Research and publications

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10315/38507

Scholarship and research submitted to the Forced Migration Research Archive.

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 226

Access status: Open Access ,
Bureaucratic Blindspot: The Deportation of Stateless Bhutanese
(Sage Journals, 2026-07-31) Neikirk, Alice
In 2017, one of the largest global refugee resettlement programs concluded with approximately 85,000 stateless Bhutanese resettled legally in the United States. By 2025, newspapers began reporting that some of these resettled refugees were being deported. This article analyses the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) data from September 2023 to mid-October 2025 to map the patterns of arrests and deportation of stateless Bhutanese refugees. Because “stateless” is not a category of nationality in the DHS dataset, the article develops a methodology to determine if a stateless Bhutanese is moving through the deportation process. The stateless Bhutanese provide a significant case study regarding the deportation of stateless people who are in the country legally. The paper recommends that the United States should improve the identification of stateless refugees in order to ensure it can make more informed decisions regarding their potential deportation. The study finds that refugees from Bhutan are not clearly identified as “stateless” in the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) dataset covering the period of September 2023-October 2025. In addition: - The monthly average of arrests between 2024 and 2025 suggests a 500 percent increase in arrests of the Bhutanese. - The location where ICE takes custody of Bhutanese has shifted from primarily state prisons to local jails and non-custodial arrests. These apprehensions are frequently through ICE’s Fugitive Operations Program. - The removal of Bhutanese refugees occurred for a variety of offenses, ranging from serious offenses against persons to minor property offenses. The paper recommends that the category of “stateless” be added to DHS intake forms. Previously, guidance to determine and respond if someone was stateless was provided to decision makers in the DHS under Section K of their policy manual. That section of the manual has been removed or is no longer publicly available as of June 2025. This article recommends that it be restored. Training of officers evaluating cases, including how to weigh different types of evidence and the use of detailed country information on potential stateless populations, will be necessary to support accurate categorization. These steps will help reduce the risk that the United States breaches its obligations under international law, including under the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment by deporting stateless refugees to countries where they will be at risk of serious harm.
Access status: Open Access ,
Collective Self-Determination and Externalized Border Control
(Global Justice Network, 2025-05-09) Sharp, Daniel
According to a common argument in defense of border control, legitimate states have a right to exclude on grounds of collective self-determination. I argue that the value of self-determination can also serve as a basis for criticizing states’ immigration policies. Specifically, I contend that the externalization policies of states in the Global North often undermine the self-determination of peoples in the Global South. I identify five pathways by which externalization policies undermine self-determination. I conclude by tentatively suggesting some potential implications of this argument for broader debates about the governance of migration.
Access status: Open Access ,
Can States Resist Migration Blackmail While Protecting Migrants?
(New York University Abu Dhabi, 2025-04) Sharp, Daniel
Migration blackmail occurs when one state threatens to engineer a “migration crisis” on the borders of a target state by creating or permitting an irregular migration flow unless political or economic concessions are made by the target state. States may have legitimate interests in resisting migration blackmail. However, migrants have strong interests in accessing international protection and avoiding harm. These goals may seem to stand in tension and generate a dilemma: it may seem that there is no way for target states to effectively resist and deter blackmail while adequately respecting migrants’ interests. This paper explores what is problematic about migration blackmail and how states may permissibly respond to it. I argue that target states are not permitted to close their borders in response to migration blackmail but instead must respect the right to seek asylum. I offer four complementary arguments for this conclusion: (1) not all cases of migration blackmail are dilemmatic; (2) target states have often contributed to the circumstances that give rise to migration blackmail and so may bear some responsibility for the situation; (3) the interests of migrants in accessing protection and avoiding harm outweigh states’ interests in resisting blackmail; and (4) states have options available to resist migration blackmail without contravening the right to asylum.
Access status: Open Access ,
What is wrong with denationalization: Citizenship revocation and social equality
(Sage Journals, 2026-07-30) Sharp, Daniel
In recent years, states have expanded their formal legal powers to strip their subjects of citizenship. But should states have the power to revoke citizenship? If so, how may this power be permissibly exercised, and how ought it to be constrained? This article argues that some standard critiques of denationalization face some important limitations. These limitations stem from the fact that these critiques fail to identify the distinctiveness of citizenship as a status, and, thus, fail to identify an objection that is directly connected with citizenship loss. To supplement these critiques, I offer a framework for understanding the value of citizenship, which draws attention to the egalitarian functions of citizenship. This yields a novel interpretation and defense of the charge that denationalization is problematically inegalitarian: viz., denationalization threatens to impair the egalitarian functions of citizenship.
