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761. Europe, Don't Let Us Down: Voices of refugees and migrants in Greece

Author:
Renata Rendon and Matta Samiou
Publication Date:
06-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Since the beginning of 2015 more than one million migrants, including refugees, fleeing war, persecution, natural disasters and poverty, have travelled through Turkey to Greece in search of safety and a dignified life in Europe. Lacking safe and legal alternatives, they put their lives in the hands of smugglers and risk everything during perilous sea and land crossings. Oxfam and ActionAid have listened to hundreds of refugee and migrant women and men on Lesvos island, in Athens and in the Epirus region of northwest Greece to understand why they fled their countries, what their immediate needs are, and what they plan to do next. This paper presents the key messages that they want European people and their governments to hear.
Topic:
Migration, Refugees, Refugee Crisis, and Humanitarian Crisis
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, and Greece

762. Hotspots, Rights Denied: The lack of a legal framework is threatening the rights of migrants reaching Italy

Author:
Guilia Capitani
Publication Date:
06-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The flow of migrants into Italy continues to be dealt with as an 'emergency' situation. The EU's 'hotspot' approach, outlined in the European Agenda for Migration of May 2015 as a short-term measure, has been implemented in Italy and Greece and is an approach involving EU officers, in collaboration with national authorities, in the identification, fingerprinting and registration of migrants. This paper from Oxfam Italia examines the hotspot approach in Italy through the experiences of humanitarian agencies and civil society organizations on the ground, and through the voices of migrants themselves. It concludes that, due to the lack of a legal framework, the hotspot approach seriously violates the fundamental rights of people reaching Italian shores. Oxfam calls for the Italian government and the European Union to define hotspot procedures and activities in EU and national regulations and to take medium-term action to expand the capacity of the receiving and support systems in Italy.
Topic:
Migration, Diaspora, Immigration, Refugees, and Legal Theory
Political Geography:
Europe, Greece, Italy, and Mediterranean

763. Closed Borders: The impact of border closures on people on the move, with a focus on women and children in Serbia and Macedonia

Author:
Oxfam Publishing
Publication Date:
11-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
In 2015 there was a huge increase in the number of migrants, including refugees, arriving in Greece and travelling along the Balkan route on their way to destination countries further north. According to UNHCR, more than one million refugees and migrants crossed the Mediterranean in 2015. This report looks at the protection concerns of people on the move, especially women and children, in Macedonia and Serbia following the closure of the Balkan route. It is based on research and information gathered by Oxfam and its partners: the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights and Atina in Serbia, and the Macedonian Young Lawyer Association and Open Gate/ La Strada in Macedonia. The report includes recommendations on how to protect and promote their safety, dignity and human rights.
Topic:
Human Rights, Migration, Refugees, and Humanitarian Crisis
Political Geography:
Europe, Serbia, and Macedonia

764. Where There's a Will, There's a Way: Safe havens needed for refugees from Syria

Author:
Evelien Van Roemburg, Alexandra Saieh, and Daniel Gorevan
Publication Date:
12-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Oxfam's research shows that less than three percent of the Syrian refugee population have actually arrived in rich countries through resettlement programmes. By analysing resettlement policies and practices in eight key countries, looking at capacity (i.e. investment in staff and facilities), security procedures, resettlement criteria and the general political climate towards refugees, this paper shows why resettling at least 10 percent of the refugee population from Syria is both necessary and possible.
Topic:
Migration, Refugees, Displacement, and Resettlement
Political Geography:
Middle East and Syria

765. Policy Change for the Displaced Kurds in Turkey: Europeanization and Conditionality

Author:
Onder Canveren
Publication Date:
10-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Turkish Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
Institution:
Sakarya University (SAU)
Abstract:
International and regional organizations can act as persuasive actors with re- gard to minority rights in a given country by raising awareness, putting the issue on agenda, and endorsing a new platform in a country which may lead to a policy change. Despite the general observation that Turkey’s Europeanizati- on process has had limited impact on the minority issues in Turkey, there are numerous examples that the European Union (EU) has played a constructive role in improving of rights and fundamental freedoms for the Kurdish populace living in Turkey. The Law on Compensation for Damage Arising from Terror passed in 2004 is a case worth addressing in order to ascertain both the symbo- lic and discursive policy change. The aim of this article is to explain how the EU used democratic tools to promote change in Turkey’s political structure for the displaced Kurds. The Europeanization of Turkey, based on specific con- ditionality, is taken as primarily responsible for granted for the shift and the policy change. In this policy-oriented case study, hypotheses from Rationalist and Constructivist Approaches in Europeanization literature are investigated to explain the causes and constitutive relations of the policy shift from repudiate to compensation.
Topic:
Migration, Regional Cooperation, Minorities, and European Union
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, and Asia

