Contemporary Issues in Sociology

Refugees and Displacement

SCIL10080, Spring 2016

Course Organisers:
M. Holmes & L. Riga

Course lecturers:
D. Anderson, K. Baxter, A. Dakessian,
H. Gorringe, M. Hamel, J. Langer, L. Riga
The so-called refugee crisis of the summer of 2015 appeared to shift debates around
refugees, asylum seekers and immigration. This course aims to apply a more
sociological approach to understanding how such a crisis came about and how it can
be understood as part of more ongoing problems around the displacement of people.
The teaching team is staff and PhD students doing research around refugees and
displacement. They are involved with the Edinburgh University based NGO Lived,
which deals with refugee children and displacement. UNHCR and other international
humanitarian organizations serving the displaced have increasingly become what one
scholar calls permanent crisis bureaucracies, with policy practices designed to sustain
populations in moments of intense crisis becoming routinized and embedded as
permanent as most refugee crises become protracted situations. And these practices
are replicated globally across numerous displacement contexts. Moreover, policy
innovations developed to address the needs of protracted displacements tend to be
top-down initiatives. So the very real diversities of lived experiences are compressed
and homogenized. The course will explore displacement from a comparative
perspective to capture the importance of context. It will also critically interrogate
present policy on displacement and examine actual experiences of displacement,
drawing on research done and documentaries made by the team, as well as examining
the wider literature on refugees.

COURSE FORMAT

The class meets Tuesdays 2:00-4:00, in CMB Seminar Room 2 during Weeks 1-4
and weeks 9-10. During weeks 5-8, lecture will be between 2:00-3:00, and there
will be tutorials at the following times: Tuesday 3:00-4:00, Wednesday 10:00-
11:00, 12:00-1:00, and 1:00-2:00. Information on how to sign up for tutorial will be given
at the first lecture.

COURSE AIMS

To provide a sociological analysis of refugees, forced migration and displacement,

while also drawing upon political, historical, anthropological and geographical
accounts.
To lay out the key concepts, theories and issues involved in forced migration.
To explore the ways in which policy and intellectual frameworks grasp lived
experiences.
To illuminate the ways substantive case material informs theory-making.

COURSE OBJECTIVES
Students who have taken the course will have an understanding of differing theoretical
accounts of refugees and forced displacement, and be able to critically embed these in
different social settings.
ASSESSMENT
ALL STUDENTS are required to submit BOTH a short essay* worth 25% of the total
grade and a long essay worth 75% of the total grade. A 10% portion of the long essay mark
includes a small group work project undertaken in preparation of the essay.

Your short essay should be between 1400-1600 words. Essays above 1,600 words will be
penalized using the Ordinary level criterion of 1 mark for every 20 words over length:
anything between 1,601 and 1,620 words will lose one point, between 1,621 and 1,640 two
points, and so on. Note that the lower 1400 figure is a guideline for students which you will
not be penalized for going below. However, you should note that shorter essays are unlikely to
achieve the required depth and that this will be reflected in your mark. Short essay
deadline: Monday 8th February, 12 noon.

Your long essay should be between 3500-4500 words. Essays above 4501 words will be
penalized using the Ordinary level criterion of 1 mark for every 20 words over length:
anything between 4501 and 4520 words will lose one point, between 4521 and 4520 two
points, and so on. Note that the lower 3500 figure is a guideline for students which you will
not be penalized for going below. However, you should note that shorter essays are unlikely to
achieve the required depth and that this will be reflected in your mark. Long essay
deadline: Monday 25th April, 12 noon.

Students will be given a list of suggestions for displacement contexts to follow in groups
throughout the course. For the long essay, students will individually be required to lever key
concepts of the course onto the specific context of displacement they / their groups are
following. During Week 11, a school-wide open event will be held where student groups
present their findings having engaged with specific contexts of displacement.

THE OPERATION OF LATENESS PENALTIES

Unlike in Years 1 and 2, NO EXTENSIONS ARE GRANTED WITH RESPECT TO
THE SUBMISSION DEADLINES FOR ANY ASSESSED WORK AT HONOURS
LEVEL.

Managing deadlines is a basic life-skill that you are expected to have acquired by the time you
reach Honours. Timely submission of all assessed items (coursework, essays, project reports,
etc.) is a vitally important responsibility at this stage in your university career. Unexcused
lateness can put at risk your prospects of proceeding to Senior Honours and can damage your
final degree grade.

If you miss the submission deadline for any piece of assessed work 5 marks will be deducted
for each calendar day that work is late, up to a maximum of five calendar days (25 marks).
Thereafter, a mark of zero will be recorded. There is no grace period for lateness and
penalties begin to apply immediately following the deadline. For example, if the deadline is
Tuesday at 12 noon, work submitted on Tuesday at 12.01pm will be marked as one day late,
work submitted at 12.01pm on Wednesday will be marked as two days late, and so on.

Failure to submit an item of assessed work will result in a mark of zero, with potentially very
serious consequences for your overall degree class, or no degree at all. It is therefore always in
your interest to submit work, even if very late.

Please be aware that all work submitted is returned to students with a

provisional mark and without applicable penalties in the first instance. The
mark you receive on ELMA is therefore subject to change following the
consideration of the Lateness Penalty Waiver Panel (please see below for
further information) and the Board of Examiners.
 HOW TO SUBMIT A LATENESS PENALTY WAIVER FORM
If there are extenuating circumstances beyond your control which make it essential for you to
submit work after the deadline you must fill in a Lateness Penalty Waiver (LPW) form to
state the reason for your lateness. This is a request for any applicable penalties to be removed
and will be considered by the Lateness Penalty Waiver Panel.

