31 October 2014

Regional Focus: United Kingdom

"Asylum and Non-EU Immigration," Section 2.6 in British Balance of Competence Reviews, Part II, EPIN Paper, no. 40 (European Policy Institutes Network, June 2014) [text]

"International Aspects of Asylum Law in the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom," ASIL Insights, vol. 18, no. 24 (Oct. 2014) [text]

An Investigation into the Home Office's Handling of Asylum Claims Made on the Grounds of Sexual Orientation, March-June 2014 (Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, Oct. 2014) [text]
- See also the government's response and a related Free Movement blog post

Opting out of Mediterranean Rescue Condemns Desperate Migrants to Death (Postcards from... Blog, Oct. 2014) [text]

Reforming the UK Border and Immigration System (UK Public Accounts Committee, Oct. 2014) [text]

Refugee Law in the UK: A Practical Guide (Free Movement, Oct. 2014) [info]
- Follow link for table of contents and extract from the book.

The State of Detention: Immigration Detention in the UK in 2014 (Detention Action, Oct. 2014) [text]

Related post:
- Regional Focus: Europe, Indiv. Countries (28 Oct. 2014)

Tagged Publications.

30 October 2014

Events & Opportunities: More November 2014

Blinded by Humanity: Book Launch, London, 4 November 2014 [info]
- Will also be livestreamed.

CFP: Refugee Livelihoods: Innovations in Career-Laddering, Dallas, TX, 4-5 March 2015 [info]
 - Submit proposals by 4 November 2014.

Statelessness: The Impact of International Law and Current Challenges, London, 4 November 2014 [info]
- Hosted by Chatham House.

The (Ab)normality of Migration and the Legal Position of Migrants under International Law, Blog Symposium, Fall/Winter 2014 [info]
- Open to members of the Interest Group on Migration and Refugee Law; indicate your interest by 5 November 2014.

Counter-terrorism Laws: What Aid Agencies Need to Know, London, 6 November 2014 [info]
- Will also be livestreamed.

Between Innocence and Deviance: Figuring the Asylum-seeker Child in Australia, London, 10 November 2014 [info]
- CMRB seminar. Reserve a space by 7 November 2014.

Call for Participation: European Migration Forum, Brussels, 26-27 January 2015 [info]
- Interested civil society organizations should apply by 10 November 2014.

Job: Ethnographic Research Project on Educational Opportunities for Unaccompanied Minors [info]
- Apply by 10 November 2014.

FY 2015 Funding Opportunity Announcement for NGO Programs Benefiting Refugees in Ethiopia and Kenya [info]
- Proposal submission deadline is 12 November 2014.

Related post:
- Events & Opportunities: Even More October 2014/November 2014

Tagged Events & Opportunities. 

Regional Focus: Asia

Asia's First IDP Policy: From Theory to Practice (IRIN, Oct. 2014) [text]

Cash Transfer Programmes in Afghanistan: Taking Stock of Recent and On-Going Research (OCHA & Samuel Hall Consulting, 2014) [text]

Does Shelter Assistance Reduce Poverty in Afghanistan?, Working Paper, no. 97 (IMI, Aug. 2014) [text]

Exploring Durable Solutions for Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees in India (Tata Institute of Social Sciences, ADRA India & Danish Refugee Council, Oct. 2014) [info via Thomson Reuters]

International Norm as Constitutional Law and the Responsibility to Protect North Korean Refugees in China from Repatriation, Paper presented at the "World Congress of Constitutional Law 2014 - Constitutional Challenges: Global and Local," Oslo, 16-20 June 2014 [text]

Regional Organisations and Humanitarian Action: The Case of ASEAN, HPG Working Paper (ODI, Sept. 2014) [text]

The Risk of Disaster-induced Displacement in South-east Asia and China (IDMC, Oct. 2014) [text via ReliefWeb]

Smuggled Rights: Refugee and Human Rights through Constitutional Law in Hong Kong?, Paper presented at the "World Congress of Constitutional Law 2014 - Constitutional Challenges: Global and Local," Oslo, 16-20 June 2014 [text]

A Study on Refugee Status Determination Criteria and Procedures of Korea’s Refugee Act, Paper presented at the "World Congress of Constitutional Law 2014 - Constitutional Challenges: Global and Local," Oslo, 16-20 June 2014 [text]

Related post:
- Regional Focus: Asia (14 Oct. 2014)

Tagged Publications.


Regional Focus: Africa

"The Current Situation Facing Malian Refugees in the Sahel: Some Operational Ideas for a Prolonged Emergency Situation," Humanitarian Aid on the Move, no. 14 (Oct. 2014) [full-text via ReliefWeb]

The Darfur Refugees’ Plight: Repatriation Challenges for Post-Doha Sudan, eCahiers de l’Institut (Graduate Institute, 2014) [text]

Forced Returns to South and Central Somalia, including to al-Shabaab Areas: A Blatant Violation of International Law (Amnesty International, Oct. 2014) [text]
- Briefing on Dutch returns policy.

"Lessons from Introducing a Livelihood Project for Unaccompanied Children into an Existing Child Protection Programme in the Dadaab Refugee Camps in Kenya," Children and Youth Services Review, In Press, 8 Oct. 2014 [free full-text]

Local Integration: Thumbs Up for Tanzania (RI Blog, Oct. 2014) [text]

"Nous Souffrons": Examining the Problems Facing Urban Refugees in Yaoundé, Cameroon, Independent Study Project Collection Paper, no. 1868 (SIT Graduate Institute, Spring 2014) [text]

Sound of Torture (Trabelsi Productions) [info]
- Documentary that focuses on the plight of Eritrean refugees kidnapped in the Sinai.