Access status: Open Access ,
Research Report on the Local Integration Experiences of Young Afghan Women in the Greater Toronto Area
(Centre for Refugee Studies, York University, 2026-05) Castilla, Cesar; Ludin, Adela
This research, conducted between January 2024 and May 2026, examines the local integration (LI) challenges faced by young Afghan women newly arrived in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Despite institutional efforts to promote integration, persistent structural constraints continue to limit women’s agency across the legal, cultural, social, and economic dimensions of settlement. Accordingly, the study analyzes how these women navigate integration within these interconnected dimensions, with particular attention to the structural challenges shaping their lived realities.
Access status: Open Access ,
Fishermen’s Migration Amidst Depleting Seas: A History of Fishers’ Migration from Calatrava, Negros Occidental to Miagao, Iloilo (1961‒1995)
(Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, 2025-12) Neodama, Alfie Anthony Nualda
This study examines the history of fishers’ migration from a fishing community in Barangay San Isidro, Calatrava, Negros Occidental to Barangay Baybay Norte, Miagao, Iloilo, from 1961 to 1995. Specifically, it answered the following questions: 1) What was the situation in Calatrava, Negros Occidental at the time of outmigration? 2) What was the situation in Miagao, Iloilo at the time of in-migration? 3) How did the situations in Calatrava vis-à-vis Miagao affect the fishers’ decision to migrate? 4) What was the process of settling down in Miagao? and 5) What is the effect of in-migration have on the fishing industry of Miagao? This study used a historical perspective which seeks to understand a present subject, i.e. fishers’ migration, using the past. Gathering and interpretation of data was guided by Everett S. Lee’s “A Theory of Migration” which hypothesises that the interplay of factors associated with the area of origin; factors associated with the area of destination; intervening obstacles; and personal factors, influence the act of migration. Oral narrative was used because migration history is likely unrecorded, ill-documented, and hidden, and the migrant’s own story provides an essential record.
Access status: Open Access ,
Participation and learning: a quasi-experimental examination of refugee settlement program and its impacts on refugees’ socioeconomic capabilities
(Springer Nature, 2026-05-30) Lee, David; Kang, Minah; Ju, Minji
The severity of today’s global refugee crisis calls for the involvement of international nonprofit organizations and their comprehensive settlement programs. However, evidence of these programs’ effectiveness, especially in African settings, remains limited. This study examines how international nonprofit programs affect refugee settlement using the case of economic activities and community engagement in Uganda. We implemented a quasi-experimental design to evaluate whether participation in these programs is associated with positive differences in refugees’ attitudes and behaviors regarding economic involvement and community problem-solving through social learning. Our findings suggest that nonprofit initiatives may play an important role in promoting refugee settlement and fostering social integration.
Access status: Open Access ,
An Experimental Test of Stereotype Congruency in Credibility Assessments of Sexual Orientation Asylum Claims
(Wiley, 2026-06-04) Ekelund, Malin; Skrifvars, Jenny; Selim, Hedayat; Antfolk, Jan
Previous research has highlighted a concerning reliance on stereotypes in assessing credibility of asylum claims based on sexual orientation. To experimentally examine the mechanisms behind this, 383 participants evaluated a realistic asylum casefile paired with a picture of an asylum seeker digitally altered to present either stereotype-congruent (feminine gay men, masculine lesbians) or stereotype-incongruent (masculine gay men, feminine lesbians) features. We further examined the roles of social perception dimensions—warmth, competence, and moral character—and individual differences in social dominance orientation (SDO). Contrary to expectations, stereotype congruence did not influence credibility. As predicted, perceived moral character was the strongest predictor of credibility, highlighting the importance of trust-related traits in credibility assessments. Competence negatively predicted credibility, perhaps reflecting suspicion that capable applicants are deceptive, while warmth and SDO showed no association with credibility. Future research should use more salient manipulations of stereotype-congruence to better capture its role in refugee status determinations.
