Another story: what public opinion data tell us about refugee and humanitarian policy

The global reaction to US President Donald Trump’s executive order, “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States” of January 27, 2017, revealed great public sympathy for the fate of refugees. In the case of Europe, such sympathy has, however, been dismissed by politicians who read concerns regarding security and integration as reason for introducing restrictive policies on asylum. These policies are at odds with public sentiment. Drawing upon three major public opinion surveys across the European Union and neighboring states, this article records a marked divide between public attitudes towards the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, and official policies regarding asylum and humanitarian assistance. It seeks to understand why this is the case. The article suggests that post-9/11 there has been a reconfiguration of refugee policy and a reconnecting of humanitarian and security interests which has enabled a discourse antithetical to the universal right to asylum. The main conclusion is that in a post-post-Cold War era, European governments have developed restrictive policies despite public sympathy. Support for the admission of refugees is not, however, unqualified, and most states and European populations prefer skilled populations that can be easily assimilated. In order to achieve greater protection and more open policies, this article recommends that human rights actors work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and its partners to challenge the anti-refugee discourse through media campaigns and grassroots messaging

Location security and environmental-induced displacement: a case study of the Riverine Islands in Bangladesh

This article introduces the concept of ‘location security’ to describe the specific relationship between place, environ- mental and human security. It argues that ‘location security’ is determined by a location’s resilience to risk, understood in terms of the degree to which a specific region is protected by virtue of geographical endowments and has sufficient infrastructure to withstand and recover from the effects of environmental hazards and ensure that rights are protected. To illustrate the concept of location security, this article uses the sustainable livelihoods framework to explore actual and anticipated environmental pressures that affect the river deltas of Bangladesh, and examines the adaptation responses developed by the inhabitants of the riverine islands. A central finding of this article is that flexible migration and localised coping strategies based on acute knowledge of their local ecological and geological systems, enables the char dwellers to reduce their vulnerability. In this setting, human and environmental factors when harnessed may enhance agency to mitigate hazards

Bosnia revisited: a retrospective on the legacy of the conflict

It is instructive to review the legacy of both the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the post-war settlement and experience in order to appreciate how this European conflict set the stage for major institutional developments in the field of humanitarian protection, and how, after 20 years, the lessons which emerged from this experience are being ignored

Common agenda or Europe's agenda? International protection, human rights and migration from the Horn of Africa

This paper examines the relationship between international protection, human rights and migration in the context of EU Agenda on Migration which aims to ‘tackle migration upstream’ and reduce the number of arrivals to Europe from countries in the Horn of Africa (HoA) (Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Sudan). These initiatives are underpinned by assumptions about the factors driving migration from the region, including the idea that poverty rather than political oppression and human rights abuse is the principal cause. The paper draws on interview and survey data with 128 people originating from HoA countries and arriving in Europe between March 2011 and October 2016 to show that conflict, insecurity and human rights abuse in countries of origin and neighbouring countries drive decisions to move. This evidence challenges the premises underlying the European Agenda. Moreover, a lack of coherence between the EU’s ambitions to control irregular migration and the rights-violating States with which Europe seeks to engage threatens to create further political destabilisation which may ultimately increase, rather than decrease, outward migration from the region. Agreements between the EU and HoA should be re-centred to focus on compliance with international human rights standards rather than States’ willingness and to prevent irregular migration to Europe

Neither Seen nor Heard: Compound Deprivation among Stateless Children

This chapter examines the effect of statelessness on children and their status under international human rights law, and discusses the undermining of stateless children’s human rights by the states to the point of shirking the responsibility of protecting their basic rights. International law on non-discrimination and the right of children to nationality as explained through the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is presented. Illustrations of state actions affecting stateless children in Europe, Africa, and Asia are discussed. Case studies and interviews illustrating abuses resulting from loss of the right to nationality, including arbitrary expulsion and child exploitation in war, are also given

Contestation and reconstruction: natural capital and post-conflict development in borderland regions

Though often remote and underdeveloped, borderlands are contested territories. The incorporation of borderlands into the post-conflict state highlights many important land-related paradigms, including the conversion of natural resources for economic, political, and civic purposes. This article explores the relationship between the natural resources of borderlands and their post-conflict development, management, and sustainability. Based on case study data and secondary material drawn from Croatia and Cyprus, the paper seeks to establish how the interplay of cross-border, national, and sub-national interests in post-conflict settings may contribute to the creation of new opportunities for economic development and the reconstruction of borderlands. It considers how the exploitation of natural resources may advance the agendas for the political development and incorporation of previous sites of contestation; and equally how their incorporation may constrain policies of sustainability, potentially giving rise to new conflicts. The paper sheds light on issues such as: the conversion of borderland natural capital to political capital as post-conflict states assert sovereignty claims and consolidate territorial identity; the ways in which the non-monetary value of natural capital is reconceived as commercial use value in post-conflict reconstruction; and the involvement of non-state actors and civil society in promoting environmental agendas, often as a counterbalance to state power

The politics of evidence-based policy in Europe’s ‘migration crisis’

