Protection, reconciliation and access to rights for DPs in Ecuador: requirements for the integration of displaced persons (DPs) form Colombia and Venezuela in Ecuador

Structural marginalization of the Colombian-Ecuadorian border area offers a breeding ground for violent Colombian conflicts to spill over into Ecuadorian territory. With the help of cross-sector and cross-border programmes, actors in development cooperation (DC) should play a part in the long-term containment of the drugs economy and the resulting displacements. An integral and participative bottom-up approach should promote the development of government infrastructure, especially in justice, education, health and jobs. Building trust and establishing reconciliation are significant requirements for peace and (re)integration processes. They must be incorporated into programmes in Ecuador for a traumatized Colombian exile community, which includes victims as well as perpetrators. DC can support agencies that provide social work, public education institutions, and church-run institutions that enjoy confidence and authority in the region in particular. DC must combine educational efforts in the municipalities and in the education and health sectors as well as the reduction of financial and bureaucratic hurdles. Measures to support both local ombudsperson offices and victims' and migrant associations also strengthen local ownership. By providing advice on the formalization of micro-enterprises in start-up programmes, DC can enable the beneficiaries to advance to the formal sector. In this respect, the contributors should generally expand measures to cover all particularly vulnerable parts (Colombian, Ecuadorian and Venezuelan) of the population. The regional scale of forced displacement requires a regionally co-ordinated and long-term humanitarian and developmental approach that takes into account Colombian and Venezuelan displaced persons (DPs) equally. DC can contribute to this by providing expert advice to the responsible ministries and supporting regional initiatives such as the Cartagena Process

The role of mobility, networks and reintegration assistance after return: insights from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia

his Working Paper investigates the (re-)integration trajectories of returnees to the two Western Balkan countries Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. By applying a multidimensional and processual understanding of (re-)integration, it scrutinises how returnees' positionality as well as local context conditions influence returnees' experiences and livelihood strategies upon return. The study covers returnees with diverse backgrounds, ranging from self-organised early post-war returns of refugees and IDPs, forced returnees, returning "guest workers", more recent irregular and regular labour migrants, pendular migrants, students, (rejected) asylum seekers, and returnees with diverging socio-eco nomic and educational levels, age and ethnic and religious identities, different durations of stay abroad and a wide array of destination countries. By doing so, it finds - despite significant differences in the return contexts and the socio-economic status of returnees - similar patterns among the very diverse group of returnees covered in both countries, namely the main role of (trans)local networks and mobility for the adjustment processes in the course of migration, displacement and return. By comparing trajectories of returnees who received different kinds of return and reintegration assistance with those who did not, the Paper also provides some insights into the opportunities and limits of reintegration assistance. The study's findings underline the relevance of individualised needs-based support measures in specific cases as well as approaches aiming to generally support inclusive societal structures. The study is based on qualitative data collected among returnees, experts and stakeholders in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia between 2019 and 2022 in the framework of the research project "Trajectories of reintegration. The impacts of displacement, migration and return on social change"

Uganda: a role model for refugee integration?

Uganda hosts the largest refugee population in Africa and is, after Turkey and Pakistan, the third-largest refugee recipient country worldwide. Political and humanitarian actors have widely praised Ugandan refugee policies because of their progressive nature: In Uganda, in contrast to many other refugee-receiving countries, these are de jure allowed to work, to establish businesses, to access public services such as education, to move freely and have access to a plot of land. Moreover, Uganda is a pilot country of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF). In this Working Paper the authors ascertain whether Uganda indeed can be taken as a role model for refugee integration, as largely portrayed in the media and the political discourse. They identify the challenges to livelihoods and integration to assess Uganda's self-reliance and settlement approach and its aspiration towards providing refugees and Ugandan communities receiving refugees with opportunities for becoming self-reliant. Drawing on three months of field research in northern and southern Uganda from July to September of 2017 with a particular focus on South Sudanese refugees, the authors concentrate on three aspects: Access to land, employment and education, intra- and inter-group relations. The findings show that refugees in Uganda are far from self-reliant and socially integrated. Although in Uganda refugees are provided with land, the quality and size of the allocated plots is so poor that they cannot earn a living from agricultural production, which thus, rather impedes self-reliance. Inadequate infrastructure also hinders access to markets and employment opportunities. Even though most local communities have been welcoming to refugees, the sentiment has shifted recently in some areas, particularly where local communities that are often not better off than refugees feel that they have not benefitted from the presence of refugees

Beyond aid: The continuous struggle to cope with displacement in Myanmar and Thailand

