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1 – 10 of over 3000In this chapter, the author has described the nexus between climate change and the evolution of refugee problems. The concept of climate refugee and the controversy between refugee…
Abstract
In this chapter, the author has described the nexus between climate change and the evolution of refugee problems. The concept of climate refugee and the controversy between refugee and climate refugee were extensively elaborated. The estimates of climate refugees under various dimensions in different parts of the world were exemplified with statistical figures. The solutions of the refugee problems, funding, directions of estimates and social responsibilities towards refugees are described in the activities of international institutions like UNHCR, CCDO, UNFCCC, IPCC, the Red Cross and many others. The chapter also highlights some important policy issues such as charters, funds, response strategy to disaster and disaster recovery plans, support capacity building and climate change adaptation and so on and also cited policies taken by the G20 summit to care for refugees. Besides, the recommendations of COP23 were also included. In conclusion, ‘no climate change, no climate refugees’ slogan is incorporated with suggestions of taking care of sizable percentage shares of refugees by the rich nations.
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In our global world, international cooperation has vital importance when addressing humanitarian disasters. Today, as the majority of refugees live in the Southern countries…
Abstract
In our global world, international cooperation has vital importance when addressing humanitarian disasters. Today, as the majority of refugees live in the Southern countries proximate to their homelands, neighboring countries are predominantly the ones that carry the bulk of the refugee burden. Under certain circumstances, states engage in international cooperation in managing refugee crises; to this end, this study analyzes the motivations behind the signing of the 2016 European Union (EU)–Turkey refugee deal and its outcomes for both parties. Past research has shown that the 2015 refugee crisis in Europe demonstrated that the initiatives that the EU countries embarked upon to pursue a monolithic policy against this mass flow fell short and, therefore, enhanced Turkey's leverage with Europe, which provided Turkey with the ability to gain concessions in bilateral talks. However, this study claims that the EU member countries were in a more advantageous position compared to Turkey as a consequence of signing the refugee deal, and it is better to characterize the deal between the parties as burden-shifting rather than burden-sharing. In addition, although the inflow of approximately one million refugees to European shores panicked the European states and coerced most of them to return to their own national migration policies, this study shows that no concrete concessions were provided to Turkey to manage this massive flow. The provisions of the Deal were not the extraordinary payoffs that EU member countries offered Turkey to fight against the irregular migration, but the extension of EU's traditional migration policy.
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Morton Beiser, Alasdair M. Goodwill, Patrizia Albanese, Kelly McShane and Parvathy Kanthasamy
Refugees integrate less successfully than other immigrants. Pre-migration stress, mental disorder and lack of human capital are the most popular explanations, but these…
Abstract
Purpose
Refugees integrate less successfully than other immigrants. Pre-migration stress, mental disorder and lack of human capital are the most popular explanations, but these propositions have received little empirical testing. The current study of Sri Lankan Tamils in Toronto, Canada, examines the respective contributions of pre-migration adversity, human capital, mental health and social resources in predicting integration. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants are a probability sample of 1,603 Sri Lankan Tamils living in Toronto, Canada. The team, with a community advisory council, developed structured interviews containing information about pre- and post-migration stressors, coping strategies, and family, community, and institutional support. The questionnaire included the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview module for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Interviews were translated, back-translated and administered by bilingual interviewers.
Findings
Two dimensions of integration emerged from a factor analysis of integration-related items: economic and psychosocial. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that PTSD militated against refugee economic integration, whereas pre-migration adversity (but not PTSD) compromised psychosocial integration. On both measures, increasing length of residence in Canada, and gender (male) were predictors of good integration, whereas age at arrival had an inverse relationship with integration. Religiosity had a positive effect on psychosocial integration but a negative effect on economic. Favourable perceptions of the health care system predicted economic integration and non-family support predicted psychosocial integration.
Originality/value
Results underline the importance of studying integration as a multifaceted phenomenon, help explain why refugees integrate less successfully than other immigrants, and highlight the importance of including mental health and mental health-related issues in integration discourse.
