Evaluation of the Immigrant Citizens Survey (ICS)

This evaluation undertakes a critical appraisal of the "Immigrant Citizens Survey (ICS)". The survey was funded under the European Integration Fund and jointly coordinated by the King Baudouin Foundation (KBF) and the Migration Policy Group (MPG). The survey was implemented in cooperation with research, polling and launch partners in the 7 countries covered by the survey. The survey was implemented in 2011 and 2012 and launched in May 2012

Migration Theoretisieren

The article gives a review and critical discussion of contemporary theories of migration. It investigates the political and social reasons for theorizing migration, the different contexts, which were important for the emerging approaches. Although this branch of research is so strongly influenced, the authors observe certain progress in migration theories

Transnational figurations of displacement: conceptualising protracted displacement and translocal connectivity through a process-oriented perspective

TRAFIG aims to contribute to the development of alternative solutions to protracted displacement that are tailored to the needs and capacities of displaced persons. This working paper contains our central concepts and key terms. We make use of the concept of social figurations as the theoretical foundation for our research. We understand figurations as dynamic social constellations between interdependent individuals that are produced in and through interactions and transactions. On this basis, we re-define protracted displacement as a figuration, in which displaced people’s capabilities and opportunities are severely limited for prolonged periods of time. Multiple structural forces constrain them from using their capacities and making free choices: enduring displacing forces hinder return; marginalising forces prevent local integration; immobilising forces block chances to seek a future elsewhere. Protracted displacement is, however, much less static and fixed than commonly perceived. Displaced persons do have agency. They develop diverse strategies to cope with difficult situations and navigate through governance regimes of aid and asylum - and thereby change them. To comprehend the dynamics of protracted displacement a deeper understanding of displaced people’s perspectives, capacities and practices and an acknowledgement of their everyday lives that often transgress places and territories is necessary. Translocal connectivity and human mobility can serve as resources to cope with and move out of protracted displacement. Developing new approaches to protracted displacement requires a move beyond the narrow frame of the conventional durable solutions (return, local integration, resettlement). A first step towards formulating alternatives, we suggest, is to recognise and effectively build upon displaced people's own preferences as well as their local and translocal networks. A key question then is, how they use multiple interconnected pathways to enhance their protection and livelihood security

Understanding the dynamics of protracted displacement

Almost 20 years ago, UNHCR coined the term ‘protracted refugee situations’ to draw attention to the plight of refugees in extended exile and to promote durable solutions. However, the search for solutions for persons in longer-term displacement has been at the heart of the international refugee protection regime ever since its beginnings in the early 1920s. What is more, in several major crises of displacement, mobility options have been a major component of successful strategies to resolve these situations. The emergence of a new term thus highlighted, more than anything else, the failure of the international protection regime to deliver a key promise, namely that displaced persons should be able to regain a degree of normality and to rebuild their lives

فهم محركات النزوح طويل الأمد: Understanding the dynamics of protracted displacement

يمكن أن تقدم حركة تنقل النازحين وشبكات علاقاتهم العابرة للحدود المحلية موارد مهمة في البحث عن حلول دائمة. Displaced persons’ mobility and their translocal networks can provide important resources in the search for durable solutions

Moving on: how easing mobility restrictions within Europe can help forced migrations rebuild their lives

Free movement within the Schengen area is a cornerstone of European integration - and indeed an essential part of the European way of life. However, this freedom of movement is limited for forcibly displaced people residing within the European Union (EU). European asylum systems are designed to suppress mobility, which actually prevents many asylum seekers from finding a 'durable solution'. In contrast, enabling legal mobility within and across EU countries, when paired with access to labour markets and ensuring the right to family life, can open new opportunities for forced migrants to settle into receiving communities and truly rebuild their lives. Based on TRAFIG research in Greece and Italy, this policy brief illustrates why mobility is important for displaced people and how it is being hampered by policies and practices. It then suggests strategic ways that policymakers can tap into the potential of mobility to provide additional solutions to protracted displacement in Europe

The EU and protracted displacement: providing solutions or creating obstacles?