Before submitting an LPW, please consider carefully whether your circumstances are (or
were) significant enough to justify the lateness. Such circumstances should be serious and
exceptional (e.g. not a common cold or a heavy workload). Computer failures are not
regarded as justifiable reason for late submission. You are expected to regularly back-up your
work and allow sufficient time for uploading it to ELMA.

You should submit the LPW form and supply an expected date of submission as soon as you
are able to do so, and preferably before the deadline. Depending on the circumstances,
supporting documentation may be required, so please be prepared to provide this where
possible.

LPW forms can be found in a folder outside your SSOs office, on online at:
http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/undergrad/on_course_students/assessment_and_regulations/cours
ework_requirements/coursework_requirements_honours

Forms should be returned by email or, if possible, in person to your SSO. They will sign the
form to indicate receipt and will be able to advise you if you would like further guidance or
support.

Please Note: Signing the LPW form by either your SSO or Personal Tutor only indicates
acknowledgment of the request, not the waiving of lateness penalties. Final decisions on all
marks rest with Examination Boards.
There is a dedicated SSO for students in each subject area in SPS. To find out who your
SSO is, and how to contact them, please find your home subject area on the table below:

Name of
Subject Area Email Phone Office
SSO
Room 1.11,
Irena 0131 650 Chrystal
Politics Irena.Coubrough@ed.ac.uk
Coubrough 4253 MacMillan
Building
Room 1.10,
International Rebecca 0131 651 Chrystal
rebecca.shade@ed.ac.uk
Relations Shade 3896 MacMillan
Building
Room 1.04,
Social Vanessa 0131 650 Chrystal
vanessa.feldberg@ed.ac.uk
Anthropology Feldberg 3933 MacMillan
Building
Room 1.08,
0131 650 Chrystal
Social Policy Louise Angus L.Angus@ed.ac.uk
3923 MacMillan
Building
Room 1.07,
Jane 0131 650 Chrystal
Social Work jane.marshall@ed.ac.uk
Marshall 3912 MacMillan
Building
0131 651 Room 1.03,
Sociology Karen Dargo Karen.Dargo@ed.ac.uk
1306 Chrystal
 MacMillan
Building
Room 1.09,
Sustainable 0131 650 Chrystal
Sue Renton sue.renton@ed.ac.uk
Development 6958 MacMillan
Building

If you are a student from another School, you should submit your LPW to the SSO for the
subject area of the course, Karen Dargo.

Students with Disabilities.

The School welcomes students with disabilities (including those with specific learning
difficulties such as dyslexia) and is working to make all its courses as accessible as possible. If
you have a disability special needs which means that you may require adjustments to be made
to ensure access to lectures, tutorials or exams, or any other aspect of your studies, you can
discuss these with your Student Support Officer or Personal Tutor who will advise on the
appropriate procedures.

You can also contact the Student Disability Service, based on the University of Edinburgh,
Third Floor, Main Library, You can find their details as well as information on all of the
support they can offer at: http://www.ed.ac.uk/student-disability-service

SUBMITTING WORK ELECTRONICALLY

Coursework is submitted online using our electronic submission system, ELMA. You will not
be required to submit a paper copy of your work.

Marked coursework, grades and feedback will be returned to you via ELMA. You will not
receive a paper copy of your marked course work or feedback.

For information, help and advice on submitting coursework and accessing feedback, please
see the ELMA wiki at https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/SPSITWiki/ELMA. Further
detailed guidance on the essay deadline and a link to the wiki and submission page will be
available on the course Learn page. The wiki is the primary source of information on how to
submit your work correctly and provides advice on approved file formats, uploading cover
sheets and how to name your files correctly.
When you submit your work electronically, you will be asked to tick a box confirming that
your work complies with university regulations on plagiarism. This confirms that the work
you have submitted is your own.

Occasionally, there can be technical problems with a submission. We request that you
monitor your university student email account in the 24 hours following the deadline for
submitting your work. If there are any problems with your submission the course secretary
will email you at this stage.

We undertake to return all coursework within 15 working days of submission (feedback for
the short essay will be returned online via ELMA on Monday 29th February
2016; feedback for the long essay will be returned online via ELMA on Monday
16th May 2016;). This time is needed for marking, moderation, second marking and input of
results. If there are any unanticipated delays, it is the course organisers responsibility to
inform you of the reasons.

All our coursework is assessed anonymously to ensure fairness: to facilitate this

process put your Examination number (on your student card), not your name or
student number, on your coursework or cover sheet.
Important note to students
To ensure your course work is submitted successfully, students should aim to upload their
submissions at least 1 hour before the deadline.

Students are responsible for ensuring they have sufficient internet access and connection to
submit their course work electronically. Technical difficulties and poor internet connection
are not acceptable reasons for submitting work late.

You should monitor your university student email account in the 24 hours following the
deadline for submitting your work. If there are any problems with your submission the course
secretary will email you at this stage.

PLAGIARISM GUIDANCE FOR STUDENTS

Avoiding Plagiarism:
Material you submit for assessment, such as your essays, must be your own work. You can,
and should, draw upon published work, ideas from lectures and class discussions, and (if
appropriate) even upon discussions with other students, but you must always make clear that
you are doing so. Passing off anyone elses work (including another students work or
material from the Web or a published author) as your own is plagiarism and will be
punished severely. When you upload your work to ELMA you will be asked to check a box to
confirm the work is your own. ELMA automatically runs all submissions through Turnitin,
our plagiarism detection software, and compares every essay against a constantly-updated
database, which highlights all plagiarised work. Assessed work that contains plagiarised
material will be awarded a mark of zero, and serious cases of plagiarism will also be reported
to the College Academic Misconduct officer. In either case, the actions taken will be noted
permanently on the student's record. For further details on plagiarism see the
Academic Services website:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-
departments/academicservices/students/undergraduate/discipline/plagiarism

DATA PROTECTION GUIDANCE FOR STUDENTS

In most circumstances, students are responsible for ensuring that their work with information
about living, identifiable individuals complies with the requirements of the Data Protection
Act. The document, Personal Data Processed by Students, provides an explanation of why
this is the case. It can be found, with advice on data protection compliance and ethical best
practice in the handling of information about living, identifiable individuals, on the Records
Management section of the University website at:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/records-management-section/data-
protection/guidance-policies/dpforstudents

FEEDBACK AND EVALUATION

The course will be evaluated by Sociology-organized questionnaires given to students at the
end of the course. All courses in Sociology are evaluated in this way, and the results are
reviewed in staff meetings. Comments made by students, staff and external examiners will be
fed back into course revision.