Multi-party elections and the signing of a Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) in 2015 raised hopes in the international community of a possible settlement of Myanmar’s protracted conflict and one of the world’s worst protracted displacement situations (PDS) in the near future. Yet conflicts in the border areas and human rights abuses carry on, more than 600,000 Burmese continue to be displaced within Myanmar and three to five million remain in Thailand. This Working Paper examines strategies that displaced persons from Myanmar have developed striving to cope with major challenges of displacement. We observed that strategies go beyond the commonly used three durable solutions. The findings suggest that neither return nor local integration into the society of the host country is necessarily definite or are mutually exclusive. Both are merely two poles of a wide range of displaced persons’ possible coping strategies, encompassing return, cyclical movements, temporary return, de jure local integration and different levels and stages of de facto local integration. In scrutinizing whether the change of governance eradicated the causes of displacement, brought peace and laid the foundation for return, our research revealed significant flaws in Myanmar’s political transition. Notwithstanding impressive achievements, conflicts persist and are likely to cause new waves of displacement. With regard to access to legal, economic, political rights, services, house, land, property and livelihoods, the situation of displaced persons (DPs) remains dire. Still, the international community promotes return and has been reducing assistance for camps in and outside of Myanmar. For internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees, this means that options of refuge have diminished, while the causes to flee remain. After decades of displacement, DPs have developed a set of practices such as diversifications of livelihoods, income sources, residences, and others. We argue that it is imperative for any long-term and coherent strategy that addresses protracted displacement to take those micro realities into account

Protección, reconciliación y acceso a los derechos para personas desplazadas en Ecuador: condiciones para la integración de personas desplazadas colombianas y venezolanas en Ecuador

La marginación estructural de la región fronteriza colombiano-ecuatoriana proporciona un terreno fértil para la propagación de los conflictos violentos colombianos en el territorio ecuatoriano. La cooperación al desarrollo (CD) debería contribuir a la contención a largo plazo de las economías de la droga y el desplazamiento asociado mediante programas transectoriales y transfronterizos. Se debe fomentar un enfoque integral y participativo para construir la infraestructura estatal, sobre todo en las áreas de justicia, educación, salud y empleo. La creación de confianza y reconciliación son prerequisitos esenciales tanto para procesos de paz como para procesos de (re)integración. También las programas para exiliados colombianos traumatizados en Ecuador que incluyen tanto a las víctimas como a los agresores deberían incluir estos components. CD puede apoyar el trabajo social, las instituciones de educación pública y especialmente las instituciones de la Iglesia que gozan de confianza y autoridad en la región. La cooperación al desarrollo debe combinar la labor educativa en los municipios y en los sectores de educación y salud con la reducción de obstáculos financieros o burocráticos. Las medidas que apoyan a los defensorías públicas y las asociaciones de víctimas. Al brindar asesoramiento sobre la formalización de las microempresas en los programas de capital semilla (capital inicial para montar un negocio), CD puede facilitar la transición de los beneficiarios del sector informal a un estado formal. Aquí, los proveedores deberían, en principio, extender las medidas a toda la población vulnerable (colombiana, ecuatoriana y venezolana). La dimensión regional de los desplazamientos requiere una política humanitaria y de desarrollo a largo plazo coordinada regionalmente que tenga en cuenta a los desplazados colombianos y venezolanos por igual. CD puede contribuir a esto brindando asesoramiento experto a los ministerios competentes y apoyando iniciativas regionales como el Proceso de Cartagena

Schutz, Versöhnung und Zugang zu Rechten für Geflüchtete in Ecuador: Voraussetzungen für die Integration von kolumbianischen und venezolanischen Geflüchteten in Ecuador

Die strukturelle Marginalisierung der kolumbianisch- ecuadorianischen Grenzregion bietet einen Nährboden für das Übergreifen kolumbianischer Gewaltkonflikte auf ecuadorianisches Territorium. Die Entwicklungszusammenarbeit (EZ) sollte mithilfe von sektorübergreifenden und grenzüberschreitenden Programmen einen Beitrag zur langfristigen Eindämmung von Drogen- ökonomien und den hiermit einhergehenden Vertreibungen leisten. Ein integraler und partizipativer bottom-up Ansatz sollte den Aufbau staatlicher Infrastruktur, v.a. in den Bereichen Justiz, Bildung, Gesundheit und Arbeit voranbringen. Vertrauensaufbau und Versöhnung sind wesentliche Voraussetzungen sowohl für Friedens- als auch für (Re-)integrationsprozesse. Sie müssen auch in Ecuador in Programme für eine traumatisierte kolumbianische Exilbevölkerung eingebaut werden, die sowohl Opfer als auch Täter umfasst. Die EZ kann Träger sozialer Arbeit, öffentliche Bildungsinstitutionen sowie insbesondere kirchliche Institutionen, die in der Region Vertrauen und Autorität genießen, unterstützen. Die EZ muss Aufklärungsarbeit in den Kommunen sowie im Bildungs- und Gesundheitssektor mit dem Abbau von finanziellen bzw. bürokratischen Hürden kombinieren. Maßnahmen, die lokale Ombudsstellen sowie Opfer- und Migrantenverbände unterstützen, stärken zudem lokale Eigenverantwortung. Durch Beratung zur Formalisierung von Kleinstunternehmen in Existenzgründungsprogrammen kann die EZ Begünstigten den Aufstieg aus dem informellen Sektor ermöglichen. Hierbei sollten die Geber Maßnahmen grundsätzlich auf alle besonders schutzbedürftigen (kolumbianischen, ecuadorianischen und venezolanischen) Bevölkerungsteile ausweiten. Das regionale Ausmaß von Flucht und Vertreibung erfordert ein regional abgestimmtes und langfristig angelegtes humanitäres und entwicklungspolitisches Vorgehen, das kolumbianische und venezolanische Geflüchtete gleichermaßen berücksichtigt. Die EZ kann hierzu durch eine fachliche Beratung der zuständigen Ministerien und die Unterstützung regionaler Initiativen, wie etwa des Cartagena Prozesses, beitragen

