21
Jan
Essay: How should we define refugees?
“A Proper Conception of refugeehood is an important matter” – Shacknove (1985, 276). In this piece, I offer a critical look at the scholarly discussion on how to define refugees, prompted by a Deutsche Welle (2020) report on the Moria refugee camp in Greece, which was set on fire in September 2020. Thousands fled... Read More
6
Jan
Afghan Diaspora in Pakistan: Healthcare and Education Policy Recommendations
Politically charged philosophical debates concentrate more frequently than ever on the rights of displaced persons. They are ‘moving people’ in both senses of that term: on the move or migrating as well as stirring various emotions in host countries. My study presents evidence about the reception of one group of moving people, Afghan refugees in... Read More
18
Dec
StepUp.One: Connecting refugees with opportunities that pay
“We need access to education whilst at the camp, we need access to opportunity. In a time when goods and capital move freely, humans are locked up in camps for years” – Mohammed Hassan Mohamud, Co-Chair World Economic Forum (2019). Somali-born Mohammed Hassan Mohamud (pictured) was confined to Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp for more than... Read More
8
Dec
How diasporic Kurdish intellectuals promote internal dialogue to prevent a Kurdish civil war
The major Kurdish groups of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), alongside their followers, are in an overt conflict via their media outlets. This tension has currently reached such a level that the outbreak of an intra-Kurdish war is looming. This might be a serious threat to collective Kurdish claims... Read More
18
Nov
Coronavirus Reaches the World’s Most Persecuted People: The Threat of COVID-19 in the Rohingya Refugee Camps
On May 14 2020 the first case of the novel coronavirus was confirmed in the biggest refugee camp in the world—Kutupalong, Cox’s Bazar. The refugees in the camps are at a greater risk of getting infected by the disease than other people. Within these camps, refugees live in cramped spaces, do not have viable access... Read More
4
Nov
Fickle nationalism or international co-operation?
On the 23rd of September, two weeks after a fire leveled parts of the Lesvos refugee camp Moria, the EU commission proposed a new pact on migration and asylum. The pact offers, according to the commission, a more European, fairer approach to those seeking asylum. That evening, the European commissioner of home affairs Ylva Johansson... Read More
20
Oct
“We are the ‘Asylum Seekers’”: The ‘Joyful Migration’ of Indonesian Gay Men in Paris
I was going to Marseille, France in 2010 to do my doctoral degree. I was conducting research about migration and family relationships through the cases of Indonesian gay men. While I was in the airplane from Jakarta to Paris, I thought about my respondents and why they migrate to Paris and whether they will accept... Read More
7
Oct
The EU’s Relocation of Unaccompanied Migrant Children to Safe Havens: A Good Practice?
The COVID-19 pandemic as a ‘ticking health bomb’ has proven to be a difficult time for everyone, but for the Unaccompanied or Separated Migrant Children (UAMCs) stranded on the Greek islands, certain opportunities have emerged. The urgency caused by the pandemic coupled with the campaign ‘Free the Children’ by Human Rights Watch has compelled the... Read More
16
Sep
Decolonising Kurdish Refugee Studies: The Need for a Critical, Reflective and Emancipatory Approach
Over recent years, with the rise in Kurdish refugees in Europe and the disastrous events in the Middle East, there has been an increased focus on Kurdish refugees and migrants in migration studies especially within the context of Turkey and Turkish nationalism. Academics have carried out research into and have tried to understand the social... Read More
3
Sep
Interview with Ahmad Hakim, Founder and Co-Director of Refugee Voices
Ahmad Hakim is the founder and co-director of Refugee Voices, a new refugee-led community organisation in Australia. It is committed to ensuring that people from refugee backgrounds and with lived experience of claiming asylum in Australia have their voices foregrounded in campaigns, mobilisations and public policy debates. Our co-editor, Mark Justin Rainey, speaks to Ahmad... Read More