Why Refugees Rebel: Towards a Comprehensive Theory of Refugee Militarization

Militarization by refugees can have problematic outcomes. It can undermine the sovereignty and stability of the host state, perpetuate a transnational conflict and obstruct international efforts to resolve it, and present difficulties in the provision of humanitarian assistance to needy populations. Existing literature privileges structural explanations for militarization while neglecting the agency, interests and internal politics of refugee groups. In this paper, I offer a comprehensive theory of refugee militarization that emphasizes the importance of endogenous factors, including political and economic motivations, in the context of broader structural factors, including political opportunities and resource mobilization, mediated by the presence of militancy entrepreneurs. This theory helps integrate the motivation of refugees, and the discursive framing used by militancy entrepreneurs to mobilize them, with capacity for militant activity. The need for case studies and specific policy recommendations for host states, non‐governmental organizations and international stakeholders are discussed.     

Symbolic Economies: Money,Neoliberal Law and National Politics in Argentina

In this article, I examine Argentina's neoliberal reforms throughout the 1990s from a Marxist theoretical perspective, analysing how money, monetary policy and law constitute a fundamental mode of ideological regulation in neoliberal capitalism. Situating this analysis in the context of the capitalist crisis of the mid-1970s, the article discusses the politics of effacement that in Argentina's case paved the way for the use of monetary policy as a form of social control intended to embed the nation-state into global capitalism. Examining economic legislation, macro-economic policies, political ideologies, consumer discourses and pension privatization, I analyse how the neoliberal monetary regime ideologically underpinned a whole state imaginary based on exchange rate parity with the US dollar. Further, I investigate the ideological function of money in symbolically reordering the relationships of workers and citizens to the state, capital and culture. The article concludes with an exploration of the political significance of the monetary collapse of the Argentine neoliberal reform in 2001–2002, comparing Argentina's crisis of hegemony with that of other states within global capitalism.     

Surveying the European Public Space - A Political and Research Agenda

This paper examines the reasons why it is justified to talk about a European 'democratic deficit'. The creation and consolidation of a European public space necessitates conceptual clarification at the normative theoretical level - as liberal democracy is historically closely bound to the nation-state - and action at the policy and political levels. A Union of European Citizens is a step towards, but not equivalent to, a democratic Union based on European citizenship. Formal announcements, normative convictions, or even institutional reforms are not enough to guarantee openness or support contestation. European democracy is de facto a process to be observed but it is also a project to be defined. The article outlines an agenda for European democracy both with regard to political deliberation and empirical research.     

Lives in limbo: Temporary Protected Status and immigrant identities

The United States formulates much of its immigration and refugee policy to match economic and political circumstances. We interpret these policy shifts as a set of graduated positions on immigration and refugee flows that attempts to discipline the lives of newcomers and, in so doing, shapes immigrant identities. In this article, we analyse the interplay between the US government and Salvadoran asylum applicants negotiating procedures that grant only temporary relief from deportation via the policy of Temporary Protected Status (TPS). We find that each policy shift results in the strategic renegotiation of asylum applicants’ identities so as to achieve the best opportunity for a successful outcome. Based on Foucault’s ideas of governmentality and Ong’s concept of flexible citizenship, we argue that what appears more superficially as a patchwork strategy of immigration laws and asylum practices may be theorized more deeply as a set of flexible responses by the state that turn on identity construction at different scales, and that aim to mediate transnational relations.     

Latent Content and Ideology in a Subjective Measure of Alienation

This study examines aspects of a major research tradition in sociology which developed from Seeman's classic work on the meanings of alienation. It argues that the Powerlessness Scale contains an unintended, latent ideological content (one that was excluded in Seeman's delineation of alienation's meanings through his translation of alienation theory into the language of Rotter's social learning theory). However, the Powerlessness Scale that was developed from Seeman's conceptual analysis drew on the person's perception of the nation-state, its functions and legitimacy, thus reintroducing both polemical and political content into the empirical assessment of alienation. Using a panel of expert judges we tested the hypothesis that high-powerlessness statements on this scale are associated with critical perceptions of the nation-state and its functioning while low-powerlessness statements tend to reflect a more conformist perspective (the former being similar to the theoretical assertions of "power elite" theory and the latter to the "pluralist" form of political theory). The data provided by the expert judges are in general agreement with the hypothesis. A critical interpretation of the Powerlessness Scale is suggested in terms of O'Connor's model of the state and its modern functions.     

