Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Examines ideas and practices that affect experiences of forced migration and responses to these situations. What does it mean to live as a refugee? And what needs to change to alleviate the hardships and suffering of so many displaced people? Students who have taken IS 329 with this topic may not take this course for further credit.

COURSE DETAILS:

An unprecedented number of people have been forcibly displaced from their homes around the world. It is estimated that there are more than 25 million people legally classified as refugees, having crossed state borders to seek safety, as well as more than 40 million people who are ‘internally displaced’ (displaced within their home countries). This includes people who have recently fled their homes, as well as millions more who have been displaced for decades because the insecurity that caused them to flee their homes continues. Most refugees are being hosted in countries that are themselves struggling economically and politically, such as Pakistan, Lebanon, and Sudan. In the face of these challenges the international community has had to reckon with how to respond to humanitarian emergencies, such as the many people fleeing Syria, and consider how to shift from emergency relief responses to a more enduring agenda for long-term refugees, such as those who are still displaced from Somalia. Meanwhile, refugees and internally displaced people, after fleeing for their lives to seek safety in other countries and regions, must adjust to their new lives, either in camps run by the UNHCR, or, for the majority, in cities, where they are often banned from legal employment and face challenges in accessing public services. What does it mean to live as a refugee? And what needs to change to alleviate the hardships and suffering of so many displaced people?

In this course we will examine the ideas and practices that affect the experiences of refugees and responses to their situations. This will include examination of the institutional structures, laws, and politics that affect refugee determinations and degrees of protection and control. It will also include study of policy ideas and on-the-ground practices for attempting protection, care, and control of new refugee populations as well as efforts to extend assistance for longer-term management and even development goals. In all of this, we will critically appraise the ways in which the humanitarian purposes of the refugee protection regime can be undermined, often systematically, by the ways in which powerful actors think of, and respond to, refugees.

A primary interest of this course will be to learn more about how different people have experienced their forced displacement and perceived their circumstances. Through the course, we will consider people’s situations in parts of Asia, South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: