21
Mar
The Role of the Environment and Objects for Refugees and its Implications for Therapy: A Psychoanalytic Approach
“And as the sun sets in the West, You will shed a tear, Longing to be back in the East. Immigrant.” Nishant Akhtar (Akhtar, 1999, pp.20) This poignant quote delicately articulates the losses that migrants experience when leaving their home country. Being forced to leave one’s homeland entails an immeasurable amount of pain and is... Read More
13
Mar
Book review: The Refugee System: a Sociological Approach – Rawan Arar and David Scott Fitzgerald
The Refugee System: a Sociological Approach, Rawan Arar and David Scott Fitzgerald, Polity Press, 2023, 316 pages US researchers Arar and Fitzgerald are promoting a sociological “systems approach” to refugee research as an alternative to what they call the prevailing “siloed” approach by lawyers, legal and other academics, and government/organisational professionals. They believe the mitigation... Read More
13
Mar
Why Cultural Contextualization Matters: Books Unbound’s program with Rohingya girls in the world’s largest refugee camp
The Rohingya Crisis The Rohingya are an ethnic minority from Rakhine State, Myanmar. Like many other ethnic groups in Myanmar, they have been victims of religious persecution and genocide by the Burmese military. For years, the diaspora has grown as Rohingya flee to neighboring countries for safety and opportunity. In August 2017, an outbreak of... Read More
21
Feb
The Rohingyas in No Man’s Land have fled to Bangladesh
After the latest genocide in August 2017 more than 700,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar. However, since then around 6,000 Rohingyas who could not flee or who were not interested to go to Bangladesh have been stranded in no man’s land on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border. Rohingyas are the ethnic religious minority group who have... Read More
30
Jan
A Call to Action: Pass the Afghan Adjustment Act
When Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021, a humanitarian crisis ensued that was 20 years in the making. We saw the shocking images that came out of Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of Afghan citizens scrambled to flee the country, gripping onto American Boeing C-17s as they began their withdrawal out of the country.... Read More
28
Dec
Book Review: Visiting Immigration Detention: care and cruelty in Australia’s asylum seeker prisons – Michelle Peterie
Michelle Peterie, Bristol University Press, 2022, 176 pages With the UK and others competing to become the least attractive destination for refugees and asylum seekers who arrive by sea, the Australian approach of indefinite mandatory detention, offshore processing, and third country resettlement has been praised. But for those detained by the Australian government in its... Read More
28
Nov
Book Review: Acts of Cruelty – Aileen Crowe
“Acts of Cruelty: Australia’s Immigration Laws and experiences of people seeking protection after arriving by plane”, Aileen Crowe, Palaver, an imprint of Ethica Projects Pty Ltd, 2022, 228 pages Franciscan nun Aileen Crowe PhD is one of Michelle Peterie’s visitors to Australian onshore detention centres, with her decades of work for marginalised people in Australia... Read More
23
Sep
Hello from new editor – Phillipa Bellemore
Hello, my name is Phillipa Bellemore, and I am excited to join the RRO team as an editor. I am a sociologist and my special area of interest is refugee and asylum seeker issues, particularly mentoring and volunteer welcome programs. Refugee mentoring In 2019 I completed my PhD thesis called ‘Refugee Mentoring: The Comfort of... Read More
13
Sep
It’s All in the Bag: Refugees and Materiality
My grandmother made us chicken and made us sandwiches to take […] My mom was telling me that her, my aunt, was trying, you know, to make sure we had everything when we came there so she like bought a package of, of course, silverware and making sure we had it, and then she, Europeans... Read More
17
Aug
Rohingya repatriation: various actors need to be considered
Bangladesh is trying to resolve the burden of the Rohingya crisis by repatriating the Rohingyas to Myanmar who have been staying in Bangladesh for decades. Bangladesh has also agreed to the voluntary, safe, dignified, and sustainable repatriation of Rohingyas without refoulement. After the crisis of 2017, Bangladesh made an agreement with the Myanmar government in... Read More