Research and publications

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Scholarship and research submitted to the Forced Migration Research Archive.

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Open Access
Protection of Refugees in the Non-Signatory States to the 1951 Refugee Convention: Bangladesh Case Study
(Brill/Nijhoff, 2024-12) Haque, Muhammad Ekramul; Siddique, Md. Abu Bakar
The elements of refugee protection, whether in signatory or non-signatory states, indicate a holistic framework to ensure efficient and effective functioning of refugee governance across multiple levels of institutions, sectors, and actors. Protecting the most persecuted refugee communities in the world involves adopting fair, clear, and implementable laws that adhere to the principle of equality and non-discrimination, accountability to the law, legal certainty, avoidance of arbitrariness, and procedural and legal transparency. The best practices in refugee protection integrate critical refugee needs with essential human rights elements, providing a basis for enhanced constitutionalism within diverse geographical settings. This article sheds light on both the institutional and legal structures of Bangladesh, concluding that, among other factors, refugees in non-signatory states to the 1951 Refugee Convention can find hope in the steady and progressive constitutionalism achievable through judicial interpretations to close the protection gap and fulfill respective Customary International Law (CIL) obligations, despite Bangladesh’s non-recognition of Rohingya as “refugees,” since this poses a significant road block to any sort of “steady and progressive constitutionalism” or “judicial interpretations.”
Open Access
Between Cities and Borders: Environmental Migration and Urban Mobility in the GBM Delta
(Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, 2024-12) Bhattacharyya, Somali
This article explores how environmental degradation, and disasters act as a catalyst to the neo-liberal shifts in urbanisation of the Global South in the 21st Century that challenges traditional concepts of mobility, belonging, and citizenship within and across borders, reshaping urban and rural identities and economies in the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) Delta. The Bengal Delta's environmental challenges—flooding, salinity intrusion, erosion and frequent cyclones—serve as a backdrop for examining urbanisation in the Global South and its intricate relationship with borders. As displaced populations move toward metropolitan centres like Kolkata and Dhaka, the dynamics of borders and urban spaces become critical in understanding how environmental migration shapes cities and citizenship.
Open Access
Audio-Visual Resources in Teaching Migration to Students Enrolled in Professional Courses
(Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, 2024-12) Saleem, Azeemah
This article discusses the outcomes and results of a phenomenological study of the professional students’ perceptions of the vulnerable, when imparted a value-based education on forced migration reflecting on the wide indifferences of the society towards the refugees and migrants and discussing pathways to integrate, accommodate and accept refugees and migrants in the society with sensitivity, empathy and with an ethical sense of moral responsibility. The objective of this study is to underline the significance of value-based education for professional students and identify the impact of audio-visual aids enhancing the quality of value of the knowledge transfer, and how an inclusive pedagogy on forced migration can develop empathy and sensitivity among the students.
Open Access
Innovative Methods of Research
(Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, 2024-12) Çağlar, Ayşe; GRAPPI, GIORGIO; Potts, Lydia; Farhad, Saima; MEZZADRA, SANDRO
In 2020, Calcutta Research Group organised a two-day Teachers’ Workshop on “Research Methodology and Syllabus Making in Migration and Forced Migration Studies”. Lydia Potts, Saima Farhad, Sandro Mezzadra and Giorgio Grappi and Ayse Caglar participated online in a roundtable titled “Innovative Methods of Research” that, as the title clearly indicates, was a discussion centred around the relatively new thematic approaches to migration studies for researchers and faculty. The discussion was moderated by Lydia Potts while Saima Farhad responded to the panellists. The following is a transcript of the discussion, edited only for grammar, otherwise, unchanged.
