‘Closure’ at Manus Island and carceral expansion in the open air prison

ABSTRACT

Manus prison was officially closed in 2017 following Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) Supreme Court decision that the existence of the camp breached the PNG Constitution. The ‘Namah’ decision was significant in signalling and seeking to curb the imperial reach of Australian law but insufficient in resolving the question of refugee imprisonment. Far from ending the imprisonment of refugees, the closure following the judicial ruling has facilitated the expansion of the imperial carcerality that has characterized Australia’s immigration detention policy since 1992. By revealing how refugee incarceration has been extended and offshore processing instantiated following the closure of Woomera camp in 2003, we argue that official closures of refugee camps Woomera and Manus have been constitutive of carceral expansion that is imperial in form and that reiterates patterns of colonial violence. After tracking imperial expansion, we make a call for prison abolition in the refugee incarceration arena as this is a critical decolonizing strategy.     

Syrian Refugees Living on the Edge: Policy and Practice Implications for Mental Health and Psychosocial Wellbeing

This qualitative study aims to explore the difficulties experienced by Syrian refugees living in the camps of Turkey in the pre‐migration and post‐migration environment and the impacts thereof on their mental wellbeing. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with Syrian refugees living in three different camps on the Syrian border of Turkey. Syrian refugees were highly exposed to traumatic events in the pre‐migration period, including armed conflicts, human rights violations, and social and economic devastation. Participants reported a wide range of difficulties in the post‐migration environment, including separation from and loss of close ones, camp difficulties, gender‐based, adaptational and economic adversities. They reported a number of psychological and social effects of these pre‐migration and post‐migration difficulties. The implications of the findings are discussed and recommendations are made concerning the necessity of a rights‐based approach to policies and interventions for mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of Syrian refugees.     

Is the Education of Local Children Influenced by Living near a Refugee Camp? Evidence from Host Communities in Rwanda

This article studies the extent to which educational services and schooling outcomes of local children are influenced by the presence of a refugee camp in or near their community. Investigating Congolese refugees in Rwanda and relying on a mixed‐method approach, we examine schooling rates and access to school‐based feeding programmes in communities closer to and further away from three refugee camps. We conduct cohort analyses to compare the schooling outcomes of Rwandans residing at different distances from each of these camps. Our results highlight that children residing closer to the camps have better schooling outcomes and that locals residing closer to the camps have mostly positive views regarding the effects of refugees on local education. These results contribute to the literature on the effects of refugees on host communities and inform policy debates on how refugees need not be a “burden” if a long‐term vision shapes educational investments.     

The Indochinese Refugees

Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese refugees who have come to North American host countries via the South Asian camps have been exposed to many potentially traumatic events and have been submitted to an alienating migration process. A comprehensive analysis of their experience both in refugee camps and North American host countries is facilitated by the use of various stress theories. The stressors of change, acculturation, bereavement and trauma are identified with regard to the migration process of the Indochinese refugees as well as to the pre- and post-migration period. Some implications for practice in social, physical and mental health settings are underlined: in particular a sensitivity to the meaning of physical illness within this population, to the cultural reticence towards mental health consultation, to the possibility of longterm vulnerability to post-traumatic stress disorders and to increasing value conflicts within the family. Intervention experiences both in the South Asian refugee camps and in North American host countries suggests the importance of traditional healers and natural support networks.     

Migration and the Reproduction of Poverty: The Refugee Camps in Jordan

This study examines the link between poverty and migration into and out of camps, using 1999 household survey data on the refugee camp populations in Jordan and a binomial logistic regression. The findings show a clear clustering of poverty in the camps, where about one‐third of households are poor. Results from several nested regression models show that in‐migration is not the cause of persistent poverty in the camps. On the other hand, human capital variables, especially education, economic activity, and “social inheritance”, as well as demographic factors such as household headship and dependency rate have significant effects on poverty incidence. Some theoretical and policy implications of the findings are discussed.     

New Big Men: Refugee Emasculation as a Human Security Issue

Academics and policymakers have conducted a significant amount of research on the physical security and integrity of refugee populations, especially of refugee women and children. That on refugee women has focused on gender‐based violence. This study expands on previous research by employing a human security approach to analyse not only the physical security and integrity of refugees, but also their socio‐psychological well‐being. Specifically, I argue that poor socio‐psychological well‐being actually explains the manifestations of violence against women in refugee camps. To make this argument, I document and explain the emasculation of Burundian refugee men living in Kanembwa camp in western Tanzania.     

Negotiating Boundaries of Refugee Resettlement: A Study of Settlement Patterns and Social Support*

This article analyses aspects of the bureaucratie process of negotiating placement and social support by and for resettled refugees in Canada. Theoretical issues addressed include refugee resilience and effects of power structures on migrant networks. The article describes a qualitative study of underlying reasons for government‐assisted refugee secondary migration to Ontario. The study demonstrates that refugees seek social support by moving from initial settlement sites to join extended family and analyses how the resettlement bureaucracy, driven by political as well as humanitarian interests, attempts to control the process, in contradiction to refugees' preferences. The negotiation of placement and definitions of relevant social supports by bureaucrats and refugees are discussed. In conclusion, greater attention to refugee self‐determination is suggested to improve settlement outcomes.     

