Refugees and their preferences for relocation

Despite popular portrayals, most refugees are highly immobile once they have left their countries of origin. They are subject to the decisions of various governance actors, which affects their individual agency, sometimes trapping them in a state of involuntary immobility in host countries. This has a bearing on their preferences for relocation to a third country. We argue refugees’ preferences for relocation are a function of their perception of the effectiveness of governance actors in managing refugee situations. UN agencies often take on traditional public responsibilities for refugee populations, such as providing healthcare and education. Host governments’ responsibilities, in contrast, are commonly limited to respecting non-refoulement and providing security. Based on these competencies, we can distinguish between refugee perceptions of institutions as bestowing purely or impurely ‘agency-enhancing’ benefits. We expect these different perceptions affect refugees’ well-being in the host state, their perceived ability and aspiration to move onward, and their preferences regarding options outside legal frameworks. We test our expectations with an original survey among Syrian refugees hosted in Lebanon. We find purely agency-enhancing benefits are associated with a lower aspiration, but a higher perceived ability for onward movement. By contrast, impurely agency-enhancing benefits are associated with higher aspiration and a lower perceived ability for onward movement. Using a conjoint experiment, we also find that more positive perceptions of institutions are associated with a lower willingness to consider onward movement outside legal frameworks

The Journey Home: Flight Related Factors on Refugee Decisions to Return

Normative practice for forced displacement is to voluntarily repatriate refugees once conditions are stable in the country of origin, which typically translates to the end of violence. However, Syrian refugees have been returning over the past few years even though there is yet to be a definitive end to the Syrian civil war. Therefore, this paper asks how refugees form decisions on when and whether they should return despite ongoing violence and instability in their country of origin? For now, we focus upon one part of the picture: how prior exposure to violence in the country of origin affects their subsequent decision to return home from their host country. To explore this relationship, we designed an original survey, implemented among Syrian refugees hosted in Lebanon (N=2,000), to causally identify the effects of prior conflict exposure on refugees’ decisions to return. We find that Syrian refugees are more willing to leave Lebanon and return home when they have prior experience of violence in Syria. We explain this initially counterintuitive finding as reflecting that they better understand their tolerance to violence, because they are “experts” and are more capable of assessing risk. In contrast, refugees who were not directly exposed to violence before fleeing their homes are more unsure of the threats associated to returning and are unwilling, therefore, to accept the risk of doing so

Spatial interaction and security: a review and case study of the Syrian refugee crisis

Sir Alan Wilson's ideas have been highly influential in the modelling of phenomena including migration, transport and economics. Latterly, research has explored the application of similar ideas to new problems at larger scales. Many of these studies relate to global challenges with significant policy implications. Here, we present an example in the form of original empirical work concerning forced migration associated with the current Syrian refugee crisis. We employ a spatial interaction framework to examine the flows of migrants fleeing Syria and the characteristics which influence their choice of destination country. In line with the broader literature, we find that shorter distances, economic prosperity, and cultural similarity (e.g. shared language) attract forced migrants, as does the probability of being granted asylum; a finding with potential implications for policy. Contrary to expectation, we find little influence for levels of security in potential host nations (e.g. absence of terrorism)

The Journey Home: Flight Related Factors on Refugee Decisions to Return

The international refugee regime promotes voluntary repatriation as the preferred solution to refugee crises. It is commonly held that it is safe for refugees to return once conditions are stable in the country of origin, which typically translates to when the violence between combatants ceases. However, the empirical record suggests that refugee returns are far from uniform in relationship to the presence or absence or level of violence in a conflict setting. In other words, we know remarkably little about the conditions under which refugee returns actually occur. In response to this shortfall in knowledge, we ask: how do refugees form decisions on when and whether they should return despite ongoing violence and instability in their country of origin? We focus upon one crucial part of the picture, in particular: how does prior exposure to violence in the country of origin affect refugees’ subsequent decisions to return? To explore this relationship, we designed an original survey, implemented among 2,000 Syrian refugees hosted in Lebanon to causally identify the effects of prior conflict exposure on refugees’ decisions to return. We find that Syrian refugees are more willing to leave Lebanon and return home when they have prior experience of violence in Syria. We explain this counter-intuitive finding as a reflection of these particular refugees as “experts” who are better able to understand and assess their risk tolerance of violence. In contrast, refugees more removed from violence before fleeing their homes harbor more uncertainty of the threats associated with returning and are unwilling to accept the risk of doing so

