Refinteg

Università di Genova and the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS, Canada), in partnership with the Laboratorio di Sociologia Visuale and Centro Studi Medì, are organizing the international conference "The welcoming of refugees and grassroots solidarity: state of research and best practices in Europe and Canada".

The purpose of the conference is to explore current developments in refugee intake and solidarity practices in Europe and Canada through three main areas:

- Politics of refugee reception
- Welcoming and local solidarity
- Private refugee sponsorship programs

In an effort to provide an open and multidisciplinary platform for dialogue, established and emerging scholars and practitioners will share their research and expertise in the field from a variety of disciplines, including, but not limited to, sociology, anthropology, geography, law, political science and urban studies.

Participation in the conference is free of charge, but places are limited, therefore registration is compulsory. The registration deadline is October 21, 2022 (Friday) 12:00 CET. For registration please contact at [email protected]

Online participation will be possible only upon request.

THE WELCOMING OF REFUGEES AND GRASSROOTS SOLIDARITY
State of research and best practices in Europe and Canada

University of Genoa, October 27 - 28, 2022

Within the scope of the Refinteg project, the University of Genoa and the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS, Canada), in partnership with the Laboratorio di Sociologia Visuale and Centro Medì, are organizing the international conference "The welcoming of refugees and grassroots solidarity: state of research and best practices in Europe and Canada".

The purpose of the conference is to explore current developments in refugee intake and solidarity practices in Europe and Canada through three main areas:
• Politics of refugee reception
• Welcoming and local solidarity
• Private refugee sponsorship programs

In an effort to provide an open and multidisciplinary platform for dialogue, the organizers invite established and emerging scholars and practitioners to share their research and expertise in the field and welcome approaches from a variety of disciplines, including, but not limited to, sociology, anthropology, geography, law, political science and urban studies.

The conference language is English. Submissions should not exceed 300 words, and should be submitted along with a short biography of the author(s) by June 30, 2022 to [email protected]. Accepted proposals will receive a notification by July 15, 2022. Selected papers will be evaluated by the organizers for submission to a special issue of a peer-reviewed journal. The final paper must therefore be submitted by October 15, 2022.

Further details at the following link:

2022. The welcoming of refugees and grassroots solidarity • Laboratorio di Sociologia Visuale The welcoming of refugees and grassroots solidarity Conference 27 October 2022

Supreme Court of Canada’s has announced it will review the constitutionality of the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA).

This decision follows a long history of legal challenges to the Agreement, including two recent court rulings. In July 2020, the Federal Court found that the STCA violates the fundamental human rights of refugee claimants and is therefore unconstitutional.

For more details:

Supreme Court decision to hear Safe Third Country Agreement appeal is a promising step for refugee rights Amnesty International, The Canadian Council of Churches, and The Canadian Council for Refugees are welcoming the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision to review the constitutionality of the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA).

Lone refugee children go from homelessness in Greece to new lives across Europe

Legislative changes in Greece and a relocation programme have helped hundreds of unaccompanied refugee children get off the streets.

For more details:

Lone refugee children go from homelessness in Greece to new lives across Europe Legislative changes in Greece and a relocation programme have helped hundreds of unaccompanied refugee children get off the streets.

The Refugee Brief – By Kristy Siegfried

Displacement from water clashes in northern Cameroon reaches over 100,000. Clashes that erupted in Cameroon’s Far North region two weeks ago over dwindling water resources have now driven at least 100,000 people from their homes, triple the figure reported just a week ago, according to UNHCR. More than 85,000 people have fled into neighbouring Chad while another 15,000 have been displaced inside Cameroon. Deaths from the fighting have also doubled in the last week to 44, while 112 villages have been burned down. The root cause of the violent confrontations between herders and fisherman and farmers, according to UNHCR, is competition over increasingly scarce water resources exacerbated by the climate crisis. Over half the new arrivals to Chad have found refuge in or near the capital, N’Djamena, while others are scattered along the banks of the Logone River which marks the border. The new arrivals, most of them women and children, have put pressure on a country already hosting about one million refugees and internally displaced people. In a statement on Wednesday, Chad’s president, Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno referred to a “worrying situation” and called on the international community to “provide urgent assistance to these new refugees”.

