Refugees, Migration, and Governance in the Middle East and North Africa
to: 16:15
‘Reluctant Reception: Refugees, Migration, and Governance in the Middle East and North Africa’, presentation by Kelsey P. Norman
Seeking to understand why host states treat migrants and refugees inclusively, exclusively, or without any direct engagement, this book offers an original, comparative analysis of the politics of asylum seeking and migration in the Middle East and North Africa. While current classifications of migrant and refugee engagement in the Global South mistake the absence of formal policy and law for neglect, Reluctant Reception proposes the concept of ‘strategic indifference’, where states proclaim to be indifferent toward migrants and refugees, thereby inviting international organizations and local NGOs to step in and provide services on the state’s behalf.
‘Refugee Rentierism across MENA and the Global South’, presentation by Gerasimos Tsourapas
International responses to the challenges posed by forced migration have historically centred on strategies of restricting mass refugee inflows into Western states’ territory. In the context of the Syrian refugee crisis, this led to sustained efforts towards deterring inflows of forced migrants by providing economic support to refugee host states of first asylum across the Global South. Building on research on the Syrian refugee crisis across Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, Gerasimos Tsourapas highlights the emergence of a novel type of state, which is able to secure material and non-material gains from the presence of displaced communities within its borders, or refugee rent. Tsourapas discusses how global refugee governance encourages the development of refugee rent-seeking behaviour not merely across the Middle East but the wider Global South, thereby contributing to the commodification of forced migration.
Chair: Andrew Geddes | MPC Director, RSCAS, EUI
