Recent research relating to forced migration, refugees and asylum seekers
If you have come across some recently published research, from any discipline, that you think may be useful to other RAS members, please email ras-contact@unimelb.edu.au. The citation details will be listed on this page and included in the RAS email bulletin.
Prejudice Mob Website
This website lists selected references from a group of Australian researchers across disciplines and locations who examine prejudice and its effects. There is a focus on attitudes toward cultural groups such as asylum seekers & refugees, gays & lesbians, Indigenous Australians and Muslim Australians as well as research relating to gender relations.
The site is a Murdoch Uni website run by Dr Anne Pedersen. Please go to: http://www.psychology.murdoch.edu.au/prejudice.html
Article - Refugee Health Research Centre recent publication by Correa-Velez I, Johnston V, Kirk J and Ferdinand A.: "Community-based asylum seekers’ use of primary care services in Melbourne."
Citation:
Correa-Velez I, Johnston V, Kirk J and Ferdinand A. Community-based asylum
seekers’ use of
primary care services in Melbourne. Medical Journal of Australia, 2008;
188: 344-348.
Report by AJA and Oxfam: 'Playing God with Sanctuary'
A dangerous gap exists in Australia's refugee system that means people threatened with torture and gross human rights violations are being sent back to their country of origin after years in detention centres because they do not fit the technical definition of a 'refugee', according to a joint report by refugee policy group A Just Australia (AJA) and Oxfam.
Under the current system, a person who faces danger if they return to their place of origin might slip through the gaps and only get asylum by applying for refugee status, knowing they will be rejected, apply for a second time once they are rejected and then seek ministerial intervention - which may not be granted.
The report, Playing God with Sanctuary: A study of Australia's approach to complementary protection obligations beyond the Refugee Convention, follows Immigration Minister Chris Evans' comments in February that he was uncomfortable 'playing God', expressing concern about 'the lack of transparency and accountability for those decisions'.
Available for download from:
http://www.ajustaustralia.com/informationandresources_researchandpapers.php?act=papers&id=103
Report by Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM: 'An Absence of Human Rights: Children in Detention'
This paper examines what has happened and why our human rights protection system in place has failed the children placed in detention through Australia's immigration program. It compares the Australian human rights environment to that of other countries, and examines what needs to be done
to avoid ongoing breaches.
Report by Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM
Adjunct Professor
Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, The University of Sydney
Australian Human Rights Commissioner and Disability Discrimination
Commissioner (2000-05)
Available for download at:
http://www.ajustaustralia.com/informationandresources_researchandpapers.php?act=papers&id=102
Book edited by Jane McAdam: STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL LAW - NO. 17, "Forced Migration, Human Rights and Security"
The international protection regime for refugees and other forced migrants seems increasingly at risk as measures designed to enhance security—of borders, of people, of institutions, and of national identity—encroach upon human rights. This timely edited collection responds to some of the contemporary challenges faced by the international protection regime, with a particular focus on the human rights of those displaced. The book begins by assessing the impact of anti-terrorism laws on refugee status, both at the international and domestic levels, before turning to examine the function of offshore immigration control mechanisms and extraterritorial processing on asylum seekers' access to territory and entitlements (both procedural and substantive). It considers the particular needs and rights of children as forced migrants, but also as children; the role of human rights law in protecting religious minorities in the context of debates about national identity; the approaches of refugee decision-makers in assessing the credibility of evidence; and the scope for an international judicial commission to provide consistent interpretative guidance on refugee law, so as to overcome (or at least diminish) the currently diverse and sometimes conflicting approaches of national courts. The last part of the book examines the status of people who benefit from 'complementary protection'—such as those who cannot be removed from a country because they face a risk of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment—and the scope for the broader concept of the 'responsibility to protect' to address gaps in the international protection regime.
Dr Jane McAdam is a Senior Lecturer and Director of International Law Programs in the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales, Australia.
Can be purchased online from Hart Publishing at: http://www.hartpub.co.uk/books/details.asp?isbn=9781841137704
Book by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Eurasylum on ’Assessing the Costs and Impacts of Migration Policy: an International Comparison’
The book explores some of the key issues, at a policy and practical level, relating to the design,
implementation and outcomes of public evaluation systems in the field of migration policy. It reviews the ways migration policies are evaluated in several EU member states, the USA, Canada, the European Commission, IOM and UNHCR, and provides a range of recommendations for improving the design and implementation of evidence-based and accountable policies in the field of migration and asylum.
The book can be downloaded or ordered from here:
http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/cache/offonce/pid/1674;jsessionid=9FDF4DA2BC
0F0ADE4659D3E973037CE8.worker02?entryId=17121
or:
http://tinyurl.com/4ncuel
Paper by Springvale Monash Legal Service (SMLS): ‘Comparative Analysis of South Sudanese Customary Law and Victorian Law’
Since early 2006, Springvale Monash Legal Service (SMLS) has conducted legal education seminars with a number of newly arrived community groups on a range of topics, in partnership with various organisations. Through a combination of feedback from participants in these seminars, identified needs from the day-to-day legal casework conducted by SMLS staff and advice from a number of experts, SMLS embarked upon an ambitious project to document broad aspects of South Sudanese customary law and draw a comparison with Victorian (and Australian) law. This paper has been prepared in consultation with members of the South Sudanese community, as well as a number of workers who have close involvement with this group.