Open Access
Teaching Literature of Economic Migration
(Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, 2024-12) Karinkurayil, Mohamed Shafeeq
Teaching literatures of migration in a multicultural classroom cannot be isolated from the textual entanglements with other media through which such a literature maps on to a culture. This essay will deliberate on how economic migration in the contemporary world differs from the earlier phases of diasporas, reflect on the critical analysis of its representation in contemporary literature on migration and highlight the fault lines of such conceptualisation. Further, it delves on practices in classroom in the teaching of this literature, and possible outcomes of such a course on literatures of migration.
Open Access
For whom is the house kept? Making ICESCR work to counter discrimination against migrants and refugees in access to adequate housing
(Sage Journals, 2025-03-13) Atalay, Serde
With a critical focus on the interpretative work of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, this article sets out the parameters of applying non-discrimination under article 2(2) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in conjunction with article 11(1) on the right to adequate housing to discrimination suffered by migrants and refugees in access to existing housing. By placing a specific emphasis on understanding states parties’ obligations under the Covenant, the article clarifies the standards applicable for examining discrimination against migrants and refugees in access to housing through a structured account. This account contributes to existing scholarship both on the Covenant in general, and the right to adequate housing in particular. Offering a methodical explanation of how state accountability could be secured to remedy the harms of discrimination against migrants and refugees in access to housing, the article shines light on the normative value and potential of the Covenant in this context.
Open Access
The Uncounted and Unseen Challenges of Refugee Foster Families in Kampala, Uganda
(Sage Journals, 2024-12-24) Oriel Kagan, Manya; Shanee, Noga
Uganda is known for its open-door policies towards refugees, currently hosting over 1.5 million refugees, 60–65% of whom are children. National self-reliance strategies grant refugees who live in urban settings freedom of movement and employment and expect them to be mostly self-sufficient in exchange. Families within the refugee community are fostering unaccompanied refugee children, as this is considered the best solution for them by the Ugandan state and international organisations. We used ethnographic and quantitative methods, including in-depth interviews, questionnaires and participant observation, to assess the living situation of refugee foster families in Kampala. Our sample included 52 foster families who were caring for a total of 289 children. The findings raised four overarching themes: (1) Circumstances and reasoning for fostering unaccompanied children; (2) Formalisation of explicit foster registration; (3) Differences in care and living conditions; and (4) Ambiguous organisational support. Fostering was either direct by family members or friends, or indirect through the intervention of a church or the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) implementing non-governmental organisations (NGOs) but has never followed national processes to formalise fostering or adoption. Based on the self-reliance policies, refugee foster families in Kampala do not receive adequate support or supervision from any institution, and fostered children remain acutely vulnerable, especially since the economic crises related to Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. We argue that the lack of recognition and financial and emotional support for foster families hinders community-based solutions. These conditions, coupled with the lack of proper supervision and control, encourage less altruistic fostering and more abusive and exploitative treatment of unaccompanied children.
Open Access
Dilemmatic Border Protection: Indonesia’s International Obligation for Refugees vs National Interests
(Brill/Nijhoff, 2024-12) AFRIANSYAH, ARIE; Hatta, Muhammad Syahravi
The global refugee crisis has placed significant strain on host and transit countries, with Indonesia facing its own challenges amid rising numbers of Rohingya refugees. This article examines Indonesia’s maritime border protection architecture in the context of its international obligations and national interests. Indonesia, an archipelagic nation with vast maritime borders, has historically welcomed refugees but struggles with limited resources, legal complexities, and security concerns. The influx of Rohingya refugees, particularly from Myanmar’s ongoing conflicts, has sparked tensions within local communities, exacerbated by misinformation and social unrest. Indonesia’s response involves balancing humanitarian commitments with border security. While the country is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, it adheres to the principle of non-refoulement and collaborates with the UNHCR to manage refugee arrivals. However, concerns over human smuggling and organized crime challenge law enforcement efforts. This article explores how Indonesia reconciles legal enforcement with refugee protection, analyzing policy frameworks, enforcement mechanisms, and regional implications. The study highlights the need for a clearer national strategy to manage maritime border security while upholding international human rights standards. It concludes that stronger coordination and regional cooperation are crucial in addressing Indonesia’s refugee dilemma.
