Topic
Forced migration
About: Forced migration is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2633 publications have been published within this topic receiving 39476 citations.
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TL;DR: The extent of compromised mental health among refugees (including internally displaced persons, asylum seekers, and stateless persons) using a worldwide study sample is meta-analytically established.
Abstract: ContextThe global refugee crisis requires that researchers, policymakers, and
clinicians comprehend the magnitude of the psychological consequences of forced
displacement and the factors that moderate them. To date, no empirical synthesis
of research on these issues has been undertaken.ObjectiveTo meta-analytically establish the extent of compromised mental health
among refugees (including internally displaced persons, asylum seekers, and
stateless persons) using a worldwide study sample. Potential moderators of
mental health outcomes were examined, including enduring contextual variables
(eg, postdisplacement accommodation and economic opportunity) and refugee
characteristics.Data SourcesPublished studies (1959-2002) were obtained using broad searches of
computerized databases (PsycINFO and PILOTS), manual searches of reference
lists, and interviews with prominent authors.Study SelectionStudies were selected if they investigated a refugee group and at least
1 nonrefugee comparison group and reported 1 or more quantitative group comparison
on measures of psychopathology. Fifty-six reports met inclusion criteria (4.4%
of identified reports), yielding 59 independent comparisons and including
67 294 participants (22 221 refugees and 45 073 nonrefugees).Data ExtractionData on study and report characteristics, study participant characteristics,
and statistical outcomes were extracted using a coding manual and subjected
to blind recoding, which indicated high reliability. Methodological quality
information was coded to assess potential sources of bias.Data SynthesisEffect size estimates for the refugee-nonrefugee comparisons were averaged
across psychopathology measures within studies and weighted by sample size.
The weighted mean effect size was 0.41 (SD, 0.02; range, −1.36 to 2.91
[SE, 0.01]), indicating that refugees had moderately poorer outcomes. Postdisplacement
conditions moderated mental health outcomes. Worse outcomes were observed
for refugees living in institutional accommodation, experiencing restricted
economic opportunity, displaced internally within their own country, repatriated
to a country they had previously fled, or whose initiating conflict was unresolved.
Refugees who were older, more educated, and female and who had higher predisplacement
socioeconomic status and rural residence also had worse outcomes. Methodological
differences between studies affected effect sizes.ConclusionsThe sociopolitical context of the refugee experience is associated with
refugee mental health. Humanitarian efforts that improve these conditions
are likely to have positive impacts.
1,497 citations
TL;DR: Forced migration has become an integral part of North-South relationships and is closely linked to current processes of global social transformation, which makes it as important for sociologists to develop empirical research and analysis on forced migration as it is to include it in their theoretical understandings of contemporary society.
Abstract: Forced migration - including refugee flows, asylum seekers, internal displacement and development-induced displacement - has increased considerably in volume and political significance since the end of the Cold War. It has become an integral part of North-South relationships and is closely linked to current processes of global social transformation. This makes it as important for sociologists to develop empirical research and analysis on forced migration as it is to include it in their theoretical understandings of contemporary society. The study of forced migration is linked to research on economic migration, but has its own specific research topics, methodological problems and conceptual issues. Forced migration needs to be analysed as a social process in which human agency and social networks play a major part. It gives rise to fears of loss of state control, especially in the context of recent concerns about migration and security. In this context, it is essential to question earlier sociological appr...
607 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that the "convenient images" of refugees, labelled within a co-opting humanitarian discourse in the past, have been displaced by a fractioning of the label which is driven by the need to manage globalized processes and patterns of migration and forced migration in particular.
Abstract: This paper revisits the concept of refugee labelling I elaborated nearly two decades ago. In radically different conditions, the contemporary relevance and utility of the concept are re-examined and re-established. Formulated at a time of regionally contained, mass refugee migration in the south during the late 1970s and early 1980s, the paper argues that the concept still offers vital insights into the impacts of institutional and bureaucratic power on the lives of refugees in a globalized era of transnational social transformations, mixed migration flows, and the continuing presence of large scale refugee migration. The core of the paper argues that the 'convenient images' of refugees, labelled within a co-opting humanitarian discourse in the past, have been displaced by a fractioning of the label which is driven by the need to manage globalized processes and patterns of migration and forced migration in particular. The paper re-evaluates the concept using the three original axioms - forming, transforming and politicizing the label 'refugee'. The core argument is that in the contemporary era: a) the formation of the refugee label reflects causes and patterns of forced migration which are much more complex than in the past, contrasting with an essentially homogeneous connotation in the past; b) responding to this complexity, the refugee label is transformed by an institutional 'fractioning' in order to manage the new migration; c) governments, rather than NGOs as in the past, are the pre-eminent agency in the contemporary processes of transforming the refugee label, a process driven by northern interests; d) the refugee label has become politicized by the reproduction of institutional fractioning and by embedding the wider political discourse of resistance to migrants and refugees.
603 citations
TL;DR: While there is no single 'best practice' for refugee research, refugee studies would advance its academic and policy relevance by more seriously considering methodological and ethical concerns, this paper identifies some key methodological andethical problems confronting social scientists studying forced migrants or their hosts.
Abstract: Social scientists doing fieldwork in humanitarian situations often face a dual imperative: research should be both academically sound and policy relevant. We argue that much of the current research on forced migration is based on unsound methodology, and that the data and subsequent policy conclusions are often flawed or ethically suspect. This paper identifies some key methodological and ethical problems confronting social scientists studying forced migrants or their hosts. These problems include non-representativeness and bias, issues arising from working in unfamiliar contexts including translation and the use of local researchers, and ethical dilemmas including security and confidentiality issues and whether researchers are doing enough to 'do no harm'. The second part of the paper reviews the authors' own efforts to conduct research on urban refugees in Johannesburg. It concludes that while there is no single 'best practice' for refugee research, refugee studies would advance its academic and policy relevance by more seriously considering methodological and ethical concerns.
511 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2000
TL;DR: In the case of Suresh v. Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal in this case used the 1951 Refugee Convention to undercut the absolute right to be free of torture as recognized in the Torture Convention as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: vant interpretive principles like the principle of non-retrogression. What is the relationship between the Vienna Convention and human rights, humanitarian, and refugee treaties? Is nonretrogression a free-standing principle of treaty interpretation? As the case of Suresh v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) illustrates, such questions are more than academic. The Federal Court of Appeal in this case used the 1951 Refugee Convention to undercut the absolute right to be free of torture as recognized in the Torture Convention. The above points are not meant to detract from any particular paper or from the collection as a whole. Rather, they underscore the complexity and timeliness of the convergence problem. Those concerned with the human rights of refugees and the internally displaced from dispossession to refuge to settlement or repatriation will find Human Rights and Forced Displacement a valuable book. Those interested in the more general question of the cross-fertilization of international regimes will also find it worthwhile. One hopes that this collection of essays will inspire scholars and advocates alike to dedicate more time and energy to the issues surrounding convergence, compatibility, and cross-fertilization of legal traditions.
483 citations