Planned emigration: the Palestinian case

"This article examines the UN policies encouraging emigration from the Palestinian refugee camps through educating Palestinians and sending them for work abroad. Data show that emigration is more related to certain types of employment, especially skilled labor and white-collar jobs, than to employment per se. The data were collected, through personal interviews, from Dair El Balah refugee camp in Gaza Strip in 1986. There are 291 observations representing individuals who are 19 years old or over. A major conclusion of this study is that the educational policies initiated and operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) contributed to the dispersion of about one third of the refugees in the 1960s and the 1970s."     

Cuba's exiles: portrait of a refugee migration

"This article provides a portrait of Cuba's exiles [in the United States] that encompasses all their waves of migration, while utilizing the Cuban exodus to shed light on the broader phenomenon of refugee migration. It argues that to understand the changing social characteristics of the exiles over twenty years of migration, we need to understand the changing phases of the Cuban revolution. Utilizing the Cuban exodus as data, the article uses Egon F. Kunz's...theoretical framework for refugee migration to shed light on the refugees' varying experiences, while also using the actual Cuban refugee experience to react to Kunz's abstract model."     

Changing patterns of wage labor migration in the Kilenge area of Papua New Guinea

Using data obtained from a village census completed in 1977, the authors examine the importance of economic and social factors in migration decisions in the village of Ongaia, Papua New Guinea. The effects on migration of opportunities at place of destination, pressures in place of origin, and connections between town and village are investigated; motivations for return migration are discussed     

The refugee factor in Botswana

Refugees to Botswana have included mass influxes of rural peoples from South West Africa/Namibia, Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and South Africa as well as smaller numbers of political activists from each of these territories and Lesotho. The government of Botswana, with the benefit of substantial external assistance, has evolved a legal, organizational and policy response to enable it to cope with the economic, social, political and security strains which result from refugee movements. The policies applied by the government have included moving refugees on to third countries, resettlement, voluntary repatriation, encampment, and measures designed to discourage all save genuine refugees. Although there have been notable successes with each of these techniques, neither singly nor collectively have they proved a panacea for the problems resulting from refugee movements     

Refugee integration and social media: a local and experiential perspective

The refugee crisis has spurred the rapid development of creative technology and social media applications to tackle the problem of refugee integration in Europe. In this article, a qualitative study with 18 refugees from Syria, Eritrea and Afghanistan is presented in order to investigate the uses and purposes of social media associated to the different areas of refugee integration in the Netherlands. The results indicate that social media networking sites were particularly relevant for refugee participants to acquire language and cultural competences, as well as to build both bonding and bridging social capital. Another important finding concerns the role of government, host society and the agency of refugee actors in determining the way refugees experience social media. Building on these results, a theoretical model for analyzing refugee integration through social media is demonstrated.     

Navigating a Hostile Terrain: Refugees and Human Rights in Southeast Asia

Countries in Southeast Asia serve as origins, transit routes, and destinations for an increasing number of refugees, asylum seekers, and other people displaced by conflict and persecution. In this article, I consider existing academic literature on refugees and forced migration and situate current trends and processes related to refugees in Southeast Asia within such work. I begin by surveying sociology material on refugees and forced migration processes in general, also drawing from related fields of human geography and interdisciplinary refugee studies. I then review current mixed migration trends and corresponding state responses in the context of globalization and contemporary conflict in Southeast Asia, placing refugee movements within this setting. Finally, using examples from the region, I consider two rough areas of inquiry in need of further sociological exploration – (i) purposive transnational refugee actions and processes and (ii) the dynamic social spaces created and developed out of refugee migration. Human rights implications of these issues are considered throughout, and suggestions to reconsider human rights protection beyond nation‐state‐focused models are given.     

Iraqi refugees in Jordan: lessons for practice with refugees internationally

Asylum seekers, refugees who are resettled in third countries or those who are forced into refugee camps, present new challenges to social work practitioners. In an attempt to advance theory and develop specialised practice in the area of refugee studies within social work as an international profession, we argue that whatever the flight context, the country of asylum or of resettlement, there is a process underlying what Malkki referred to as refugeeness. This article focuses on the situation of Iraqi refugees in Jordan as an example of the challenges that confront today's refugees. We show that salient issues raised in a local community centre's needs assessment mirror those elements that are central to integration processes that have been discussed in much of the refugee studies literature across the world. We show how these concerns are closely linked to processes that resettled refugees and asylum seekers face, regardless of the country of resettlement. We introduce a framework for analysing an individual refugee's situation and show how an international phenomenon is linked to local practice.     