Open Access
Navigating contradictions: justifications and imaginaries of the initiators of European migration information campaigns
(Wiley, 2024-12-27) Schenetti, Cecilia; Mazzucato, Valentina; Wyatt, Sally; Schans, Djamila
European states employ migration information campaigns (MICs) to discourage irregular migration to Europe by people from the Global South. Campaigns are justified by their initiators in various ways. On the one hand, campaigns are said to protect ‘potential migrants’ by helping them to make informed decisions (‘care’). On the other hand, campaigns respond to Europe's security objective of restricting migration flows (‘control’). Researchers have looked at various intermediaries involved in these campaigns. Yet, little attention has been given to individual European policy actors who decide on the funding and design of campaigns and how they navigate between campaigns' contradictory intentions to care for ‘potential migrants’ and to control borders. How do European campaign initiators justify the need for MICs? And what does this tell us about the migration imaginaries of those who develop migration governance measures? Based on interviews with European policymakers and campaign designers in the Netherlands and Senegal, this article examines their discursive acts of legitimation. It shows that in justifying their everyday work, they imagine themselves as humanitarian actors, and ‘potential migrants’ as depoliticized subjects in need of care. While initiators do sometimes examine campaigns critically, they build a worldview in which care is instrumental to border enforcement and in which compassion becomes a form of repressive ‘soft’ bordering.
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Public Health, Migrant Workers, and a Global Pandemic: Towards a New Politics of Life
(Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, 2021-06) Mitra , Iman
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Gender, Development Induced Displacement, and Resistance: Women Uprooted by River Erosion in West Bengal and Bangladesh
(Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, 2016-06) Sen, Sreya
Approximately three quarters of the world refugee and IDP population is comprised of women and children. Due to numerous factors, including restricted access to employment, resources and education, inadequate reproductive health care, and exclusion from matters of decision making, women constitute one of the most vulnerable categories among the internally displaced. In South Asia particularly, the power of the state is always weighted largely against women, and women often end up being the worst victims of the phenomenon of displacement. In spite of their victimisation, displaced women are often seen to create and organise movements for seeking justice. Hence, displaced women should never only be viewed as victims, as doing so would be a negation of their experiences and agency. Recurrent river erosion on the banks of south western Bangladesh in areas such as Khulna has resulted, since early 2000, in a massive displacement of the local population due to different development projects, for example, shrimp farming. Simultaneously, the slow but steady erosion of the river Ganges, owing to the construction of the Farakka Barrage in the district of Malda in West Bengal, India, has resulted in the people residing in the area losing their homes. This paper will draw upon archival sources of data – national and state government reports on policy and planning, district human development reports, reports generated by non-governmental organisations (both local and international) working in the river erosion affected areas of Malda and Khulna, the UN Charters on Internal Displacement, news material from national and sub-national dailies, and local newspapers published in Malda and Khulna – to examine the impact of river erosion induced displacement on the lives of women. It will also explore how these women have emerged as forces of resistance to the process of displacement instead of being victimised by it. In what ways do women depend on resettlement policies undertaken by the government and other organisations for their wellbeing? How do they cope, and what are the means by and through which they combat the phenomenon of displacement?
Open Access
Invisibilization of the unwanted Others? Feminist, queer, and postcolonial perspectives on the 1951 Refugee Convention’s drafting
(Elsevier, 2024-09-18) Krause, Ulrike
The 1951 Refugee Convention represents the legal cornerstone of today’s global refugee protection, which is supposed to apply to all refugees regardless of their origin, gender identity, or sexual orientation. But did the Convention’s drafters have such a complex approach in mind? This paper analyzes the Convention’s drafting at the United Nations and the final conference in the late 1940s and early 1950s from feminist, queer, and postcolonial perspectives. By drawing on subalternity and absence, and using interpretive analysis of historical sources, the paper focuses on politics—who was (not) involved in debates—and policy—who was (not) considered under the refugee definition. The analysis reveals pervasive asymmetries, with western androcentrism inherently shaping the drafting. The western, white, heterosexual man was the standard filter for the powerful decision-maker and the protection subject, whereas women, LGBTQ+ and colonized people were neglected in politics and policy. Their exclusion was not merely a side effect of the political landscape at the time but reflects the reproduction of western androcentric power, which ultimately invisibilized the subaltern Others in the creation of international refugee law.
