Introductory description

This module will take an interdisciplinary approach to exploring aspects of the refugee phenomenon. Students will be introduced to the key global and regional legal frameworks that govern access to protection. From that starting point, we will then critically examine questions of defining who is or is not a refugee, how and if refugee movements should be controlled, and indeed if refugee law itself is a barrier to effective refugee protection. As part of this investigation, we will be considering the history of refugee movements and their relation to the nation-state, and the legacies of colonialism.

We will be applying these broader questions to specific case studies of Israel/Palestine, the European Union’s asylum and border policies, India’s role in providing asylum in the absence of refugee law, climate refugees, and the widespread use of camps and detention centres to house people seeking asylum. Having looked at how refugees are defined and managed from above, we will conclude the module by examining how social movements, often led by refugees themselves, have challenged existing frameworks and asserted their rights.

Along the way, we will be returning to certain key questions: what distinguishes a refugee from a migrant? Can such a clear distinction be made? Who decides on access to asylum, and on what basis? Should answers to these questions be sought mainly within legal, ethical or political frameworks?

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Introduction to international refugee law, including the major global and regional refugee treaties, along with aspects of international human rights law

Defining the refugee: a history. From the Huguenots to post-World War II. How the refugee became a legal construct.

The right to have rights: refugees and the nation-state. Case study of Israel/Palestine.

Refugee protection without refugee law? Case study of India within the wider South Asian context.

Rectifying a protection gap: Case study of climate refugees, and the reframing of rights and duties on a global collective basis.

The European Union and refugees: neo-colonialism and the gated community. A critical look at the EU's approach to asylum and external borders.

Encampment and detention. Logics and practices of management of the refugee, by states, UN agencies, and NGOs.

Social movements and grassroots asylum. How refugees and their allies have challenged negative stereotypes and effectively asserted their rights, with a focus on the US Sanctuary Movement and the French Sans Papiers.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Understand current debates on forced migration and be able to analyse critically the theory, ethics and law of forced displacement in a global context;
• Understand aspects of refugee history and the contemporary refugee phenomenon in the context of the nation-state and the legacies of colonialism;
• Be able to compare and contrast approaches in the developing and developed world from a contextual perspective, with special reference to South Asia, Israel/Palestine and Europe.
• Demonstrate the ability to work independently and in groups
• Demonstrate an ability to assimilate and communicate complex material
• Demonstrate an ability to present an argument orally
• Demonstrate high quality research and writing skills
• Oral presentation

Indicative reading list

• A Shacknove, ‘Who is a refugee?’ (1985) Ethics 95, 274-84
• A Zolberg et al (eds), Escape from violence: Conflict and the refugee crisis in the developing world (Oxford, OUP, 1989), Ch. 1
• H Arendt, ‘We refugees’ in M Robinson, Altogether Elsewhere (Boston: Faber and Faber, 1994), 110-119
  H Arendt, 'The Origins of Totalitarianism' (Schocken 2004), 21-73, 341-384
• G Loescher, Beyond Charity – International co-operation and the global refugee crisis, Ch. 2
• J Hathaway, ‘A reconsideration of the underlying premise of refugee law’ (1990) Harvard International Law Journal 31:1, 129-183
• M Marrus, The Unwanted – European refugees in the Twentieth Century (Oxford, OUP, 1985)
• L Holborn, ‘The legal status of political refugees 1920-1938’ (1938) American Jnl of International Law 32:4, 680-703
• BS Chimni, International Refugee Law: A Reader (New Delhi: Sage, 2000), Ch. 1
• G Goodwin-Gill and J McAdam, The Refugee in International Law, 3rd edition (Oxford: OUP, 2007), Ch. 3
• J Hathaway and M Foster, The Law of Refugee Status, 2nd edition (CUP, 2014), Chs 3-6
• J Hathaway, The Rights of Refugees under International Law (Cambridge: CUP, 2007)
• E Odhiambo-Abuya, ‘Revisiting liberalism and post-colonial theory in the context of asylum applications’ (2006) Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights 24:2, 193-227
• B Rutinwa, ‘The end of asylum? The changing nature of refugee policies in Africa’ (2002) Refugee Survey Quarterly 21:1, 12-41
• J Crisp, ‘No solutions in sight: The problem of protracted refugee situations’, in I Ohta an Y Gebre, Displacement risks in Africa (Kyoto University Press, 2005), Ch. 1
• A Betts, ‘International cooperation between North and South to enhance refugee Protection in Regions of Origin’, RSC Working Paper No 25, July 2005
• M Kagan, ‘”We live in a country of UNHCR” The UN surrogate State and Refugee Policy in the Middle East’ (UNHCR, Research Paper No 201, February 2011)
• S Akram, ‘Palestinian refugees and their legal status: Rights, politics and implications for just solution’ (Spring 2002) Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. 31:3, 36-51
• M Kagan, ‘The (relative) decline of Palestinian exceptionalism and its consequences for refugee studies in the Middle East’ (2009) Journal of Refugee Studies 22:4, 417-438
• G Gilbert, ‘Is Europe living up to its Obligations to Refugees?’ (2004) European Jnl of International Law 15:5, 963-987
• D Stevens, ‘Asylum Seekers in Europe: Time for a Rethink?’ In P Shah ed., The Challenge of Asylum to Legal Systems (Cavendish 2005), pp 13-33
• S Juss, ‘The Decline and Decay of European Refugee Policy’ (2005) Oxford Jnl of Legal Studies 25:4, 749-792
• E Guild, ‘The Europeanisation of Europe’s Asylum Policy’ (2006) International Jnl of Refugee Law 630-650
• M Price, Rethinking Asylum – History, Purpose and Limits (Cambridge: CUP, 2009), Ch. 5, 164 -199
• A Edwards, ‘Human security and the rights of refugees: transcending territorial and disciplinary boundaries’ (2009) Michigan Journal of International Law 763-807
• S Jaquemet, ‘The cross-fertilization of international humanitarian law and international refugee law’ (2001) International Review of the Red Cross 83:843. 651-674
• S Behrman, 'Law and Asylum: Space, Subject, Resistance' (Routledge 2018)
• A Kent & S Behrman, 'Facilitating the Resettlement and Rights of Climate Refugees' (Routledge 2018)
• R Samaddar, 'Refugees and the State: Practices of Asylum and Care in India, 1947-2000' (Sage 2003)
• G Verdirame & B Harrell-Bond, 'Rights in Exile: Janus-Faced Humanitarianism' (Berghahn 2005)
• M Cissé 'The Sans-Papiers: A Woman Draws the First Lessons (Crossroads 1997)
• A McNevin, Contesting Citizenship (Columbia UP 2013).

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

• Demonstrate high quality research and writing skills
• Oral presentation

Transferable skills

• Demonstrate the ability to work independently and in
  groups
• Demonstrate an ability to assimilate and communicate complex material
• Demonstrate an ability to present an argument orally