Abstracts for the Panel Sessions resúmenes de los paneles

Dean of Faculty of Law, Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey

Professor Ruffer is the Director of International Studies and the founding Director of the Center for Forced Migration Studies housed at the Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies at Northwestern University. Her work centers on refugee rights and protection, citizenship, human rights, rule of law and the process of international justice with a particular focus on testimony and sexual violence in the DR Congo. She has published on asylum law and policy, human rights litigation in transnational courts and immigrant incorporation and integration in Europe. Her recent work focuses on methods of documenting displacement in global crisis and the use of the Ushahidi Crowdmap platform to document refugee rights. Aside from her academic work, she has worked as an immigration attorney representing political asylum claimants both as a solo-practitioner and as a pro-bono attorney.

The end of conflict rarely signifies the cessation of violence or the automatic (re)establishment of the rule of law and human rights protection. Limited opportunities and additional displacement remain common features of post-war societies. For children and youth, who often constitute the largest demographic sector of displaced groups, the search for viable solutions prioritizes needs and aspirations that reflect the transient nature of their age group, and differ from those of their elders. Additional difficulties are posed by the inconsistent definition and uneven implementation of the traditional “durable solutions” to forced displacement – i.e. “voluntary repatriation”, “local integration”, “resettlement to a third country” – on the part of national governments and assistance agencies. Intergenerational differences regarding the impact and perceived desirability of these alternatives are rarely considered. They thus remain largely unexamined and insufficiently understood, impeding the transition from humanitarian aid to human development.

1. 
   Rethinking Repatriation as a Durable Solution: Young Refugees and Secondary Displacement in South Sudan. Marisa O. Ensor (Center for the Study of Youth and Political Conflict, U of Tennessee).
   

Even before the recent resurgence of conflict in South Sudan, secondary displacement was a common phenomenon among repatriated refugees, especially those from the youngest generations. Having been effectively urbanized during their exile, refugee children and youth were often not interested in, or adequately prepared for, the rural lives that commonly awaited them upon return. Many felt compelled to seek more suitable alternatives elsewhere, usually in already overcrowded cities where they competed with the local urban poor for the limited resources and services available. The majority of the larger towns in South Sudan were affected by this trend prior to the current unrest that has once again plunged the country in a state of violence and uncertainty, generating new waves of displacement. Whether young displacees ultimately settle back in their geographic origins, or seek safety elsewhere and under which circumstances, remains far from established as South Sudan struggles with the ongoing crisis. Nevertheless, given the very high proportion of children and youth among the displaced population, the experiences of this age group must be better understood and factored into refugee programming if durable solutions are to be found.

2. 
   Malaya boleh? Local integration prospects and options for children and youth in Kuala Lumpur. Elzbieta M. Gozdziak (Institute for the Study of International Migration, Georgetown University).
   

Cities are quickly becoming the main sites of humanitarian response. Determining the appropriate level of assistance can be complicated, however, since refugees often live in neighborhoods with marginalized local populations that are also in need of greater attention. Many of these challenges encountered by urban refugees are similar to – and largely inter-dependent on – those facing other vulnerable groups within urban areas. Coping strategies are often similar as well, creating the potential for both cooperation and competition between displaced and local groups. Thus, the plight of urban refugees—including children and youth-- must not be treated in isolation but is best addressed in the broader context of the urban poor. Building on previous work in Amman and Cairo, this paper seeks to understand the prospects for local integration of refugee children and youth in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by examining their access to shelter, food and physical security, education, healthcare, and livelihoods; discussing the evolution of Malaysian policies on refugees and international migrants; and analyzing the involvement of civil society in facilitating local integration of refugee children and youth.

3. 
   Local integration as a durable solution for unaccompanied minors: does encampment achieve this? Arnold Kwesiga (Refugee Law Project, School of Law, Makerere University)
   

As refugee agencies, the ultimate goal of safeguarding the rights and protection of all forced migrants is ensuring the availability of an appropriate durable solution. Though international policies front repatriation as the most viable for separated and unaccompanied children (UAM), they often face increased barriers due to their vulnerable state and inability to self-identify as being in dire need of protection. In Uganda, the government’s policy of encampment yet at the same time offering local integration as a durable solution is if anything defeatist. Settlement camps are set up way out of the vicinity of the local communities, yet again naturalization as a way of attaining citizenship is not an option for refugees. Hence, even where an UAM has local integration as a durable solution on offer, they will forever remain refugees. This paper will discuss the underpinnings of encampment in the context of local integration as a durable solution for UAM. It will also explore the obstacles UAM face in their Refugee Status Determination processes and how these affect durable solutions in general with a focus on local integration.

4. 
   Implications of immigration law and policy for migrant children resettled to Canada: Findings from a social age analysis. Johanna Reynolds (PhD Candidate, Geography, York University) and Christina Clark-Kazak (Associate Professor, International Studies, York University)
   

Age and generation are central to migration processes of resettlement. While government policy and research indicate that one’s chronological age at the time of migration has a significant impact on durable solutions in terms of resettlement and integration outcomes, less has been written about the conceptions of social age throughout this process. Social age refers to the socially constructed meanings and roles ascribed to different stages of the life course and provides the theoretical framework for our analysis. Using data from interviews, archival research and discourse analysis, this paper highlights the implications of these age-specific provisions on the resettlement of migrant children to Canada. It highlights positive and negative discrimination on the basis of migrants' age, and coherence and incoherence in relation to these age-specific provisions, both within current legislation, policy and programming, and in historical context. The authors conclude with recommendations to make Canadian migration law and policy more child-friendly, with reference to broader implications for social age mainstreaming within the context of resettlement to a third country.