Open Access
Surviving Exile. Queer Displaced People’s Lived Experiences of Aid, Risks and Coping in Kakuma
(Springer Nature, 2024-10-12) Krause, Ulrike; Segadlo, Nadine
This paper examines the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ displaced individuals in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya. Drawing on situated knowledge and relational agency, it delves into how queer people experience the humanitarian-aid system on-site, what risks they encounter, and how they exert agency to cope with the prevalent challenges of day to day life. Findings reveal that, in a country context where same-sex relations are illegalized and queer people criminalized, those displaced face heightened risks. They are confronted with the heteronormative paradigms inherent to the humanitarian-aid system, ones resulting in their neglect and denied access to much-needed assistance and protection. Structural and physical violence such as discrimination, exclusion, harassment and threats of murder exacerbate unrelenting fears and tangible risks in the camp. To navigate these challenges, they employ diverse individual and especially collective coping strategies, creating safe spaces for mutual support, exchange and hope.
Open Access
Making sense of peace in exile? Displaced people’s intersectional perceptions of peace
(Taylor & Francis, 2024-11-12) Edler, Hannah; Krause, Ulrike; Segadlo, Nadine
This article enquires into how people with lived experiences of conflict and displacement make sense of peace in exile. For the analysis, the article focuses on displaced individuals in Kenya and Germany and theoretically complements the varieties of peace framework, situated knowledge and an intersectional approach. Findings reveal multifaceted perceptions revolving around the three dimensions of structural, collective and individual peace, outlooks shaped by gender-specific experiences, religious beliefs and familial relations. Interlocutors associate structural peace with experiences of sociopolitical, economic and legal conditions in exile, collective peace with support systems and harmonious interactions in communities, and individual or inner peace with desires for and feelings of happiness, hope and healing. Although analytically distinguishable, these three dimensions are inherently intertwined in interlocutors’ daily lives due to their lived experiences prior to and once in exile.
Open Access
‘We are creating peace’: everyday peace practices of displaced women in Kenya and Germany
(Taylor & Francis, 2024-11-15) Edler, Hannah; Krause, Ulrike; Segadlo, Nadine
This article explores how displaced women contribute to everyday peace in exile. While research debates largely focus on the nexus of conflict and displacement, peace and specifically displaced women’s peace practices have been widely overlooked. Drawing on Mac Ginty’s concept of everyday peace and Lister’s approach to agency, the array of practices displaced women use to foster everyday peace in their immediate environments in Kenya and Germany are examined. The findings reflect how they leverage their agency both individually and collectively in seeking to establish, sustain and reinstate peaceful conditions despite and indeed due to oftentimes precarious conditions in exile. They actively get out of dangerous situations in search for everyday peace in exile and get by challenges through establishing a form of peaceful normalcy. They further employ collective strategies in getting organised to contribute to peace and engage with activism to get back at injustices and restrictions.
