Exploring The Boundaries Of Refugee Law

This edited volume focuses on current challenges in refugee law and global displacement. It is based on cutting-edge research on a series of legal and quasi-legal issues, in the field of forced migration at the national, regional, and international level.

In Temporary Protection in Law and Practice, Meltem Ineli-Ciger provides guidance to states on how to implement a viable temporary protection regime in line with international law by analysing temporary protection laws and policies in Europe, Southeast Asia, Turkey and the United States.

In Blurring Boundaries scholars from law and social sciences offer a critical account of the main topics of forced migration and advance a much-needed fresh view on forced migration through the lens of human security.

The essays selected and reproduced in this volume explore how international refugee law is dynamic and constantly evolving. From an instrument designed to protect mostly those civilians fleeing the worse excesses of World War II, the 1951 Refugee Convention has developed into a set of principles, customary rules, and values that are now firmly embedded in the human rights framework, and are applicable to a far broader range of refugees. In addition, international refugee law has been affected by international humanitarian law and international criminal law (and vice versa). Thus, there is a reinforcing dynamic in the development of these complementary areas of law. At the same time, in recent decades states have shown a renewed interest in managing migration, thereby raising issues of how to reconcile such interests with refugee protection principles. In addition, the emergence of concepts of participation and responsibility to protect promise to have an impact on international refugee law.

Forced migration is both as ancient as human life on earth and a relatively new subject of interest for human rights scholars. This volume continues the discussion from Migrants and Rights to focus attention on refugees, victims of trafficking and others who cross borders seeking protection from anthropogenic or natural disasters. The opening essays provide historical and conceptual overviews of rights to freedom of movement and asylum; and links between human rights and refugee law. Articles on the principle of non-refoulement in international law explore the occasional disjuncture between the individual’s right to protection and the State’s rights to protect its national interests. The refugee’s rights to due process and the substance of entitlements at law are explored in essays that range across administrative processes; social and cultural rights, including family reunion; detention; and the right of return. There follow four essays that address sexual orientation and refugee rights; refugees and disability rights; human rights and persons displaced by climate change disasters; and the rights of victims of human trafficking. The volume concludes with work reflecting on the rights discourse outside of traditional ’Western’ theatres. These cover Africa (Kenya), India, South America (Brazil) and the Asia-Pacific (Indonesia and Papua New Guinea).

Refuge in a Moving World draws together more than thirty contributions from multiple disciplines and fields of research and practice to discuss different ways of engaging with, and responding to, migration and displacement. The volume combines critical reflections on the complexities of conceptualizing processes and experiences of (forced) migration, with detailed analyses of these experiences in contemporary and historical settings from around the world. Through interdisciplinary approaches and methodologies – including participatory research, poetic and spatial interventions, ethnography, theatre, discourse analysis and visual methods – the volume documents the complexities of refugees’ and migrants’ journeys. This includes a particular focus on how people inhabit and negotiate everyday life in cities, towns, camps and informal settlements across the Middle East and North Africa, Southern and Eastern Africa, and Europe.

Germany will spend around $6.6 billion to cope with an estimated 800,000 refugees expected to have entered the country in the year 2016; this reality indeed extending further into 2017. Despite this overwhelming number of people entering the country, Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that there is “no legal limit to the number of asylum seekers Germany will take in in the coming years.” The announcement by Merkel’s coalition government followed Germany and Austria opening their borders to the large numbers of refugees making their way north and west from the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere. In particular, this statement came after the Syrian refugee crisis created the biggest refugee crisis the world has seen since the Second World War. Germany is seen as the immigration hub of Europe. It also happens to be the second most popular destination for immigrants after the United States of America. Germany is also the country in Europe with the highest numbers of foreign nationals to date. Germany established a new immigration law in 2005 which was born out of a realization that it was coming to terms with a demographic crisis stemming from an ageing population and further complimented by a sharp decline of national birth rates. In foresight, and within this unfortunate context, migration was seen by much of the German political class as an economic necessity, and the answer to the German economic and demographic time bomb. Between the years 2009 and 2014, annual net migration in Germany rose from 100,000 to 580,000 individuals. Moreover, the inflow of foreign nationals increased from 266,000 to 790,000 individuals. As of January 2015, approximately 10% of residents in Germany were foreign nationals, with around 12% born outside the country. Naturally, these figures have all risen significantly following Merkel’s decision to allow what has reached one million refugees and migrants into Germany across 2016 and moving into 2017. Moving from this reality, the research will focus on the importance of the compliance of Germany’s migration policy with International Refugee and Migration Law, as it is crucial for the country’s survivability and move forward throughout this phase of its history. The importance of the research lies in whether or not Germany’s migration policy towards the Syrian Refugees in particular complies with its duties toward international law embodied in the treaties and conventions it has committed to.

International Refugee Law and the Protection of Stateless Persons examines the extent to which the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees protects de jure stateless persons. While de jure stateless persons are clearly protected by the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, this book seeks to explore the extent to which such persons are also entitled to refugee status. The questions addressed include the following: When is a person 'without a nationality' for the purpose of the 1951 Refugee Convention? What constitutes one's country of former habitual residence as a proxy to one's country of nationality? When does being stateless give rise to a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons specified in the 1951 Refugee Convention and/or UNHCR mandate? What are the circumstances under which statelessness constitutes persecution or inhuman or degrading treatment? How are courts assessing individual risk or threat to stateless persons? The book draws on historical and contemporary interpretation of international law based on the travaux préparatoires to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its antecedents, academic writing, UNHCR policy and legal documents, UN Human Rights Council resolutions, UN Human Rights Committee general comments, UN Secretary General reports, and UN General Assembly resolutions. It is also based on original comparative analysis of existing jurisprudence worldwide relating to claims to refugee status based on or around statelessness. By examining statelessness through the prism of international refugee law, this book fills a critical gap in existing scholarship.