The shaping of Australia's immigration and refugee policy

Since 1945, the objectives of Australia's immigration policy have been based at one time or another on security, self‐sufficiency, labour market considerations, economic growth, homogeneity, population building and social and humanitarian considerations. The scale of immigration has been influenced by the level of unemployment, general economic conditions prevailing at the time, the political party in government, the lobbying power of prospective interest groups, public perception and receptiveness, and foreign policy considerations. Australia's refugee policy (including intake), which was only formalized in 1977, has been determined by the resettlement needs around the world, foreign policy considerations and domestic politics.     

Humanitarianism with a Sovereign Face: UNHCR in the Global Undertow

This article examines the global forces that are responsible for the transformation of the meaning and practice of UNHCR's humanitarianism, and asks whether a transformation that enables the organization to become more deeply involved in the internal affairs of states is welcome or worrisome. I open by reviewing the changing relationship between multilateralism, sovereignty, and humanitarianism, and link that conceptual discussion to the international refugee regime. I then argue that the combination of state pressures and the normative principle of popular sovereignty enabled a more political and pragmatic UNHCR to widen its activities under the humanitarian banner and to become more deeply involved in the circumstances in the refugee‐producing country. This expanding humanitarian umbrella, I suggest, might be a stealth agent for a policy of containment and a threat to refugee rights. This possibility is suggested by recent debates over the category of internally displaced peoples; the decided preference for repatriation; and UNHCR's involvement in reintegration activities. These developments generate the worrisome possibility that a more pragmatic UNHCR is potentially (though unwittingly) implicated in a system of containment. I conclude by reflecting on UNHCR's role in global politics and the dangers of a sovereignty‐led humanitarianism.     

Factors Affecting Australia's Refugee Policy: The Case of the Kosovars

This article seeks to explain Australia's refugee policy and to identify the various objectives and factors that influence the development of that policy.
Australia's refugee programme seeks to: provide a humanitarian response and protection to individual refugees; participate responsibly in the international community; honour its Convention obligations; further the interests of the people of Australia; meet high standards of administration and; acknowledge as much as possible changes in refugee populations.
In fulfilling these objectives, Australian governments must weigh and balance various competing factors. These include: humanitarian responsibility, international obligations, social, political, economic and foreign policy factors, as well as efficient administration.
In balancing the relative importance of these factors, the Federal government hopes to fulfil all its refugee and humanitarian objectives. However, the pluralistic nature of Australian society and the often conflicting ideals associated with protection of Australia's interests and the preservation of the rights of refugees, means that fulfilment of these objectives is difficult.
This article examines the Australian government's response to the Kosovar conflict, to assess the relative success Australia had in fulfilling its refugee policy objectives and identifying the various factors that produced the final result.     

Ethnic Organizations and the Welfare State: The Impact of Social Welfare Programs on the Formation of Indochinese Refugee Associations

The expansion of the welfare state during the 20th century has altered the conditions shaping the formation of ethnic organizations. Drawing upon research in the divergent fields of social policy, immigrant communities, and social movements, this article argues that social welfare programs promote or suppress ethnic organizations depending on how they affect an ethnic community's institutional completeness. This welfare state channeling theory is contrasted with ethnic competition and resource mobilization explanations for the formation of ethnic organizations. An analysis of 800 Indochinese refugee associations finds that public assistance has no effect on the prevalence of these organizations, but that privatization of federal social service expenditures does, thus partially supporting the welfare state channeling theory.     