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Patrycja Matusz, Eirini Aivaliotou and Sylwia Przytuła
In 2015, Europe faced an unprecedented inflow of refugees and migrants. Political instability at the continent's peripheries contributed to an accumulative exodus. This resulted…
Abstract
In 2015, Europe faced an unprecedented inflow of refugees and migrants. Political instability at the continent's peripheries contributed to an accumulative exodus. This resulted in large immigration waves fleeing mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq as well as from other North African countries. Europe was confronted with an increasing number of asylum applications and had to accommodate over a million people (Clayton, 2015). The crisis in Europe has been framed both as a migration crisis and as a crisis within the European Union (EU). The Dublin Regulation, of 2013, requires only one Member state to process the asylum applications. During the pressing period of 2015, the notion of responsibility sharing resulted in heated debates between South and Central and Eastern European states. Several countries like Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary expressed openly antimigrant opinions, which resulted in even more confusion and mismanagement of the migration crisis in the EU. Analyzing the crisis from the macro, meso and micro level, it was evident that the crisis was multifaceted.
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Melanie Lindsay Straiton, Kamila Angelika Hynek and Alexander Nissen
Post-migration stress is an important aspect of refugees’ mental health, but little is known about the relationship with insomnia. The purpose of this study was to investigate the…
Abstract
Purpose
Post-migration stress is an important aspect of refugees’ mental health, but little is known about the relationship with insomnia. The purpose of this study was to investigate the assication between different post-migration stress factors and insomnia among Syrian refugees living in Norway.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors analysed survey data from the REFUGE study with 873 Syrian adults who resettled in Norway between 2015 and 2017. Potential participants were randomly selected from The Norwegian Population Register. Insomnia was measured using the Bergen Insomnia Scale. Perceived-discrimination, navigation difficulties, financial strain and loss of social status were measured via the refugee post-migration stress scale. The authors ran logistic regression analyses, controlling for socio-demographics, potentially traumatic experiences and symptoms of post-traumatic stress.
Findings
Overall, 59% (95% CI, 56%–62%) of the sample reported experiencing insomnia. In the fully-adjusted model, only financial strain and navigation difficulties were significantly associated with increased odds of insomnia. Loss of social status was also related to insomnia but only before adjusting for symptoms of post-traumatic stress.
Originality/value
Financial strain and navigation difficulties appear to be the most important post-migration stress factors in terms of insomnia among Syrian refugees living in Norway. Ameliorating these difficulties could potentially reduce insomnia among refugees. Since insomnia is a risk factor for the subsequent development of post-traumatic stress and depression, it is important to prevent or improve symptoms of insomnia among Syrian refugees, especially considering the high prevalence found in this study.
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Louise Racine and Yixi Lu
– The purpose of this paper is to discuss the experiences of multiple forced migrations and resettlement among two refugee families in a mid-sized Canadian city.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the experiences of multiple forced migrations and resettlement among two refugee families in a mid-sized Canadian city.
Design/methodology/approach
Case studies are located within the contingencies of the participants’ lives and the meanings they provide to the events. A postcolonial feminist perspective guided the data analysis to explore the micro-level of individual experiences that unfold within a raced, gendered, and classed reality. Open-ended interviews, participant observation, and field notes were used to collect participants’ perspectives. Data were collected until saturation occurred.
Findings
An in-depth analysis of these two case studies revealed that lack of choice and lack of access to health and social services affect health through constant revival of traumatic past experiences prior to arrival to Canada. Three themes emerged from the data analysis: first, shared experiences of forced migrations; second, the past and present: construction of new identities; and third, resettlement challenges and opportunities. These themes overlap and intersect to shape the experiences of double forced migration.
Research limitations/implications
This research has limitations related to the sample size but provides data on a topic that deserves more attention in the field of immigrant and health studies. The authors argue that health and social professionals must resist “finalizing” refugees into disempowered identities that undermine human agency.
Originality/value
Research on resettlement experiences after forced migration is a burgeoning field in refugee studies. The originality lies in drawing on Bahktin to develop practical implications to guide health and social practice in this area marked by racialization and fundamentalism.