UNHCR and WFP Joint Assessment Mission Report: Tongogara Refugee Camp, Zimbabwe (UNHCR & WFP, Oct. 2014) [text via ReliefWeb]

Related post:
- Regional Focus: Africa (6 Oct. 2014)

Tagged Publications.

Thematic Focus: Human Trafficking

The Applicability of the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol in Protecting the Victims of Human Trafficking, Paper presented at the "World Congress of Constitutional Law 2014 - Constitutional Challenges: Global and Local," Oslo, 16-20 June 2014 [text]

"Assessing the Board of Immigration Appeals' Social Visibility Doctrine in the Context of Human Trafficking," Chicago-Kent Law Review, vol. 89, no. 3 (2014) [full-text]

Beyond Trafficking and Slavery (openDemocracy, Oct. 2014) [access]
- Special feature with a series of articles; read the introduction for more information.

EU Anti-Trafficking Day, 18 Oct. 2014 [access]
- To mark the day, the European Commission issued several documents, including a statistical report. Follow the link to access the texts.

Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling: A Fireside Chat with Anne Gallagher and Dina Haynes (ASIL, Oct. 2014) [access]
- Follow link for video.  Note: There are technical problems at the beginning of this recording; fast forward to about 8:30 in the video.

"New Directions in Research on Human Trafficking," ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 653 (May 2014) [free full-text]
- Note: This is the introductory article for a special issue on "Human Trafficking: Recent Empirical Research."

Related post:
- Thematic Focus: Human Trafficking (22 Sept. 2014)

Tagged Publications. 

29 October 2014

New Issues of Comp. Migr. Stud., Gender & Peace, Humanit. Aid on the Move, Intl. J. Migr. & Border Stud., Kōtuitui, Researcher, WAN

Note: Given the bumper crop of new journal issues to announce, I am dividing the list into two posts. This one references full-text periodicals. The previous post listed titles with tables of contents only.

Comparative Migration Studies, vol. 2, no. 3 (2014) [open access]
- Special issue on "Transnationalism in a Comparative Perspective." Includes "In Exile and in Touch Transnational Activities of Refugees in a Comparative Perspective."

Gender and Peace, no. 3 (Oct. 2014) [full-text via ReliefWeb]
- Mix of articles, including "Forced Displacement in Syria."

Humanitarian Aid on the Move, no.14 (Oct. 2014) [full-text via ReliefWeb]
- Mix of articles.

International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, vol. 1, no. 1 (2014) [free full-text]
- Inaugural issue of new journal. Mix of articles including "Civilising Kakuma: shared experience, refugee narratives and the constitution of a community."

Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, vol. 9, no. 2 (2014) [open access]
- Special issue on "Refugee resettlement and seeking asylum in Aotearoa New Zealand."

The Researcher, vol. 9, no. 2 (Oct. 2014) [full-text via Refworld]
- Lead article is on subsidiary protection.

Women's Asylum News, no. 125 (Sept./Oct. 2014) [full-text via Refworld]
- Lead article is "Gender in Refugee Law: From the Margins to the Centre."

Tagged Periodicals.

New Issues of Annals Assoc. Amer. Geog., EJML, Env. & Urbaniz., FP Essent., IJMHSC, JIMI, JIRS, J. IANL

Note: Given the bumper crop of new journal issues to announce, I am dividing the list into two posts. This one references titles for which tables of contents are available online. The next post will list full-text periodicals.

Annals of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 104, no. 2 (2014) [contents]
- Special issue on "Migration." Includes "The Tactics of Asylum and Irregular Migrant Support Groups: Disrupting Bodily, Technological, and Neoliberal Strategies of Control."

European Journal of Migration and Law, vol. 16, no. 3 (2014) [contents]
- Mix of articles, including one on rescue at sea and another on environmental migration.

Environment & Urbanization, vol. 26, no. 2 (Oct. 2014) [contents]
- Special issue on "Conflict and Violence in Twenty-first Century Cities." The introduction is freely available Also includes "Everyday urban violence and transnational displacement of Colombian urban migrants to London, UK" and "The “humanitarianization” of urban violence." Note: This is a delayed gratis open access journal; after two years, articles are free to read.

FP Essentials, no. 423 (Aug. 2014) [info]
- This edition focuses on "Immigrant and Refugee Health."

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, vol. 10, no. 3 (2014) [contents]
- Mix of articles, including "Human smuggling and violence in the east Mediterranean" and "Black African asylum seekers’ experiences of health care access in an eastern German state."

Journal of International Migration and Integration, vol. 15, no. 4 (Nov. 2014) [contents]
- Mix of articles.

Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, vol. 12, no. 4 (2014) [contents]
- Special issue on "New Forms of Intolerance in European Political Life."

Journal of Immigration Asylum and Nationality Law, vol. 28, no. 3 (2014) [contents]
- Mix of articles, including "A Legal Analysis of Child-Sensitive Asylum Procedures" and "'He Heard the Screams': Recent Developments in the Law of the Exclusion Clauses."

Tagged Periodicals.

Thematic Focus: Work/Economic Issues

Camp Currency and Local Economies (Global Views Blog, Oct. 2014) [text]

The Development Push of Refugees: Evidence from Tanzania, Economics Working Paper Series, no. 2014/019 (Lancaster University, 2014) [text]

Does Moving Across International Borders Boost Migrants' Incomes? (UpFront Blog, Oct. 2014) [text]

A Double-Edged Sword: Livelihoods In Emergencies - Guidance and Tools for Improving Programming (Women's Refugee Commission, Sept. 2014) [text via ReliefWeb]

Emergency Economies: The Impact of Cash Assistance in Lebanon - An Impact Evaluation of the 2013-2014 Winter Cash Assistance Program for Syrian Refugees in Lebanon (International Rescue Committee, Aug. 2014) [text]
- See also related news story.