Crisis, what crisis? Regulation and the academic orthodoxy

What can criminology or socio-legal studies tell us about the causes of the financial crisis – a failure of regulation, at the very least – or ways in which further such crises might be prevented, mitigated, responded to? The article begins by setting out the emergence and dimensions of the academic orthodoxy on regulation – a series of shared assumptions regarding feasible and desirable forms of regulation. Then it undertakes quantitative and qualitative content analysis of work on regulation and the crisis to assess the extent to which this orthodoxy has been reassessed in the light of events since 2007

The Journey Home: Violence, Anchoring, and Refugee Decisions to Return

While the UNHCR promotes voluntary repatriation as the preferred solution to refugee situations, there is little understanding of variation in refugees’ preferences regarding return. We develop a theoretical framework suggesting two mechanisms influencing refugees’ preferences. First, refugees’ lived experiences in their country of origin prior to displacement and in their new host country create a trade-off in feelings of being anchored to their origin or host country. Second, firsthand exposure to traumas of war provides some refugees with a sense of competency and self-efficacy, leading them to prefer to return home. We test these relationships with data from a survey among Syrian refugees hosted in Lebanon. We find refugees exposed to violence during the war have a sense of attachment to Syria and are most likely to prefer return. Refugees who have developed a detachment from Syria or an attachment to Lebanon are less likely to prefer return

A novel behavioral fish model of nociception for testing analgesics

Pain is a major symptom in many medical conditions, and often interferes significantly with a person's quality of life. Although a priority topic in medical research for many years, there are still few analgesic drugs approved for clinical use. One reason is the lack of appropriate animal models that faithfully represent relevant hallmarks associated with human pain. Here we propose zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a novel short-term behavioral model of nociception, and analyse its sensitivity and robustness. Firstly, we injected two different doses of acetic acid as the noxious stimulus. We studied individual locomotor responses of fish to a threshold level of nociception using two recording systems: a video tracking system and an electric biosensor (the MOBS system). We showed that an injection dose of 10% acetic acid resulted in a change in behavior that could be used to study nociception. Secondly, we validated our behavioral model by investigating the effect of the analgesic morphine. In time-course studies, first we looked at the dose-response relationship of morphine and then tested whether the effect of morphine could be modulated by naloxone, an opioid antagonist. Our results suggest that a change in behavioral responses of zebrafish to acetic acid is a reasonable model to test analgesics. The response scales with stimulus intensity, is attenuated by morphine, and the analgesic effect of morphine is blocked with naloxone. The change in behavior of zebrafish associated with the noxious stimulus can be monitored with an electric biosensor that measures changes in water impedance. © 2011 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Publicity, punishment and protection: the role(s) of adverse publicity in consumer policy

This paper argues that adverse publicity can fulfil two crucial roles in consumer protection law and policy. First, it can operate as an effective regulatory sanction in its own right; secondly it can play a vital role in helping consumers to exert market discipline by making informed choices about suppliers. However, there are significant risks to using adverse publicity to achieve these ends and it is imperative that any regulatory regime addresses these. Studying this topic now is particularly important for three main reasons. First, there has been widespread recognition that the regulatory offence, typically backed up with fines, is not the most effective form of sanction. More flexible, targeted and responsive options are required. Secondly, there is now ample evidence that regulated information, for example in the form of mandatory disclosure, frequently fails to help consumers to make fully informed choices. Finally, there are some highly significant very recent examples of enforcers using publicity in ways that can be viewed both as a sanction and as an information tool. The need to sanction responsively and to bolster consumer sovereignty demonstrates the potential for adverse publicity as a tool of consumer protection policy