Blogs About Refugees

The following off-air recordings have been requested for the Refugee Council Archive for the week beginning 25/05/2013:

Saturday 25 May

0530-0600: BBC News: Our World:  Rescuing Russia’s Orphans.  Series Recording.

Sunday 26 May

2000-2100: Channel 4: Clare Balding’s Secrets of a Suffragette.

2100-2200: BBC2: (2/3) Australia with Simon Reeve – Series 1 Episode 2.  Series Recording.

Monday 27 May

2100-2200: Yesterday: (3/3) The Crusades – Part 3:  Victory and Defeat.  Series Recording.

Wednesday 29 May

2100-2200: BBC2: (1/3) The Iraq War.  (Series 1 Part 1 – Regime Change).  Whole Series Please.

Friday 31 May

1930-1955: Channel 4: Unreported World – Episode 8: Making Brazil Beautiful.  Series Recording.

Filed under: Off Air Recordings Tagged: off-air recordings, Refugee Archives at UEL

Voluntary Action History Society Fifth International Conference

University of Huddersfield

10-12 July 2013

Registration now open! Please follow the link to the University of Huddersfield Online Store to book.

Provisional Conference Timetable and Provisional Panel Sessions now available!

As you will see, some of our sessions are missing Chairs. If you would be interested in volunteering to chair one of the sessions, please contact Charlotte at:

Keynote speakers: Professor Ellen Ross (Ramapo College, New Jersey) and Professor Barry Doyle (University of Huddersfield)

The Voluntary Action History Society is delighted to announce that its fifth international research conference will be held at the University of Huddersfield in summer 2013. Huddersfield is an historic mill town in West Yorkshire with a rich history of voluntary and collective action. The themes for the conference are:

Activism and campaigning;

Co-operation and mutualism;

Humanitarianism and relief;

Leisure and voluntary action;

State and voluntary action;

Wars and voluntarism.

Full details via Voluntary Action History Society Fifth International Conference | Voluntary Action History Society.

via Voluntary Action History Society Fifth International Conference | Voluntary Action History Society.

via Voluntary Action History Society Fifth International Conference | Voluntary Action History Society.

Filed under: Refugee Archives

Critical Legal Conference

5-7 September

Critical Migration Studies

Deadline for proposals: 15 June

Stream Organisers: Nadine El-Enany (Birkbeck Law School), Eddie Bruce Jones (Birkbeck Law School), Satvinder Juss (King College London) and Thanos Zartaloudis (Exeter Law School).

This stream aims to gather together academics, graduate students, practitioners and activists whose work critically examines aspects of migration and the law. Through this stream we seek to carve out and further elaborate what it means to be a critical migration scholar.

While many scholars seek to assess the effectiveness of migration law and policies, this stream aims to interrogate the law as constitutive of exclusion and violence in the context of migration as well as further identify and define the field of critical migration studies.

We welcome proposals on a broad range of issues falling within this stream, including:

Refugee protest activity in and outside camps . The effect of economic crisis and austerity on the migration discourse . Critical reflections on migration law and the body . New critiques of migration law and human rights . Decolonial, feminist and queer perspectives on migration . Reconciliation and solidarity in migration advocacy . New readings of migration jurisprudence

Please send paper abstracts of 300 words to Nadine El-Enany (n.el-enany@bbk.ac.uk) or Eddie Bruce Jones (e.bruce-jones@bbk.ac.uk) before the 15 June 2013 deadline.

For more information: http://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/clc2013/CallforPapersandStreams/CriticalMigrationStudies/

 

Filed under: Call For Papers, Events Tagged: call for papers, events

Source: Forced Migration Discussion List.

Conference Announcement

FAMILY LIFE IN THE AGE OF MIGRATION AND MOBILITY: THEORY, POLICY AND PRACTICE

16 – 20th September 2013

Norrköping, Sweden

Invited Speakers include: Prof. Loretta Baldassar, Prof. Arlie Hochschild & Prof. Rhacel Parreñas

Organisational committee: Prof. Helma Lutz (Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany), Dr Majella Kilkey (Sheffield University, UK) & Dr. Ewa Palenga-Möllenbeck (Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany)

Short description:

In an age of migration and mobility not only do many facets of contemporary family life take place against the backdrop of intensified movement in its various forms, but the practices of families themselves are deeply embedded in such movements. This conference seeks to ‘make sense’ of the challenges this poses for families and for academic, empirical and policy understandings of family life in Europe and beyond.