"Special Topic: Forced Migration," Migration and Development Brief, no. 23 (Oct. 2014) [text]
- See also related press release.

"Welfare Reforms and the Refugee Resettlement Strategy: An Opportunity to Achieve Meaningful Employment Outcomes for New Zealanders from Refugee Backgrounds'," Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, vol. 9, no. 2 (2014) [open access]

Related post:
- Thematic Focus: Work/Economic Issues (4 Sept. 2014)

Tagged Publications. 

28 October 2014

Opportunity: Call for Comments on UNHCR Protection Guidelines

UNHCR is inviting comments on a forthcoming set of its guidelines that will address "Prima Facie Recognition of Refugee Status." Here is part of the call:

UNHCR issues its Guidelines on International Protection pursuant to its mandate, as contained in the Office's Statute, in conjunction with Article 35 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and Article II of its 1967 Protocol. UNHCR Guidelines provide legal interpretative guidance for governments, legal practitioners, decision makers and the judiciary, as well as UNHCR staff carrying out mandate refugee status determination or advising governments on their own procedures.
     UNHCR is committed to a broad consultation process in the issuance of its Guidelines on International Protection. Comments will be carefully reviewed to inform our own deliberations, alongside other consultation processes and other relevant instructive sources.
     All stakeholders, including States, other UN and regional human rights mechanisms, UN organisations or specialised agencies, National Human Rights Institutions, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), research institutions, and academics are invited to provide their comments in writing to HQPPLAGL@unhcr.org indicating in the subject the title of the Guidelines on International Protection which are open for consultation at that particular time.

More details are provided in this PDF.

The deadline for submissions is 11 November 2014.

Tagged Events & Opportunities. 

Thematic Focus: Law/Policy Items

Publications:

"Access to Protection: Negotiating Rights and Diplomatic Assurances under Memoranda of Understanding," Chapter in Exploring the Boundaries of Refugee Law: Current Protection Challenges (Brill, Forthcoming 2015) [eprint via SSRN]

Einar Haugen Lecture 2014: When Your Language is Your Only Passport: Language as an Indicator of Origin for Asylum Seekers, Oslo, 26 Sept. 2014 [info]
- See also a summary of the lecture.

Expulsion in Public International Law (UN Audiovisual Library of International Law, Oct. 2014) [access]
- Follow link for video of lecture.

Google Translate is an Amazing Thing; or, How to Teach a Dutch Refugee Law Judgment without Knowing Dutch (IntLawGrrls, Oct. 2014) [text]

How NOT to Use the Ethnologue (Ethnoblog, Oct. 2014) [text]
- Note: Ethnologue is a database that provides information about the "world’s known living languages."

"The Importance of Looking Credible: The Impact of the Behavioural Sequelae of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder on the Credibility of Asylum-seekers," Psychology, Crime & Law, Latest Articles, 17 Sept. 2014 [preprint]
- See also related blog post.

The Obscure Swedish Diplomat Who Gave Us “Particular Social Group” (The Asylumist, Oct. 2014) [text]

Second Annual Roundtable on Strategic Litigation and International Refugee Protection: Trends and Best Practices, Geneva, 20 June 2014 [text via Refworld]

Web site:

International Law Information Services [access]
- Use this site to find information about events, careers and, eventually, books.

Related posts:
- News: New Refugee Law Blog (10 Oct. 2014)
- Thematic Focus: Law/Policy Items (7 Oct. 2014)

Tagged Publications and Web Sites/Tools.

Regional Focus: Europe, Indiv. Countries

Opportunity:

Parliamentary Inquiry Call for Evidence on 'Claiming Asylum in the UK if You are Persecuted for Your Faith or Belief' [info]
- Submission deadline is 31 October 2014.

Publications:

Forced Returns to South and Central Somalia, including to al-Shabaab Areas: A Blatant Violation of International Law (Amnesty International, Oct. 2014) [text]
- Briefing on Dutch returns policy.

Les Migrants et le Calaisis: Quelle Sortie de Crise? (France Terre d'Asile, Oct. 2014) [text via ECRE Weekly Bulletin]

The Nature of a Society is Exposed at its Margins: Human Rights and Refused Asylum Seekers in the Netherlands (Dreaming in Exile Blog, Sept. 2014) [text]

Time to Act: Internal Displacement on the Rise in Ukraine (IDMC, Oct. 2014) [text]

UNHCR Concerned over Spain's Bid to Legalize Push-backs from Enclaves (UNHCR, Oct. 2014) [text]

Related post:
- Regional Focus: Europe (28 Oct. 2014)

Tagged Publications and Events & Opportunities.


Regional Focus: Europe, General

The Challenge and Tragedy of Irregular Migration to Europe, CSS Analyses in Security Policy, no. 162 (Center for Security Studies, Oct. 2014) [text]

Fundamental Rights: Key Legal and Policy Developments in 2013 (EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, July 2014) [text via Refworld]

Humanitarian Visas: Option or Obligation?, Liberty & Security in Europe Paper, no. 68 (CEPS, Oct. 2014)

Quarterly Asylum Report: Quarter 2, 2014 (EASO, Oct. 2014) [text via ReliefWeb]

When the Best Option is a Leaky Boat: Why Migrants Risk Their Lives Crossing the Mediterranean and What Europe is Doing about it, Policy Brief, no. 2014/05 (Migration Policy Centre, 2014) [text]

Related posts:
Thematic Focus: Protection at Sea (22 Oct. 2014)
Regional Focus: Europe (20 Oct. 2014)

Tagged Publications.