Download a copy from the SMLS website at:
http://www.smls.com.au/images/stories/PDFs/CD/comparative_paper.pdf
Report by Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission: Victorian human rights charter
This year marks the full operation of the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities (the Charter) in Victoria. In the lead up to the full operation of the Charter on 1 January 2008, a lot of work had to be done by Victoria’s courts and tribunals, State government departments and statutory agencies, local councils, Ministers and the Parliament to organise the way they worked to make sure they were in line with the intention of the Charter. This summary report looks at the preparations that these bodies have made during 2007 to make sure they are ready for their human rights obligations under the Charter.
Full and summary reports are available from the VEOHRC website at:
http://www.humanrightscommission.vic.gov.au/publications/annual%20reports/
Website by South Eastern Region Migrant Resource Centre (SERMRC) and City of Casey: Casey Connect - strategies and resources for working with refugee young people
The South Eastern Region Migrant Resource Centre (SERMRC) recently held forums to assist service providers and schools in the City of Casey to enhance their understanding of the refugee experience and to improve their awareness of strategies and resources for working with refugee young people. A website has been created to provide links to further resources, with a particular focus on working with refugee young people from the Afghan and Sudanese communities.
Take a look at the Casey Connect website at: http://www.caseyconnect.net.au/GroupHomePage.aspx?groupid=30447 and feel free to suggest other resources that you think might be useful.
Website/interactive linkup by Oxfam (Refugee Realities) - Refugee narratives with a focus on Ugandan camps
Oxfam Australia has launched an online linkup project enabling people in Australia to connect to young people displaced by the 20 year civil war in Northern Uganda:
http://www.oxfam.org.au/refugee/uganda/about-ugandan-camps.php
Read stories by young people in Uganda and post comments/questions. You can submit your own story too! Participants from Uganda live in one of seven internally displaced peoples (IDP) camps which have had internet connectivity and computer facilities since March 2007. This is a rare
opportunity for displaced people to have a voice this Refugee Week, and for people in Australia to
make a real connection to the survivors of war.
Background to displacement in Northern Uganda:
The people of Northern Uganda have suffered from two decades of bloody civil war and neglect, costing tens of thousands of lives and forcing around 1.6 million people to flee their homes and move into cramped and squalid IDP camps that lack even clean water. Children and young people are the primary victims. One half of those displaced are under the age of fifteen, and more than a third of the boys and one-sixth of the girls bear the scars of forced soldiering and sexual slavery in Northern Uganda. Around 1000 people die each week as a result of camp conditions. The United Nations calls this situation one of the world's worst humanitarian catastrophes.
Useful links:
* Invisible Children http://www.invisiblechildren.com/home.php
* Uganda Conflict Action Network http://www.ugandacan.org/
* United Nations
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/country?iso=uga
* Resolve Uganda http://www.resolveuganda.org/
Background to the Uganda/Australia Linkup project:
The conditions in IDP camps in Uganda are incredibly isolating. Families and friends have been separated by decades of war and have been effectively stranded in camps hundreds of kilometres away from one another. Fr. Joe Okumu, a Ugandan priest, human rights activist and representative of Caritas Catholic Charities in Gulu, teamed up with US based organisation Bosco (Battery Operated Systems for Community Outreach) and Inveneo Communication Stations to deliver internet connectivity to the camps in Northern Uganda. They hoped that internet access would open up the closed world in which the camp dwellers were trapped. Internet connectivity has also enabled more development organisations to work in the region to assist the people displaced by war.
Since March 2007 internet access has been available in seven IDP camps, with plans to extend the network to an additional 73 IDP camps.
This Uganda/Australia Linkup project is about facilitating dialogue between the survivors of war, and people in Australia who have the power to make a real difference. This is about connecting people with diverse backgrounds and experiences, and generating new ideas about how to protect people from armed conflict and displacement.
Links
* Bosco Uganda <http://www.bosco-uganda.org/index.html>
Videos
* Fr Joe talks about the establishment of internet access in the camps - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uvi4ESiE4M
Films by Refugee Health Research Centre Good Starts Arts study: "See Through Me: Discrimination through the eyes of ten young Somali-Australians" and "Crazy: The everyday experiences of Sudanese-Australian young women".
The Refugee Health Research Centre’s Good Starts Arts project has made available on the RHRC website two films, See Through Me: Discrimination through the eyes of ten young Somali-Australians and Crazy: The everyday experiences of Sudanese-Australian young women. The films explore the settlement experiences of young people from refugee backgrounds in different ways and are at once challenging, fascinating and engaging.
Good Starts Arts is a three-year project exploring the settlement experiences of young people from refugee backgrounds. The project aims to work collaboratively with these young people to produce audio-visual materials that can contribute to existing research in this field, to create films that can be disseminated to the general public in order to increase awareness of the experiences of young people settling in Australia, and to develop the communication, creative, leadership, and filmmaking skills of participants, and improve self-confidence and self-esteem.
See Through Me was made in 2007 with a group of ten young Somali-Australians living in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. A team consisting of a researcher, drama facilitator and filmmaker worked with participants over a three-month period to produce the film. Participants were involved in all aspects of the film, from theme to content to final outcome. The film explores an issue of great importance to the participants, as it is to many people of refugee and migrant backgrounds:
discrimination.
Crazy was also made in 2007, and was created through a series of workshops with Sudanese-Australian young women living in Noble Park in Melbourne’s South-Eastern suburbs. The six participants were aged between 15 and 17 years and had lived in Australia for varying lengths of time. Crazy was created with the intention of exploring the everyday experiences of these young women as they grow up in Australia.
The Good Starts Arts project is continuing to work with young people from refugee backgrounds to produce films about issues that are important to them and these films will also be put on the website when they are complete.
If you would like to provide feedback on the films or require further information about the project, please contact Amber McQueen
Go to the RHRC website: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/rhrc/
