Selcuk University - Neba Wais Alqorni - International Politics Week 8,9,11,12,13, Assignments of Political Theory

Download Selcuk University - Neba Wais Alqorni - International Politics Week 8,9,11,12,13 and more Assignments Political Theory in PDF only on Docsity! International Politics 13th Week: Migration and Refugees e C Migration and Refugees • States, refugees and immigrants • Controlling migration: a brief history • The origins and purposes of refugee law • The distribution of refugees around the world • The present situation Controlling migration: a brief history • Even before the creation of the ‘modern state’, there were attempts to ‘territorialise’ borders in order to control who could and could not enter and exit political communities. • Evidence of early migration policy exists in China’s political history from at least the second millennium bc. From then until ad 800, planned migration was a constant feature of Chinese population movement. • What has changed with the advent of modern states is how they have responded to foreigners entering sovereign territory (Davies, 2012: 451-453). Controlling migration: a brief history • In the new world of nation-states, individuals needed to be ‘territorialised’. • Since the seventeenth century many terms have been used by states in an attempt to distinguish new entrants from residents – foreigner, exile, alien, refugee, migrant. • In more recent times, the tendency to classify people has become a central feature of the bureaucratic state and reflects the concern of bureaucrats to attach people to domiciles where ‘they can be registered, enumerated, taxed, drafted and watched’ (Davies, 2012: 451-453). • Today, a migrant is defined as a person who chooses to move from their country of origin to another which will accept them (Davies, 2012: 451- 453). Controlling migration: a brief history • Nonetheless, the idea of choice when thinking about migration is very important – the premise here is that you have a will to leave your country of origin with the knowledge that the receiving state will accept you. • By contrast, the term ‘refugee’ has no association with choice. It is a relatively new term, first arriving in English usage at the end of the seventeenth century. • Originally referring in French to someone searching for refuge and assistance, the term ‘refugee’ came to be associated with people fleeing some form of persecution. • When it first came into English usage, it was used to describe the Protestant Huguenots who fled Catholic France in the seventeenth century, fearing persecution because of their refusal to convert to Catholicism(Davies, 2012: 451-453). Controlling migration: a brief history • Though the term ‘refugee’ is associated with fleeing and a lack of choice, it is also associated with an imposition upon the receiving state. • The state has little choice to accept or refuse because the refugee has nowhere else to go. • This was never more marked than after the Russian Revolution of 1917 and at the end of World War I, when approximately 20 million refugees existed in Europe and could not, due to changes in state identities, borders and citizenship, return to where they originally lived. • This left Western European countries with large numbers of displaced people that newly emerging states did not want because of this group’s potential «burden» on attempts to rebuild infrastructure, distribute housing and provide employment and social welfare for their own population. (Davies, 2012: 451-453). The origins and purposes of refugee law • Origins • Contemporary international refugee law has its origins in the inter-war period between World wars I and II. • In 1921, the League of Nations was enlisted to assist with the resettlement of post-war refugees, principally Russians and Armenians. • At the end of World War II, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was created under the UN umbrella to deal with the 40 million refugees across Europe. (Davies, 2012: 453-455). Asylum Seeker vs Refugee • Who is a refugee? • A refugee is a person who has fled their own country because they are at risk of serious human rights violations and persecution there. The risks to their safety and life were so great that they felt they had no choice but to leave and seek safety outside their country because their own government cannot or will not protect them from those dangers. Refugees have a right to international protection. • Who is an asylum-seeker? • An asylum-seeker is a person who has left their country and is seeking protection from persecution and serious human rights violations in another country, but who hasn’t yet been legally recognized as a refugee and is waiting to receive a decision on their asylum claim. Seeking asylum is a human right. This means everyone should be allowed to enter another country to seek asylum. • Who is a migrant? • There is no internationally accepted legal definition of a migrant. Like most agencies and organizations, we at Amnesty International understand migrants to be people staying outside their country of origin, who are