Three key themes frame the conference:

1) Multi-local family lives in national and transnational contexts

2) The globalisation of reproduction and social reproduction across the family-life cycle

3) National, supranational and transnational policies and laws relating to family life in an age of migration and mobility

For the conference programme with a list of all invited speakers see: https://www.familymobility.de/ We invite submission of abstracts for short talks and poster session from PhD students, post-doctoral researchers and established scholars relating to one of the three conference themes or to the general topic of the conference. The details about the application procedure are available on the conference website: http://www.familymobility.de/call

Contact and Registration:

Email: familymobilitymigration@gmail.com

Website: https://www.familymobility.de/

Supported by:

University of Linköping (Faculty of Arts & Sciences), the Fritz Thyssen Foundation & the Riksbanken Foundation

 

Filed under: Events Tagged: events

Source: Forced Migration Discussion List.

Educational Success in Pakistan: Implications for Stability and Security

Thursday, June 6, 2013, 10:00 – 11:30 am The Brookings Institution, Saul/Zilkha Rooms, 1775 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC

Despite the steady stream of bad news from Pakistan, there have been a number of success stories. One example is the tremendous progress made in education reform in Punjab province. During the past two years, education reforms in Punjab province have resulted in more than a million and a half more children enrolled in school, increased school attendance to 90 percent, and 81,000 new teachers hired on merit. With 40 out of 70 million young people ages 5 to 19 not in school, reforms in Pakistan’s most populous province provide important lessons for the rest of the country.

On June 6, the Center for Universal Education at Brookings will host a discussion on what can be learned from the Punjab experience. Following a presentation by Chief Education Strategist at Pearson Sir Michael Barber, Brookings Senior Fellow Bruce Riedel, director of the Intelligence Project at Brookings, and Senior Advisor of the Aga Khan Development Network Iqbal Noor Ali will discuss the implications for education reform, public-private partnerships, and security in Pakistan. Senior Fellow Rebecca Winthrop, director of the Center for Universal Education, will moderate the discussion.

After the program, panelists will take audience questions.

Introduction and Moderator

Rebecca Winthrop, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Universal Education, The Brookings Institution

Panelists

Iqbal Noor Ali, Senior Advisor, Aga Khan Development Network Bruce Riedel, Senior Fellow and Director, The Intelligence Project, The Brookings Institution Sir Michael Barber, Chief Education Strategist, Pearson

To RSVP for this event, please call the Office of Communications at 202.797.6105 or go to https://www.cvent.com/events/educational-success-in-pakistan-implications-for-stability-and-security/registration-ec617a6b92c84ae08386f0c541630656.aspx

 

Filed under: Refugee Archives Tagged: Educational Success in Pakistan, events

Source: Forced Migration Discussion List.

APPLY FOR A MASTERS OF ARTS IN MIGRATION AND DISPLACEMENT Wits University, Johannesburg, South Africa | 2014 intake

The African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) is the continent’s leading institution for teaching, research and outreach on human mobility

For more than a decade, the ACMS has offered interdisciplinary postgraduate degrees in migration studies that are theoretically rich, empirically grounded and professionally relevant. Students from across the world continue to benefit from rigorous academic training, field research experience and access to a network of committed professionals, scholars and activists. ACMS graduates now hold senior positions in universities, non-governmental organizations, international agencies and government departments across Africa, North America and Europe.

Students enrolled in ACMS graduate programmes can expect:

Intensive and small postgraduate classes offering in-depth supervision and engagements with experienced and internationally renowned lecturers; . Specialized training in health, labour, human rights or governance; . Opportunities to embed their research in pioneering projects managed by ACMS researchers; . An intellectually stimulating environment with seminars, workshops and conferences within ACMS and the broader university; . Classmates from around the world with varied professional backgrounds and networks.

Intended to foster critical engagements with global social theory and the empirics of human mobility in Africa, the MA (coursework) is suitable for those aiming to advance their scholarly training in migration studies. Successful applicants will possess a good Honours or equivalent four-year undergraduate degree in the social-sciences or related disciplines.

