

and unwelcomed boat arrivals of refugees, the Canadian government has increased its efforts to

prevent asylum seekers in transit from Southeast Asian countries from seeking refuge in Canada

by utilizing human smugglers. The Canadian government has dispatched senior boarder control

officials (CBSA), intelligence officers (CSIS), and law enforcement officials (RCMP) to

countries such as Thailand and Indonesia to assist local officials in dismantling operations that

attempt to transport asylum seekers aboard. Another example of the Canadian government’s

border control policies extending beyond its own national borders is an advertising campaign by

the Canadian government in Hungry to prevent or dissuade those intending to seek asylum from

coming to Canada because of its harsh climate. Finally, the Canadian government has also

undertaken outsourcing another aspect of its refugee processing to an international non-

governmental organization. This program encourages failed refugee claimants to voluntarily

return to their homeland by providing monetary incentives through the offices of the

International Migration Organization (IMO).

All of these programs have been extensively criticized by refugee advocates. These global

trends to prevent refugees from seeking asylum are both alarming and disturbing and go against

the spirit of the Geneva Conventions. These measures also reinforce the notion that the only

genuine refugee is one selected by refugee receiving states through their national refugee

resettlement programs. Refugees that arrive at the borders are perceived to be illegitimate and

bogus. These trends also highlight the presence of a two-tiered refugee system where rights and

protection are established by mode of arrival rather than the merits of their claims of persecution.

Extraterritorialization of migration laws results not only in the offloading of refugee populations

to other countries, but also in shifting state responsibilities for protecting vulnerable refugee

populations.

On May 6, 2006, The Spectator, a British magazine, featured a political cartoon of a judge

asking, “How does the prisoner plead? Innocent or asylum-seeker?”[i] Such a characterization

of asylum seekers exists within the US immigration system today. The US has sought to uphold

two goals – protecting national security and providing a safe haven to bona fide asylum seekers.

These goals are not mutually exclusive, yet US immigration law is phrased in such a way that

asylum seekers are often conflated with terrorists and consequently barred from accessing

protection from persecution.

Terrorist or Asylum Seeker? A U.S. Perspective

Hillary Mellinger George Mason University

mellingerh@alumni.beloit.edu

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

90

US immigration laws have traditionally barred from asylum those individuals who are or were

members of terrorist organizations, participated in terrorist activities, persecuted others, or

committed particularly serious crimes.[ii] However, following September 11, 2001, the US took

a much harder stance towards immigration. The USA Patriot Act of 2001 expanded the

definition of a “terrorist organization” by defining it as “any group of two or more individuals,

whether organized or not, which engages in, or has a subgroup which engages in, terrorist

activities.” [iii] The REAL ID Act, passed by Congress in 2005, further expanded the definition

of what constituted a terrorist organization or a terrorist activity. [iv] In addition, the REAL ID

Act barred anyone who provided “material support” to an “organization engaged in terrorist

activity” from being eligible for asylum. [v] These immigration laws are often referred to as the

“terrorism related inadmissibility grounds,” or TRIG.

These laws were written in a very expansive and all-

encompassing manner. For example, the definition of

“material support” is construed so broadly that it can

include almost any act – even those not traditionally

associated with terrorism. For example, a Burundian

refugee who had his lunch and four dollars stolen from

him by a rebel group was labeled as having provided

“material support” to a terrorist organization.

Similarly, child soldiers who were recruited and forced

into combat are also barred from asylum. Likewise,

freedom fighters — even those that collaborated with

the US in overthrowing a regime, or whose mission

was aligned with US foreign policy – are often deemed to be terrorists.[vi]

As a result of these broad and inclusive definitions, the USA Patriot and REAL ID Acts

produced the unintended consequence of limiting access to the asylum system by actual, bona

fide asylum seekers and refugees. [vii] As a 2006 New York Times article notes, “The number of

refugees admitted to the United States fell 23 percent this year [2006] because of provisions in

two antiterrorism laws… The laws, the USA Patriot Act and the Real ID Act, deny entry to

anyone who belongs to or has provided material support to armed rebel groups, even if that

support was coerced and even if the armed groups fought alongside American troops or opposed

authoritarian governments criticized by the Bush administration.”[viii]

These acts underscore the tension between safeguarding refugees and protecting national

security. Congress passed these acts in an effort to prevent terrorists from abusing the US

immigration system. In essence, however, these acts prevented many bona fide asylum seekers

from accessing protection from persecution.

This ongoing debate between national security and the security of asylum seekers and refugees is

all the more prominent in light of the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15, 2013. It is

important that we seek to safeguard national security in ways that are not to the detriment of the

very populations that US immigration law and the 1951 Refugee Convention seek to protect.

“For example, a Burundian refugee who

had his lunch and four dollars stolen

from him by a rebel group was labeled as

having provided “material support” to a

terrorist organization. Similarly, child

soldiers who were recruited and forced

into combat are also barred from

asylum.” [vi]

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

91

[i] The Spectator, May 6, 2006. Found in: Bohmer, Carol and Amy Shuman, 2008. Rejecting Refugees: Political

Asylum in the 21st Century. USA and Canada: Routledge.