Regional Focus: Syria

[Note: I am re-circulating this post because I included several more items subsequent to the initial posting. These are identified with an asterisk (*)]

Assessing the Syrian Refugee Crisis, New York, 8 Oct. 2014 [info]
- Follow link for video; see also related transcript.

*International Protection Considerations with Regard to People Fleeing the Syrian Arab Republic, Update III (UNHCR, Oct. 2014) [text]

Kurdish Region of Northern Iraq: Humanitarian Information Needs of Syrian Refugees (International Media Support, Aug. 2014) [text via ReliefWeb]  

"The Loss of a Nation: Thousands of Syrians Could Become Stateless," The Economist, 23 Oct. 2014 [text]

*Protecting Syrian Refugees: Laws, Policies, and Global Responsibility Sharing (Badil, Oct. 2014 [summary]
- Follow link to access the original report issued by Boston University.

*Refugee Status Removed after a Routine Interview? UNHCR, Please Explain (RSDWatch, Oct. 2014) [text]

"Security and Resilience among Syrian Refugees in Jordan," Middle East Report Online, 14 Oct. 2014 [text]

"Shadow Aid to Syrian Refugees," Middle East Report, vol. 44, no. 272 (Fall 2014) [full-text]

"Stuck between a Rock and a Hard Place: Does Lebanon have a Responsibility to Respect Syrian Refugees?," University of Baltimore Journal of International Law, vol. II (2014) [full-text]

Syria: Forsaken IDPs Adrift Inside a Fragmenting State (IDMC, Oct. 2014) [text]

Syrian Refugees in Egypt: Challenges of a Politically Changing Environment, Working Paper, no. 7 (Center for Migration and Refugee Studies, Sept. 2014) [text]

Related post:
- Regional Focus: Syria, esp. Education (6 Oct. 2014)

*UPDATED

Tagged Publications. 

27 October 2014

Opportunity: Humanitarian Evidence Program Survey

[I meant to include a reference to this survey in my recent "humanitarian assistance" post!  Since the deadline is fast approaching (end-October), I wanted to readers know about it now, rather than wait until the next related post.]

"The Humanitarian Evidence Programme has launched a new survey to identify areas and research questions in the humanitarian sector that are in need of an evidence review and synthesis. The intended participants in this survey are researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners in the humanitarian sector from a variety of institutional perspectives. Results are anonymous, unless participants choose to provide their contact information, and the survey will take no longer than 10 minutes to complete. The program team encourages colleagues in the humanitarian sector to take the survey and share it within their networks."

Access the survey, "Identifying Areas for Evidence Reviews in the Humanitarian Sector."

More information is available via the program partners, Feinstein International Center and Oxfam.

Tagged Events & Opportunities. 

Open Access Week: Wrap-up

Open Access Week may be over but raising awareness about open access in the forced migration research context will continue in two ways:

First, if you follow this blog, you know already that I link to a wide variety of information that is freely available online, including research that is reported in ETDs and scholarly journals.  But I plan on taking steps to more actively seek out open access articles in both journals and repositories, since this type of information is not systematically collected by other forced migration resources.

Second, in the interest of providing one central focal point for sharing information about open access, I am launching a new web site: Forced Migration & Open Access.  Right now, it provides an introduction to open access and guidance on how authors can make their work open access.  But it will continue to evolve, with additional posts on various OA issues and comparative information on journals, both OA and subscription-based.

And in the future, this site will also serve as the locus for a case study of the self-archiving rates of authors who publish in the three principal forced migration-related journals, IJRL, JRS & RSQ.  An earlier version focused just on JRS.  So please be sure to check back!

Tagged Web Sites/Tools.


Regional Focus: MENA

35 Years of Forced Displacement in Iraq: Contexualising the ISIS Threat, Unpacking the Movements, Policy Brief, no. 2014/04 (Migration Policy Centre, 2014) [text]

"Bread is Life: The Intersection of Welfare Politics and Emergency Aid in Jordan," Middle East Report, vol. 44, no. 272 (Fall 2014) [full-text]

Center for Refugee Solidarity Advocates for Solidarity with MENA Refugees (Migrant Rights, Oct. 2014) [text]

From Crisis to Catastrophe: The Situation of Minorities in Iraq (Minority Rights Group, Oct. 2014) [text via ReliefWeb]

Humanitarian Funding Analysis: Gaza (Development Initiatives, Oct. 2014) [text]
- See also related blog post.

Iraqi Kurdistan’s Refugee Surge (Council on Foreign Relations, Oct. 2014) [text]

Left Behind: A Needs Assessment of Iraqi Refugees Present in Lebanon (Caritas, Oct. 2014) [text via ReliefWeb]

Off the Radar: Human Rights in the Tindouf Refugee Camps (Human Rights Watch, Oct. 2014) [text]

*Palestine: A Policy of Displacement and Dispossession Amid Renewed Conflict (IDMC, Oct. 2014) [text]

Protection of Refugee Children in the Middle East and North Africa (UNHCR, Oct. 2014) [text via ReliefWeb]

*UNHCR Position on Returns to Iraq (UNHCR, Oct. 2014) [text]

Related post:
- Regional Focus: MENA (16 Oct. 2014)

*UPDATED

Tagged Publications. 