EXTERNAL EXAMINERS
The External Examiner for this course for session 2015-16 is: Professor Bernadette Hayes,
University of Aberdeen

LEARNING RESOURCES FOR UNDERGRADUATES

The Study Development Team at the Institute for Academic Development (IAD) provides
resources and workshops aimed at helping all students to enhance their learning skills and
develop effective study techniques. Resources and workshops cover a range of topics, such as
managing your own learning, reading, note making, essay and report writing, exam
preparation and exam techniques.

The study development resources are housed on 'LearnBetter' (undergraduate), part of Learn,
the University's virtual learning environment. Follow the link from the IAD Study
Development web page to enrol: www.ed.ac.uk/iad/undergraduates

Workshops are interactive: they will give you the chance to take part in activities, have
discussions, exchange strategies, share ideas and ask questions. They are 90 minutes long and
held on Wednesday afternoons at 1.30pm or 3.30pm. The schedule is available from the IAD
Undergraduate web page (see above).

Workshops are open to all undergraduates but you need to book in advance, using the MyEd
booking system. Each workshop opens for booking 2 weeks before the date of the workshop
itself. If you book and then cannot attend, please cancel in advance through MyEd so that
another student can have your place. (To be fair to all students, anyone who persistently
books on workshops and fails to attend may be barred from signing up for future events).

Study Development Advisors are also available for an individual consultation if you have
specific questions about your own approach to studying, working more effectively, strategies
for improving your learning and your academic work. Please note, however, that Study
Development Advisors are not subject specialists so they cannot comment on the content of
your work. They also do not check or proof read students' work.

To make an appointment with a Study Development Advisor, email iad.study@ed.ac.uk

(For support with English Language, you should contact the English Language Teaching
Centre).

DISCUSSING SENSITIVE TOPICS

The discipline of sociology addresses a number of topics that some might find sensitive or, in
some cases, distressing. You should read this Course Guide carefully and if there are any
topics that you may feel distressed by you should seek advice from the course convenor
and/or your Personal Tutor.
For more general issues you may consider seeking the advice of the Student Counselling
Service, http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/student-counselling
Journals, resources & organizations relevant for the course:

New Issues in Refugee Research: http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-

bin/texis/vtx/search?page=&comid=4a1d3be46&cid=49aea93a6a&scid=49aea93a3b

Journal of Refugee Studies: http://jrs.oxfordjournals.org/

Forced Migration Online Digital Library: http://www.forcedmigration.org/digital-library

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cjms20/current

International Migration Review:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/%28ISSN%291747-7379

Forced Migration Review: http://www.fmreview.org/

Internal Displacement Monitoring Center: http://www.internal-displacement.org/

United High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR): http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-

bin/texis/vtx/home

UNODC Human Trafficking: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/

UNODC Smuggling of Migrants: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-

trafficking/smuggling-of-migrants.html

UNRWA (United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestinians in the Near East):
http://www.unrwa.org/

PART I: CONCEPTUAL DEPARTURES

Week 1 (12 January)

Studying Displacement and Learning to Swim (RIGA)

We ground the course with an introductory session on the conceptual, moral and
epistemological landscapes that underlay academic and policy work on refugees and
displacement. This will also provide the basis for the intellectual structure of the course. We
do this in three ways: with a brief documentary, Learning to Swim; with a conceptual
mapping exercise to emphasize the ways in which a number of relevant issues are empirically
and theoretically interconnected; and finally, we think about these issues more sociologically,
in terms of structures of power and structures of meaning.

Required Reading:
(browse) UNHCR (2015) Global conflicts and human displacement: 21st Century Challenges. Available
at: http://www.unhcr.org/55ba370f9.html

(browse) IDMC (2014) Global Overview 2014: People Internally Displaced by Conflict and Violence.
Available at: http://www.internal-displacement.org/publications/2014/global-overview-
2014-people-internally-displaced-by-conflict-and-violence

(browse) UNHCR Refugees/migrants Mediterranean data:

http://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/regional.php

(browse) UNHCR Twitter from Zaatari: https://twitter.com/zaataricamp

Further Reading:
Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, G. Loescher, K. Long, N. Sigona (2014) The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and
Forced Migration Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press)

Loescher, G., Betts, A. and Milner, J. (2012) The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR): the Politics and Practice of Refugee Protection into the 21st Century (London: Routledge)

Jacobson, K. and L. Landau (2003) The dual imperative in refugee research: some
methodological and ethical considerations in social science research on forced migration
Disaster 27(3): 185-206

Sigona, N. (2015) Campzenship: reimagining the camp as a social and political space
Citizenship Studies 19(1): 1-15

Malkki, L. (1995) Purity and Exile: Violence, Memory and National Cosmology Among Hutu Refugees in
Tanzania (Chicago: University of Chicago Press)

Milner, J. and G. Loescher (2011) Responding to Protracted Refugee Situations: Lessons from a Decade of
Discussion (Oxford: Refugee Studies Centre)

Peteet, J. (2005) Landscape of Hope and Despair: Palestinian Refugee Camps (University of
Pennsylvania)