[ii] Human Rights First. 2002. “Denial and Delay: The Impact of the Immigration Law’s “Terrorism Bars” on

Asylum Seekers and Refugees in the United States.” Available at http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/wp-

content/uploads/pdf/RPP-DenialandDelay-FULL-111009-web.pdf, page 10 [accessed May 3, 2013].

[iii] INA §212(a)(3)(B)(vi)(III)

[iv] Human Rights First. 2002. “Denial and Delay: The Impact of the Immigration Law’s “Terrorism Bars” on

Asylum Seekers and Refugees in the United States.” Available at http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/wp-

content/uploads/pdf/RPP-DenialandDelay-FULL-111009-web.pdf, page 7 [accessed May 3, 2013].

[v] Nezer, Melanie and Anwen Hughes, 2009. “Understanding the Terrorism-Related Inadmissibility Grounds: A Practitioner’s Guide.” Immigration & Nationality Law Handbook. American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Available at http://www.ailawebcle.org/resources/Resources%20for%208-16-11%20Seminar.pdf (accessed April 8,

2013), Citing from the Immigration Act of 1990 (IMMACT90), Pub. L. No. 101-649, 104 Stat. 4978, §601(a)

(adding INA §212(a)(3)(B)) and §602(a) (adding INA §241(a)(4)(B))

[vi] Human Rights First. 2002. “Denial and Delay: The Impact of the Immigration Law’s “Terrorism Bars” on

Asylum Seekers and Refugees in the United States.” Available at http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/wp-

content/uploads/pdf/RPP-DenialandDelay-FULL-111009-web.pdf, page 6 [accessed May 3, 2013].

[vii] Nezer and Hughes

[viii] Swarns, Rachel L. 2006. “Terror Laws Cut Resettlement of Refguees.” September 28. New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/28/washington/28refugees.html?_r=1 [accessed April 12, 2013].

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

92

Interview: Migration and the Social Order

IAN WILLIAMS

As the New Scholars Network (NSN) prepared its journal dedicated to social movements and

forced migration, it reached out to the young and involved to hear their stories of what it was

like to be a part, or to attempt to be a part, of the study and work surrounding refugee and forced

migration situations. Ian Williams, who independently met two members of the NSN over the past

two years, is such a person. Currently, Ian is living and working in Brooklyn, NY while on leave

from a Master’s in Social Work program at Hunter College. Influenced by new social movements

such as Occupy Wall Street, he is keenly interested in rethinking the genealogy of community

organizing as taught and trained in its professionalized forms. (October 2012)

Ian can be contacted at iangraywilliams@gmail.com.

How did you begin working with Somali refugees in Vermont?

I started working with Vermont’s Somali Bantu community when I was hired to work an

AmeriCorps*VISTA position in the summer of 2010. VISTA – Volunteers in Service to America

– is a domestic version of the Peace Corps, where participants live at the US poverty level and

work on anti-poverty projects.

I took the position with the Somali Bantu Community Association of Vermont, Inc. (SBCAVT),

knowing almost nothing about Somali or East African history and culre, but somehow qualifying

for it as someone who was familiar with the bureaucratic and social protocols relating to refugee

populations in the nonprofit sector. I did have my doubts about my kind of expertise being

transferable.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

93

The term cultural competency is thrown around quite a bit in the non-profit sector, and while it’s

a well-intentioned attempt to adjust programs and services to the varying life-worlds of different

cultural backgrounds, it is often deployed in service of liberal multiculturalism, an ideology that

ignores historical and structural causes of oppression – particularly capitalism, settler

colonialism, and white supremacy. I find it highly problematic, and frankly, disturbing when

difference is reduced to diversity.

What useful tools did you leave that experience with? Did it point you in a particular

direction for future work, or extinguish any old desires that you learned weren’t as useful

as you hoped?

I learned quite a bit about bureaucracy and professional-managerial culture, as well as the culture

of professionalized activism. I also learned about the history of resistance movements, theories

and values around community self-determination, and what James Scott calls the “hidden

transcripts” of oppressed peoples – that is, the things that occur and are said when those in power

are no longer present.[iii]

I added to this mix by sitting in on some courses at Concordia University, the focus of which was

to put academic research in service of radical activism. I wanted some background and context to

situate my work, and felt I needed some outside expertise to guide me through the incredibly

confusing and convoluted work world I occupied. Applying this analysis to my work, I found

that government and non-to-para-governmental agencies are incredibly hostile to critical analysis

– and in particular, the progressive, neoliberal “good governance” types that have flourished in

the Burlington [Vermont] area.[vi]. Equally, though, I learned quite a bit about how the formal

education I received as an undergraduate student, which is so effective at critical analysis, failed

to train me in a critical awareness of myself, and how I utilize that in community practice. [vii]

It was a time where I started to really reassess how I interacted and communicated with others,

and how I could work collaboratively in a community-based setting while still maintaining a

critical edge. It’s something I am struggling with, particularly now that I’m in social work

school. But in my earlier experience, I generally found organizations run by communities on the

margins of society – be they immigrants, people of color, low income, or some other kind of

marginalized social status – to be far easier to navigate as a worker. The hidden rules, rituals, and

etiquette of state-regulated organizations, given my own structural position as a white, English-

speaking male with a university education, seem far harder for me to operate within, and tend to

draw out my rebellious and anti-authoritarian tendencies. Probably this set the stage for me to

jump right into Occupy Wall Street.

