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This chapter focuses on the role of civil society, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and refugee-led initiatives in protecting and assisting refugees and other forced migrants. A number of civil society actors were involved with the drafting of the 1951 Refugee Convention. Moreover, it was a civil society movement that persuaded states to declare the UN’s World Refugee Year 60 years ago. Both refugees and humanitarian actors now face a multitude of new security challenges, such as the changing nature of conflict and the worldwide spread of terrorism. As a consequence, it has become extremely dangerous for aid workers to carry out their humanitarian work.

This chapter looks at perceptions and misperceptions about refugees, considering anti-refugee and anti-migrant rhetoric. The lived experiences of refugees and asylum seekers are often far removed from how they are represented in the media and public discourse. While it would be hard to generalize from these diverse experiences, the responses of states, the lack of international cooperation, and the limits of the global refugee system have fuelled many misperceptions about refugees. The chapter then discusses how restrictive policies affect all refugees. They can compound the challenges faced by particular categories of vulnerable refugees, such as women, children and adolescents, the elderly, refugees with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ community.

This chapter traces the history of refugees. Throughout all periods of human history, people have been forcibly displaced and have fled their homes as a consequence of political, ethnic, and religious persecution, and wars. The practice of receiving societies and religious institutions offering some form of protection, political belonging, and rights for the displaced has an equally long history. By the late 1940s, the newly created United Nations recognized the need to extend the existing international treaties and organizations regarding refugees particularly to meet the growing post-war refugee problem in Europe. The result was a process that established the contemporary global refugee regime.

This chapter discusses the global refugee system. The fundamental principles are detailed in the 1951 Refugee Convention and the core institution of the system is the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). These instruments are supposed to ensure that refugees have access to key rights. However, today’s global refugee system has often had difficulty in providing effective responses to refugee movements. The chapter examines the principal constraints on responding to refugee movements through international cooperation within the context of a radically changing international political system, an expanding global mobility regime, and a growing and diverse group of displaced people in need of assistance and protection.

This chapter examines the causes of refugee movements. The majority of mass movements today are caused by internal conflicts, and ethnic cleansing, genocide, and politicide; religious, cultural, and ethnic intolerance; socio-economic inequalities; and increasingly by conflict-induced famine, mass starvation, and climate change. As a consequence, there has been a proliferation of complex emergencies that combine internal conflicts with large-scale displacement of people. Until the international community is able to effectively address these root causes, forced displacement will remain a common feature of world affairs. It is thus critical to ensure that international responses to forced migration also lay the foundation for refugees to find a solution to their plight.

Refugees: A Very Short Introduction explores the causes and impact of today's refugee crises for receiving states and societies, for global order, and for refugees themselves. Refugees and other forced migrants are one of the great challenges in the world today. All over the globe people leave their home countries to escape war, natural disasters, and cultural and political oppression. Unfortunately, despite many years of experience, the international community struggles to provide an adequate response to this vast population in need. This VSI discusses the need to understand the realities of the contemporary refugee situation in order to best respond to current and future challenges.

This chapter defines who refugees are. Persons recognized as refugees are individuals who have fled persecution and conflict in their home country and no longer enjoy the legal protections afforded to citizens of a state. As a consequence, the 1951 Refugee Convention stipulates that refugees should be protected and should have access to national courts, the right to employment and education, and a host of other social, economic, and civil rights on a par with nationals of the host country. The chapter then looks at the differences between refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced persons (IDPs), and why they leave their home countries. Together, they are referred to as forced migrants.

This chapter offers directions for more effective approaches to refugee situations. As long as the growing scale of forced migration is driven by severe human rights violations, failing states, and intrastate conflicts, the prospects of solutions for refugees depend largely on resolving these issues. International organizations need to adopt programmes and policies to involve and strengthen civil society and local institutions. Lasting solutions will only be found if a concerted effort is made to defuse ethnic and religious tensions, resolve armed conflicts, protect human rights, strengthen arms control measures, and promote equitable and sustainable development. Through shared responsibility, collective action, and the active participation of refugees themselves, solutions are possible.

This chapter examines the roles, functions, achievements, and failures of the principal international organization — the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) — to protect refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), and to find solutions to their plight. It begins by outlining some of the similarities and differences between refugees and IDPs. It then discusses the complex history, development, and limitations of the legal, normative, and institutional regimes for both refugees and IDPs. Finally the chapter outlines some of the current challenges and emerging issues for responding to both kinds of forced displacement before assessing the overall successes and failures of the international regime for forced displacement.