25 October 2014

Open Access Week: Profile of OA Author

In this week's OA-related posts, I outlined various options for making works open access.  Today, I wanted to share the views of a forced migration researcher who is committed to making her journal articles more widely available.  Maja Janmyr is based at the University of Bergen, where she focuses on the legal aspects of forced migration.  She has kindly given me permission to reproduce her responses to my questions (links were added in):

How did you first learn about Open Access, and what has motivated you to make your journal articles Open Access?
- I can't really remember exactly when I first heard about this option, but I have long been engaged in the question of public access to research pursued with public funding. To me it seems only reasonable that the public has access to the research that their tax money has contributed to finance, and also that institutions in the Global South, perhaps with more limited means, are given an opportunity to engage with this research. This last point is particularly important in cases such as mine, where the focus of my published research has, amongst other topics, been Uganda and where I have collaborated both with academic institutions such as Makerere University and with research NGOs such as the Refugee Law Project. With OA, price and permission barriers are overcome.

Which of the following mechanisms is your preferred method for delivering Open Access to your work, and why? a) self-archiving/depositing eprints in your institution's repository or in another repository (like SSRN); b) publishing in Open Access journals; or c) hybrid OA (i.e., publishing in traditional journals but paying a fee to make an article OA). If you have used more than one mechanism, what are the relative pros & cons of each? 
- I have made use of the opportunity to deliver Open Access to my work through repositories such as Academia.edu and ResearchGate, and I have also published in traditional journals where I have paid a fee to make my articles OA. I have not yet published in a fully OA journal, but am strongly considering it for the article I am currently writing. Of all of these options, I believe that my personal webpage where much of my work is easily downloadable, is the option that has generated the largest outreach - these articles are easily found through search engines. [Note: Maja set up her personal webpage through Academia.edu.]

Does your institution have an Open Access mandate/policy in effect? 
- You can view the policy here.

Have you received funding from any groups that mandate Open Access? 
- I have twice received funding to publish my work Open Access, both times through the University of Bergen.

Finally, what advice would you give to other forced migration authors who are not yet familiar with Open Access?
- There are many good reasons as to why one should publish OA. I believe it is particularly important for scholars in forced migration studies, who often wish to target reader groups in a wide range of fields and across geographic borders, to make use of this option. The first and easiest step towards making your work OA is indeed to create a personal webpage, which also allows you to connect directly with more researchers working in your field. The publications which you deposit here will be available through ordinary search engines. The next step is of course to inquire about your institution's OA policy, and many universities have professional librarians who can assist in finding the OA option that best suits your needs.

Here are the links to Maja's two articles that were published OA with a fee:
- "Norway’s Readmission Agreements: Spellbound by European Union Policies or Free Spirits on the International Field?," European Journal of Migration and Law, vol. 16, no. 2 (2014)
- "Recruiting Internally Displaced Persons into Civil Militias: The Case of Northern Uganda," Nordic Journal of Human Rights, vol. 32, no. 3 (2014)

Many thanks, Maja!

Tagged Publications and Web Sites/Tools.


24 October 2014

Open Access Week: Creative Commons Licenses

Creative Commons Licenses can help authors/content creators more explicitly indicate how their work can be used and shared. Specifically, "[w]ith a Creative Commons license, you keep your copyright but allow people to copy and distribute your work provided they give you credit — and only on the conditions you specify... ."

Simply follow the instructions provided on the "Choose a License" page. You will then be provided some HTML code to insert on your web site or you can include a link from your document, photo, video or other creative work to the relevant license.

Here is a breakdown of the six CC licenses available:

  • = Attribution 
  • = Attribution and No Derivatives 
  • = Attribution and Share Alike
  • = Attribution and Non Commercial
  • = Attribution and Non Commercial and No Derivatives 
  • = Attribution and Non Commercial and Share Alike

So what do these mean?  The CC site provides a wealth of information about not only the licenses but also things to consider before selecting a license.  For just a basic introduction, read Wikipedia's entry. And for a helpful interpretation of these icons, in "plain English," read this blog post.

CC licenses are popping up all over the place, and discussions about open access invariably reference them. For example, funders of open access research are increasingly requiring that specific types of licenses be used. A case in point is the Research Councils UK, whose policy expresses a preference for publication in an OA journal operating under the most liberal license, or CC BY.

Tagged Web Sites/Tools.

Thematic Focus: Humanitarian Assistance

Publications:

Airstrikes on ISIS Bring New Dimension to Aid Worker Safety: Q&A with David Miliband (Global Observatory, Sept. 2014) [text]

Conflict and Disaster Reporting: Does the Public Still Care?, London, 23 Oct. 2014 [access]
- Follow link for video.

Dossier: Qu'apporte la recherche à l'action humanitaire? (Grotius International, Oct. 2014) [access]
- Follow link for access to five articles in French; see also this English version of one of the articles.

Humanitarian Diplomacy and Principled Humanitarian Action, Geneva, 2 Oct. 2014 [access]
- Follow link for video.  This speech by ICRC's President served to launch ICRC’s Second Research and Debate Cycle on Principles Guiding Humanitarian Action.

Imagining More Effective Humanitarian Aid: A Donor Perspective (OECD, Oct. 2014) [text]

In Control: A Practical Guide for Civilian Experts Working in Crisis Management Missions, 2nd ed. (Center for International Peace Operations, Oct. 2014) [text via ReliefWeb]

Principles, Ethics, and Dilemmas: Becoming Doctors Without Borders, Online Event, 23 Oct. 2014 [access]
- Follow link for video.

World Disasters Report 2014: Focus on Culture and Risk (IFRC, Oct. 2014) [text]

Web sites:

History & Humanitarianism [access]
- "A blog about the history of humanitarianism, and about history, and about humanitarianism."

Intercross [access]
- News and commentary from ICRC Washington, DC.

Related post:
- Thematic Focus: Humanitarian Assistance (25 Sept. 2014)

Tagged Publications and Web Sites/Tools.