766. Water Scarcity- A Major Human Security Challenge to Pakistan

Author:
Iram Khalid and Mazhar Abbas Khan
Publication Date:
07-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
South Asian Studies
Institution:
Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:
Water is an essential ingredient for the preservation of life on earth. Maintaining the food chains and humanizing the life standards are closely connected to the fresh and clean water accessibility. But, declining the magnitude of water and enhancing of its demands have extended the space between water accessibility and water demand. In Pakistan like many other countries of the world particularly in Asia, high population growth rates, feudal and aristocratic dominancy over community advantageous areas, swiftly urbanization, climatic changes, local and social variances in collaboration of absence of institutional responsibility and governance malfunctions have pressurized and over-stressed the water resources of the country. Although, water is not the only threat to human security of Pakistan but an infuriating factor to worsen the human security conditions in the country. Such water-stressed conditions in the country are mostly misused by some pressure groups and non-state actors to exploit the deprived people for the purpose of the promotion of their respective agendas. Therefore, it is dire need to understand the water accessibility, accepted water allocation among provinces, water mechanisms, inconsistency and requirement in Pakistan and its connection with security threats. This paper portrays the analysis about some of the most important inclinations and challenges in the areas of water availability and demands in Pakistan and its close connection with security of common people in the country. It examines the dynamic responsible factors behind these issues and evaluates the repercussions for human development and security and also recommends some suggestions for both the state and the general public in order to face the challenge by doing more with something less.
Topic:
Security, Climate Change, Migration, Natural Resources, and Water
Political Geography:
Pakistan, South Asia, and Punjab

767. The New Economic Case for Migration Restrictions

Author:
Michael Clemens and Lant Pritchett
Publication Date:
02-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
For decades, migration economics has stressed the effects of migration restrictions on income distribution in the host country. Recently the literature has taken a new direction by estimating the costs of migration restrictions to global economic efficiency. In contrast, a new strand of research posits that migration restrictions could be not only desirably redistributive, but in fact globally efficient. This is the new economic case for migration restrictions. The case rests on the possibility that without tight restrictions on migration, migrants from poor countries could transmit low productivity ("A" or Total Factor Productivity) to rich countries—offsetting efficiency gains from the spatial reallocation of labor from low to high-productivity places. We provide a novel assessment, proposing a simple model of dynamically efficient migration under productivity transmission and calibrating it with new macro and micro data. In this model, the case for efficiency-enhancing migration barriers rests on three parameters: transmission, the degree to which origin-country total factor productivity is embodied in migrants; assimilation, the degree to which migrants’ productivity determinants become like natives’ over time in the host country; and congestion, the degree to which transmission and assimilation change at higher migrant stocks. On current evidence about the magnitudes of these parameters, dynamically efficient policy would not imply open borders but would imply relaxations on current restrictions. That is, the new efficiency case for some migration restrictions is empirically a case against the stringency of current restrictions.
Topic:
Economics, Migration, Labor Issues, and Economy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

768. Understanding the Election in Assam (Part 1)

Author:
Ashish Ranjan, Bhanu Joshi, and Neelanjan Sircar
Publication Date:
04-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:
We were warned not to take the bus from Silchar to Guwahati. Unfortunately, the train was fully booked, so we had no other option. As soon as we left the city limits of Silchar, we began to make our way through the soggy, bumpy mess that was supposedly the route to Guwahati. We could only discern that this was intended to be a road by the fact that a few other buses, trucks and cars were similarly trying to maneuver through this muddle. A fellow traveler offered, “Roads in Sikkim and Meghalaya have improved in the last five years; here we still search for a pucca road.
Topic:
Government, Migration, Politics, Infrastructure, and Elections
Political Geography:
South Asia, India, Asia, and Assam

769. EuroMeSCo Policy Brief 58: Reconceptualising Sustainable Responses to the Refugee Crisis.

Author:
Timothy Hammind
Publication Date:
02-2016
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Abstract:
An unprecedented number of asylum-seekers crossed the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe in 2015 and worldwide displacement figures are now at a record high. This policy brief explores the ongoing refugee crisis, analyzes the conventional response framework, and identifies several key issues that are inhibiting European Union member states from addressing the crisis in a comprehensive, organized, and collective manner. Several recommendations are offered to prepare states to better understand and respond to the complex realities of forced displacement and migration in the 21st century.
Topic:
Development, Humanitarian Aid, Migration, European Union, and Refugee Crisis
Political Geography:
Europe

770. The EU-Turkey Deal on Refugees: How to Move Forward

Author:
Pinar Elman
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Polish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
Since the EU-Turkey deal on refugees on 29 November, there has not been a significant reduction in the numbers of migrants crossing into the EU from Turkey. One of the main reasons is probably lack of trust between Turkey and European Commission in their readiness to keep promises. EU can break the impasse by offering Schengen visa liberalisation but at the same time should use the accession negotiations to exert greater pressure on Ankara.
Topic:
Human Welfare, Migration, Politics, Refugee Issues, and European Union
Political Geography:
Turkey