This chapter examines the link between human rights and forced migration. It first considers the human rights problems confronting forced migrants both during their flight and during their time in exile before discussing the differing definitions accorded refugees today as well as the difficulty in coming up with a widely accepted definition. It then explores the roles and functions of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the international refugee regime. It also uses the case study of Myanmar to illustrate many of the human rights features of a protracted refugee and internal displacement crisis. Finally, it describes how the international community might respond to new and emerging challenges in forced migration and world politics, and better adapt to the ongoing tension between the power and interests of states and upholding refugee rights.

The international community's approach to refugees focuses largely on mass influx situations and high profile refugee emergencies, delivering humanitarian assistance to refugees and war-affected po...

Protracted refugee populations not only constitute over 70% of the world's refugees but are also a principal source of many of the irregular movements of people around the world today. The long-term presence of refugee populations in much of the developing world has come to be seen by many host states in these regions as a source of insecurity. In response, host governments have enacted policies of containing refugees in isolated and insecure camps, have prevented the arrival of additional refugees and, in extreme cases, have engaged in forcible repatriation. Not surprisingly, these refugee populations are also increasingly perceived as possible sources of insecurity for Western states. Refugee camps are sometimes breeding grounds for international terrorism and rebel movements. These groups often exploit the presence of refugees to engage in activities that destabilise not only host states but also entire regions.

Protracted refugee populations not only constitute over 70% of the world's refugees but are also a principal source of many of the irregular movements of people around the world today. The long-term presence of refugee populations in much of the developing world has come to be seen by many host states in these regions as a source of insecurity. In response, host governments have enacted policies of containing refugees in isolated and insecure camps, have prevented the arrival of additional refugees and, in extreme cases, have engaged in forcible repatriation. Not surprisingly, these refugee populations are also increasingly perceived as possible sources of insecurity for Western states. Refugee camps are sometimes breeding grounds for international terrorism and rebel movements. These groups often exploit the presence of refugees to engage in activities that destabilise not only host states but also entire regions.

Protracted refugee populations not only constitute over 70% of the world's refugees but are also a principal source of many of the irregular movements of people around the world today. The long-term presence of refugee populations in much of the developing world has come to be seen by many host states in these regions as a source of insecurity. In response, host governments have enacted policies of containing refugees in isolated and insecure camps, have prevented the arrival of additional refugees and, in extreme cases, have engaged in forcible repatriation. Not surprisingly, these refugee populations are also increasingly perceived as possible sources of insecurity for Western states. Refugee camps are sometimes breeding grounds for international terrorism and rebel movements. These groups often exploit the presence of refugees to engage in activities that destabilise not only host states but also entire regions.

Protracted refugee populations not only constitute over 70% of the world's refugees but are also a principal source of many of the irregular movements of people around the world today. The long-term presence of refugee populations in much of the developing world has come to be seen by many host states in these regions as a source of insecurity. In response, host governments have enacted policies of containing refugees in isolated and insecure camps, have prevented the arrival of additional refugees and, in extreme cases, have engaged in forcible repatriation. Not surprisingly, these refugee populations are also increasingly perceived as possible sources of insecurity for Western states. Refugee camps are sometimes breeding grounds for international terrorism and rebel movements. These groups often exploit the presence of refugees to engage in activities that destabilise not only host states but also entire regions.

Protracted refugee populations not only constitute over 70% of the world's refugees but are also a principal source of many of the irregular movements of people around the world today. The long-term presence of refugee populations in much of the developing world has come to be seen by many host states in these regions as a source of insecurity. In response, host governments have enacted policies of containing refugees in isolated and insecure camps, have prevented the arrival of additional refugees and, in extreme cases, have engaged in forcible repatriation. Not surprisingly, these refugee populations are also increasingly perceived as possible sources of insecurity for Western states. Refugee camps are sometimes breeding grounds for international terrorism and rebel movements. These groups often exploit the presence of refugees to engage in activities that destabilise not only host states but also entire regions.

Protracted refugee situations are a critical and growing element in continuing conflict and instability, especially in Africa. Such situations can result in direct security concerns, including the presence of armed elements within the refugee population and the spill-over of conflict across borders, and indirect security concerns, as tensions rise between local populations and refugees over the allocation of scarce resources. Somali refugees in Kenya and Burundian refugees in Tanzania constitute two of the most challenging protracted refugee situations in Africa. The overall response to protracted refugee situations remains fragmented, compartmentalised and ineffective. What is required is a new policy agenda that extends beyond conventional boundaries and seeks to integrate the resolution of chronic and recurring regional refugee problems with economic development and security issues. © 2005 The International Institute for Strategic Studies.