Students may choose from the following ACMS courses or those offered elsewhere at Wits University:

Introduction to Migration & Displacement (GRAD 7029) Human migration and displacement affect societies around the world. Nowhere are the impacts more visible than in Africa, where movements of people due to war, political persecution, and deprivation have long shaped the continent’s political, economic and social configurations. This course reviews the dynamics of migration-internal and international; forced and voluntary-along with formal and informal responses to human mobility. In place of technical skills or policy recommendations, the course provides a conceptual and empirical foundation for making sense of the complex conceptual, methodological, ethical and logistical concerns surrounding mobility. In doing so, it uses migration to raises fundamental challenges to the epistemological and empirical underpinnings of contemporary social and political theory.

Researching Migration (GRAD 7026)

This course is intended to strengthen students’ capacity for critical, independent social research. The focus is on understanding social science’s objectives and logics, enhancing students’ skills for evaluating the merits of published materials, and developing strategies for conducting methodologically sound, theoretically relevant empirical research in the environments where migrants are typically found.

The Psychosocial & Health Consequences of Migration (GRAD 7052) This course provides a critical introduction to the health and psychosocial consequences of migration. The course’s theoretical core draws primarily from a public health perspective on humanitarian interventions and rights based arguments relating to health care of migrants. It explores the relationships between the state of being a migrant and the conditions that create vulnerabilities to ill health, specifically with regard to HIV/AIDS, mental well-being and reproductive health.

Migration & Human Rights (GRAD 7056)

This course explores the complex relationships among nationality, citizenship, migration and human rights. In a world where domestic and international mobility-particularly unauthorized and ‘illegal’ migration-has become a pressing policy and advocacy issue, notions of universal rights are appealing but rarely resonates with the socio-political realities of contemporary Africa or other regions. Indeed, a focus on universalism often ignores the mechanisms and mindsets that engender and endanger rights. It also presumes a form of legal subjectivity that often poorly reflects the objectives and trajectories of those we-activists, scholars, citizens, and officials-ostensibly seek to protect. This course addresses how international human rights doctrines, concepts, conventions, and mechanisms work to create and protect ‘aliens’, people who have left their countries of origin to work, seek a safe haven, or join family or friends in another country.

Identity, Movement & Control (SOSS 7025) This course explores the intersections among human mobility, regulation, and the making of socio-political space. To do this, it proceeds through two primary sections. The first explores theories of power, sovereignty, and space drawing on literatures from political science, human geography, and anthropology. The second uses cases studies to consider three ‘types’ of space through and within which people regularly move: refugee camps, border zones, and urban centres. In all instances, case material and theory position African examples in a comparative perspective.

Application deadline 30th September 2013

[Please note that the ACMS also offers doctoral studies. For more information on its doctoral programmes, research and outreach, visit www.migration.org.za].

 

Filed under: Courses, Events Tagged: courses, events

The European Network on Statelessness and the Statelessness Programme at Tilburg University are calling for the adoption of an "International Day on Statelessness," similar to Human Rights Day or World Refugee Day.  Share your support/thoughts over at the ENS blog!

Publications:

"Becoming Stateless: Historical Experience and Its Reflection on the Concept of State among the Lahu in Yunnan and Mainland Southeast Asian Massif," Southeast Asian Studies, vol. 2, no. 1 (2013) [full-text]

"Born Lost: Stateless Children in International Surrogacy Arrangements," Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law, vol. 21, no. 2 (2013) [full-text]

"'A Forgotten Human Rights Crisis': Statelessness and Issue (Non)Emergence," Human Rights Review, vol. 14, no. 2 (June 2013) [abstract]
- See also related ENS Blog post, FMR article and thesis.

A Government Approach to Moving Statelessness Forward on the International Agenda (ENS Blog, May 2013) [text]

Litigation, Legal Aid & Law Clinics (ENS Blog, May 2013) [text]

[Nationality Laws in Liberia, Nepal and Thailand] (Statelessness Programme, May 2013)
- Students in the 'Nationality, Statelessness and Human Rights' course at Tilburg University provide their analyses.