Rights groups report new wave of atrocities in Ethiopia’s Tigray. According to a joint report by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, security forces from Ethiopia’s Amhara region have stepped up mass detentions, forced expulsions and killings of ethnic Tigrayans in western Tigray. The report, which came out ahead of today’s UN special session on abuses committed during the year-long conflict in northern Ethiopia, is the latest in a series of accounts detailing atrocities against civilians committed by all parties in the conflict. The report alleges that Tigrayans have been expelled from several towns in western Tigray, where some 1.2 million people have been displaced since the conflict began, according to the UN. Others have been detained in what the two rights groups described as “life-threatening conditions”. According to the testimony of 31 people who spoke to Amnesty and HRW by phone, Tigrayans attempting to flee were attacked, and an unknown number killed. Fighting has displaced more than 2 million people across northern Ethiopia and driven hundreds of thousands into famine-like conditions.

Afghans face challenges seeking refuge in neighbouring countries. While Pakistan and Iran have hosted the vast majority of Afghan refugees for decades, The Wall Street Journal reports that many more recent arrivals to Iran have been deported, including those attempting to claim asylum. Afghans without passports or visas usually enter Iran via desert smuggling routes in the province of Nimroz, but between August and December, nearly a half a million Afghans who entered Iran irregularly, later returned, about 360,000 after being deported. The LA Times reports that undocumented Afghans living in Iran for years are fearful of being caught up in a growing crackdown by Iranian authorities. Afghanistan’s borders with Pakistan and Iran are currently open only to those with passports and visas, and a small number of medical cases. The land borders of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are completely closed to Afghans. Earlier this month, UNHCR expressed concern about the escalating risks faced by Afghans seeking to flee into neighbouring countries as the situation within the country continues to deteriorate.

For more details:

The Refugee Brief - 17 December 2021 - The Refugee Brief By Kristy Siegfried | 17 December, 2021 Please note that this will be the final issue of The Refugee Brief this year. The first issue of 2022 will land in your in-box on 7 January. THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES Displacement from water clashes in northern Cameroon reaches over 100,000. Clashes that erupt...

UNHCR, States, partners meet to assess Global Refugee Forum’s progress

The first follow-up to the Global Refugee Forum started on December 14, 2021. The High-Level Officials Meeting, a two-day virtual event, bring together senior government officials, refugees and various stakeholders, to take stock of progress on how the world responds to refugee situations.

For more information:

UNHCR, States, partners meet today to assess Global Refugee Forum's progress High Level Officials Meeting takes place 14–15 December

Schengen: New rules to make the area without internal border controls more resilient

Ehe Commission is proposing updated rules to reinforce the governance of the Schengen area. The targeted changes will bring greater EU coordination and better equip Member States to deal with emerging challenges when managing both the EU’s common external border and internal borders within the Schengen area.

For more information:

Schengen: New rules to make the area without internal border controls more resilient The Commission is proposing updated rules to reinforce the governance of the Schengen area. The targeted changes will bring greater EU coordination and better equip Member States to deal with emerging challenges when managing both the EU’s common external border and internal borders.

Danish ex-minister given jail sentence for separating couples seeking asylum

Denmark’s former immigration minister has been sentenced to two months in prison after a special court found her guilty of illegally separating several couples of asylum seekers where the woman was under 18.

Inger Støjberg was sentenced on Monday to 60 days in jail over accusations that she violated the European convention on human rights by ordering the separation of couples, some of whom had children.

Full article:

Danish ex-minister given jail sentence for separating couples seeking asylum Inger Støjberg receives two-month sentence for separating several couples where woman was under 18

‘A bright new future’: how Australians are helping Canada’s private sponsors give refugees a fresh start

Eight refugees – held by Australia’s offshore immigration regime for more than eight years – have landed in Vancouver and Toronto, sponsored by community groups in Canada and Australia to begin new lives on the other side of the world.

Full article:

‘A bright new future’: how Australians are helping Canada’s private sponsors give refugees a fresh start Eight refugees held for years in Australian detention have arrived in Canada under community sponsorship scheme

Human Rights Day: Rebuild trust, expand freedoms, restore equality

Despite significant progress since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 73 years ago, the COVID pandemic has “fed a frightening rise in inequalities”, and laid bare “many of our failures to consolidate the advances made”, said UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet, in a message marking Human Rights Day.