How did you become involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement?

I heard rumblings about Occupy Wall Street from friends in activist and political circles –

generally anarchist, libertarian, and conspiracy theory-inclined friends seemed the most excited. I

had been involved in a few activist projects prior to OWS’s inception, primarily through my

then-partner – who at the time was working as a labor organizer – and the Vermont Workers’

Center. When it started, I watched some Livestream videos of arrests over the first weekend, and

noticed Occupy-related posts rapidly dominate my Facebook friend feed.[viii]

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

94

Between some pretty serious changes in my personal life and a year of struggling against far too

many levels of government bureaucracy, I felt burned out and exhausted. At the end of

September 2010, I went down to Boston for the Right to the City Alliance’s (RTTC) annual

membership congress. Several thousand people marched on Bank of America’s Boston central

office, and then wandered into Dewey Square, where Occupy Boston was setting up its camp.

My curiosity piqued; after attending more actions with RTTC, I went back to Dewey Square and

stuck around for a General Assembly.

That moment blew me away, changing the course of my life. I knew the collective

communication and decision-making processes it incorporated – consensus decision making,

facilitation, and Open Space Technology – through my previous work and studies, but never

experienced something beyond small groups or trainings, often organized within strictly activist

circles, municipal bureaucracies, or classroom environments. Here, everyone could participate,

say what they wanted, and no one was a leader – at least, not in the sense that term usually

implies.[ix] After having some of the most inspiring conversations with strangers in years, I

knew I wanted more. I went home and back to work at the end of the weekend, and immediately

felt the ecstatic inspiration starting to slip in the banality of everyday life. That night I called up

some friends who were planning to go down to Zuccotti Park, quit my job, and got a bus ticket

for the next day.

I spent a week in Zuccotti Park – or, as it’s commonly known within the movement, Liberty

Plaza – while exploring all the nuances of this living, growing, pulsing entity that was hard to

make sense of. Every day was a new series of adventures, new information, new working groups,

another series of deep, honest conversations with complete strangers who felt like family, flash

conflicts with police and the authorities, and all of it felt both precarious and full of life. It felt

like the well-worn phrase of the Industrial Workers of the World: “building a new world in the

shell of the old.”[x]

After returning from NYC, I got involved in Burlington’s nascent Occupy group and found

myself swept up in starting a general assembly and planning an encampment. My lease expired,

and, to stretch my meager savings, I moved into the encampment and, after its eviction, onto

friends’ couches. I moved down to Brooklyn in late December to be more involved with Occupy

Wall Street. At that point I threw myself all the way into it, spending the winter and most of the

spring organizing and participating in a whole host of projects and actions in NYC and

Washington, DC.

Do you think that there are similarities and parallels between your work in refugee

resettlement and Occupy Wall Street?

To describe each – refugee resettlement (more broadly, contemporary forms of migration) and

Occupy Wall Street – as distinct entities ignores some of the shared histories of struggle that

such worlds have encompassed. The struggles of refugees, a particular classification of

immigrants – and here I think it’s important to refuse state definitions of who is legitimately

struggling and who is not, and therefore who deserves sympathy, solidarity, and aid – are tied to

the transformation of the world amid growth of global capitalism, a process that has spanned

centuries and significantly intensified over the past several decades.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

95

Today, human migration is more frequent than ever before in history. There are many

intersecting forms of displacement – economic, environmental, political, situations of protracted

war, and so on. States have responded to these crises through increased securitization, regulation

and control of borders, and increasingly sophisticated systems of regulating, tracking, detaining,

and processing immigrants. This has created policies that criminalize the very notion of

migration, or at least, migration that is not deemed legitimate by the state’s regulations – which

are absurd, illogical, and fail to correspond to people’s lived realities.

On the other hand, Occupy Wall Street’s genealogy is

incredibly complex and difficult to decipher, but I tend

to draw from David Graeber’s analysis of forms and

subcultures of neo-anarchist direct action organizing

that grew with anti-globalization movement.[xi] Given

that the state – in its present form, that of the nation-

state – is only a few hundred years old and human

social history is far, far longer, there’s little reason to

believe that currently dominant and popular forms of

collective social management are necessarily the best

or only possible options.

In that sense, current trends within refugee

resettlement are not at all different from current social

movements like Occupy Wall Street – both are, quite simply, people trying to redefine the world

around them to better suit their needs, in the failure of established institutions and figures of

authority to provide, and thus the failure of their moral legitimacy.

Do you find a parallel between the way in which the ‘Global North’ might disrupt the lives

and economies of its citizens (or its ‘underclass’) and the way in which persons in the

‘Global South’ are disrupted physically, socially and economically such that they become

refugees or displaced persons? Is this a useful way of thinking about things?