The Price of Statelessness: Palestinian Refugees from Syria (Middle East Monitor, May 2013) [text]

U.S. Immigration Reform May Finally Help Stateless People (Refugees International Blog, May 2013) [text]

Tagged Publications.  

Amnesty International's flagship annual report was released today.  The 2013 edition includes a focus on "People on the Move," with the press release noting "that the rights of millions of people who have escaped conflict and persecution, or migrated to seek work and a better life for themselves and their families, have been abused. Governments around the world are accused of showing more interest in protecting their national borders than the rights of their citizens or the rights of those seeking refugee or opportunities within those borders."

The report begins with an introductory essay on "Human Rights Know NO Borders," and continues with surveys on the state of human rights in 159 countries and territories. A global update, regional overviews, and other language editions can be found on the report's web site.

Previous editions of the report can be accessed via my wiki.

Tagged Publications and Web Sites/Tools.

A few weeks ago David Cameron suggested that private landlords should be required to check the immigration status of tenants. Now, lo and behold, the measure is to be included in a new Immigration Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech. This such a Bad Idea it is difficult to know where to start to explain why. Perhaps the clearest way to put it is to say that it is Good News for we immigration lawyers, and therefore Very Bad News for everyone else.

Employers who employ immigrants who do not possess permission to work are already given criminal or civil penalties if they fail to check their employee’s immigration status and keep copies of the relevant documents. The UK Border Agency (or whatever it is called this week) issues lists of defaulting employers, presumably in order to name and shame them. Fines remain uncollected, though, as the Chief Inspector of the UK Border Agency revealed in a report last year. It is almost as if

Full blog posting via Private landlords as immigration informants | Free Movement blog.

Filed under: News Tagged: news

"Improving Early Detection of Refugee-Related Stress Symptoms: Evaluation of an Inter-Professional and Inter-Cultural Skills Training Course in Sweden," Societies 3(2) (May 2013) [open access text]

"Meaningful Change or Business as Usual? Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Settings," Forced Migration Review 25th Anniversary Collection (April 2013) [open access text]

Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Disaster Situations in the Caribbean (PAHO, Dec. 2012) [text via ReliefWeb]

"Piloting Community-based Medical Care for Survivors of Sexual Assault in Conflict-affected Karen State of Eastern Burma," Conflict and Health 7:12 (May 2013) [open access text]

"Quality of Ultrasound Biometry Obtained by Local Health Workers in a Refugee Camp on the Thai–Burmese Border," Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology, vol. 40, no. 2 (Aug. 2012) [open access text]

War Surgery: Working with Limited Resources in Armed Conflict and Other Situations of Violence, vol. 2 (ICRC, 2013) [text]

Tagged Publications.  

A worker in a run down factory in Dhaka's old city.

CFPs:

British Journal of Social Work [info]
- Special issue on "'A World on the Move': Migration, Mobilities and Social Work."  Abstract deadline is 7 June 2013.

Disability and the Global South: An International Journal [info]
- Special issue on "Disability, Asylum and Migration." Submission deadline is 1 September 2013.

Intervention [info]
- Special issue on psychosocial work and peacebuilding. Submission deadline is 1 July 2013.

Journal of Human Rights in the Commonwealth [info]
- New open access journal published by the School of Advanced Study, University of London.  Submission deadline is 31 July 2013.

Oxford Monitor of Forced Migration [info]
- Scroll to p. 101 for CFP.  Submission deadline is 14 August 2013.

New issues:

Field Exchange, no. 44 (Dec. 2012) [full-text]
- Mix of articles.

Forced Migration Review, no. 43 (May 2013) [info]
- Theme issue on "States of Fragility."  Full-text is coming soon.

Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, vol. 26, no. 2 (Winter 2012) [contents]
- Mix of articles including two on "women as a social group" and "refugee relief and resettlement during armed conflict."

Humanitarian Exchange, no. 57 (May 2013) [full-text]
- Theme is "South Sudan at a Crossroads."

Oxford Monitor of Forced Migration, vol. 3, no. 1 (May 2013) [full-text]
- Mix of articles that reflect on the concepts of "international solidarity" and "international cooperation" in refugee protection.

St. Antony's International Review, vol. 9, no. 1 (May 2013) [contents]
- Special issue on "The Gendered Refugee Experience."  See also launch event info. here.