Marrus, M. (1985) The Unwanted: European Refugees in the Twentieth Century (New York: Oxford
University Press)

Urry, J. (2007) Mobilities (Cambridge: Polity Press)

Week 2 (19 January)

Understanding Forced Displacement: Causes, Categories, Data (RIGA)

Our language, definitions and statistical data on refugees critically and consequentially shape
scholarly work and policy discussions and therefore impact the lives of millions of people. So
to better understand the experiences and policy practices that affect 60 million forcibly
displaced people in the world today, we ask: What is forced migration? What are the
differences among refugees, IDPs, illegal migrants, climate refugees, development refugees?
What does it mean to be stateless, whether in formal camps, informal settlements or in the
invisibility of urban displacement? We explore some of the causes and complex dynamics of
displacement and the nature of the refugees journeys those of flight, smuggling or
trafficking, and those that are conflict, crisis, climate and development induced.

Required Reading:
UN General Assembly, Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 28 July 1951, United Nations,
Treaty Series, vol. 189, p. 137 (esp. articles 1 & 33). Available at:
http://www.refworld.org/docid/3be01b964.html

Long, K. (2013) When refugees stopped being migrants: movement, labour and
humanitarian protection Migration Studies 1(1): 4-26

Zetter, R. (2007) More labels, fewer refugees: remaking the refugee label in an era of
globalization Journal of Refugee Studies 20(2): 172-192

Further Reading:
Chimni, B. (2009) The birth of a discipline: from refugee to forced migration studies Journal
of Refugee Studies 22(1): 11-29

Zetter, R. (2010) Protecting Environmentally Displaced People: Developing the Capacity of Legal and
Normative Frameworks (Oxford: Refugee Studies Centre, report commissioned by UNHCR and
Governments of Switzerland and Norway). Available at:
http://www.unhcr.org/4da2b6189.pdf

UNHCR (2015) Global Action Plan to End Statelessness, 2014-2024. Available at:
http://www.unhcr.org/54621bf49.html
Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement (ed). (2008) Protecting Internally Displaced
Persons; Manual for Law and Policymakers (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution). Available at:
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Reports/2009/6/05-internal-
displacement/0605_internal_displacement.PDF

Crisp, M., Morris, T. and Refstie, H. (2012) Displacement in urban areas: new challenges,
new partnerships Disasters 36: S23-S42

Kneebone, S. (2010) The refugee-trafficking nexus: making good (the) connections Refugee
Survey Quarterly 29(1): 137-160

Docherty, B. and Tyler, G. (2009) Confronting a rising tide: a proposal for a convention on
climate change refugees Harvard Environmental Law Review 33: 349

Feingold, D. (2010) Trafficking in numbers: the social construction of human trafficking

data, pp. 46-74 in P. Andreas and K. Greenhill (eds) Sex, Drugs and Body Counts: The Politics of
Numbers in Global Crime and Conflict (New York: Cornell University Press)

Hart, J. (ed) (2008) Years of Conflict: Adolescence, Political Violence and Displacement (Oxford:
Berghahn Books)

UNHCR (2014) Children on the Run: Unaccompanied Children Leaving Central America and Mexico and
the Need for International Protection. Available at:
http://www.unhcrwashington.org/children/reports

Bakewell, O. (1999) Can we ever rely on refugee statistics? Radical Statistics 72

Sawyer, C. and Blitz, B. (eds) (2011) Statelessness in the European Union: Displaced, Undocumented,
Unwanted (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)

Week 3 (26 January)

Refugees: Perspectives from Race, Ethnicity and Nation (LANGER)

Refugees face a variety of responses, and often challenges, when entering new societies. In
many of the increasingly exclusionary European States (and beyond), their integration is
problematised in terms of cultural and national identity. This lecture will briefly introduce the
underlying concepts of race, ethnicity, and nation, before exploring contemporary forms of
racism and the rhetorical shift to cultural difference. We will link this discussion to different
dynamics of the categorisation of refugees and immigrants, such as homogenisation,
essentialisation, criminalisation, racialisation, and dehumanisation. To illustrate the theory,
we will analyse examples of how these concepts and strategies are implemented by rightist
populist parties, as well as other public actors, aiming to stigmatise and exclude certain groups
from European societies.

Required Reading:
Balibar, . (1991) 'Is there a 'Neo-Racism'?'. In: Balibar, . and Wallerstein, I. (eds.) Race,
Nation, Class: Ambiguous Identities. London: Verso, pp. 17-28.

Brubaker, R. (2009) Ethnicity, Race, and Nationalism. Annual Review of Sociology 35(1): 21-42.

Further Reading:
Appiah, A. (1985) The Uncompleted Argument: Du Bois and the Illusion of Race. Critical
Inquiry 12(1): 21-37.

Aranda, E. and Vaquera, E. (2015) Racism, the Immigration Enforcement Regime, and the
Implications for Racial Inequality in the Lives of Undocumented Young Adults. Sociology of
Race and Ethnicity, 1(1): 88-104.

Banton, M. (2000) The Idiom of Race. In: Back, L. and Solomos, J. (eds.) Theories of Race and
Racism: A Reader. London: Routledge, pp. 51-63.

Brubaker, R. (2013) Language, Religion and the Politics of Difference. Nations and Nationalism
19(1): 1-20.

Eriksen, T.H. (1997) Ethnicity, Race and Nation. In: Guibernau, M. and Rex, J. (eds.) The
Ethnicity Reader: Nationalism, Multiculturalism and Migration. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 33-42.

Fenton, S. (2010) Ethnos: Descent and Culture Communities. In: Ibid. Ethnicity. Second
edition. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 12-23.

Kurz, J.J. and Berry, D.T. (2015) Normalizing racism: Vigilantism, Border Security and Neo-
Racist Assemblages. Security Journal 28(2): 150164.