Human Rights Day: Rebuild trust, expand freedoms, restore equality Despite significant progress since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 73 years ago, the COVID pandemic has “fed a frightening rise in inequalities”, and laid bare “many of our failures to consolidate the advances made”, said UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet, in...

The Refugee Brief – By Kristy Siegfried

At least 53 migrants killed in southern Mexico road accident. The overturning of a truck crammed with over 100 migrants in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas on Thursday left at least 53 people dead and another 58 injured. Civil protection officials said the driver had been speeding when he lost control of the vehicle on the highway connecting the city of Chiapa de Corzo with the state capital Tuxtla Gutierrez. Prior to the crash, Mexican officials had stepped up transfers of mostly Central American migrants from southern Mexico to other regions of the country, but thousands remain in the city of Tapachula, close to the Guatemalan border, some living in makeshift shelters and overcrowded accommodation while they wait for their asylum cases to be processed. AP reports that Mexico’s refugee agency, COMAR, has been dealing with an unprecedented number of requests for humanitarian visas that have delayed the processing of asylum claims. According to COMAR, a record 123,000 asylum requests have been filed so far in 2021. UNHCR has called for alternatives to the asylum process to be made available to those people who do not qualify for refugee status but still need support. In the absence of such alternatives, said the agency, “people can often decide to take risks which can have fatal consequences”.

30,000 flee fighting between herders and farmers in northern Cameroon. A resurgence of tit-for-tat violence between herders, fishermen and farmers over scarce water resources has killed at least 22 people in Cameroon’s Far North region since Sunday and forced more than 30,000 people to flee into neighbouring Chad. Thousands of others have been displaced inside Cameroon. A traditional leader told Reuters the violence began when a herder wanted to bring his cattle to the banks of a river but was prevented by farmers and fishermen. Fighting later erupted in the city of Kousseri where the cattle market was destroyed and 10,000 people fled to Chad’s capital city N’djamena after crossing the Chari and Logone Rivers which mark the border. UNHCR said the climate crisis is worsening tensions in the region as water resources dwindle. A first outbreak of intercommunal violence occurred in August, displacing 23,000 people, 8,500 of whom have remained in Chad. UNHCR and authorities were leading reconciliation efforts in Kousseri this week when the violence broke out.

EU countries agree to take in 40,000 Afghans. A group of 15 European Union Member States have agreed to take in 40,000 Afghans, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said after a meeting of interior ministers on Thursday. Some will arrive on evacuation or humanitarian admission programmes while some will be resettled as refugees. Germany will accept over half of the Afghans, with the Netherlands, Spain, France and other countries taking smaller numbers, according to media reports. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi had previously urged the bloc to resettle 42,500 Afghans over five years, half of the 85,000 Afghan refugees UNHCR considers the most vulnerable. The agency has warned that an increasingly dire humanitarian situation inside Afghanistan may compel thousands more to flee the country. During the aftermath of the US military withdrawal and the return of the Taliban in August, EU States took in 28,000 evacuated Afghans. The United States is in the process of resettling another 60,000 evacuees and Canada has committed to welcoming 40,000 Afghans, while the UK has said it will resettle 20,000 over the coming years.

For more details:

The Refugee Brief - 10 December 2021 - The Refugee Brief By Kristy Siegfried | 10 December, 2021 THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES At least 53 migrants killed in southern Mexico road accident. The overturning of a truck crammed with over 100 migrants in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas on Thursday left at least 53 people dead and another 58 injured. Civil pr...

New article by Denise Helly and Ervis Martani (in French):

Mobility: the selection of international migrants. The Canadian example

The term “mobility” has been in vogue for more than twenty years. It values the increased circulation of the work force, of products, information, and capital, and proposes a new view of international migration. Migration is a normal, rational, and positive practice, epitomized by the foreign student, engineer, and day labourer. Migration policies since the 1990’s show another reality.
In this article, Denise Helly and I describe and attempt to articulate these new aspects of migration.

To read the article:

Mobility: the selection of international migrants: the Canadian example | Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas Mobility: the selection of international migrants: the Canadian example Authors Denise Helly Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS), Montréal, Québec, Canada Ervis Martani Université de Gênes, Gênes, Italie. Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS), Montréal, Québe...