This is definitely a useful way to conceptualize things. The disruption of lives, and livelihood, of

marginalized populations is very much a systemic process, one that has only intensified through

global neoliberalization. Simon Springer, a geographer at the University of Victoria, wrote a

fascinating article on the variegations of this process throughout the world – that is, its uneven

and locally specific effects. Simon’s research has mostly focused on the role of state violence in

Cambodia during the post-transition years, and he’s made a number of interesting observations

about the relationship between NGO development policies and state violence.[xiv] The spread of

an American vision of democracy throughout the post-Cold War world brought with it a judicio-

political apparatus of market economies, embedded notions of property and social hierarchy, and

has engendered certain kinds of marginalization that simply didn’t exist before.

This marginalization through neoimperialist economic and political development policies has

displaced countless individuals. So have the ecological effects of resource extraction, climate

change, wars, and industrialization. Trade agreements, too, have led a chain of causal relations

between the actions of the Global North and the Global South, which has certainly intensified

“These waves of migration are all tied up

in the global financial system: structural

adjustment policies putting farmers and

peasants out of work, land-grabbing

displacing indigenous peoples,

intensified commodification of land and

common resources fostering resource

wars, and disaster capitalist “emerging

markets” that spring out of climate

crises, to name a few.”

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

96

migration as a response to these disruptions of existing social systems that have been affected by

these policy changes.

How would you comment on the lack of social movements on behalf of refugees? Or, are

there such movements? What prevents these movements from happening, and what

mobilizes them? How are refugees best served when they cannot be or are not involved?

A movement is rarely a singular entity; more often it

is a diverse field of forces coalescing and breaking

apart, but nonetheless unified. How it is defined

operationalizes how its possibilities are perceived –

even how a social movement might be defined, in

terms of how it is “on behalf of” a particular cause,

group, or interest. For example, a movement around

refugees certainly exists, but the framing of your

question (“social movements on behalf of the

refugees”) is very different than, say, a movement that

exists alongside or is led by refugees.[xv] If one looks

for a movement on behalf of refugees, there is a

presumption of a certain process: professionals, often

non-refugees, who organize their efforts so as to appeal to some external cluster of power. As

professionals, they often build their careers around such projects and thus become experts and

spokespersons – those who are sanctioned by the powers that be to speak on behalf of the issues.

This is less of a social movement (as a diverse field of forces operating in some sense of

coordination with each other) than advocacy, which certainly serves a valuable purpose in the

struggle for the rights and wellbeing of refugees, but it in and of itself does not constitute a wider

societal revolt against a particular configuration of oppressions, and is likely not accountable to

“frontline communities.” [xvi]

Some of the problem of understanding the migrant justice movement comes from the role of

community practitioners, and their perspective on societal unrest. The professionalization of

community practice, a hallmark of neoliberal ideology and policy, comes at the expense of

practitioners’ engaging in radical and grassroots efforts towards social change – and also, in the

capacity to determine one’s struggles in one’s own language, on one’s own terms. In the largely

positivist ideologies of professional community practice, the infinitely complex processes of

community self-organization have become streamlined into a series of predictable and

manageable methodologies, partitioned by specialization and discipline, with the professional

sitting as the manager of such technocratic systems. Hence, the refugee silo – and the self-

imposed limits on expectations and linkages by a generation of professionals trained to think of

their work in terms of a menu option of competencies and specializations, instead of a

reconfiguration of the relation between such things or going after the root causes of such

phenomena.

“Hence, the refugee silo – and the self-

imposed limits on expectations and

linkages by a generation of professionals

trained to think of their work in terms of

a menu option of competencies and

specializations, instead of a

reconfiguration of the relation between

such things or going after the root causes

of such phenomena.”

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

97

What is the potential for solidarity between social movements that resist various types of

marginalization?

There is great potential for solidarity between social movements; the early days of the Occupy

movement hinted at that as the political dead-end of single-issue and identity politics seemed to

sweep back into a total structural critique of society. In and around OWS now, there are thriving

alliances, campaigns, coalitions, and working groups that are connecting social movements of

many stripes. These various movements have cross-fertilized and are producing new modes of

analysis, new critiques of the structures of society (like Strike Debt), and new ways of being.

The potential for solidarity also exists within individuals like myself, who are operating in and

outside of activist circles. I very much seek for my social work education to be in service of my

radical politics; not in a dogmatic, ideological way, but as a my firm conviction that someone

seeking to help people in their social circumstances ought to seek the total and complete

eradication of the forces that produce alienation and oppression.

OWS is a rather interesting movement as it, for a while, was able to claim legitimacy of not only

representing, but being comprised of a wide-enough variety of individuals to represent incredibly

diverse array of constituencies. It is also at once unified and completely decentralized – more a

field of forces than a singular entity. It has a kind of semiotics backing it – the various memes,

which even go back to the Adbusters call to action and subsequent Twitter hashtags like #OWS,

whom no one can really claim domain or ownership over, and thus they operate as open-sourced

tools for communication and messaging.