5. 
   The Colombian Situation, Child Forced Migration and the Brazilian Resettlement Program. Patrícia Nabuco Martuscelli (Centro Scalabriano de Estudos Migratórios)
   

This paper studies the Brazilian resettlement program and its impact on the Colombian children. Its main objective is to show which are the main challenges faced by this group, considering its specific needs and the Brazilian society and culture. In 2004, the Brazilian government recognized the pressure that the Colombian refugees’ fluxes caused in its neighbors (Venezuela and Ecuador) and proposed a Regional Solidary Resettlement Program to receive Colombian families in need. Today, the Brazilian Program receives Colombian families in Ecuador that are resettled in the states of São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul. Another Brazilian innovation is the fast track procedure, a mechanism to help people that demand an urgent resettlement. It is important to analyze this program considering the child’s needs because this group is ignored in academic research and their voice is not heard. This paper is also important because it considers the specificities of the Colombian case: the recruitment of children to be used as child soldiers and the impossibility of integration in the first asylum country (most of the times Ecuador and Venezuela) because of discrimination problems.

6. 
   Transition to adulthood. Narratives of Colombian refugee youth. Juliana Arantes Dominguez (Núcleo de Estudos da Polulação; Universidade Estadual de Campinas)
   

The aim of this paper is to present discourse analysis, understood as a social practice, of Colombian youth aged 19 to 23 years within the framework of the transition to adulthood. The youths were living in Ecuador and Brazil for 6 years. They arrived accompanied by their mothers and siblings through the Refugee Resettlement Program in the state of São Paulo in 2005. The program comes within the framework of the Declaration and Plan of Action of Mexico 2004 seeking durable solutions for refugees of high vulnerability in Latin America. The narratives were collected to demonstrate the effects of forced displacement on the youth’s life projects, dreams, and life stages.

7. 
   Pathway of New Americans: The Nepali-Bhutanese Refugee Youth. Sreeja Balarajan (EASOL Program, Richmond, VA)
   

This paper focuses on the aspect of third country resettlement offered as a ‘durable solution’ to the Nepali-Bhutanese refugees. Since the large-scale resettlement of the Bhutanese refugees into the US, there has been an immense body of literature on the resettlement process and the community. However the focus on young resettled Bhutanese has been comparatively few. Studies have focused on resettled youth from different countries on issues as varied as trauma, conflict, gang violence etc. The Bhutanese refugees offer a different scenario for understanding the challenges faced by the resettled youth. The Bhutanese population was resettled into the West after nearly sixteen years in Nepal, ethnically similar but differentiated by their refugee status. How do the refugee youth differentiate between their ethnic identity and their national-Bhutanese identity? How do they narrate and navigate their/ this identity in the US? The paper aims to examine the process of resettlement through the notion of ‘being literate’. It seeks to understand the associations that come through this notion for both the youth and the older generation. How does this impact the resettled refugee youth’s notion of belonging and ultimately becoming a citizen in the resettled country? Factors like language skills and barriers, intergenerational conflict, change in family hierarchies, and identity crisis are important issues faced in this community. Examining these would allow focus on whether or not the official structures specifically address the need of resettled refugee youth. What are the spaces thus identified?

The presentations in this panel are based on selected chapters of a book on Demography of Refugee and Forced Migration that will be published by Springer in 2014. The presenters will discuss how demographic research can contribute toward a better understanding of refugees by focusing on levels and trends of refugee migration, characteristics of refugees, and pathways by which refugees and forced migrants are integrated/adapted to host societies. The importance of demographic research for developing relevant policy and programme recommendations for providing protection for forced migrants, the solution of refugee and other forced migrant problems and maximizing the benefits of such migration to origin and destination areas are also discussed.

1. 
   Abbasi, Hugo, McGrath & Crisp: Demography of Refugee and Forced Migration: Theories, Methodologies, and Contributions
   

2. 
   Kraly: Behind and Beyond Disaggregation by Sex: Forced Migration, Gender and the Place of Demography
   

3. 
   Abbasi & Sadeghi: Adaptation of Second-Generation of Refugees into host societies: The case of Afghan refugees in Iran and Australia
   

4. 
   Martin: Demographic Research, Forced Migration and Refugee Policy
   

1. 
   Andrés Felipe Oviedo: Ley de Víctimas: Una mirada desde las soluciones duraderas.
   

El fenómeno del desplazamiento forzado, se presenta hoy como uno de los temas de mayor relevancia en el estudio de las migraciones. Evidencia de esto es que para el año 2012, de acuerdo con el Centro de Monitoreo del Desplazamiento Interno, existía en el mundo un total 28.8 millones de desplazados, 5.5 de ellos en Colombia.

2. 
   
   Directory: conference -> wp-content -> uploads
   conference -> Simulation and Prediction of Storm Surges, Waves, and Morphological Changes due to Tropical Cyclones by Using a pc-based Integrated Coastal Process Model
   conference -> Panel 0511 Disability and Difference I: Post-War Journeys through Disability
   conference -> Do remittances have a flip side? A general equilibrium analysis of remittances, labor supply responses and policy options for Jamaica* Maurizio Bussolo and Denis Medvedev
   conference -> Conference approval process made easy for acm in cooperation conferences
   conference ->  Proceedings of gt2009 asme turbo Expo 2009: Power for Land, Sea and Air Orlando, Florida, USA gt2009-59981 dynamics of premixed h2/CH4 flames under near blowoff conditions
   conference -> South Korea’s Economic Future: Industrial Policy, or Economic Democracy?
   conference -> Asset rotator Cuff Rehabilitation Course Faculty Dr. Spero Karas
   conference -> Acm word Template for sig site
   uploads -> Design of a Network-Based Anomaly Detection System using vfdt algorithm
   uploads -> Pre-Workshop Intensive Laboratory Experience Schedule
   
   
   
   Download 0.55 Mb.
   
   Share with your friends: