Culling the Masses. The Democratic
Origins of Racist Immigration
Policy in the Americas
analiza el por que del cambio
en las politicas migratorias de
algunos paises de America, de
caracter racial hacia otras abiertamente
antirracistas surgio primero
en las naciones mas debiles
y autoritarias y no desde los pai-
ses democratico-liberales como
en principio pudiera suponerse.
Un estudio que los autores
enmarcan tanto en consideraciones
de tipo teorico sobre
el institucionalismo y la teoria
politica, como de tipo metodologico
con base en evidencia en
torno a las leyes migratorias y su
implementacion en seis paises:
Estados Unidos, Canada, Cuba,
Mexico, Brasil y Argentina. La
fortaleza de este libro es persuadirnos
de que los avances para
el fortalecimiento del regimen
internacional de los derechos
humanos de los migrantes es un
logro mas de los paises de origen
que de los de destino, ademas
de que el cambio en el tipo de
politicas de un pais no tiene que
ver solo con un factor y mucho
menos esta linealmente asociado
al tipo de regimen politico; tanto
las politicas racistas como las
que no lo son pueden darse tanto
en sistemas autoritarios como
en los democratico-liberales.

Culling the Masses. The Democratic Origins of Racist Immigration Policy in the Americas. David Scott FitzGerald y David Cook-Martín, 2014, Cambridge, Estados Unidos, Harvard University Press, 512 pp.

This article deals with the modes of (contested) control that are at play at the Mediterranean frontier for containing, dividing and discipling unruly mobility. Building on ethnographic research conducted on the island of Lesvos and of Lampedusa, it focuses on the implementation and the functioning of the Hotspot System in Greece and in Italy, analysing beyond the fences of detention centres and by looking at the broader logistics of channels, infrastructures and governmental measures deployed for regaining control over migration movements. The article argues that more than control in terms of surveillance and tracking, the Hotspot System contributes to enforce forms of containment through mobility that consists in controlling migration by obstructing, decelerating and troubling migrants’ geographies – more than in fully blocking them. The article takes into account migrants’ refusals of being fingerprinted, showing how migrants radically unsettle the association between seeking refuge and lack of choice, enacting their right to choose where to go and claim asylum.

Containment through mobility: migrants’ spatial disobediences and the reshaping of control through the hotspot systemin the Mediterranean.

Educational practices of Finnish-language and Swedish-language schools at all levels are described in this volume. Administration of education is discussed, all levels except higher education being under the jurisdiction of the National Board of Schools which reports to the Ministry of Education, and professional education being governed by several ministries. Pre-school education which is voluntary and financed by municipalities, industrial enterprises, associations, and private individuals are briefly reported upon. Primary, secondary, and higher education are explained in some detail including information on educational history, administration, reform, the school year, school districts, statistics, class sizes, social benefits and questions, subjects taught, teaching methods, the marking system, examinations and diplomas, and categories of schools. Additional sections are provided on popular education -namely a post school education of cultural activity -and on professional, vocational, and technical institutions. Three supplements are presented on school statistics, the school ref:Irm in Finland, and educational policy, planning, finance, and research. p.m

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Refugee Manipulation: War, Politics, and the Abuse of Human Suffering Edited by Stephen John Stedman and Fred Tanner Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2003 Pp xii, 202 $4695 cloth, $1895 paper This collection of articles explores what the editors call "the dark side" of international institutions-in particular the international refugee regime-since the end of the Cold War The central argument is as follows: while providing comfort and safety to millions, the refugee regime has "also been cynically used by states and warring parties  to further their own self-interest, in ways that exacerbate war, suffering, and misery" (p x) Refugees are manipulated by states and rebel groups as assets in struggles over national and international security The militarization of refugee camps and refugees is part of the larger strategy of warring parties, which also includes "using the suffering of refugees for its own political purposes: to siphon off aid, establish the international legitimacy of their cause, and, by manipulating access to [the refugees], ensure that they will not repatriate" (p 3) The United States is a good example of how a state can play both sides of the humanitarian coin During the Cold War, the United States ignored humanitarian law and, in order to support anti-Communist forces, allowed and encouraged refugees to be used by warring parties in Pakistan, Thailand, and Honduras After the Cold War, the United States ceased to view refugees as pawns in security struggles, and now calls them humanitarian problems or turns a blind eye Examples of this kind of manipulation abound after the Cold War, and this book discusses three case studies: Cambodians on the Thai-Cambodian border are analyzed by Daniel Unger; Frederic Grare writes about Afghans in Pakistan; and Rwandans in Zaire after the genocide in 1994 are dealt with by Howard Adelman These cases are by now extensively analyzed in the refugee literature, and the editors state that they were chosen because they represent "the toughest cases" and the most widely cited examples of refugee manipulation While this may be true, it can also be argued that these three cases are not representative of most refugee situations today, which are characterized by very different, and possibly more pressing problems But this is the subject of a different book, and certainly the authors' argument pertains to many current refugee situations Humanitarian agencies like (the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) and nongovernmental organizations now face a practical and ethical dilemma: how to look after refugees without furthering the political and military goals of those who manipulate them …

Refugee Manipulation: War, Politics, and the Abuse of Human Suffering

In this innovative study, Lea David critically investigates the relationship between human rights and memory, suggesting that, instead of understanding human rights in a normative fashion, human rights should be treated as an ideology. Conceptualizing human rights as an ideology gives us useful theoretical and methodological tools to recognize the real impact human rights has on the ground. David traces the rise of the global phenomenon that is the human rights memorialization agenda, termed 'Moral Remembrance', and explores what happens once this agenda becomes implemented. Based on evidence from the Western Balkans and Israel/Palestine, she argues that the human rights memorialization agenda does not lead to a better appreciation of human rights but, contrary to what would be expected, it merely serves to strengthen national sentiments, divisions and animosities along ethnic lines, and leads to the new forms of societal inequalities that are closely connected to different forms of corruptions.

The Past Can't Heal Us: The Dangers of Mandating Memory in the Name of Human Rights

Do states in the Global South learn from each other regarding the management of forced migration? Although research has shown that refugees have recently been recast as an economic benefit for non-Western host states, little scholarly work exists on whether and how such a normative change is adopted across regions. In this article, we identify the diffusion of refugee rent-seeking behaviour, namely the use of host states’ geopolitical position as leverage to extract revenue from other states in exchange for maintaining refugees within their borders. We identify three types of diffusion – learning, cooperation and emulation – occurring at state, regional and international levels across the Global South. Drawing on a range of primary sources, we demonstrate the working of these three types across a range of empirical examples drawn from the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and South America. Overall, we identify a rising trend in the commodification of forced migration across refugee rentier states, while highlighting the need for further interregional research on policy diffusion outside the Global North.

Refugee commodification: the diffusion of refugee rent-seeking in the Global South

Twenty years after the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), reconciliation on the national and local level is still largely absent. Billions of dollars were invested in reconstruction and reco...

NGO Frequent Flyers: Youth Organisations and the Undermining of Reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina

In 2012, 2016 and 2018–2019, Pakistan threatened to expel Afghan refugees and in 2015, 2016 and 2019, Kenya threatened to demolish the Dadaab camp and expel Somali refugees. Following the threats, ...

Nicholas R. Micinski

Papers

Refugee commodification: the diffusion of refugee rent-seeking in the Global South

NGO Frequent Flyers: Youth Organisations and the Undermining of Reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Threats, deportability and aid: The politics of refugee rentier states and regional stability:

UN Global Compacts: Governing Migrants and Refugees

Refugee Policy as Foreign Policy: Iraqi and Afghan Refugee Resettlements to the United States