In this paper, we explore how the European Union (EU) legal and policy framework relates to protracted displacement. To this end, we examine the existing legal, policy and institutional framework both in the EU and globally, including the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), the 2015 ‘European Agenda on Migration’, and the New Pact on Migration and Asylum. Analytically, we employ Norbert Elias’ concept of ‘figurations’ as a conceptual lens to describe and identify distinct constellations of relationships, norms and social interactions between different actors shaping approaches towards protracted displacement. We argue that policies on protracted displacement are shaped by a triangle of three figurations – the migration security figuration, the humanitarian refugee relief figuration, and the protection-rights figuration. We trace how the migration-security figuration has gained the upper hand in recent years and what this means for EU policies addressing protracted displacement. We conclude that the EU is an actor that facilitates, rather than addresses, protracted displacement, and the Pact on Migration and Asylum further cements that role

Learning from the past: protracted displacement in the post-World War II period

This working paper examines the history of the search for solutions to protracted displacement. Focusing specifically on the Horn of Africa, East Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, the paper analyses past policy responses that explicitly or implicitly address situations of extended exile. In addition, the paper examines the potential of translocal mobility and connectivity as an individual- or household-level solution to displacement. The concern to find solutions for long-term displacement situations has been a key driver for the evolution of the international refugee protection regime ever since its initiation in the interwar period. Yet, only more recently have these efforts crystallised around the notions of 'durable solutions' and 'protracted displacement'. The emergence of the latter concept in the 1990s reflects challenges arising from the globalisation of the international refugee protection regime, the massive growth of displacement in the Global South and the increasingly limited availability of long-term solutions from the late 1970s onwards. From a historical perspective, efforts to resolve specific protracted displacement situations have been diverse, devised in response to both domestic and international constraints and opportunities. The current shift away from the conventional durable solutions - return, integration and resettlement - to less fixed solutions thus can be seen as a return to historically dominant practices of a more context-driven search for solutions. Research eviewed for this paper supports the TRAFIG project’s hypothesis that mobility and connectivity practices can help displaced persons cope with protracted displacement, and in some cases, find more durable solutions for themselves. Yet, both mobility and connectivity also have a stratifying effect, increasing the gap between those who have access to these and those who do not. Historically, different forms of assisted mobility for refugees to third countries have been instrumental in resolving particular displacement situations, such as in the interwar period, the postWorld War II period and in Indo-China in the 1970s and 1980s. In the current context, neither organised mobility nor individual options for mobility are available to the same extent

The Integration of Recent Migrants and Refugees:A Review of Research on Integration Policy Practices in the EU

While a large variety of initiatives, projects, programmes and policies of different kinds have been initiated in response to the events of 2015 and their consequences, the crisis has also led to a massive investment into research on migration and integration, involving the setting up new or expanding existing thematic programmes by research funding bodies, the commissioning of specific research by public authorities and other stakeholders at different levels and an increasing share of general research funding schemes going into migration research reflecting the increased interest of the academic community in this field.Overall, the massive research effort invested at national and EU level has certainly been useful in highlighting specific do’s and don’ts, and successes and failures of integration policies and measures. Yet the sheer volume of research conducted makes it challenging for practitioners and policymakers, and at times also academics to have an overview of what knowledge is available and what specific results mean in the context of broader research conducted on a particular topic.This report addresses this challenge, and takes stock of research in the field of integration and more specifically, of research evidence on integration policy practices. The focus on integration policy practices means that we do not aim to take stock of all research on integration per se. In addition, this review focuses on findings relevant for the newly arrived migrants in the first years of their residence in the receiving countries, and specifically refugees and asylum seekers as well as other migrants arriving in an irregular manner since 2015. The report focuses on 11 thematic areas derived from an computer-assisted analysis of research focused on migration and integration. These are: Rights and legal status, employment; education and training; housing and settlement; access and use of welfare benefits; health care; recent migrants and crime; family relations, marriage and children; identity and belonging; attitudes towards migrants, intergroup relations and contact; and civic participation, sports, arts and leisure. Taking stock of these areas we do not necessarily imply that these areas are necessarily useful as conceptual framing for areas of intervention or indeed, incorporation processes. Rather, we analyse them as empiricial areas migration and integration research

EU am Scheideweg: "Europa vor Flüchtlingen abschirmen" oder "Geflüchtete schützen"?

Angesichts der Corona-Krise rückt die europäische Flüchtlingspolitik derzeit in den Hintergrund. Doch die Situation der Geflüchteten an der EU-Außengrenze, auf den Inseln der Ägäis und an anderen Orten an den Rändern Europas verschlechtert sich zunehmend, verstärkt durch die globale Pandemie. Benjamin Etzold vom Bonner Friedens- und Konfliktforschungsinstitut BICC und weitere Forscherinnen und Forscher des EU-geförderten Projekt TRAFIG sind nicht nur über die humanitäre Situation, sondern auch über die Politik der EU zutiefst besorgt. Nachdrücklich fordern sie EU-Maßnahmen zum Schutz der Geflüchteten – und nicht vor ihnen