什叶派集体认同与黎巴嫩民族国家构建

19世纪中叶以来,现代黎巴嫩民族国家逐渐形成。黎马龙派、逊尼派和德鲁兹派接受了以黎巴嫩为“永恒祖国”的原则,并将之作为构建黎巴嫩民族国家的基础。但黎什叶派传统的以封建家族首领为核心的教派认同,在经历了阿拉伯民族主义的挑战后,转变为以什叶派政治组织和民兵武装为基础的新什叶派教派认同。这种集体认同所具有的亲伊朗和叙利亚的属性,对构建黎巴嫩民族国家形成挑战。     

The social welfare impact of privatisation in sub‐Saharan Africa: A discussion

Against the background of rising levels of anxiety around the state of the social fabric in South African society, this paper explores the disjuncture between the post-apartheid state’s policy discourse on social cohesion and the local discourses of South African residents in 24 focus groups held in townships around the country, which reveal significant levels of social fragmentation and intense contestation regarding the new regime of rights. The paper argues that the state’s policy discourse on social cohesion is part of an attempt to manage a complex social environment in terms of a project of developmental nation-state building that seeks to constitute the social domain as a normative realm of imagined homogeneity in which citizenship is premised on constitutional values. I argue that while the state’s concern with the ‘social’ relates to the critical question of solidarity in modern democracies, this has led, in the South African context, to the constitution of the social domain as a site of pathology, divorced from the broader political and economic relations of power in which this ‘pathology’ is embedded. At issue in this interaction between state and local discourses on the question of solidarity are the terms of membership in the political community. Who will and will not be part of the ‘new’ nation?     

Multiple Agoras: Local and Regional Environmental Policies between Globalization and European Pathways of Transformation

Bell's well-known assumption that the nation-state is becoming too small for the big problems of life and too big for the small problems of life, has become commonplace in the contemporary debate on the nation-state in a global age. Against the background of the upcoming EU East-enlargement, the article investigates some of the environmental policy implications behind this catchphrase. Drawing on Beck's thesis of an 'unbinding of politics' it is argued that a globalizing civil society continues to be embedded across various cultural and regulatory spaces. Attempts to (re)vitalize bottom-up policy input therefore require special attention to the dynamics of regional culture and local society, where the political and the sub-political actually intersect. This, however, is not an argument for a crude bottom-up model of governance, but rather a refined understanding of multi-level governance. The argument is supported by case study material form the German-Polish border region.     

Linking political violence and refugee situations in the Horn of Africa: an empirical approach

The author attempts to quantitatively investigate and explain possible relationships between patterns of political violence and refugee formations, identifying political violence variables which contribute most to refugee movements in the Horn of Africa. Particular attention is given to the extent to which refugee movements were influenced by domestic and international political violence patterns; which of the violence variables was more important in explaining refugee movements; and whether there were common patterns in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan with respect to refugee movements. Findings from the analysis of political violence variables indicate that the intervention of extra-regional powers in domestic or inter-state conflicts had a significant effect in generating refugees. The involvement of external forces either increased the actual level and intensity of violence or created a perception of uncontrolled turmoil and further bloodshed in the future. In both situations, large numbers of refugees sought shelter across international boundaries.     

State Building,State Autonomy and the Identity of Society: The Case of the Israeli State*

Abstract Into the conventional framework of the state civil-society relationship, which usually includes the state's autonomy and the state's strength, this paper adds a dimension - the identity of the collectivity. The collective identity is from one side the common 'symbolic space’ for both the state and the actors of the civil society, and from the other side the ‘battlefield’ between the state, the society and the different components of the civil society. These tensions stem in a great measure from the emphasis of some aspects over others (for example the primordial vs. civic ingredients) of the collective identity. These interpretations have far reaching implications on the rules-of-the-game in the state and on the state-society relationship. Its identity is central to the determination of the various societal boundaries of the collectivity. This approach is exemplified through analysis of the building of the Israeli state and its transformation from a community to a nation-state, and again from a nation-state to a community state, in a perspective of about 75 years. The article fundamentally challenges the conventional presentation and analysis of the social and political history of Israel.     

Refugee resettlement,social media and the social organization of difference

Social media platforms allow refugees separated by distance to share information, provide support and exchange resources across borders. This connection has the potential to transform resettlement experiences as people maintain significant and ongoing relationships with transnational networks. Yet, since refugee resettlement programmes generally only scale up to the national imagination, integration remains a normative framework in most policy spheres. This article presents a 12‐month digital ethnography of 15 refugees settled in New Zealand with a view to examining their transnational practices of social media and its influence on integration and belonging. Drawing on a conceptual framework based on the social organization of difference, it contains a discussion on how online global networks increasingly inform the domains of encounters, representations and configurations. The role of social media for refugee resettlement futures and its implications for integration at times of rapid political, technological and social change concludes the article.     