Malkki, L. H. (1995) Refugees and Exile: From Refugee Studies to the National Order of
Things. Annual Review of Anthropology: 495-523.

Senz, R. and Douglas, K.M. (2015) A Call for the Racialization of Immigration Studies: On
the Transition of Ethnic Immigrants to Racialized Immigrants. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity,
1(1): 166180.

Solomos, J. (2003) Race and Policing. In: Ibid. Race and Racism in Britain. Third edition.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 117-141.

Taguieff, P.A. (1999) The New Cultural Racism in France. In: Bulmer, M. and Solomos, J.
(eds.) Racism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 206-213.

Weber, M. (1997) What Is an Ethnic Group?. In: Guibernau, M. and Rex, J. (eds.) The
Ethnicity Reader: Nationalism, Multiculturalism and Migration. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 15-26.

Week 4 (2 February)

Theorizing and Caring for the Displaced: Frameworks, Rights, Ethics (RIGA)
The epistemological and policy frameworks we use to understand and care for refugees
determine their lives and possibilities in displacement. We illustrate this by considering some
of the most compelling: the humanitarian and institutional practices of crisis / aid
bureaucracies; human rights frameworks; ethics of care; protracted displacement as
development policy; rights of the child and trauma frames for unaccompanied minors; the
securitization and illegalization of bodies and borders; camps vs. city policy structures;
trafficking and smuggling regimes; and theorizations of bare life and its assumptions of
agency. Against these, however, we explore the ways in which, in the process of reclaiming
new lives, refugees own stories bear witness to and make sense of displacement, violence,
repression, aspiration, resilience, home and intimacies. So as you do the required readings
and watch the brief documentaries all based on lived experiences ask to what extent and
how these dimensions of refugee journeys are captured, homogenized or compressed,
rendered (in)visible or understood under these frameworks.

Required Reading:
Bakewell, O. (2008) Research beyond the categories: the importance of policy irrelevant
research into forced migration Journal of Refugee Studies 21(4): 432-53

Eastwood, M. (2007) Stories as lived experience: narratives in forced migration research

Journal of Refugee Studies 20(2): 248-64

New York Times VR (5 Nov. 2015) How to Experience a New Form of Storytelling, Three
Portraits: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/08/magazine/nyt-vr-how-to-experience-a-
new-form-of-storytelling-from-the-
times.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-
region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

Between borders: American migrant crisis (October 2015) (Central American children) (24
min documentary): http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/world/americas/honduras-el-
salvador-guatemala-mexico-us-child-
migrants.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=span-ab-top-
region%C2%AEion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

Further Reading:
Held, V. (2007) The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political and Global (Oxford: Oxford University Press)

Benhabib, S. (2004) The Rights of Others: Aliens, Residents, and Citizens (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press)

Kagan, M. (2011) We live in a country of UNHCR: the UN surrogate state and refugee
policy in the Middle East New Issues in Refugee Research Research Paper No. 201

Grbac, P. (2013) Civitas, polis, and urbs: reimagining the refugee camp as the city Refugee
Studies Centre Working Paper Series no. 96

Harrell-Bond, B. (1986) Imposing Aid: Emergency Assistance to Refugees (Oxford: Oxford University
Press)

Penz, P, Drydyk, J. and Bose, P. (2011) Displacement and Development: Ethics, Rights and
Responsibility (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Agamben, G. (1998) Homo Sacer. Sovereign Power and Bare Life, (Stanford, California: Stanford
University Press)
Butalia, U. (2000) The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India (Durham, NC: Duke
University Press)

Zetter, Roger (1991) Labelling Refugees: forming and transforming a bureaucratic identity
Journal of Refugee Studies 4(1): 39-62

Vogler, P. (2007) Into the Jungle of Bureaucracy: Negotiating Access to Camps at the Thai-
Burma Border Refugee Survey Quarterly 26(3): 51-60
Pacitto, J. (2013) Writing the Other into humanitarian discourse: framing theory and
practice in South-South responses to forced displacement New Issues in Refugee Research
(UNHCR) Research Paper No. 257

Napier-Moore, R. (2011) Humanicrats: the social production of compassion, indifference,

and hostility in long-term camps Development in Practice 21(1): 73-84

PART II: ISSUES IN CONTEXTS

Week 5 (9 February)

Being Placed: Cities, Camps and Making a Home After Displacement

(ANDERSON)
Displacement is fundamentally linked to space, place and territory, from the simple fact of
physical movement to more complex relationships of the self, home, livelihoods and
belonging. How we conceptualise the role of space within the lives of people who have been
displaced therefore has important consequences for academic thought and policy responses.
This lecture will explore the pivotal role of space within discourses of displacement, situating
this within broader relationships of how responses to displacement and the livelihood
strategies of the people affected are rooted in contested meanings of what is to be 'placed',
'displaced', and 'home'. Through engagement with the example of people living on the fringes
of urban areas in Bogot, Colombia, we will particularly focus on how people and state/aid
bureaucracies handle the growing phenomenon of displacement to urban areas.

Required Reading:
Brun, Cathrine (2001) Reterritorializing the Relationship between People and Place in
Refugee Studies. Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography 83 (1): 1525.

Malkki, Liisa H. (2002) News from Nowhere: Mass Displacement and Globalized Problems
of Organization. Ethnography 3 (3): 35160.*
* see other articles in this journal (same issue) from Agiers and Bauman for further discussion.

Carrillo, Angela Consuelo (2009) Internal Displacement in Colombia: Humanitarian,

Economic and Social Consequences in Urban Settings and Current Challenges. International
Review of the Red Cross 91 (875): 52746. doi:10.1017/S1816383109990427.