Access status: Open Access ,
Pink Tickets to Saheli Smart Cards: Gendered Mobility and Debates on Fare-Free Travel
(Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, 2025-12) Mukherjee, Procheta
This paper traces the evolution of the Fare-Free Public Transport (FFPT) scheme in Delhi since 2019 as a way to promote women’s mobility throughout the city and how policy revisions of the scheme...have affected the urban poor and migrant women disproportionately through an ethnographic study of bus route DTC523 that connects the working class neighbourhood and labour colonies (Bhatti Mines) to one of the centres of South Delhi (Dhaula Kuan) to understand the role of public bus as an essential transportation means for mobility and access to public place, safety and security needs during journey and experience of bus journeys as gendered bodies in public transportation system. The pink tickets are perceived as safety infrastructures by women commuters more than CCTVs.
Access status: Open Access ,
Fragmented Lives in Times of War: Displacement Within and From Ukraine
(transcript Verlag, 2026-06-30) Kuzemska, Lidia; Kuzemska, Lidia
What are the challenges faced by forced migrants within and from Ukraine due to the Russian invasion? The interdisciplinary contributors shed light on the lives of displaced persons, which are divided ‒ in terms of time, space, and social context ‒ into a »before« and »after« the war. They analyse the uncertainties faced by war migrants and those who have decided to remain in Ukraine, and how people navigate these uncertainties in everyday life. The volume presents case studies from various European countries that make an important contribution to the growing literature on forced migration from Ukraine and provides new insights into the under-researched areas of internal displacement and voluntary immobility in Ukraine.
Access status: Open Access ,
Visas in Migration and Asylum Law: The Key that Opens the Door
(Routledge, 2026-06-21) Gatta, Francesco Luigi; Savino, Mario; Gatta, Francesco Luigi; Savino, Mario
This book explores and discusses the different perspectives stemming from the visa as a tool of international mobility. A visa has a multifaced nature. It is a `key’ which allows foreign nationals to reach the door of the State. It is also a tool for the State to govern migration and border control. In humanitarian and international protection terms, it is also a tool for human rights protection. Against this background, this book assesses the legal and socio-political implications arising from the multipurpose nature and scope of visas. It is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the visa as an instrument for migration control, contextualizing the rationale behind its invention and the legal challenges it raises. The second part focuses on the visa as a tool for asylum, examining its use for humanitarian purposes, including resettlement schemes and emergency-related evacuation initiatives put in place in different legal systems. It will be of interest to academics, researchers and policy-makers working in the areas of Migration and Asylum Law, International Human Rights Law and Political Science.
Access status: Open Access ,
Transit migration entrepreneurship: Explaining Nicaragua’s state-controlled, profit-seeking transit migration industry
(Oxford Academic, 2026-06-25) Shalaby, Alena; Thaler, Kai M.
How and why do governments develop profit-seeking migration industries around transit migration? Restrictive international migration policies, such as border externalization and migrant rentierism, compel migrants to transit through multiple countries to reach their final destinations, creating new dilemmas and opportunities for transit country governments. Between 2021 and 2025, thousands of migrants from across the globe arrived in Nicaragua via charter and commercial flights, aiming to then reach the United States. Nicaragua’s authoritarian Ortega-Murillo regime actively facilitated and profited from this influx by eliminating visa requirements and partnering with foreign brokers to coordinate flights, generating revenue amid economic instability and patronage needs. Using Nicaragua as a case study, we introduce the concept of transit migration entrepreneurship (TME), a phenomenon in which governments capitalize on migrants’ desires to reach nearby countries by proactively developing a profit-seeking transit migration industry. Engaging with research on weaponized migration, migrant and refugee instrumentalization, and the broader migration industry, we argue that TME is most likely to emerge in authoritarian or other illiberal contexts characterized by economic incentives for new revenue, indifference to international pressure, and a political will to exploit transit migration for economic gain. In an era of global migration, other countries may follow Nicaragua’s example.
Access status: Open Access ,
Scripts homosexuels et sport en contexte postcolonial : expériences sportives « au pays » d’hommes gays originaires d’Afrique francophone et demandant l’asile en France
(Université Laval, 2024-01-23) Bouchet-Mayer, Cyriac; Ferez, Sylvain
À partir d’entretiens sociobiographiques auprès d’hommes demandant l’asile en France au motif de leur orientation sexuelle ou de leur identité de genre, ou des deux à la fois, les auteurs explorent, dans cet article, le rôle pluriel des pratiques ludo-sportives dans les processus de socialisation sexuelle et genrée. Ils donnent à voir la manière dont les expériences sportives sont tantôt le lieu d’imposition d’un script culturel hétérosexiste hérité de la période coloniale et renforcé depuis, tantôt le lieu de construction de scripts interpersonnels et intrapsychiques homosexuels. Ces deux mouvements, a priori contradictoires, peuvent coexister et s’alimenter réciproquement. Ils sont subis ou maîtrisés par les enquêtés en fonction de leurs dispositions individuelles.