Significant increases in the number of refugees and other migrants arriving across the Mediterranean to Europe during 2015 were associated with an increased emphasis on gathering research evidence to enable policymakers to better understand the complexities of migration and improve the policy response. In the UK, the emphasis on evidence-based policy was reflected in funding by the Economic and Social Research Council for a Mediterranean Migration Research Programme. Drawing on the evidence gathered through this programme, the articles in the volume explore the nature of Europe’s ‘migration crisis’ and the extent to which the development of new migration management policies was grounded in evidence about the causes, drivers and consequences of migration to Europe. The authors conclude that there is a substantial ‘gap’ between the now significant body of evidence examining migration processes and European Union policy responses. This gap can be attributed to three main factors: the long-standing ‘paradigm war’ in social research between positivist, interpretivist and critical approaches which means that what counts as ‘evidence’ is contested; competing knowledge claims associated with research and other forms of evidence including the management data to construct and/or support particular policy narratives; and, perhaps most importantly, the political context within which migration policymaking takes place. The politics of policymaking, perhaps nowhere more evident than in the area of migration, has resulted in policies based on underlying assumptions and vested political interests rather than the evidence, even where this evidence has been funded directly by European governments

The Molecular Gas Density in Galaxy Centers and How It Connects to Bulges

In this paper we present gas density, star formation rate, stellar masses, and bulge disk decompositions for a sample of 60 galaxies. Our sample is the combined sample of BIMA SONG, CARMA STING, and PdBI NUGA surveys. We study the effect of using CO-to-H_2 conversion factors that depend on the CO surface brightness, and also that of correcting star formation rates for diffuse emission from old stellar populations. We estimate that star formation rates in bulges are typically lower by 20% when correcting for diffuse emission. We find that over half of the galaxies in our sample have molecular gas surface density >100 M_sun pc^-2. We find a trend between gas density of bulges and bulge Sersic index; bulges with lower Sersic index have higher gas density. Those bulges with low Sersic index (pseudobulges) have gas fractions that are similar to that of disks. We also find that there is a strong correlation between bulges with the highest gas surface density and the galaxy being barred. However, we also find that classical bulges with low gas surface density can be barred as well. Our results suggest that understanding the connection between the central surface density of gas in disk galaxies and the presence of bars should also take into account the total gas content of the galaxy and/or bulge Sersic index. Indeed, we find that high bulge Sersic index is the best predictor of low gas density inside the bulge (not barredness of the disk). Finally, we show that when using the corrected star formation rates and gas densities, the correlation between star formation rate surface density and gas surface density of bulges is similar to that of disks.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

Tightly Correlated HI and FUV Emission in the Outskirts of M83

We compare sensitive HI data from The HI Nearby Galaxy Survey (THINGS) and deep far UV (FUV) data from GALEX in the outer disk of M83. The FUV and HI maps show a stunning spatial correlation out to almost 4 optical radii (r25), roughly the extent of our maps. This underscores that HI traces the gas reservoir for outer disk star formation and it implies that massive (at least low level) star formation proceeds almost everywhere HI is observed. Whereas the average FUV intensity decreases steadily with increasing radius before leveling off at ~1.7 r25, the decline in HI surface density is more subtle. Low HI columns (<2 M_solar/pc^2) contribute most of the mass in the outer disk, which is not the case within r25. The time for star formation to consume the available HI, inferred from the ratio of HI to FUV intensity, rises with increasing radius before leveling off at ~100 Gyr, i.e., many Hubble times, near ~1.7 r25. Assuming the relatively short H2 depletion times observed in the inner parts of galaxies hold in outer disks, the conversion of HI into bound, molecular clouds seems to limit star formation in outer galaxy disks. The long consumption times suggest that most of the extended HI observed in M83 will not be consumed by in situ star formation. However, even these low star formation rates are enough to expect moderate chemical enrichment in a closed outer disk.Comment: Accepted for Publication in ApJ

Health challenges in refugee reception: dateline Europe 2016

The arrival of more than one million migrants, many of them refugees, has proved a major test for the European Union. Although international relief and monitoring agencies have been critical of makeshift camps in Calais and Eidomeni where infectious disease and overcrowding present major health risks, few have examined the nature of the official reception system and its impact on health delivery. Drawing upon research findings from an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project, this article considers the physical and mental health of asylum-seekers in transit and analyses how the closure of borders has engendered health risks for populations in recognised reception centres in Sicily and in Greece. Data gathered by means of a survey administered in Greece (300) and in Sicily (400), and complemented by in-depth interviews with migrants (45) and key informants (50) including representatives of government offices, humanitarian and relief agencies, NGOs and activist organisations, are presented to offer an analysis of the reception systems in the two frontline states. We note that medical provision varies significantly from one centre to another and that centre managers play a critical role in the transmission of vital information. A key finding is that, given such disparity, the criteria used by the UNHCR to grade health services reception do not address the substantive issue that prevent refugees from accessing health services, even when provided on site. Health provision is not as recorded in UNHCR reporting but rather there are critical gaps between provision, awareness, and access for refugees in reception systems in Sicily and in Greece. This article concludes that there is a great need for more information campaigns to direct refugees to essential services