not asylum-seekers or refugees. Some migrants leave their country because they want to work, study or join family, for example. Legal Framework for Syrian refugees in Turkey • On 22 October 2014, the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Turkey issued a regulation on temporary protection, as per Article 91 of the Law on Foreigners and International Protection. • According to Provisional Article 1 of the Temporary Protection regulation, the regulation applies to Syrian nationals, as well as stateless persons and refugees from Syria. • As part of the temporary protection regime enacted by the Government of Turkey, Syrian nationals, refugees and stateless persons from Syria seeking international protection are admitted to Turkey and will not be sent back to Syria against his or her will. Legal Framework for Syrian refugees in Turkey • What is the Temporary Protection regime and to whom does it apply? • The regulation on temporary protection defines “temporary protection” as a protection status granted to foreigners, who were forced to leave their country, cannot return to the country they left, arrived at or crossed our borders in masses or individually during a period of mass influx, to seek emergency and temporary protection and who international protection request cannot be taken under individual assessment. The origins and purposes of refugee law • The 1951Convention was created as a legal guideline for states to use. • Each Article within the Convention contributes to the process of refugee determination – including the definition of a refugee, how a refugee should be treated when first seeking asylum on a foreign border, the right not to be returned to their country of origin once determined as a refugee (non- refoulement), and what rights and benefits a refugee should receive from their host state – that is, recognition of marriage, intellectual property, employment and so on. • What was most important about this Convention, though, was that it determined who a refugee was, and thus excluded many who would claim such status. (Davies, 2012: 453-455). The origins and purposes of refugee law • When the 1951 Convention was created the only people who could receive the status of a refugee were those affected by events in Europe prior to 1 January 1951. • States had the option to apply the definition of a refugee to those outside Europe, but it could be only due to events prior to 1 January 1951. • It is also important to bear in mind that the 1951 Convention was created at the beginning of the Cold War. The US and France argued that the spread of communism across Eastern Europe was a growing cause for the flow of refugees into Western Europe, and that refuge for this group should be the primary focus for resettlement for they were fleeing the worst kind of political persecution: «communism». (Davies, 2012: 453-455). The origins and purposes of refugee law • Thus, the political overtones associated with refugee status were apparent and the 1951 Convention was used as an instrument by Western states against communism, and to support those fleeing it. • This did not change until the end of the Cold War in 1991, although the time and geographic constraints were removed by the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees (Davies, 2012: 453-455). The origins and purposes of refugee law • Purposes • International refugee law has three primary purposes. • The first is to provide states with a process for recognizing people who have entered sovereign territory without permission. • These ‘recognition of refugee status’ procedures permit states to identify whether the entrant is worthy of admission without punishment for arriving illicitly. The origins and purposes of refugee law • Second, it gives the refugee a form of recognition that should provide them with rights –such as the right to not be returned to their country of origin, as stated under Article 33 of the 1951 Convention. • Another right is encompassed in Article 31, which stipulates that a person once deemed to be a refugee is neither to be penalised nor detained for entering the host country without permission, and must be provided with legal protection by the host state. • This means that a person cannot be an illegal immigrant if found to be a refugee, and that the state, if a signatory to the Convention, is required to determine the person’s status first so that refugees are not wrongly punished. (Davies, 2012: 453-455). The origins and purposes of refugee law • The third purpose of refugee law is to provide the state with an exclusion process. • Unlike a migrant, a refugee is meant to be able to enter any country without fear of return or penalisation. • States wanted to be able to make sure that the person was ‘worthy’ of these rights; they did not want their state to be encumbered by people who just wanted to make a better life for themselves without the fuss of going through the migration application processes, or by people who could be criminals or security threats masquerading as refugees. (Davies, 2012: 453-455). The distribution of