Spontaneously settled refugees in Northwestern Province,Zambia

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) commissioned researchers from the University of Zambia to conduct a socioeconomic survey and census of "spontaneously settled" Zairean and Angolan refugees in the Northwestern Province of Zambia in 1982. The sample consisted of 188 Angolans, 201 Zaireans, and 2 South Africans. The difficulties experienced by refugees in Northwestern Province in achieving integration were related to a combination of factors including the lack of a clear national policy on refugees and refugee status, a national concern for maintaining security, the popular belief that aliens are responsible for an increasing crime rate, the desire by immigration officials for stricter laws to control alien infiltration, conflict between traditional and modern leaders, and Zambia's deteriorating economic situation. In spite of the problems described, the integration of refugees into existing communities is a desirable goal and should be encouraged. One should not assume that self-settling refugees are able to live with ethnic kin, receive assistance and hospitality, and thus are better off than those in camps. The Zambian case provides ample evidence that integration is not easy even with kin support, shared ethnicity, language, and historical connections. Moreover, given the fact that Zambia will continue to receive refugees it is vital that there is a well defined refugee policy and an administrative mechanism for implementing that policy at all levels. This will be particularly important in Zambia as it will undoubtedly continue to receive large influxes of refugees, from countries such as Namibia, Uganda, Angola, Mozambique, and South Africa.     

‘Friends that last a lifetime’: the importance of emotions amongst volunteers working with refugees in Calais

The European ‘refugee crisis’ has generated a broad movement of volunteers offering their time and skills to support refugees across the continent, in the absence of nation states. This article focuses on volunteers who helped in the informal refugee camp in Calais called the ‘Jungle’. It looks at the importance of emotions as a motivating factor for taking on responsibilities that are usually carried out by humanitarian aid organizations. We argue that empathy is not only the initial motivator for action, but it also sustains the voluntary activity as volunteers make sense of their emotions through working in the camp. This type of volunteering has also created new spaces for sociability and community, as volunteers have formed strong emotional and relational bonds with each other and with the refugees. Finally, this article contributes to the growing body of literature that aims at repositioning emotions within the social sciences research to argue that they are an important analytical tool to understand social life and fieldwork.     

Generation,Displacement, and Deservedness among Karen Refugees in California

In this article, we draw on ethnographic interviews with sixteen Karen refugees living in San Diego, California to explore how experiences of exile, displacement, and resettlement differ along generational lines and complicate straightforward dichotomies between “involuntary refugees” and “economic migrants”. While older‐generation Karen experienced political violence and displacement first‐hand, younger‐generation Karen were born in refugee camps in Thailand and usually experienced violence and displacement through its impacts on extended families. Across both generations, Karen exerted agency in exile, displacement, and diaspora. The older generation used stays in refugee camps strategically as a means of economically supporting family members in Burma, while the younger generation view resettlement in the US as a way of achieving educational aspirations. This research points to the importance of generation as a dimension of refugee experience and to the problem of reinforcing victimhood within refugee communities rather than acknowledging refugee agency and resilience.     

The problem of unemployment amongst refugees in Europe

Refugees, asylum seekers, 'de facto' refugees, and refugees in irregular situations have become a constant phenomenon of the social reality of the member states of the European Community. All agencies must ensure that the situation of these people is as widely publicized as possible. The integration of refugees should be assisted as much as possible by employment schemes, social counseling, and psychological assistance. The European Community should deal with the increasing numbers of refugees who are suffering under long-term unemployment, inadequate housing, and poor language and vocational training facilities. The European Governments and the European Communities should consider giving priority to funding voluntary agencies for carrying out long-term assistance programs. The promotion of specific programs for refugees should be considered an urgent priority. Programs operated by the voluntary agencies should include information on 1) the social, economic, and legal structure of the host country; 2) employment and vocational policies and facilities; and 3) voluntary repatriation and resettlement programs. The voluntary agencies should be able to carry out their tasks by 1) giving individual, unbiased counseling to each refugee in need; 2) employing well-trained staff speaking the language of the group concerned; and 3) undertaking action-oriented research projects.     

The social organization of migration: an analysis of the uprooting and flight of Vietnamese refugees

Using a snowball sampling technic, this study, based on interviews with 70 Indochinese refugees living in a western Canadian city, examines the flight of Vietnamese refugees as volitional and socially purposive behavior. The act of becoming a refugee is usually not perceived to be a process of rational organization or the skillful mobilization of resources. 2 interrelated tasks in the preflight process can be identified as that of material, social, and psychological preparation, and that of the formation of flight groups. These 2 tasks require active deliberation and problem solving in overcoming intervening obstacles. The social ties that people had forced them to organize flight for themselves and others and also provided assistance in preparing for flight. People who faced the same obstacles but failed to become refugees did not flee either because they chose not to or because they were not able to become part of the social organization for flight that made departure possible for so many. Also, the formation of flight groups meant that many more potential refugees were able to take flight than otherwise would have been the case for individuals. The social organization for flight was largely of an ad hoc nature. It is the ability of persons to collectively aggregate resources through transitory teams that translates a refugee situation into actual flight. Access to the resource of migration depends on economic factors, social ties, and entrepreneurial abilities. Refugee flight can represent a creative mobilization of available resources to obtain a deeply desired end.