Open Access
Exit Rights, Seamless Borders and the New Carceral State
(Cambridge University Press, 2024-12-08) Macklin, Audrey
The human right to leave any country protects an intrinsic interest in free movement and is also a vital pre-condition to seeking asylum. The right to leave attracts little academic interest, but it is quietly being eroded. Exit restrictions in States of origin or transit have become an instrument of extraterritorial migration control for European Union Member States seeking to prevent the arrival of unwanted migrants. This article first explores the revival of exit restrictions, focusing on agreements between European destination States and select African States of departure. It argues that the adoption of exit restrictions from one State to prevent entry to another creates the paradox of seamless borders, where regulation of exit and entry are harmonized and fused to serve the singular objective of preventing entry to the destination State. The article further argues that the political and discursive coupling of anti-smuggling and search-and-rescue regimes occlude the rights-violating character of exit restrictions and enables breach of the right to leave to hide in plain sight. Additionally, current approaches to jurisdiction and State responsibility in regional and international courts render the prospect of destination State liability uncertain in circumstances where the destination State does not exercise legal and physical control over enforcement. The article draws on ‘crimmigration’ and border criminology literature to identify the common element of carcerality that connects confinement of migrants to the territory of departure States with migrant detention inside the territory. Beyond lamenting the erosion of exit rights, the article concludes by querying whether the erosion of the right to leave is symptomatic of a larger trend toward the regulation of mobility itself.
Open Access
Understanding the Plight in Ukraine: How Humanitarian and Food Crises Impact International Security?
(Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, 2022-12) Saha, Anuja; Ghosh, Subhranil
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has set off a chain reaction whereby the already fragile post-pandemic geo-economic order has come under enormous strain. The economic devastation coupled with the humanitarian crises has sent shockwaves throughout the region and the world, whereby the possibility of food shortages and migrant crises can lead to global instability. The following sections will go into a detailed analysis of this issue and its subsets.
Open Access
Mitigation, Recovery, and Response: Democracy in Post-Covid Central Asia
(Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, 2023-12) Sengupta, Anita
This article, therefore, begins with an understanding of the civil society discourse in the region with a focus on Uzbekistan where regime continuity has been a given factor of politics since Independence. It then moves on to examine two instances of protest in two of the most stable states in the region, one in Uzbekistan and another in Kazakhstan, that challenged existing regimes and the counter-narratives through which these were managed by the ruling regime. A key difference between the two is that Kazakhstan has powerful bureaucratic elites with economic interests whereas Uzbekistan has a security sector that wields substantial power with its commercial sector. However, in both, a second generation of post-Soviet leaders had promised a “New” state where the voices of the people would be heard, an assurance that remained largely on paper. The final segment looks into a combination of external factors, including security backing from Russia and economic assistance from China, that has allowed for regime continuity.
Open Access
The Time of Becoming Resilient? Rohingya Women of Bangladesh Camps in Between Hopes and Waiting
(Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, 2022-06) Sengupta, Sucharita
This article probes an ethnographic account into the lives of Rohingya women in Bangladesh camps. The dispossession of the Rohingyas from Myanmar and their subsequent marginalisation and deracination is widely known across the globe in contemporary times. Their forced migration resulting from their lack of citizenship status or statelessness has led them to live in Cox‘s Bazar of Bangladesh in huge numbers, which I shall describe later. Any discussion on dispossession, refugeehood or statelessness necessitates us to study the borders and migration from a feminist perspective because women are most often the worst sufferers of any displacement, ethnic persecution, violence, conflict or war. Refugee women are also subjected to myriad gender-based violence like trafficking, rape and sexual abuses. The usage of the term 'gender' loosely refers to the social construct surrounding roles of men and women in society.
Open Access
A Cosmopolitan Race: Northeast Migrants in Delhi-NCR
(Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, 2023-12) Gayari, Anasma
This paper attempts to critically investigate the lens of cosmopolitanism that is often used to represent migrants from the Northeast region in Delhi. Such cosmopolitanism attributed to the migrants from the Northeast emanates from their racial and cultural otherness from what is generally considered as India “proper” or the 'mainland'. Along with the spatial relegation of the migrants in cosmopolitan mohallas or neighbourhoods, their typecasting into certain skill sets in consonant with the needs of the neoliberal labour market add to their further 'otherisation' as racial outsiders.