“Citizens without Borders”?: Discussions of Transnationalism and Forced Migrants at the Ninth Conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration, São Paulo, Brazil, January 2005

The significance of transnational perspectives at the ninth conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) marks a key change in the development of work on both forced migration and migrant transnationalism. A transnational perspective highlights significant policy interventions that can be made in the search for durable solutions to refugee displacement; most significantly, recognizing that a refugee’s community may be spread on a global scale, yet is nonetheless significant in supporting their own efforts to overcome the difficulties of their situation. It is equally important, however, to recognize that transnational activites do not always support pluralistic solutions to conflict. The transnational engagements of forced migrants also challenge a number of assumptions of existing transnational perspectives by directing attention to forms of exchanges and communication that do not necessariy involve the movements of people. Interest in transnational activities is currently concentrated amongst researchers working in the wealthier countries of the Global North. Further work may determine if alternative perspectives are more appropriate for research based in the South.La signification des perspectives transnationales au neuvième congrès de l’Association internationale des études sur la migration forcée (IASFM) marque un jalon dans l’élaboration du travail sur la migration forcée et le transnationalisme migrant. Une perspective transnationale met en relief les interventions significatives en matière de politique qui peuvent être entreprises en vue de trouver des solutions durables au déplacement des réfugiés. Elle permet, en particulier, de reconnaître qu’une communauté de réfugiés pouvant être disséminée à l’échelle mondiale joue tout de même un rôle capital pour aider ses membres à surmonter les difficultés auxquelles ils font face. Toutefois, il faut reconnaître que les activités transnationales ne favorisent pas toujours des solutions plurielles aux conflits. Les engagements transnationaux des migrants forcés remettent aussi en question un grand nombre de présupposés sur les perspectives transnationales courantes en insistant sur des formes d’échanges et de communication qui n’impliquent pas nécessairement des déplacements de personnes. Les activités transnationales intéressent actuellement les chercheurs oeuvrant dans les pays les mieux nantis du nord planétaire. Des travaux ultérieurs permettront de déterminer si d’autres perspectives sont plus appropriées à la recherche effectuée dans le sud

Dual Disasters: Humanitarian Aid after the 2004 Tsunami

Book Revie

¿Hacia una gestión de las migraciones mediterráneas en el año 2008? Desarrollo del discurso y sus prácticas

Las actuales negociaciones de la Unión Europea (UE) con la Unión Africana (UA) han identificado una serie de medidas claras y viables que tal vez logren convertir la búsqueda de ideales para una gestión más positiva de las migraciones mediterráneas en una realidad. Los inmigrantes que llegan clandestinamente a la UE se enfrentan a una serie de riesgos evidentes, por lo que su seguridad ha suscitado una preocupación generalizada. Sin embargo, sólo representan un pequeño porcentaje del total de inmigrantes indocumentados que hay en Europa, recibiendo un nivel de atención por parte del ámbito político y de los medios de comunicación totalmente desproporcionado con relación a su importancia numérica. La respuesta europea se centra principalmente en la adopción de medidas de control –lo que todavía compromete más la seguridad de los inmigrantes–, aborda las consecuencias del problema en lugar de la causa, y resulta especialmente cara. Pese a que la UE y los gobiernos de los Estados miembros suelen manifestar la necesidad de invertir en soluciones a largo plazo para mejorar las condiciones en los países de origen, hasta hace poco la prioridad y los presupuestos destinados a tales iniciativas han sido relativamente moderados. Además, también se han visto afectadas por principios de desarrollo demasiado vagos que carecen de propuestas concretas. La dificultad de avanzar en este terreno se refleja en la intensidad de los debates intergubernamentales, con tres procesos políticos bien diferenciados en la región euromediterránea. Sin embargo, en los últimos tiempos se han observado indicios que sugieren un posible cambio en el estancamiento alcanzado en tales debates. Las actuales negociaciones de la UE con la UA han identificado una serie de medidas claras y viables –como el hecho de encaminar los esfuerzos hacia la creación de empleo– que tal vez logren convertir la búsqueda de ideales para una gestión más positiva de las migraciones mediterráneas en una realidad

Poblaciones “atrapadas” en épocas de crisis

Centrarse en aquellos que están atrapados desafía los enfoques teóricos y prácticos basados en la movilidad y la crisis, que priorizan los traslados de la población. Aquellos que no pueden decidir sobre si mudarse a otra parte para huir de un potencial peligro, inevitablemente son los que más pierden

Populations 'trapped' at times of crisis

A focus on those who are trapped challenges both theoretical and practical approaches to mobility and crisis, which prioritise movement. Those who have lost control of the decision to move away from potential danger have inevitably lost a lot more too

Narrating Europe’s migration and refugee ‘crisis'

It is very clear – as many journalists covering the unfolding migration and refugee crisis have pointed out – that geography lies at the heart of the events taking place in Europe and the Mediterranean. It is a story of borders and routes, of distance and proximity, and of location and accessibility. The role of (re-)bordering has been fundamental in states’ attempts to ‘manage’ and ‘control’ the refugee and migrant flows and, in this respect, we observe a return to the more traditional practices of bordering – physical barriers and personnel-heavy security controls – rather than the previous processes of ‘externalizing’ and ‘internalizing’ border management. In the Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans the external border of the European ‘fortress’ has been prised open, whilst the free-movement ethos of the Schengen area has been compromized by EU states’ reactions to the large-scale movement of migrants and refugees and recent acts of terrorism. In this introductory paper we bring a critical geopolitical lens into play in order to understand the European, regional and global power geometries at work, and we critically examine the political and media rhetoric around the various discursive constructions of the migrant/refugee ‘crisis’, including both the negative and the Islamophobic utterances of some European leaders and the game-changing iconicity of certain media images

Humanitarian corridors: safe and legal pathways to Europe

This policy brief provides an overview of the Italian Humanitarian Corridors initiative, aiming to contextualize its viability as a replicable model for other European countries and further the discussion of how governments can engage religious communities and civil society to create new partnerships to address the global refugee crisis. The briefing is the result of a collaboration between the University of Sussex and the Community of Sant’Egidio. The research benefitted from a policy dialogue on the topic convened by the Religions and International Relations Initiative of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ISPI on 13-14 March 2017 and follow-up discussions and interviews with relevant stakeholders involved in the Humanitarian Corridors facilitated by the Community of Sant’Egidio

On the comparison of the strength of morphological integration across morphometric datasets

Evolutionary morphologists frequently wish to understand the extent to which organisms are integrated, and whether the strength of morphological integration among subsets of phenotypic variables differ among taxa or other groups. However, comparisons of the strength of integration across datasets are difficult, in part because the summary measures that characterize these patterns (RV and rPLS) are dependent both on sample size and on the number of variables. As a solution to this issue we propose a standardized test statistic (a z-score) for measuring the degree of morphological integration between sets of variables. The approach is based on a partial least squares analysis of trait covariation, and its permutation-based sampling distribution. Under the null hypothesis of a random association of variables, the method displays a constant expected value and confidence intervals for datasets of differing sample sizes and variable number, thereby providing a consistent measure of integration suitable for comparisons across datasets. A two-sample test is also proposed to statistically determine whether levels of integration differ between datasets, and an empirical example examining cranial shape integration in Mediterranean wall lizards illustrates its use. Some extensions of the procedure are also discussed