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Harald Sander and Sylvia Heuchemer
This chapter reviews the integration experiences and policies in Germany before and after the so-called “refugee crisis’. Chancellor Angela Merkel's famous words ‘wir schaffen…
Abstract
This chapter reviews the integration experiences and policies in Germany before and after the so-called “refugee crisis’. Chancellor Angela Merkel's famous words ‘wir schaffen das’ (we manage this) have mobilized both policy actions and a massive grassroots engagement. In this context, we discuss the scope, efficiency and impact of German integration and adaptation policies. We review critically how Germany has dealt institutionally with immigration in the past and how it has adjusted its institutional approach to deal with the refugee crisis. Furthermore, in a case study on integration policies in higher education, we highlight the interplay between institutional approaches and grassroots engagement to achieve integration objectives. We argue that to a certain extent, the refugee crisis has acted as a catalyst for Germany to come to terms with its long-denied status as an immigration country.
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The purpose of this paper is to describe the diversity of trauma Latin American (LA) refugee children in the USA experience across migration. It proposes ways that practitioners…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the diversity of trauma Latin American (LA) refugee children in the USA experience across migration. It proposes ways that practitioners and policymakers can use knowledge from existing research to improve services and respect the rights of LA children.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper used a systematic review approach supplemented by additional sources to capture current representative knowledge. The paper uses staged migration and social ecological approaches for organization and discussion.
Findings
LA children have historically and contemporarily been exposed to more instances and types of trauma than their non-immigrant US counterparts. LA refugee children have a high need for international protection that is not reflected in the US policy.
Practical implications
Knowledge of possible trauma types among LA children can inform practitioner expectations and prepare them for care management. Officers must be well-trained in both potential trauma-related content and geographic context and have excellent interviewing skills. Lawyers, advocates and judges – the latter who create precedent – play a critical role in children’s cases and should have access to high-quality, geographically and historically relevant and contemporary information.
Social implications
The levels of violence in Latin America; the rate of child trauma; and the spike in unaccompanied children at the border compels the USA to reassess their positions on (a) refugee caps, (b) asylum screenings and (c) interception-related policies, protocol and practice.
Originality/value
This the first review to specifically focus on empirical trauma research specific to the LA child’s migration experience.
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Turkey has been hosting the largest Syrian refugee migration in the world since 2011, which has necessitated a continuous change in state-level measures to cater for the…
Abstract
Turkey has been hosting the largest Syrian refugee migration in the world since 2011, which has necessitated a continuous change in state-level measures to cater for the deficiencies of a forced displacement ranging from economic to social and educational instruments. Despite constructive national policies and legislation of the Turkish government and financial support, refugee access and enrollment in higher education (HE) stand as an issue for a number of reasons. The chapter aims to highlight opportunities and challenges that Syrian refugee students (SRSs) have been experiencing since their immigration to Turkey and it examines HE policies in socio-economic, cultural and political contexts. The study, while making use of Bronfenbrenner’s (2001) bioecological theory of development, adapts it to the context of refugee students in HE. Discussions are supported by reports, laws and circulars to make note of the main principals of the HE policies of Turkey for SRSs as well as their implications in both Syrian and Turkish contexts. During this process, the international and comparative nature of the study is maintained by referring to similar policies for refugees in other host countries and implications for the international arena.
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Approximately 3.5% of the world’s population currently lives outside the borders of its birthplace, and the impetus for its emigration are myriad, but underlying all migration is…
Abstract
Approximately 3.5% of the world’s population currently lives outside the borders of its birthplace, and the impetus for its emigration are myriad, but underlying all migration is the anticipation of improved opportunities. Among the specific reasons that people migrate is the aim to escape conflict in the homeland; included in the range of experiences that immigrants may have in the host country is conflict. This chapter provides an overview of global migration with particular focus on (1) when its impetus is conflict in the homeland, and (2) migration-related conflict in the host country. It addresses both voluntary and forced migration and presents a model of the migration – conflict nexus and some thoughts, methods, and tools that can be utilised to mitigate difficulties in both nation of origin and of destination.
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