Fagen, Patricia (2011) Colombian IDPs in Protracted Displacement: Is Local Integration a

Solution? In Resolving Internal Displacement: Prospects for Local Integration (pp.41-60). Washington,
DC: Brookings Institution.
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/reports/2011/6/01%20protracted%20
displace%20local/resolving_id_prospects_for_local_integration_june2011.pdf.

PLUS please browse the UNHCR goals in:

UNHCR (2009) UNHCR Policy on Refugee Protection and Solutions in Urban Areas.
UN. Available at http://www.unhcr.org/4ab356ab6.pdf
Further Reading:
Crisp, Jeff, Tim Morris, and Hilde Refstie (2012) Displacement in Urban Areas: New
Challenges, New Partnerships. Disasters 36 (July): S2342.

Grabska, Katarzyna (2006) Marginalization in Urban Spaces of the Global South: Urban
Refugees in Cairo. Journal of Refugee Studies 19 (3): 287307. doi:10.1093/jrs/fel014. (Also
see other articles in this special issue)
Lefebvre, Henri (1991) The Production of Space. Ch.1 (pp. 26-53), Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991

Mundt, Alex, and Elizabeth Ferris (2008) Durable Solutions for IDPs in Protracted
Situations: Three Case Studies. The Brookings Institution.
http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2008/10/28-internal-displacement-mundt.

Ramadan, A. (2012) 'Spatialising the refugee camp' Transactions of the Institute of British
Geographers 38: 65-77

Additional Material - please browse for more information on the Colombian context:
Derks-Normandin, Maria (2014) Building Peace in the Midst of Violence: Improving
Security and Finding Durable Solutions to Displacement in Colombia. The Brookings
Institution. http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2014/09/16-colombia-
peacebuilding-displacement-derks.

Ferris, Elizabeth (2014) Changing Times: The International Response to Internal

Displacement in Colombia. Brookings Institute.
http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.se/sites/default/files/documents/54cb8df38.pdf.

Meertens, Donny (2012) Forced Displacement and Gender Justice in Colombia: Between
Disproportional Effects of Violence and Historical Injustice. Case Studies on Transitional
Justice and Displacement. ICTJ/Brookings-LSE.
https://www.ictj.org/sites/default/files/ICTJ-Brookings-Displacement-Gender-Colombia-
CaseStudy-2012-English.pdf.

NRC (2015) NRC Colombia Fact Sheet - July 2015. Norwegian Refugee Council
http://www.nrc.no/arch/_img/9208032.pdf.

Week 6 (23 February)

Childhood in Forced Displacement: Frameworks, Constructions and Agency

(BAXTER)
In situations of forced displacement, the conceptual and empirical space of childhood
becomes jolted into question as young people confront unique challenges in the face of such
disruptions. This lecture explores childhood in forced displacement, with a particular focus
on the experiences of unaccompanied minors or abandoned children, by examining (1) the
policy frameworks through which the experience of forcibly displaced young people are
mitigated and articulated (2) the normative constructions of childhood which inform these
policy frameworks (3) the agency that ought to be credited to young people in their ability to
uniquely, creatively cope with and make sense of these experiences in their own myriad ways
and (4) how an appreciation of this agency and the originality of lived experiences can be
more effectively taken into consideration in policy-making spaces.

Required Reading:
Bruce, B. (2001) Toward Mediating the Impact of Forced Migration and Displacement
Among Children Affected by Armed Conflict, Journal of International Affairs 55(1): 35-57.

Evans, R. and Mayer R. (2012) 'Global Priorities Against Local Contexts: Protecting
Bhutanese Refugee Children in Nepal,' Development in Practice 22(4): 523-35.

Nardone, M. & Correa-Velez, I. (2015) Unpredictability, Invisibility and Vulnerability:

Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Minors Journeys to Australia, Journal of Refugee Studies 28(1):
1-20.
Panter-Brick, C. (2000) Nobodys Children? A Reconsideration of Child Abandonment, in
Panter-Brick, C. & Smith, M. (2000) Abandoned Children. Cambridge University Press: London.
Ch 1: 1-20.

AND Browse through the following:

International Organisation for Migration (2011) International Migration Law note on The
Protection of Unaccompanied Migrant Children, Available at:
https://www.iom.int/files/live/sites/iom/files/What-We-Do/docs/InfoNote-
Unaccompanied-Migrant-Children-Jan2011.pdf

On Child Trafficking:
https://www.unicefusa.org/mission/protect/trafficking
http://www.unicef.org/bangladesh/6505.html
http://www.maitinepal.org/
http://www.nextgenerationnepal.org/

Further Reading:
Allsopp, J., Chase, E. & Mitchell, M. (2015) The Tactics of Time and Status: Young Peoples
Experiences of Building Futures While Subject to Immigration Control in Britain, Journal of
Refugee Studies 28(2): 164-182.

Baker, R. & Panter-Brick, C. (2000) A Comparative Perspective on Childrens Careers and

Abandonment in Nepal, in Panter-Brick, C. & Smith, M. (2000) Abandoned Children.
Cambridge University Press: London. Ch 10: 161-181.

Bash, L. and Zezline-Phillips, E. (2006) 'Identity, Boundary and Schooling: Perspectives on

the Experiences and Perceptions of Refugee Children' Intercultural Education 17(1).

Chatty, D. (2007) Researching refugee youth in the Middle East: Reflections on the
importance of comparative research, Journal of Refugee Studies 20(2): 265-280.

Hedlund, D. & Cederborg, A. (2015) Legislators Perceptions of Unaccompanied Children

Seeking Asylum, International Journal of Migration, Health & Social Care 11(4): 239-252.