Refugee movements and Turkey

There has been a long tradition in the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic of receiving refugees. There were Jewish refugees from the Spanish Inquisition, Hungarians and Poles fleeing revolts in 1848-9, and those of Turkish descent and usually from the Balkans. Concurrent with this trend is the history of refugees and immigrants leaving Turkey, such as many Armenians, Greeks and Jews leaving at the turn of the century, and after 1923 and the Treaty of Lausanne. Little is currently published on the topic. This article defines a refugee; provides an overview of the refugee problems of the 1980's due to Bulgarian, Kurdish, and Turkish refugees; and the legal and political aspects. As a country of origin, there is discussion of the political and economic aspects of Turkish asylum seekers in Europe. The potential refugee flows to and from Turkey are also examined. I) For this study, refugees are victims of political violence and are persecuted for political or religious beliefs, ethnic or racial background, or war. In Turkey, there are national refugees, international refugees outside the Convention, and UNHCR Convention refugees. During the 1980's all 3 groups were arriving: from eastern Europe, Iranian Kurds, Iraqis, and ethnic Turks from Bulgaria and Afghanistan. The Turkish restricted acceptance of the 1951 Convention on Refugees creates serious humanitarian and security consequences for refugees other than those from eastern Europe and of Turkish ethnicity. Political considerations play an important role in treatment where security threats outweigh humanitarian need. The case is given for Kurdish refugees. II) Asylum seekers from Turkey in Western Europe was determined between 1986-90 to be 185,000 from applications. These figures have risen steadily due to the political instability and military activity of areas bordering Iraq and Syria, the Emergency Region. In addition there are economic and employment problems, and there has been a suspension of human rights. Europe in return has tightened legislation and procedures to differentiate economically motivated refugees from authentic political asylum seekers. Further research is needed to investigate refugee problems. Further refugees may come due to the promotion of a Black Sea Cooperation Region and easier crossings of borders to the former Soviet Republics. Ethnic Turks in Moldavia or Romania or Bulgaria may leave due to unrest. Factors affecting asylum seekers are improvements in Turkey's human rights record, repeal of bans of the Kurdish language, completion of the South Eastern Development Project, and the European government policy on asylum.     

Human Security Perspectives on Refugee Children in Germany

This research identifies challenges and solutions for the situation of accompanied children in German refugee accommodations along the seven human security dimensions (economy, environment, food, health, personal, community and political rights). It analyses existing binding and non‐binding standards for the protection of refugee children at federal, state and municipal level, and their development since 2014. In particular, the United Nations Children's Fund's role for the development of voluntary protection standards is discussed as a role model to enhance the awareness for the protection of refugee children in Germany.     

Framing Syrians in Turkey: State Control and No Crisis Discourse

The mass arrival of Syrian refugees and their continuing presence have triggered many new debates regarding migration in Turkey, which – as a result of its open-door policy – now hosts the highest number of refugees in the world. Yet, when we investigate the ways political institutions and actors have framed migration, we observe, unlike in European discourses, the complete absence of the word “crisis”. In public statements by politicians, “control” emerges instead as a recurrent (albeit implicit) theme. Here, management of the refugee issue becomes a sign of state power, exercised through various mechanisms. Through analysis of state discourse on Syrians in the Turkish media, we find that crisis framing has been deliberately avoided, which we contend is a sign of an implicit “silencing” via media control. This choice of discourse reflects a clear policy to manage public reactions to the mass arrival of refugees.     

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     

International migration,international relations and foreign policy

Recent literature on migration, international relations, and foreign policy is reviewed in this article, stressing applications of global systems paradigms, studies of state entry and exit rules, and anatomies of domestic policy-setting processes on migration. After a concise assessment of the contemporary theory of global political economy, the paper argues for seeking mid-range generalizations on the international relations of migration. It also suggests that analysis begin with the policy-setting processes of the state. Especially through the use of comparative perspectives available from domestic policy making studies and from the field of international comparative public policy, this approach offers the opportunity to fix empirically the political roles of transnational social forces, which often present themselves as participants in domestic policy contests. Promising future directions in the study of state-to-state relations are also evaluated, with the anticipation that verifying regional or other intermediate patterns of world migration politics may contribute to more general theories of international political economy.