Tagged Periodicals and Events & Opportunities. 

"Forced Displacements from Syria or How to Institutionalize Regimes of Suffering," ESIL Reflections, vol. 2, no. 6 (May 2013) [text]

The Past, Present and Future of Transnational Conflict in Jordan: A Study of Syrian Refugees in the Hashemite Kingdom, Masters Capstone Paper Project (Illinois State University, May 2013) [text]

Mission Report: An NGO Perspective on the Response to the Syria Crisis (ICVA & InterAction, May 2013) [text]

Multimedia Memo: Syria (UNHCR) [access]

People on the Move: 'For many displaced Syrians, going back home is out of the question' (Amnesty International, May 2013) [text]

Syria Refugees: Your Stories (Guardian Witness) [access]

[Map credit: "Syria: Numbers and Locations of Refugees and IDPs," U.S. Dept. of State, May 2013]

Tagged Publications and Web Sites/Tools.

NEW DELHI: The history of the 1971 India-Pakistan war will never be fully written. Most of the official records of the war that led to the liberation of Bangladesh have been destroyed.

The destroyed files include those on the creation of the Mukti Bahini — the Bangladesh freedom fighters — all appreciation and assessments made by the army during the war period, the orders issued to fighting formations, and other sensitive operational details.

Authoritative army sources said all records of the period, held at the Eastern Command in Kolkota, were destroyed immediately after the 1971 war. This has remained secret until now.

According to at least two former chiefs of the Eastern Command and other senior army officers TOI spoke to, the destruction may have been deliberate.

They say the destruction may have happened when Lt General Jagjit Singh Aurora, the Indian army’s commanding officer on the eastern front, headed the Eastern Command. If true, this would be at odds with Aurora’s image as the hero who led his men to victory and thePakistan army’s surrender in Dhaka.

The sensational fact that the files were missing became known only recently when the Eastern Command was searching for details of the Mukti Bahini camps in order to organize a reception for Bangladeshi veterans.

The Indian Army had housed the freedom fighters in different camps across India, where army instructors trained them in warfare. Later, Mukti Bahini fighters were part of the operations led by the eastern command.

A senior army source told TOI, “We were looking for the details of Mukti Bahini camps. We wanted to know where all were the camps, who were in charge etc. When those files were not available, the eastern army command launched a hunt for the records of the war. That is when we realized that the entire records are missing.”

Lt Gen (retd) JFR Jacob, who was chief of staff of the eastern command during the war and later its head, admitted the records were missing, when asked if this were true. ”When I took over as Eastern Army commander in August 1974 I asked to see the records. I was told that they have been shredded,” he told TOI. He refused to discuss who ordered the destruction of the records.

The army headquarters and various units of the army may have some records of the war, a senior army officer said.

But the picture will never be complete, he said, adding that military records maintained at the nerve center of operations are crucial if one is ever to construct the full picture.

The details are significant as this operation is one of the great success stories of Indian intelligence and the army.

via Truth Lost? Most Military Records of Bangladesh War Missing‏ | PKKH.tv.

Filed under: Archives Tagged: Archives, Bangladesh

Workshop filmmaker-in-residence Catherine Rentz, who co-produced “Lost in Detention” for PBS Frontline and the Investigative Reporting Workshop, and New York Times reporter Ian Urbina wrote this story for The New York Times. The Workshop will produce video and radio reports about immigrants in solitary confinement in the weeks to come.

WASHINGTON — On any given day, about 300 immigrants are held in solitary confinement at the 50 largest detention facilities that make up the sprawling patchwork of holding centers nationwide overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, according to new federal data.

Nearly half are isolated for 15 days or more, the point at which psychiatric experts say they are at risk for severe mental harm, with about 35 detainees kept for more than 75 days.

While the records do not indicate why immigrants were put in solitary, an adviser who helped the immigration agency review the numbers estimated that two-thirds of the cases involved disciplinary infractions like breaking rules, talking back to guards or getting into fights. Immigrants were also regularly isolated because they were viewed as a threat to other detainees or personnel or for protective purposes when the immigrant was gay or mentally ill.