"Leaving them behind" - global trends in forced migration

Regions with civil wars will continue to be characterised by endemic violent conflicts and forced displacement in the coming decade. Accordingly, the number of displaced people from war-like contexts will increase. Due to the absence of durable solutions the number of forcibly displaced people who informally remain in a receiving country without a chance of ever obtaining citizenship of that country will grow. Countries of the Global South are likely to follow the practices of the Global North and refuse reception of refugees or even enforce collective deportation. This makes it all the more difficult to implement international agreements to manage forced displacement. Forced migrants are increasingly seeking protection in urban agglomerations. This increases the risk that social services in the cities will collapse and societal tensions will mount. Against the backdrop of the increasing duration and cyclical recurrence of violent conflict, the operational separation between refugees and IDPs can hardly be maintained. In addition, the boundaries between humanitarian aid and development cooperation will blur ever more. Aid organisations will be caught in a situation in which their engagement in support of displaced people might at the same time contribute to accommodating donors' interests of channelling and impeding refugee movements

Cyclical, Temporary, No Return: Multiple Navigational Strategies of Displaced Persons from Myanmar

Displaced persons in and from Myanmar employ a wide array of coping and navigational strategies to secure their livelihoods and to find physical protection. Placing these in the context of the security situation in Myanmar, the paper demonstrates that organised violence and related concerns for safety are not only the main cause of displacement, but constitute an important factor that continuously shapes livelihood options and strategies for those who find themselves in cycles of protracted violence and displacement. The array of strategies is situated between or beyond the classic paradigms promoted by international refugee organisations: return, local integration and resettlement. Beyond aid and non-aid related strategies, we observed such vital coping mechanisms as cyclical return movements, the establishment of transnational networks and webs, and the development of self-established infrastructure. Return and local integration are two options in a continuum of strategies comprising cyclical and temporary return processes, transnational networks and patterns of de facto local integration. The cases presented show that refugees weigh the risks of return in relation to their current situation. Decisive factors include security, access to legal documents, public services and infrastructure. Our research showed that any dichotomy that contrasts non-refugees as masters of their own fate as opposed to displaced persons as victims without agency is obsolete. The coping patterns of displaced persons are highly flexible and adaptive

Making sure that the emigration of healthcare personnel from Albania and BiH works for all: what Germany can do

The migration of healthcare professionals has detrimental impacts on socio-economic development in Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH). Germany’s active recruitment of healthcare professionals contributes to this trend and thus adversely affects the goals of bilateral development cooperation. The Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development should engage with the Ministries of Health and of Labour and Social Affairs to bolster the sustainability of the government’s inter-agency strategy on the recruitment of qualified workers (2019). A detailed whole-of-government approach needs to be put in place that further assesses and prevents adverse long-term demographic and socio-economic effects of emigration of care personnel in origin countries. The German Ministry of Health must ensure that legal and ethical standards for the recruitment of international personnel are observed. It should support the governments of Albania and BiH in monitoring the private mediation companies’ training and recruitment practices of nurses and medical technicians to avoid exploitative practices and adhesion contracts. The German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development should support programmes that provide equipment and know-how. Options for career advancement and training, safety measures and legal protection are the most urgent issues to prevent a care drain and need for medical tourism. The German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development should support such reforms through bilateral cooperation (technical advice) with Albania and BiH to counteract distortions of the labour market due to out-migration and to aid structural economic recovery. The attractiveness of alternative apprenticeships and job profiles needs to be increased, not least because the long-term attachment and increase of skilled workforce will positively affect the investment climate