This article examines the long‐stating importance of refugee issues in international politics and underlines the changing emphasis given to these issues by policy makers and academic researchers, both in the immediate post‐Cold War and post‐9/11 periods. The authors then address the manner in which the relationship between forced migration and state security has been addressed in the past decade. The article highlights how this area of research continues to over‐emphasize the migration‐related security of Western states and the presence of armed elements in refugee movements in the Third World. In contrast, the literature largely neglects the security concerns of states hosting protracted refugee populations. Ironically, chronic refugee situations in regions of refugee origin constitute the overwhelming majority of the world's refugee population.

Asylum policies in Britain and in the countries of its EU partners are failing to cope with the demands made upon them. With migration pressures mounting and opportunities for legal immigration to many EU states restricted, larger numbers of potential migrants are turning to alternative means of entry and access, namely irregular migration and asylum channels. The responses of states to these challenges have been to adopt more restrictive policies and practices that have considerably changed the balance between immigration control and refugee protection. While states have the right to control entry and enforce their borders, the restrictive measures that have come to dominate policy-making and recent immigration enforcement initiatives in Britain and its European partners do not sufficiently discriminate between asylum seekers and other kinds of migrants, thereby failing to safeguard the right of refugees to seek protection. Current British proposals to move asylum seekers to ‘safe areas’ in regions of origin fail to understand the burdens, pressures and priorities of countries in the regions, fail to ensure effective protection for those in need, and are unlikely to deliver the UK policy objective of substantially reducing the numbers of illegal entries to Britain. What is needed is an approach that reduces the number of individuals seeking protection in Europe while maintaining the European tradition of providing asylum to those in genuine need. The ‘missing link’ in asylum policy that would respond both to the concerns of states and to the protection needs of refugees is more comprehensive engagement in regions of refugee origin. It is in this way that western asylum countries, including the UK, may best address the challenge of providing international protection to victims of persecution and respond to their own concerns about asylum.

This chapter examines the role of gender in displacement, focusing on women’s and men’s experiences and the different ways in which gender identities, roles, and relations are influenced by processes of and responses to forced migration. It begins with a brief historical overview of feminist and gendered analyses of forced migration. It then explores the causes and experiences of forced migration by drawing on gendered evaluations of individualized persecution and experiences of conflict-induced mass displacement. It also explores the nature of refugee status determination processes, highlighting emerging sensitivity to the interconnectedness between sexual orientation, gender identity, and asylum. Furthermore, it considers developments in responses to sexual and gender-based violence in mass displacement contexts, along with the paradoxical implications of policies aimed at promoting gender equality and empowerment in camp contexts. The chapter concludes by commenting on the gendered nature of the three durable solutions: local integration, repatriation, and resettlement.

This chapter examines how many of those refugees and asylum seekers making transnational journeys are classified as irregular migrants by states who seek to make such movements illegitimate. It considers the framing, targeting, and active production of ‘forced migrants as illegal migrants’ in the literature and highlights the importance of the labels of ‘forced’ and ‘illegal’ in the governing of migration. It discusses the concept of ‘figures of migration’, which is based on the notion that categorizations of people on the move such as the ‘refugee’ or the ‘illegal migrant’ do not represent distinct social groups sharing characteristic features. Furthermore, it looks at how academic knowledge production might intervene in the contested politics of mobility in order to refuse, destabilize, or subvert the terms by which the rendering of ‘forced migrants as illegal migrants’ has become unambiguous.

The chapter (Chapter 18) explores the central role of the UN and its subsidiary agencies, particularly the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Palestinian refugee problem, especially on the right to durable solutions. The UN established a special regime comprising two agencies, the United Nations Conciliation Commission on Palestine (UNCCP) and UNRWA, with shared but distinct international obligations towards the displaced Palestinian population. Consequently, the UN decided to exclude Palestinians from the 'universal' refugee regime incorporated in the 1950 UNHCR Statute and the 1951 Refugee Convention. This chapter explores how the key protection of durable solutions has been severed from the refugee definition, and the consequences of relegating Palestinians to weak and widely disparate rights protections around the world.

PART I: APPROACHES: OLD AND NEW PART II: SHIFTING SPACES AND SCENARIOS OF DISPLACEMENT PART III: LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSES TO FORCED MIGRATION PART IV: ROOT CAUSES OF DISPLACEMENT PART V: LIVED EXPERIENCES AND REPRESENTATIONS OF FORCED MIGRATION PART VI: RETHINKING DURABLE SOLUTIONS PART VII: REGIONAL STUDIES: CURRENT REALITIES AND FUTURE CHALLENGES