Access status: Open Access ,
Cross-effects of cultural and gay capitals in access to refugee status on the grounds of SOGI in France: Study of the formal and informal preparations of West African men for asylum trials
(Oxford Academic, 2024-07-30) Bouchet-Mayer, Cyriac; Ferez, Sylvain
According to literature, ethnocentric representations of homosexuality structure the decision to grant asylum, or not, on the ground of sexual orientation. This ethnocentric criticism has recently led to a technicalization of evaluation practices by asylum judges, which are now based on a narrative and discursive mastery, a field in which respondents are unequal depending on their cultural and gay capitals. While the assessment as such appears to be more equitable, Western norms of gender and sexuality, and practicing self-narrative through their prism, continue to impose themselves in different ways, particularly in formal associative accompaniment or in informal preparation for the refugee status determination process. A 2-fold ethnographic approach, attentive to associative backing and the daily experience of exile as formal and informal spaces of asylum preparation and identity formation, is used to analyse the manner in which cultural and gay capitals influence identity formation, preparation for asylum trials, and chances of obtaining refugee status.
Access status: Open Access ,
Care and Politics in Action: The Humanitarian Relief by Somali Businesswomen in Zambia to Puntland
(Sage Journals, 2026-02-04) Koshin, Sahra Ahmed; Kleist, Nauja; Kanyinga, Karuti
This paper examines the humanitarian engagement of Somali diaspora businesswomen in Zambia and it interacts with political and commercial interests. Focusing on a network of businesswomen in Lusaka and their chairwoman, Guddomiso Shamso Sheikh Ali, we investigate the gendered mobilisation, delivery, and communication of emergency relief in response to the 2020 Qardho flash floods in Puntland, Somalia. The ethnographic case study employs qualitative research methodologies, including in-depth life history interviews and observations. It draws on the analytical couplet of modes of being and belonging in transnational social fields, as well as feminist care ethics, to better understand Somali-Zambian businesswomen's humanitarian involvement, arguing that it constitutes care and politics in action. We challenge neat distinctions between “pure” humanitarian care to distant strangers and “partisan” care to loved ones, highlighting how diaspora humanitarianism may be linked with transnational businesses and political interests.
Access status: Open Access ,
Alternatives to Return: An Ideal-Typical Categorization of State Responses to Non-Repatriated Irregular Migrants
(Springer, 2026-06-24) Ambrosini, Maurizio; Ince-Beqo, Gül
While return occupies a central position in European migration policy discourse, it remains a loudly announced, weakly implemented, and strongly contested aspect of migration governance. The enduring “return gap,” the divergence between policy commitments and actual removals, underscores the limitations of a control-oriented framework. Drawing on a comparative study of 11 EU+ countries, the article develops an ideal-typical categorization of state responses to non-return, here termed “alternatives to return” to denote the full spectrum of formal and informal responses implemented when return does not occur, a governance reality that inevitably follows non-return. Organized across three axes, inclusive/exclusionary, explicit/implicit, and active/passive, these six governance forms reveal the coexistence of coercive and accommodating logics, challenging the assumption that return constitutes the normative endpoint of irregular migration control in Europe.
Access status: Open Access ,
De l’inégalité d’usage des dispositifs de prévention ciblés du VIH entre exilés homosexuels
(DREES Ministère de la santé, 2024-09-12) Bouchet-Mayer, Cyriac
La découverte de la fonction préventive des traitements contre le VIH, il y a une quinzaine d’années, réactive peu à peu les stratégies de ciblage populationnel. Les personnes migrantes et les hommes ayant des relations sexuelles entre hommes (HSH) font partie des populations auprès desquelles le dépistage et l’accès aux traitements sont promus dans le but de maîtriser l’épidémie. Cet article repose sur l’ethnographie multisituée d’un dispositif destiné à « aller-vers » les hommes demandant l’asile au motif de l’orientation sexuelle. Il étudie, entre autres, les représentations d’un dispositif étiqueté « LGBT+ migrant » par les personnes à qui il s’adresse, ainsi que le poids des contextes et trajectoires de vie sur les usages du dispositif. Cette analyse montre que les usages dépendent en grande partie des dispositions économiques, scolaires, homosociales et préventives construites au pays et de la manière dont ces dernières agissent à la fois sur les parcours migratoires et les conditions de survie pendant la demande d’asile une fois en France.