23 October 2014

Thematic Focus: Statelessness

Did you notice...

The UNHCR logo in several factsheets from UNHCR West Africa reads "UNHCR: The UN Refugee and Statelessness Agency" (see this one as an example).  I don't recall seeing "statelessness" included before. Is an official change in the works?  Perhaps related to UNHCR's campaign to eradicate statelessness (which is due to be launched on 4 November 2014)?

Events: 

A Boat without Anchors: Statelessness among Minority Populations in Cambodia, Canberra, 29 October 2014 [info]
- Free event, but registration required. The findings of the research referenced in this presentation were discussed in this report.

Statelessness: The Impact of International Law and Current Challenges, London, 4 November 2014 [info]
- Hosted by Chatham House.
 
Publications:

Citizenship Revocation and the Privilege to Have Rights (SSRN, Oct. 2014) [text]

Equal Only in Name: The Human Rights of Stateless Rohingya in Malaysia (Equal Rights Trust, Oct. 2014) [text via Refworld]

From Statelessness Programme to Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (Statelessness Programme Blog, Oct. 2014) [text]

National Conference on Statelessness, Dublin, 21 Oct. 2014 [info]
- Follow link for agenda and presentations; see also UNHCR Scoping Paper on Statelessness in Ireland.

Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness and Protection of Stateless Persons in the Americas, AG/RES. 2826 (XLIV-O/14) (Organization of American States, June 2014) [text via Refworld]

"Romani Migration Resulting in Statelessness: The Case of Bosnia and Herzegovina," Roma Rights, no. 1 (2014) [full-text]

Stateless: The World's Most Invisible People? (Thomson Reuters Foundation, Oct. 2014) [access]
- This "Spotlight" feature has recently been updated.

Statelessness Averted? Former Burundian Refugees to Receive Tanzanian Citizenship (IntLawGrrls, Oct. 2014) [text]

Towards a Sociology of Statelessness (Postcards from..., Oct. 2014) [text]

Related post: 
- Thematic Focus: Statelessness (9 Oct. 2014)

Tagged Publications and Events & Opportunities. 

Open Access Week: "Hybrid" Open Access

Hybrid open access is similar to gold OA, but also completely different! Under the hybrid OA model, traditional publishers, upon payment of an Article Processing Charge (APC), will grant immediate open access to individual articles that appear in otherwise subscription-based journals.  Most of the big journal publishers have now adopted a version of this model, e.g., OxfordOpen, WileyOnlineOpen, etc. (See this table for a complete list of publishers offering paid OA options.)

Here are some recent examples of forced migration-related articles published under the hybrid OA model:

- "Associations between Life Conditions and Multi-morbidity in Marginalized Populations: The Case of Palestinian Refugees," European Journal of Public Health, vol. 24, no. 5 (Oct. 2014) [published by Oxford Journals]
- "Colonialism, Decolonisation, and the Right to be Human: Britain and the 1951 Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees," Journal of Historical Sociology, vol. 27, no. 3 (Sept. 2014) [published by Wiley]
- "Contextualising Typologies of Environmentally Induced Population Movement," Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, vol. 23, no. 5 (2014) [published by Emerald]
- "Interpretation, Translation and Intercultural Communication in Refugee Status Determination Procedures in the UK and France," Language and Intercultural Communication, vol. 14, no. 3 (2014) [published by Taylor & Francis]

This arrangement offers authors the twofold benefit of continuing to publish in their journal of choice and having open access provided to their research articles immediately, rather than waiting for an embargo period to pass. Typically, however, the APCs for hybrid OA journals are significantly higher than those levied by pure OA journals - almost double. (The UK's Wellcome Trust recently released data on the amount they have paid for article APCs which supports this finding.)

Even when funders and employers are willing to finance hybrid OA APCs, studies have found that the number of authors choosing this option is still relatively low.  So far, this appears to be true for forced migration-specific journals that offer a hybrid option. For example, here are the tallies for articles published under this model in the three Oxford titles, as of 2005:
Journal of Refugee Studies = two articles (in 2006 & 2008, respectively)
Refugee Survey Quarterly = one article (in 2014)
- International Journal of Refugee Law = zero articles

These figures may change as publishers experiment with adjusting their pricing terms and as more funders/employers adopt open access mandates and offer grants to cover publication fees.

Tagged Publications and Events & Opportunities. 

22 October 2014

Open Access Week: Option 2 for Making Your Work Open Access

A second option for making your work open access is to publish an article in a relevant OA journal ("gold OA"). The forced migration field has experienced a bit of a surge in scholarly OA journal publishing, so prospective authors have more choices now than even just a year or so ago.  I plan to make a partial list available to you by the end of the week. For now, try the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

But before you dive into a search for a suitable title, keep in mind the following:

1) Business Models: OA journals employ a variety of business models to cover their production costs, one of which involves charging a fee for an accepted article to be published (also referred to as an "Article Processing Charge," or APC).  Because the bill for the fee usually goes to the submitting author, this model has also become known as "author pays."  In reality, it is the author's funder or employer who ends up footing the bill! That said, of the journals listed in the a/m DOAJ, only about a third charge publication fees.

2) Quality: OA journals vary in quality, just like traditionally-published journals. But the relative ease of launching online journals and the lure of APCs have attracted some less-than-reputable publishers to the open access scene. So here are a few resources to help assess a journal's credentials:
- DOAJ (this article describes the process the directory went through recently to weed out so-called "predatory journals")
- Beall's List of Publishers/Journals (compiled based on this set of criteria)
- JournalGuide (this resource provides a "verified" status for reputable journals; more info is provided in this blog post)

3) Peer Review: Some funders will only provide support for research published in peer-reviewed OA journals. However, not all OA journals represented in the DOAJ or on my list are peer-reviewed. While good editors can still ensure adherence to high quality standards, the absence of peer review may prove to be a sticking point in some situations.