Hinton, R. (2000) Seen but not Heard: Refugee Children and Models for Intervention, in
Panter-Brick, C. & Smith, M. (2000) Abandoned Children. Cambridge University Press: London.
Ch 12: 199-215. Available at:
http://repository.forcedmigration.org/show_metadata.jsp?pid=fmo:3036

Jeffrey, A. (2008) Zilhos Journey: Displacement and Return in Bosia-Herzegovina, in Jeffrey

C. & Dyson J (2008) Telling Young Lives: Portraits of Global Youth. Temple University Press:
Philadelphia. p113-122.

Muggah, R. (2005) Distinguishing Means and Ends: The Counterintuitive Effects of

UNHCRs Community Development Approach in Nepal, Journal of Refugee Studies 18(2): 151-
164.

Tisdall, K. & Punch S. (2012) Not so new? Looking critically at childhood studies, Childrens
Geographies 10(3): 249-264.

Touzenis, K. (2006) Unaccompanied Minors: Rights and Protection. Rome: XLedizioni.

Video Materials:
Nepals Stolen Children: http://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2015/05/22/spc-cfp-nepal-
stolen-children.cnn/video/playlists/cnn-freedom-project-human-trafficking/
Week 7 (1 March)

Gendered Impact of Displacement: Challenges and Opportunities (HAMEL)

Drawing on the experiences of refugees in Kenya, this lecture will explore the gendered
impact of displacement. It will discuss certain vulnerabilities faced by men and women - such
as early marriage, gender-based violence, unemployment and challenges to hegemonic
masculinity - before elaborating on the opportunities available to challenge traditional gender
norms, criticising narratives of women-as-victims.

Required Reading:
Jaji, R. (2009). Masculinity on Unstable Ground: Young Refugee Men in Nairobi, Kenya,
Journal of Refugee Studies, 22(2): 177-194.

Aubone, A. and Hernandez, J. (2013). Assessing Refugee Camp Characteristics and the
Occurrence of Sexual Violence: A Preliminary Analysis of the Dadaab Complex, Refugee
Survey Quarterly, 32(4): 2240

Jaji, R. (2015) Normative, agitated, and rebellious femininities among East and Central
African refugee women, Gender, Place & Culture, 22(4): 494-509.

Further Reading:
Declich, F. (2000). Fostering Ethnic Reinvention: Gender Impact of Forced Migration on
Bantu Somali Refugees in Kenya, Cahiers d'tudes Africaines, 40(157): 25-53.

Ferris, E. (2007). Abuse of Power: Sexual Exploitation of Refugee Women and Girls, Signs,
32(3): 584-591.

Gladden, J. (2013). Coping Strategies of Sudanese Refugee Women in Kakuma Refugee

Camp, Kenya, Refugee Survey Quarterly, 32(4): 66-89.

Grabska, K. (2011) Constructing modern gendered civilised women and men: gender-
mainstreaming in refugee camps, Gender & Development, 19(1): 81-93.

Gururaja, S. (2000). Gender Dimensions of Displacement, Forced Migration Review, No. 9: 13-
16.

Horn, R. (2010). Responses to intimate partner violence in Kakuma refugee camp: Refugee
interactions with agency systems, Social Science & Medicine, 70(1): 160168.

Hyder, A.A., Noor, Z. and Tsui, E. (2007). Intimate Partner Violence Among Afghan
Women Living in Refugee Camps in Pakistan, Social Science & Medicine, 64: 15361547.

International Rescue Committee. (2014). Are We Listening? Acting on our Commitments to

Women and Girls Affected by the Syrian Conflict,
https://www.rescue.org/sites/default/files/resource-
file/IRC_WomenInSyria_Report_WEB.pdf

Manchanda, R. (2004). Gender Conflict and Displacement: Contesting 'Infantilisation' of

Forced Migrant Women, Economic and Political Weekly, 39(37): 4179-4186

Save the Children. (2014). Too Young to Wed: The growing problem of child marriage
among Syrian girls in Jordan,
https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/sites/default/files/images/Too_Young_to_Wed.pdf

Thomson, S. (2013). Agency as silence and muted voice: the problem-solving networks of
unaccompanied young Somali refugee women in Eastleigh, Nairobi, Conflict, Security and
Development, 13(5): 589-609.

Sue, B. (2003) 'The woman with the baby: exploring narratives of female refugees' Feminist
review 72: 158-65

Wirtz et al. (2014). Gender-based violence in conflict and displacement: qualitative findings
from displaced women in Colombia, Conflict and Health, 8(10) : 1-14.

Week 8 (8 March)

The Cultural Production of Refugees (DAKESSIAN)

In this lecture we will look more closely at the production and representation of refugees in
the collective social and cultural imaginary. Taking stock of previous lectures in the course, we
will deconstruct present-day media representations of refugees (in films, television, news) and
discuss how these influence and shape public perceptions of displacement and form an image
of what, or who, a refugee is.

Required Reading:
Wright, T. (2002). Moving Images: The Media Representation of Refugees. Visual Studies
17(1): 53 - 66

Riga, L. (2015). The Power of a Single Story. LivedProjects Blog.

Available at: http://www.livedprojects.org/blog/2015/10/12/the-power-of-a-single-story

Better, R. (2007). More Labels, Fewer Refugees: Remaking the Refugee Label in an Era of
Globalisation. Journal of Refugee Studies 20(2): 172 - 192

Further Reading:
Gale, P. (2004). The Refugee Crisis and Fear: Populist Politics and Media Discourse. Journal of
Sociology 40(4): 321 - 340

King, R. and Wood, N. (eds) (2001) Media and Migration: Constructions of Mobility and Difference.
London; New York; Routledge.