If we’re to return to the Occupy Wall Street movement, as you know, protesters have often

been referred to collectively as ‘‘hippies’, ‘anarchists’, or ‘communists’ in the media. How

would you comment on that?

I would first comment on the role of the media, by which you must mean corporate, mainstream

media. Their role, though a more public discourse might refer to them as the watchdogs of

society, is to process information about society and everyday life in such a way that it reproduces

its basic structure – that is, relations of capital, power, private property, and production. Thus it

cannot be assumed that corporate media is likely to, let alone is capable of, portraying activists in

a positive or sympathetic light. There are moments, certainly, where this happens, but by and

large such moments fit into a larger framework and narrative that may not be defined by the

activists themselves. It may, instead, be defined by the terms of a largely white, middle class

liberal audience.

In the Occupy movement there are many kinds of political and subcultural identities, though to

reduce any one person to a category or a label within is a kind of positivist methodology that I

am struggling with in the beginnings of my Social Work education. There are indeed hippies –

although what that means is up for wild interpretation – as well as punks, travelers (hitchhikers),

mystics, rappers, Burning Man participants, etc. There are also doctors, nurses, lawyers, social

workers, engineers, chefs, professors, priests, and all sorts of professionals whom corporate

media might be more likely to depict in a positive light. This was actually one of the most

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

98

exciting things about the Occupy movement – it blurred, and sometimes eradicated, social

boundaries amidst an attempt to create egalitarian communities, often in the heart of urban

financial centers where such divides are perpetuated and profited upon every day.

Most people participating in Occupy Wall Street, though, were not doing so because of their

political ideologies or lifestyle choices. They were doing so because of the fundamental crisis of

our economic, political, and social systems – one in which poor and middle-class families are

increasingly robbed of a future they grew up with the promise of, while an increasingly small

number of powerful, wealthy individuals (the 1%) consolidated their control over the state. But

none of this, like the above-mentioned portrayals or questions, is really what matters. What

matters is that people were fed up, felt that conventional politics had failed, and found promise in

seeking out a new kind of society – creating it, if temporarily, in the parks and squares they

occupied.

On a related note of terminology used for those involved in ‘social movements,’ refugees

and asylum seekers may be portrayed in the media as “terrorists” and “criminals.” Do you

think the media uses similar mechanisms to create categories of unwanted or undesirable

persons when it comes to refugees? How widely does this marker of undesirability go, as

you have seen it, and what problems might it create?

Refugees and asylum seekers often come from incredibly different backgrounds than those they

encounter in their new homes. Self-organizing to seek material needs, their actions are often

extralegal. Some of these other types of non-state entities, militant in their approaches, have been

labeled as terrorist by state and para-state security entities, a practice that has a long history prior

to its codification into law during the War on Terror. Thus, the tropes of undesirability – be they

through criminalization of dissident individuals, marginalized communities, or groups whose

existence pose a threat to the legitimacy of the dominant social order – come to play, and are a

convenient distraction to focus the attention of communities on while their futures are being

stolen from them by the ruling elite. We’re living amidst a number of global crises that pose a

threat to the very social order we’re living in, and it’s quite laughable that media, particularly

North American mainstream media, can devote so much effort to delegitimizing the claims

people have to basic needs – often around safety and survival – while also uncritically

celebrating the lavish lives of the wealthy and powerful.

A fundamental problem this creates is illusory divisions between groups of people whose self-

interest has far more in common. A working class person of EuroAmerican descent has a lot

more in common with an individual risking their safety to cross borders and reach some degree

of economic stability than they do with the managers of the companies that are relocating

working class jobs to other countries and privatizing the commons, forcing people to seek the

means to meet their basic needs farther and farther away from their families and homes. Yet the

illusion holds strong through embedded ideologies of monoethnic nationalism, Eurocentrism,

and white supremacy, giving social support to a rise in right-wing violence against immigrants

and people of color in the name of “lawfulness.” From the rise of neo-fascist violence against

immigrants in Greece under the auspices of the Golden Dawn party to last fall’s attack on a Sihk

temple in the State of Wisconsin by a self-identified neo-Nazi, we are seeing a rise in

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

99

EuroAmerican countries in violence against immigrant and minority communities. This is

terrifying.

It’s also stuff that needs to be combated on multiple fronts, from advocacy and public education

campaigns to the revival of community self-defense groups. Groups like CultureStrike are

emerging to push dialogue – through culture jamming and creative interventions – about

immigration policies and their effects on people’s lives. [xx]

Is there any potential for these movements to actually disrupt the social order? What is

their potential to undo inequality, marginalization and disparity? Can you speak from

experience, or, historically, of success or failure in creating change on a local, national or

even global scale?

How would you measure the success of a disruption? Does it need to be a permanent change, a

rupture, a systemic transformation – or simply moments that glimpse at something else? There is

ample potential for these movements to disrupt, but disruption always takes place within systems

and relations of power that produce social order-as-reality. It is imperative that social

movements, particularly those that seek to radically restructure and redefine the very stuff of

social life, develop their own tools for critical analysis and new languages to speak about

problems and solutions. And this is certainly happening already, from the cultures of Internet

communication – be they memes, the mimetic gestures of popular assemblies, Twitter hashtags,

Anonymous videos, or theory journals like Tidal [xxi].