The United States has come under sharp criticism at home and abroad for relying on solitary confinement in its prisons more than any other democratic nation in the world. While Immigration and Customs Enforcement places only about 1 percent of its jailed immigrants in solitary, this practice is nonetheless startling because those detainees are being held on civil, not criminal, charges. As such, they are not supposed to be punished; they are simply confined to ensure that they appear for administrative hearings.

Full article via Immigrants held in solitary, often for weeks – The Hole | Investigative Reporting Workshop.

Filed under: News Tagged: news

By Madeline Chambers

BAD AROLSEN, Germany, April 3 (Reuters) – George Jaunzemis was three and a half years old when, in the chaotic weeks at the end of World War Two, he was separated from his mother as she fled with him from Germany to Belgium.

He grew up in New Zealand with no memory of his early years, unaware the Latvian woman who had emigrated with him was not his real mother.

Then in 2010, a letter from the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen changed his life. He discovered his real name was Peter Thomas and that he had a nephew and cousins in Germany.

“I was astonished, thrilled. After all this time, I was an uncle,” Jaunzemis, 71, told Reuters. “You don’t know what it’s like to have no family or childhood knowledge. Suddenly all the pieces fitted, now I can find my peace as a person.”

Yet it took Jaunzemis over three decades of tenacious searching to find the vast archive in this remote corner of Germany where his past was buried.

Bad Arolsen contains 30 million documents on survivors of Nazi camps, Gestapo prisons, forced labourers and displaced persons. It rivals Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust centre and the Washington Holocaust Memorial Museum in historical value.

However, many people are not even aware it exists. It was only opened to researchers in 2007 after criticism that it was being too protective of its material. Despite sitting on a mountain of original evidence, it is still struggling to get the attention academics say it deserves.

Last year just 2,097 people visited Bad Arolsen compared with the 900,000 who went to Yad Vashem.

Rebecca Boehling, a 57-year old historian who arrived from the United States in January, wants to change that.

“We have a new agenda,” said Boehling, who came from the Dresher Center for the Humanities at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

“We’re sitting on a treasure trove of documents. We want people to know what we have. Our material can change our perspective on big topics related to the war and the Holocaust.”

Boehling is the first archive director who is not affiliated with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which had managed Bad Arolsen since 1955 with a narrow remit to trace people.

The ICRC handed over the reins to an international commission of 11 countries in January, a step that could help unleash the full potential of the archive for academic study.

Boehling plans to hold international conferences, get foreign students to use the ITS, publish more research and host national teachers’ workshops, although she doubts the 14 million euro budget from the German government will stretch that far.

Personal stories about victims, which the ITS can provide in abundance, are a powerful tool in educating young generations, she said. Currently, events hosted by the archive are attended only by townspeople and groups of pupils from nearby.

Full articlevia German Holocaust Archive In Bad Arolsen To Open Fully To Public.

 

Filed under: Archives Tagged: Archives

"African Irregular Migrants in Malta: Exploring Perceptions and Renegotiating the Socio-Cultural Siege of Malta," Pursuit: The Journal of Undergraduate Research at the University of Tennessee, vol. 4, no. 1 (Dec. 2012) [full-text]
Asylum: Fixing a Broken System (Euronews, May 2013) [access]
- Follow link above for news report and this link for related debate on asylum.

Asylum Seekers and Refugees were Already Marginalised in Cyprus; Now, with the Crisis, their Situation is Deteriorating (ECRE, May 2013) [text]

Evaluation of the Early Legal Advice Project (UK Home Office, May 2013) [text]

Papers presented at 13th European Union Studies Association Biennial Conference, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, 9-11 May 2013 [info]
- Here are two titles of interest; check paper archive for more: "Normative Regimes in the Regulation of Asylum and Immigration: International Conventions – Attitudes – EU Integration" and "Linking Berlin and Brussels: Nongovernmental Organizations Engage the European Union on Asylum."

Regional Study: Management of the External Borders of the EU and its Impact on the Human Rights of Migrants, UN Doc. No. A/HRC/23/46 (UN General Assembly, April 2013) [access]
- Report is available in .DOC format; background info. on the study is available here.

The Statistical and Econometric Analysis of Asylum Application Trends and Their Relationship to GDP in the EEA (arXiv.org, May 2013) [text]

Study on the Situation of Third-country Nationals Pending Return/Removal in the EU Member States and the Schengen Associated Countries (European Commission, March 2013) [text]

Tagged Publications. 