4) OA Spectrum: Some OA journals are more open than others.  As noted in the first post, the definition of open access refers to price and permission barriers.  Some journals remove price barriers (i.e., articles are free to read) but may retain permission barriers (e.g., articles are still copyrighted). Other journals remove price barriers and at least some permission barriers.  Two terms coined by Peter Suber to capture these distinctions are "gratis OA" for the former and "libre OA" for the latter.  (For an even more finely tuned measure of openness, refer to this chart.) Using Creative Commons licenses can help clarify how open a given work is.  (More on these in a subsequent post.)

Resources:
- Browse for both OA journals and articles in those journals in the Directory of Open Access Journals; you can also filter search results by various fields including publication charges and licenses.
- Law reviews are very often gratis OA, but they are not well represented in the DOAJ. Another source is the Electronic Journals Library (select "Law" and tick "freely accessible" on the right). You can also browse my blog posts labeled "law reviews" for relevant full-text articles.
- If you receive an email inviting you to publish in an OA journal you are not familiar with, check Beall's List, DOAJ and/or JournalGuide to confirm its bona fides.

Tagged Events & Opportunities, Publications and Web Sites/Tools.

Thematic Focus: Protection at Sea

Events:

Refugee Council of Australia's Annual General Meeting and Public Forum on Protection at Sea, Melbourne, 24 November 2014 [info]
- More details to follow.

"Protection at Sea," Theme of the High Commissioner's Dialogue on Protection Challenges, Geneva, 10-11 December 2014 [info]
- A tentative schedule is now available.  Follow the a/m link for background information, key documents and regional reports.

Publications:

2014 Becomes the Deadliest Year at Sea off Yemen (UNHCR, Oct. 2014) [text]

Fatal Journeys: Tracking Lives Lost during Migration (IOM, Sept. 2014) [text]
- See also IOM's Missing Migrants Project web site.

"In Rickety Boats, Cuban Migrants Again Flee to U.S.," New York Times, 9 Oct. 2014 [text]

Interception of Asylum Seekers on the High Seas: A Bibliography (My Name is Asher Hirsch Blog, Oct. 2014) [text]

"Mare Nostrum to End - New Frontex Operation will not Ensure Rescue of Migrants in International Waters," ECRE Weekly Bulletin, 10 Oct. 2014 [text]

Related posts:
- Regional Focus: Europe (7 Oct. 2014)
- Thematic Focus: Protection at Sea, esp. in the Mediterranean (16 April 2014)

Tagged Events & Opportunities, Publications and Web Sites/Tools.

Thematic Focus: Refugee Protest & Resistance

Forthcoming book:

Immigrant Protest: Politics, Aesthetics, and Everyday Dissent (SUNY Press, Nov. 2014) [info]
- Follow link for access to the first chapter, "Immigrant Protest: Noborder Scholarship."

Publications:

"Com/passionate Protests: Fighting the Deportation of Asylum Seekers," Mobilization: An International Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 2 (June 2014) [full-text via Academia.edu]

Desecuritizing Migration: The Case of the Berlin Refugee Strike, International Development Studies Project Paper (Roskilde University, May 2014) [text]

Politicization from Below? The Deportation Issue in Public Discourse in Austria, Switzerland, and Germany (SSRN, Aug. 2014) [text]

"'A refugee is someone who refused to be oppressed': Self-survival Strategies of Congolese Young People in Uganda," Stability: International Journal of Security & Development, vol. 3, no. 1 (March 2014) [open access]

"Riotous Refugees or Systemic Injustice? A Sociological Examination of Riots in Australian Immigration Detention Centres," Journal of Refugee Studies, vol. 27, no. 3 (Sept. 2014) [full-text via Oppenheimer Chair]

Undocumented Migrants in Resistance against Detention: Comparative Observations on Germany and France, Working Paper, no. 8 (Refugee Law Initiative, Aug. 2013) [text]

"Young Karenni Refugees: Resistance and Political Agency," PRISM: USP Undergraduate Journal, vol. 5, no. 1 (Sept. 2013) [full-text]

Tagged Publications. 

21 October 2014

Thematic Focus: Climate Change & Displacement

Event:

Protecting People on the Move in the Context of Disasters and Climate Change, Sydney, 4 November 2014 [info]
- Free event, but RSVP requested.

Publications:

Climate Change and Internal Displacement (Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement, Oct. 2014) [text]

"Climate Change and Migration: From Geopolitics to Biopolitics," Special issue of Critical Studies on Security, vol. 2, no. 2 (2014) [access]
- The first two articles are freely available.

The Climate Change Summit: Why Humanitarians Should Pay Attention (Planet Policy Blog, Sept. 2014) [text]

"Constructing 'Climate Migration' as a Global Governance Issue: Essential Flaws in the Contemporary Literature," McGill International Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy, vol. 9, no. 1 (2013) [full-text]

"Contextualising Typologies of Environmentally Induced Population Movement," Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, vol. 23, no. 5 (2014) [open access]

Human Mobility in the Context of Disasters and Climate Change in Southeast Asia, Southeast Asia Regional Consultation, Manila, 15-17 Oct. 2014 [background paper]

*Perspective (Nansen Initiative, Sept. 2014) [text]
- See also related information leaflet.