The possibility of these movements posing a threat to the social order is great. The global social

order – that is, neoliberal global capitalism – has unleashed a torrent of crises that reach the very

infrastructure of the political and economic order, and thus bring about its own limitations.

Crises of debt and ecology go hand in hand with crises of geopolitical boundaries and

imaginaries –the same forces that extend an endless “war on terror” throughout the world extend

a kind of war on autonomy, a war on other ways of living in through the imposition of financial

markets and programs of intensified and industrialized resource extraction. All of this further

pushes a system towards what feels like a global self-destruction. We are living amidst a spiral

toward our own extinction, which more and more people are waking up to the realization of

every day.

Given that this journal is likely to be read by students, emerging scholars, and community

practitioners in the refugee and forced migration studies field, I suggest to them that the best way

to be involved in these emerging social movements and to understand their potential is to

practice them. Experiment, learn new things, and get outside of the professional or disciplinary

boundaries you are situated in. Try prefigurative and radically democratic practices. Get

uncomfortable, and get your hands dirty. And recognize that we’re all collectively responsible

for our well-being: if we want to change things, we have to start now, and we have to hold

ourselves responsible for seeing things through.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

100

REFERENCES

[i] The anonymously authored pamphlet “Who Is Oakland: Anti-Oppression Activism, the Politics of Safety, and

State Co-optation” offers a really helpful critique of multiculturalism by analyzing the dynamics between Occupy

Oakland, the Oakland city government, and the State. It can be viewed on the blog Escalating Identity:

http://escalatingidentity.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/who-is-oakland-anti-oppression-politics-decolonization-and-the-

state/

[ii] Yoosun Park. (2005). Culture as deficit: a critical discourse analysis of the concept of culture in contemporary

Social work discourse. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 32 (3), 13-34

[iii] James C. Scott (1990). Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. New Haven: Yale

University Press.

[iv] For an excellent account of the Lower Jubba Valley region and the pre-history of the Somali Bantu community, see Catherine Besteman (1999), Unraveling Somalia: Race, Class, and the Legacy of Slavery. University of

Pennsylvania Press. See also:http://wiki.colby.edu/display/AY298B/About+Us. There are some really interesting

programs and projects emerging out of refugee community organizations and collaborating institutions in the

Burlington area, from organic agriculture incubator projects to community-based mental health, trauma care, and

psychiatric programs for survivors of torture, but much of this has been the product of an ongoing struggle of

communities to gain control over resources that are required to meet their needs, and ongoing struggles against

structural and historical oppression within Burlington-area institutions.

[v] Carrie A. Dickenson and William J. Campbell (2008). “Strange Bedfellows: Youth Activists, Government

Sponsorship, and the Company of Young Canadians (CYC), 1965-1970” in European Journal of American studies,

Special issue, 2008.

[vi] Henry Veltmeyer (2007) Illusion or Opportunity: Civil Society and the Quest for Social Change, Fernwood

Books, particularly “Chapter 4: Bad Government, Good Governance” p.68-84.

[vii] Steve Burghardt has written in great detail about what he calls “tactical self-awareness” in community practice.

See Burghardt (2010) Macro Practice in Social Work for the 21st Century. SAGE Press. See also Burghardt (1983).

“Broadening the ‘use of self’ steps towards ‘tactical self-awareness’” in Journal of Applied Sciences, 7 (2), 203-

224. Also see Deena Mandell (2007), “Use of Self: Contexts and Dimensions in Revisiting the Use of Self:

Questioning Professional Identities. Deena Mandell (Ed). Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, Inc.

[viii] Global Revolution TV was the first major hub of OWS livestreaming (as well as other protest movements

around the globe). Set up by veterans of the Indymedia movement, it’s a pretty important project in the history of

autonomous activist media. http://globalrevolution.tv/

[ix] The emergence of informal leadership is another issue altogether; what struck me was the unsettling of the

conventions of leadership development, and thus the trajectory such structures operated upon.

[x] The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) is an international labor union that seeks to organize workers across

sectors and shops, and abolish the wage system. Formed in the late 1890’s, it peaked during the late 1910’s-1920’s

[xi] David Graeber (2009). Direct Action: An Ethnography. AK Press. A recent anthology of perspectives on the

Occupy movement from a range of individuals involved in it is also well-worth exploring. Khatib, K., Killjoy, M.,

and McGuire, M. (2012). We Are Many: Reflections on Movement Strategy From Occupation to Liberation. AK

Press.

[xii] http://www.vermonthistory.org/index.php/anarchist-barre.html

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

101

[xiii] David Graeber (2002). “The New Anarchists,” New Left Review, 13, January-February 2002. 61-73.

[xiv] Simon Springer (2010). Cambodia’s Neoliberal Order: Violence, Authoritarianism, and the Contestation of

Public Space. Routledge.