Stet, M. D. (2000). Woman as Mother in Headscarf: The Woman War Refugee and the
North American Media. Canadian Woman Studies 19(4): 66 - 7

PART III: CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

Week 9 (15 March)

Protest and Passivity in Response to the Refugee Crisis (GORRINGE)

Barely a week goes by without further news of refugees drowning in the Mediterranean,
seeking to escape the jungle camp in Calais, or attempt to cross the border between Mexico
and the United States. Whilst we all know what is happening, however, most of us choose not
to get involved. Drawing on Cohens work on human rights and Sutton and Norgaards work
on Cultures of Denial, this lecture will probe the sociological processes that explain why most
of us, most of the time, choose not to see what is happening.

Required Reading:
Cohen, S. 1996. Government Responses to Human Rights Reports, Human Rights Quarterly
18(3): pp517-543
Sutton, B & Norgaard, K. M. 2013. Cultures of Denial, Sociological Forum 28(3):
pp495-524

Further Reading;
Davies, T and Isakjee, A. 2015. Geography, migration and abandonment in the Calais
refugee camp, Political Geography 49(November 2015): 9395

Doppler, L. 2015. A feeling of doing the right thing: Forming a successful Alliance
against Dublin-Deportations, Journal fr kritische Migrations- und Grenzregimeforschung 1(2): 1-13:
http://movements-journal.org/issues/02.kaempfe/12.doppler--successful-alliance-against-
dublin-deportations.html

Hafner-Burton, E and Tsutsui, K. 2005. Human Rights in a Globalising World: The

paradox of empty promises, American Journal of Sociology 110(5): pp1373-1411

Norgaard, K. M. 2011. Introduction: The Failure to Act, Denial versus Indifference, Apathy
and Ignorance in Living in Denial. (E-Resource, available as book from New College:
BF353.5.C55 Nor.)

Peters, M and Besley, T. 2015. The Refugee Crisis and The Right to Political Asylum,
Educational Philosophy and Theory 47(13-14): pp1367-1374

Puggioni, R. 2015. Border politics, right to life and acts of dissensus: voices from the
Lampedusa borderland, Third World Quarterly 36(6): 1145-1159,

Rigby, J and Schlembach, R. 2013. Impossible protest: Noborders in Calais, Citizenship

Studies 17(2): 157172

Stierl, M. 2015. The WatchTheMed Alarm Phone: A Disobedient Border-Intervention,

Journal fr kritische Migrations- und Grenzregimeforschung 1(2): 1-15:
http://movements-journal.org/issues/02.kaempfe/13.stierl--watchthemed-alarmphone.pdf

nsal, N. 2015. Challenging Refugees and Supporters Intersectional Power Structures in

the Refugee Movement in Berlin, Journal fr kritische Migrations- und Grenzregimeforschung 1(2): 1-
18: http://movements-journal.org/issues/02.kaempfe/09.nsal--refugees-supporters-oplatz-
intersectionality.html

Van Steckelenburg, J & Klandermans, B. 2013. The Social Psychology of Protest,

Current Sociology 61(5-6): 886-905

Vaughan-Williams, N. 2015. We are not animals! Humanitarian border security and
zoopolitical spaces in Europe, Political Geography 45 (March 2015): 110
Williams, J. 2015. From humanitarian exceptionalism to contingent care: Care and
enforcement at the humanitarian border, Political Geography 47(July 2015): 1120
Week 10 (22 March)

Livelihoods, Belonging and the Search for Durable Solutions (RIGA)

Fundamental to so-called durable solutions are understandings of the entwining of livelihoods
and belonging, most especially for those whose lives are lived in long term or protracted
displacement. In this final session we consider some of the complexities involved in creating
sustainable livelihoods: (a) local integration, (b) repatriation, (c) resettlement, (d) the challenges
of camp and urban life in displacement, (e) the intricacies of rights of return, and (f) the
possibilities of burden-sharing. For each of these policy responses, we pay particular
attention to the implied moral and values frameworks of which they are expressions.

Required Reading:
Calhoun, N. (2010) With a little help from our friends: a participatory assessment of social
capital among refugees in Jordan New Issues in Refugee Research (UNHCR Research Paper
no.189)

Omata, N. (2013) The complexity of refugees return decision-making in a protracted exile:

beyond the home-coming model and durable solutions Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
39(8): 1281-1297

Further Reading:
Jacobsen, K. (2005) The Economic Life of Refugees (Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press)

Barnett, M (2001) UNHCR and the ethics of repatriation Forced Migration Review 10:31-34

Bradley, M. (2013) Refugee Repatriation: Justice, Responsibility and Redress (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press)

Long, K. (2013) The Point of No Return: Refugees, Rights and Repatriation (Oxford: Oxford
University Press)

(2013) Detention, Alternatives to Detention and Forced Deportation Forced Migration Review
Issue 44. Available at: http://www.fmreview.org/en/detention.pdf

Asylum Access Equador (2011) To have work is to have life: refugees experiences with the
right to work in Equador. Available at: http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/5429052b4.pdf

UNHCR (2011) Resettlement Handbook: http://www.unhcr.org/46f7c0ee2.pdf

Daley, P. (2013) Refugees, IDPs and citizenship rights: the perils of humanitarianism in the
African Great Lakes Region Third World Quarterly 34.5: 893-912

Crisp, J. (2004) The Local Integration and local settlement of refugees: a conceptual and historical analysis
(UNHCR, Evaluation and Policy Analysis)

FIC (2012) Refugee livelihoods in urban areas: identifying program opportunities Case
Study: Quito, Equador (Feinstein International Center, Tufts University). Available at:
http://fic.tufts.edu/assets/PRM_report_Ecuador_resized.pdf
Jacobsen, K. (2001) The forgotten solution: local integration for refugees in developing
countries International Journal of Refugee Law 45.45: 1-42

(2010) Adapting to Urban Displacement Forced Migration Review Issue 34. Available at:
http://www.fmreview.org/urban-displacement/FMR34.pdf