Access status: Open Access ,
Le poids des dispositions pour survivre et préparer les épreuves de l’asile. Enquête auprès des demandeurs d’asile homosexuels exclus du dispositif national d’accueil
(Université de Poitiers, 2024-01-01) Bouchet-Mayer, Cyriac; Ferez, Sylvain
Cet article s’intéresse aux hommes demandant l’asile au motif de leur orientation sexuelle ou identité de genre qui ne sont pas hébergés dans le dispositif d’accueil prévu à cet effet et qui, de fait, doivent compenser l’absence d’hébergement et de suivi socioadministratif sérieux. Les stratégies qu’ils mobilisent pour compenser ce déficit sont décrites à partir d’une enquête ethnographique dans deux associations accompagnant des requérants au statut de réfugié. Ces stratégies sont influencées par la diversité des statuts administratifs, mais aussi des ressources dont disposent les enquêtés. Cet article montre in fine comment les dispositions économiques, scolaires et sociocommunautaires pèsent sur les chances d’obtenir le statut de réfugié pour les requérants ne bénéficiant pas d’un hébergement.
Access status: Open Access ,
Migrations LGBT+ vers la France : appropriations et négociations des catégories migratoires
(Institut National de Recherche Scientifique (INRS), 2026-04-24) Bouchet-Mayer, Cyriac; Nzeyimana-Cyizere, Nancy; Chen, Cai
Cet article se distingue par son intérêt pour les effets des catégories migratoires sur les personnes LGBT+, sans se limiter au seul cas de l’asile. Il croise pour ce faire les terrains des trois auteur·trices en France hexagonale portant sur les expériences et trajectoires de vie d’(anciens) étudiants gays chinois, de personnes racisées comme noires et d’hommes originaires d’Afrique de l’Ouest demandant l’asile au motif de l’orientation sexuelle. Tout en rappelant que les personnes LGBT+ en mouvement se répartissent entre différents statuts régulant la présence sur le territoire français et circulent de l’un à l’autre, l’article souligne que certaines catégories sont davantage recherchées et que la distribution est socialement déterminée. Cette inégale répartition entre les catégories migratoires n’est pas tant due à une différence de niveaux d’agentivité que de ressources scolaires, économiques et sociales, qui contribue à définir le champ des catégorisations possibles. Enfin, l’analyse des implications de ces catégorisations sur les conditions de subsistance, les interactions sociales, les expressions identitaires, ou encore les risques psychosociaux invite à penser la construction systémique d’une politique de découragement renforcée à l’égard des personnes socialement moins dotées. En montrant les effets de classement des politiques de régulation des migrations et les traitements différenciés induits par les catégories migratoires, cette contribution permet de questionner les approximations auxquelles sont susceptibles de conduire les catégories d’action publique.
Access status: Open Access ,
Climate-Induced Exile in Latin America: Intersectionality, Refugee Women, and the Dynamics of Conflict and Negotiation
(MDPI, 2026-01-31) Lugo-Morin, Diosey Ramon
This study examines the social, economic and cultural impacts that Latin American women face due to climate-induced displacement, considering these impacts as arenas of conflict and negotiation. Using an intersectional framework, the study analyses how climate disasters exacerbate structural inequalities rooted in patriarchal systems, thereby constraining women’s adaptive capacity while simultaneously catalysing resistance strategies. Through a comparative analysis of Bangladesh and the Dry Corridor in Central America using a Gender Vulnerability Index (GVI), the study reveals that displaced women navigate contested spaces, disputing access to resources, legal recognition and territorial belonging, while constructing transnational solidarity networks and cooperative economies. The emergence of women climate refugees challenges international legal frameworks, exposing critical gaps in protection regimes. The findings emphasise the need for gender-responsive policies that recognise women as transformative agents who negotiate power asymmetries in contexts of environmental crisis, not merely as vulnerable populations. This research contributes to our understanding of the nexus between climate change, gender and migration by foregrounding the dialectic of domination and agency in Latin American displacement processes.

Browse

Recent Submissions