In today’s podcast we talk with Hani*, a Syrian citizen and refugee in Norway, about the relationship between mobility, labour, and the sense of being ‘protected’ in one’s country of residence. Drawing on Hani’s own experiences of being a refugee in Jordan and Norway, we also grapple with the question of what makes for a durable solution in the context of forced migration.
Tackling these issues, we circle in on broader debates about the international refugee regime today. The international system of refugee protection was designed to seek “permanent solutions for the problems of refugees” (UNHCR Statue). Conventional accounts foresee three permanent or durable solutions that can bring refugees’ exile to an end; local integration in a first country of asylum, resettlement to a third country and repatriation. Yet lately these solutions have come under criticism by scholars who problematize how conventional accounts define the problem of exile in terms of physical dislocation rather than as a problem of the denial of refugee’s political rights, as well as downplay that mobility might be part of the solution for displaced people. Hani’s reflections go to the core of these debates.
*To protect Hani’s anonymity, we have altered his name and his voice.
Readings:
Aleinikoff, Alexander T. and Zamore, Leah. (2019) “The Arc of Protection. Reforming the Interational Refugee Regime”. Standford University Press.
Long, Katy (2014). “Rethinking ‘Durable Solutions’. The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies. Red: FIddian-Qasmiyeh, Elena et.al.
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