ITN reporters in the 1960s quiz newly arrived immigrants on why they have moved to the UK – as well as asking those leaving these shores about their motivation.

The first large-scale influx of immigrants to the UK began in the late 1940s, with the government encouraging mass immigration to the “mother country” from the British Empire and Commonwealth to fill the gaps in the labour market created by six years of war.

In 1948, the ship MV Empire Windrush arrived carrying the first 500 West Indians tempted by the promise of jobs and better living standards. Although they faced hostility from the trade unions, many found employment with British Rail, the NHS or on the public transport system, but they faced problems finding places to live and dealing with often very overt racism from the white majority.

Immigration on the rise

Immigration steadily increased year on year, until the government introduced curbs in the Immigration Act of 1962 and by 1972 only holders of work permits, or people with parents or grandparents born in the UK, could gain entry – effectively stemming most Caribbean immigration.

Between 1955 and 1962, ITN often sent reporters to quiz those arriving in London on their plans. The first video is a compilation of interviews from 1961 by Desmond Grealy (April 1961) and Brian Wildlake (October 1961) carried out at Victoria Station. After a long journey to a foreign country, it is perhaps not a surprise that the travellers were somewhat nonplussed to find a camera crew and a man with a microphone asking their views on immigration and “Have you got a job?” or “Have you got a place to live?”.

Full article via Immigration archive: coming and going – Channel 4 News.

Filed under: News Tagged: Channel 4, Immigration Nation, news

Politicians often blame immigrants for not doing enough to integrate into society. But do they know what integration means? Jamal Osman shares his experience of moving to London from Somalia.

Is integration about mixing with the Brits or speaking the Queen’s English? Is it about dressing in certain ways, eating certain food, listening to British music?

In my experience, integration has different connotations for different people. And in my 14 years of living in this country, my interpretation of it has been changing.

At first, I thought integration was about going down the pub and having a pint, which I couldn’t do for religious reasons. Then I developed an obsession with the weather but found it difficult to continue talking about it. Later, I became addicted to eating fish and chips but soon got tired of it.

Today, after all those years, I don’t really know what it means to be integrated.

Who knows where I would be?

I came to this country from Somalia in my early 20s with no family and very little English. It took me two years to be comfortable with life in London: when I got my refugee status and started working full-time.

I became more confident using phrases like, “innit”, “you know what I mean”, and so on.

Like many other immigrants, I appreciate the opportunity this country has given me to better myself and to achieve something in life. The compassionate immigration system allowed me to have the same rights (in most cases) as everyone else.

The generous welfare enabled me to get assistance when I needed it. The high-quality British education improved my knowledge of the world and helped me realise my aspirations.

Who knows where I would be had I not come here.

Full article via Immigration Nation: one man’s journey from Somalia – Channel 4 News.

Filed under: News Tagged: Channel 4, Immigration Nation, news

Around 20 per cent of Southampton’s residents were born abroad – making it a perfect place to gauge the pros and cons of being an immigration nation.

In this port city a decade ago there lived just a few hundred Polish immigrants. Now there are more than 8,000 here, along with their restaurants, grocers, butchers and insurance brokers.

Southampton has been absorbing immigrants ever since the Huguenots fled to the city in the 17th century, and now about a fifth of the residents here were born outside the UK.

While some are relaxed about this, others complain of too many immigrants – one person telling me: “The floodgates are open.”

At St Mark’s primary school 49 languages are spoken by the pupils – among them two types of Zulu and Punjabi.

The school holds Polish coffee mornings to guide parents through their children’s curriculum, while upstairs Miss Kay from Lithuania takes a reception class.

A decade ago the school was classified as 86 per cent white English. Now that figure is 41 per cent. Headteacher Anne Steele-Arnett is positive about the benefits for the children: “This is their norm, this is what they’re growing up with and this will be their strength. They will be able to mix, they will be able to integrate.”

Increased demands

But the pressure on public services is evident. A thousand more babies are being born in the city each year than a decade ago. Another secondary school may have to be built.

via Southampton’s immigration decade – Channel 4 News.

Filed under: News Tagged: Channel 4, Immigration Nation, news