refugees around the world • For example, there remains a large Afghan refugee population who fled the country’s civil war in the 1990s and continue to live in camps and urban settlements within Pakistan and Iran; • there are populations from Somalia who have been living in refugee camp settlements in Kenya since the 1990s as the civil war continues; • and in Thailand, there are a vast number of asylum seekers from Myanmar who have lived as ‘illegal migrants’ since the early 1990s, unable to gain residency from the Thai Government but fearful of returning to the junta-ruled regime. • It should be noted that the 5.5 million figure does not include the 4 million Palestinians who claimed to be displaced due to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 (UNHCR 2010). (Davies, 2012: 455-458). The distribution of refugees around the world • Added to the high number of protracted refugee situations is the rising figure of people being forcibly displaced from their homes – some 25 million people (10.5 million refugees and 15 million internally displaced) • In addition to the protracted refugee situation and rising number of displaced persons, there is an increasing number of people refusing to return to their home countries. (Davies, 2012: 455-458). The distribution of refugees around the world • Since the end of the Cold War, voluntary repatriation – refugees agreeing to return home – has become the dominant practice for handling refugee populations. • People are held in refugee camps or given temporary protection visas and then returned home once the war has ended or the regime commits to not persecuting the individuals in question. • With this solution diminishing, there is going to be greater pressure on refugee camps and on states to take refugees as permanent residents. • These current trends are particularly significant for developing countries as they host the majority of the world’s displaced persons (four-fifths of the total population) (Davies, 2012: 455-458). 1) the definition of a refugee; • Further, forced uprooting due to natural disasters does not fall under the 1951 Convention definition. • What this means is that even if a person is able to seek asylum in a state that is a member of the 1951 Convention, refugee status will not be granted because of a generalised fear of violence, authoritarian rule, poverty, famine, natural disaster or failed medical care. • However, people still flee due to these conditions, which partly explains why such high numbers of refugees and displaced persons take flight. (Davies, 2012: 455-458). 1) the definition of a refugee; • The number of refugees is staggering: • one out of four refugees worldwide is from Afghanistan, and at least 1.8 million continue to seek refuge in Pakistan and Iran; • 132 000 Somalis fled to Kenya, Ethiopia,Yemen and Djibouti in 2008, while an additional 300 000 were internally displaced in the same year (UNHCR 2010: 6–9). • After the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, 250 000 people fled to Tanzania in forty-eight hours (Halverson 2001: 308); • more than a million Iraqi refugees have fled into Syria since the 2003 Iraq war. 1) the definition of a refugee; • It is impossible in such conditions to individually assess who does and does not meet the narrow definition of a refugee, yet in order for resettlement places to be offered by Western countries, this is precisely what must happen. • So many refugees remain in often unsafe, unsanitary, miserable conditions in refugee camps because no other state will take them under a refugee program until the legal requirement of ‘fear of persecution’ is proven. (Davies, 2012: 455-458). 3) geography; • The flow-on of refugees between border conflicts, as occurred in post- Soviet Europe and Central Africa, brings us to the third point of difference between developing and developed states – geography. • The majority of Western, developed states either have ‘buffer’ states between themselves and the countries from which refugees flee, or are completely isolated from other states by water. • Western Europe has, since the end of the Cold War, obligated Eastern European states wishing to join the European Union to sign on to the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol, so as to compel them to deal with any refugee populations moving from the East. (Davies, 2012: 455-458). 3) geography; • This has relieved the pressure on Western Europe from being the only regional bloc in Europe to provide legal refugee status. • The US and Canada are to some degree also protected by their geographic mass, although the US does have land-border incursions from South America and both countries have experienced unauthorised boat arrivals, despite the dangerous and difficult passage. • Australia has an even easier time ensuring that no refugees surreptitiously pass a rocky border region, or thickly covered forest area that demarcates a border, because entering by sea or air is the only way to enter Australia. (Davies, 2012: 455-458). 