[xv] Here I am drawing from the notion of accompaniment, or “seeking to create the preferential option for the

poor” – that is, accompanying them on their journeys towards improving their own lives, instead of seeking to lead

them or instruct them on how to do so. The concept waas first put out in the practice and writings of El Salvadoran

liberation theologist Archbishop Oscar Romero, and more recently developed by labor historian and lawyer

Staughton Lynd. See Lynd, S. and Grubacic, A. (2011). Wobblies and Zapatistas and Lynd, S. (2012)

Accompanying: Pathways to Social Change.

[xvi] Hillary Moore and Joshua Kahn Russell (2011). Organizing Cools the Planet. Oakland: PM Press. Online:

https://organizingcoolstheplanet.wordpress.com/

[xvii] Alexander Betts (2010). “The Refugee Regime Complex,” Refugee Survey Quarterly 29 (1): 12-37.

[xviii] See, for instance, the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights’ International Migrant Rights &

Global Justice program: http://www.nnirr.org/drupal/programs/international-migrant-rights.

[xix] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4833613

[xx] http://culturestrike.net/

[xxi] http://occupytheory.org/

[xxii] David Plotke, “Occupy Wall Street, Flash Movements, and American Politics” Dissent Magazine.

Online:http://dissentmagazine.org/online.php?id=622

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

102

Interview: Forced Migration Issues in the European Union

ADRIANO SILVESTRI

Adriano Silvestri is the Head of Sector Asylum, Migration and Borders in the Freedoms and

Justice Department at the European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) in Vienna,

Austria (The European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) is an advisory body of the

European Union that collects and analyses data on a variety of human rights issues in the E.U.).

His area of expertise includes international human rights and refugee law as well as the EU

acquis relating to asylum, borders and immigration. Before joining the FRA he was at the

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), where he worked in the field for

several years (Armenia, the Russian Federation and Austria) as well as at UNHCR

headquarters.

How did you begin working with refugee and forced migration issues?

I started working on refugee issues over 20 years ago. After my studies, I worked in UNHCR,

where I was dealing with asylum and statelessness issues in Eastern Europe, before being

deployed to the field. I stayed with UNHCR for some 15 years, before moving to the EU Agency

for Fundamental Rights in 2009.

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

103

What are the useful tools that you were left with after that first experience? Did it point

you in a particular direction for future work?

In UNHCR you work with people and with the

Government officials at the same time. Through the

experience at UNHCR I learnt that it is essential to

address protection gaps at different levels

simultaneously. For example, if a refugee

community reports instances of arbitrary detention

of asylum seekers, it may not be enough to raise this

with the competent authorities, asking them to

refrain from doing this. There may be a number of

factors which contribute to creating an environment

conducive to human rights violations: inappropriate

legal basis to protect asylum seekers in national law, unclear instructions, lack of police training,

no place where asylum seekers can turn to seek protection, no or insufficient documentation hold

by asylum seekers. Therefore, a response to instances of arbitrary detention has to consider all

these factors, and may include several parallel actions ranging, for example, from the creation of

a 24 hours hot line where asylum seekers can report instances of arbitrary detention, to the

provision of documents to asylum seekers or the involvement in amending national legislation. It

is important not only to look at how things are on paper, but also what happens in practice,

something which can only be done by reaching out to and communicating with refugees.

At the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) in Vienna, you lead research projects that

shifted the focus of analysis from refugees themselves to the possible agents of harm

(border guards, the media, etc). How did you make this choice, and what are the benefits of

such an angle of analysis?

I prefer to speak of duty-bearers. Often harm comes from a third person and the duty of the

authorities is to protect a person from such harm. FRA’s approach is to undertake comprehensive

research, which includes also collecting the views and experiences of Government officials. In

the European Union context the main challenge for authorities is how to apply fundamental

rights in practice, when decisions need to be taken immediately, often within very short time

frames. For example, if a person who is going to be removed objects at the last minute to enter

the aircraft that would bring him or her back home, a police escort officer will have to decide

whether to continue with the return operation of such individual or not, often within few minutes,

as otherwise the aircraft would meanwhile take off. It is not sufficient for the police officer to

have theoretical knowledge on human rights. What is needed is concrete guidance which can

help him or her to decide whether to continue the operation or not.

Through the work at FRA we can collect promising practices from Member States and share

practical guidance which can hopefully ease the task of police and other authorities. For

example, a research project on migrants in an irregular situation revealed instances in which

migrants are apprehended and arrested for lack of papers when they go to medical facilities to

seek assistance or while they wait for their children outside the school. These practices

“It is important not only to look at how

things are on paper, but also what

happens in practice, something which can

only be done by reaching out to and

communicating with refugees.”

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

104

discourage the whole community of migrants in an irregular situation from accessing essential

services, such as health and education services. They have a disproportionate effect on migrants’

fundamental rights. To assist immigration police, FRA has compiled – together with national

immigration law enforcement authorities – a document with fundamental rights considerations of

apprehending migrants in an irregular situation. The document includes a list of concrete do’s

and don’ts for law enforcement officials.