Prevent, Prepare, and Respond: Displacement in the Context of Disasters and the Effects of Climate Change, Side event at the Third UN Conference on Small Island Developing States, Apia, Samoa, 1-4 Sept. 2014 [concept note]

"The Rising Tide of Environmental Migrants: Our National Responsibilities," Colorado Natural Resources, Energy, & Environmental Law Review, vol. 25, no. 2 (Summer 2014) [full-text]

Summary Report of the Regional Training Workshop: Enhancing Capacities of Policymakers and Practitioners on Migration, Environment and Climate Change in Sub-Saharan Africa (IOM, 2014) [text]

Trend and Impact Analysis of Internal Displacement due to the Impacts of Disaster and Climate Change (Government of Bangladesh, June 2014) [text via ReliefWeb]

Related post:
- Thematic Focus: Climate Change & Disasters (8 Sept. 2014)

*UPDATED

Tagged Publications and Events & Opportunities. 

Thematic Focus: General

*The Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of Migrants in an Irregular Situation (OHCHR, Oct. 2014) [text via Refworld]

The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and the Prohibition of Arbitrary Denial of Humanitarian Access: A Story of Success (UpFront Blog, Sept. 2014) [text]

Mapping the Response to Internal Displacement: The Evolution of Normative Developments (Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement, Oct. 2014) [text]

"Mixed Migration: Assessing the Issues and Implementing an Effective Humanitarian Response," Migration Policy Practice, vol. IV, no. 3 (July-Sept. 2014) [full-text via ReliefWeb]
- Scroll to p. 23.

Protecting Refugees & the Role of UNHCR (UNHCR, 2014) [text]

Pushing Out the Boundaries of Humanitarian Screening with In-Country and Offshore Processing (Migration Information Source, Oct. 2014) [text]

*Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights at International Borders, UN Doc. No. A/69/CRP.1 (UN General Assembly, July 2014) [text]
- Released by OHCHR on 22 Oct. 2014. See also related written submissions.

UNHCR Projected Global Resettlement Needs 2015 (UNHCR, 2014) [text]
- Prepared for the 20th Annual Tripartite Consultations on Resettlement, Geneva, 24-26 June 2014.

Related post:
- Thematic Focus: General (25 Sept. 2014)

*UPDATED

Tagged Publications.

Open Access Week: Option 1 for Making Your Work Open Access

As I mentioned yesterday, one way to make your work open access is by depositing it in an open access repository or archive ("green OA").  There are two types of repositories:

1) Institutional repositories (IR) aim to capture the research output associated with particular institutions, usually universities.
Example: RSCAS' Migration Policy Centre houses its publications within the European University Institute's research repository.

If you are not affiliated with an academic institution or if your institution does not yet have an IR, you can take advantage of worldwide repositories like OpenDepot or Zenodo.

2) Subject-based repositories (SR) seek to collect digital works within particular disciplines.
Example: The Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is frequently used by forced migration authors who focus on legal issues.

Repositories host all types of research output - conference papers, theses and dissertations, course materials, blog posts, multimedia, data files, and eprints of journal articles - both unpublished or published, unrefereed or peer-reviewed.  The practice of depositing digital materials into a repository is referred to as "self-archiving."

One of the best-kept secrets of scholarly publishing is that most journal publishers already allow some form of self-archiving of article eprints (pre- and postprints)!  What about copyright? Since a preprint is the pre-published, pre-referreed draft of a journal article, the author holds copyright over this version and does not need to seek permission to archive it. A postprint is the version of an article after it has been accepted by a journal and undergone peer review (also referred to as the "Author's Accepted Manuscript"). Over 60% of journal publishers have given the go-ahead to authors to archive postprints; if one hasn't already, it very likely will when asked. (Authors can also propose modifying the publisher's copyright transfer agreement using an addendum.) Therefore, as this handout points out, "Don’t assume that publishing in a conventional or non-OA journal forecloses the possibility of providing OA to your own work--on the contrary."

At the same time, a number of conventional journal publishers do impose embargoes, or delays, before postprints can formally be made available to the public (not preprints, since authors maintain copyright over these).  Embargo periods may range from 6 to 24 months after an article is officially published.  In these situations, authors can still proceed with depositing their postprints and providing the requisite metadata to the repository. Even if full-text access is closed for a certain period, this does not restrict individuals from submitting requests to the repository for copies to be used for research purposes.  Once the embargo period has passed, access can be reset to open.

Some authors elect to bypass repositories and post eprints on their personal web sites.  This certainly works in the short-term.  However, the advantage of a repository is it can ensure persistent access to and long-term preservation of an author's research.

Self-archiving examples:
- A postprint of an article in the Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, deposited in a Norwegian institutional repository; this journal permits immediate self-archiving of postprints in institutional repositories, but imposes an embargo period of 12 months on self-archiving in other types of repositories.
- A postprint of an article in the Journal of Social Security Law, deposited in an Irish institutional repository; as indicated by the dates, access to this item was initially embargoed for 12 months, but the full-text is now available.
- A postprint of an article in the Journal of Vocational Education & Training, deposited in a UK institutional repository; as this journal imposes an 18-month embargo for social sciences & humanities journals, open access is restricted until December 2015; however, a copy can be requested by clicking on the relevant button.
- A preprint of an article in the International Journal of Refugee Law, deposited in the Social Science Research Network; IJRL only allows postprints to be archived after a 24-month embargo.
- A preprint of an article in European Union Politics posted on the author's personal web site.

Resources:
- Use openDOAR to locate an open access repository.
- Check this list from the Open Access Directory for subject repositories.
- Read up on the benefits of repositories.
- Search in the SHERPA/RoMEO database for publishers' copyright and self-archiving policies.
- Refer to this FAQ for a detailed introduction to self-archiving.
- Learn more about author addenda from the Science Commons.

Tagged Events & Opportunities, Publications and Web Sites/Tools.