3) geography; • Entering by tourist visa or a working visa and then claiming asylum at the airport, or illegally overstaying visa conditions, are the more common ways that people seek entry into developed countries. • But this too can be difficult: governments invest a lot of money in customs and immigration agencies to screen and catch those who enter and then stay on as ‘illegal migrants’ (Davies, 2012: 455-458). The distribution of refugees around the world • The result has been a rise in people living in protracted refugee situations in countries that are often as economically and politically fragile as the state they fled, or people integrating themselves into the local community without any permanent residency status and therefore vulnerable to forcible repatriation at any time (Davies, 2012: 455-458). UN refugee tents The Syrian conflict and refugee crisis • The political and social crisis which began in Syria in 2011 has degenerated into a brutal civil war, killing more than 400 000 people and forcing 11 million from their homes. • Europe faced its worst refugee crisis since the Second World War, with more than 1 million people applying for asylum in 2015 and again in 2016.  The Syrian conflict and refugee crisis • Approximately 3.6 million refugees have entered Turkey since the beginning of the civil war in Syria in 2011, the highest number in the region. • Despite on-going international and European Union financial and humanitarian support, this ever-increasing refugee presence has resulted in heightened social tensions in Turkey. • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long threatened to "open the gates'' for millions of refugees eager to flee to Europe unless more international support was provided. Migrant Deaths Top 3,000 in 2020 • The United Nations says at least 3,174 migrants have died this year while seeking safety from persecution and violence or in hopes of bettering their impoverished lives. • At least 593 deaths have been documented in 2020 on route to Spain’s Canary Islands, compared to 45 fatalities in 2018. • “An increase in migrants’ deaths was also recorded in South America compared to previous years, with at least 104 lives lost—most of them Venezuelan migrants— compared to fewer than 40 in all previous years," said Dillion. "This includes at least 23 people who drowned off the coast of Venezuela last weekend. Some 381 men, women and children also lost their lives on the U.S.-Mexican border.” • In 2020, migration within and on route to Europe claimed the largest number of lives, more than 1,700. A significant number of the deaths were among migrants from sub- Saharan Africa. Central America Migration Crisis • An estimated 500,000 people cross into Mexico every year. • The majority making up this massive forced migration flow originate from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, known as the Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA), one of the most violent regions in the world today Central America Migration Crisis Migrants and refugees cross the Suchiate River to enter Mexico from Guatemala in 2014. The Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are among the world’s most dangerous countries. At 90 for every 100,000 people, the homicide rate is nearly five times what the World Health Organization considers an “epidemic.”  “Join-or-die” gang recruitment policies make life nearly impossible for innocent youth in gang- controlled areas. Central America Migration Crisis According to medical data from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) clinics from 2015 through December 2016: — One-fourth of MSF medical consultations in the migrants/refugee program were related to physical injuries and intentional trauma that occurred en route to the United States. — 60 percent of the 166 people treated for sexual violence were raped, and 40 percent were exposed to sexual assault and other types of humiliation, including forced nudity. — Of the 1,817 refugees and migrants treated by MSF for mental health issues in 2015 and 2016, close to half (47.3 percent) were victims of direct physical violence en route, while 47.2 percent of this group reported being forced to flee their homes. Central America Migration Crisis • The evidence gathered by MSF points to the need to understand that the story of migration from the NTCA is not only about economic migration, but about a broader humanitarian crisis. • It is a humanitarian crisis that demands that the governments of Mexico and United States, with the support of countries in the region and international organizations, rapidly scale up the application of legal protection measures —asylum, humanitarian visas, and temporary protected status— for people fleeing violence in the NTCA region; immediately cease the systematic deportation of NTCA citizens; and expand access to medical, mental health, and sexual violence care services for migrants and refugees. Book recommendation • Lost Children Archive is a 2019 novel by writer Valeria Luiselli. • Luiselli was in part inspired by the ongoing American policy of separating children from their parents at the Mexican- American border.