At the same time, at the FRA we continue to have a direct link with what is happening on the

ground. One of the characteristics of the agency I work for is to collect data and information

from the field. This means going out and speaking to migrants, asylum-seekers, passengers at

airports, as may be the case. Such social research gives us a comparative overview of what

happens in reality in the 28 EU Member States on a given topic.

Have you found that working for an EU Agency on behalf of refugees and asylum seekers

is similar to any other work, such as an NGO? Or, is it different? In particular, would you

characterize the nature of your work as being fueled or influenced by any of the same

systemic problems or assistance infrastructures as your previous work?

The results of the work undertaken by FRA are clearly addressed to EU policy makers and to EU

Member States when they implement EU law. This means that FRA does not directly engage

with communities to find possible solutions to recurrent fundamental rights violations, as would

for example be the case with UNHCR. The mandate of FRA is to provide fundamental rights

expertise to policy makers and to a lesser degree to practitioners in Member States or within

other EU agencies, such as Frontex. Therefore, our opinions suggest what EU bodies and

Member States could or should do to address a certain issue, which emerged from FRA research

as being in need of attention.

What do the problems surrounding refugees and forced migration look like today, based

on your experiences? Do we need better policies and research, or different dialogues and

collaborations to find solutions to these problems? Between which specific actors?

Although there are many different fundamental rights questions that require a policy response, I

would like to highlight three concrete issues which I find particularly challenging in the

European Union for the years to come.

The first concerns access to protection by persons who flee persecution, war or violence. Visa

policies and border control measures have made it increasingly difficult for asylum seekers to

find safety in Europe. Although on paper such policies provide for safeguards for asylum

seekers, in practice asylum seekers are often only able to reach European soil by making use of

services offered by human smugglers, thus exposing themselves to serious risks of abuse and

exploitation, as documented by FRA through interviews carried out with migrants in North

Africa who were planning to cross the sea to Europe.

The second issue concerns the increased use of databases where the personal data of a large

number of foreigners is stored for visa, asylum and border control purposes. While such

databases may have an added value in improving efficiency of the systems, the implications of

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

105

storing large quantities of personal data, including biometric information, on fundamental rights

have not yet been fully examined.

Finally, the third issue concerns the situation of migrants who are in the European Union without

any papers. FRA has published a comprehensive report on them in 2011 where we describe the

type of fundamental rights violations they are exposed to. For example, women without valid

residence papers employed in the domestic work sector may be exposed to serious forms of

abuse and exploitation in private households. Due to their irregular status and the fear of being

deported, they cannot go to the police to seek help which leads to impunity.

For some of these issues more research is needed, as in the case of large-scale databases. For

others, the situation is already well known and what is required is concerted action involving all

relevant stakeholders, including policy makers at the EU and Member State level, courts,

practitioners as well as civil society organisations.

How would you comment on the lack of a social movement on behalf of the refugees

themselves? Or, are there some? What prevents this from happening, and what, or who,

might mobilize such movements? How are refugees and forced migrants best served when

they cannot be or are not involved?

Refugee communities play an important role in some

European Union countries, although the degree to

which refugees are organised varies. Much of the

refugee work, particularly on the legal side, requires

sophisticated knowledge of constantly changing

national legal frameworks and can therefore only be

carried out by specialists. This is one reason that could

explain why in the European Union the work of NGOs,

lawyers, civil society organisations and international

organisations are more visible than the work of refugee

communities. The latter often work at a local level. In

any event, I find it important that organisations who

work with refugees have mechanisms to consult regularly with the communities, so that the

refugee’s views feed into the planning of their work.

In 2012 the EU received the Nobel Peace Prize for advancing the causes of peace,

reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe, and for transforming most of

Europe from a continent of war to a continent of peace. What do you make of this award in

the context of the policies and realities that asylum seekers and refugees face in the

European Union? Do you believe there is any special potential for organization, policy

change or the treatment of forced migrants in such a climate?

Since the Lisbon Treaty, the European Union has been equipped with a very powerful tool,

the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. This is a legally binding document that sets out in simple

and clear language the rights, freedoms and principles that the European Union has to adhere to.

The provisions of the Charter are addressed to the institutions, bodies, offices and agencies of the

“I find it important that organisations

who work with refugees have

mechanisms to consult regularly with

the communities, so that the refugee’s

views feed into the planning of their

work.”

Refugee Review: Social Movement Volume 1, September 2013 E-Journal

106

European Union as well as to EU Member States when they implement EU law. The Charter

reflects in many areas standards which have already been included in international human rights

instruments or in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). In some cases, however,

the Charter goes further: it is, for example, the first supranational instrument which contains the

“right to asylum” (Article 18), as other instruments are limited to the “right to seek asylum”. Its

Article 47 on the right to an effective remedy and to a fair trial goes beyond its equivalent

provision in Article 6 ECHR, as the safeguards contained in Article 47 apply not only to civil

and criminal law procedures, but also to administrative procedure, such as asylum or return.

The Nobel Peace Prize reminds us that there cannot be lasting peace without respect of

fundamental rights. It gives us an additional impulse to fully utilise the potential that the Charter

offers to uphold the rights and dignity of all persons present in the European Union.