The assumption that refugees and IDPs are the same is commonplace. At the height of the Chechnya conflict, the BBC repeatedly described the Chechens fleeing Grozny to Ingushetia as 'refugees’. For the general public these were people who had been…
Historically Australia has had an impressive record in assisting refugees. Over half a million refugees have been resettled in Australia since 1945. Australia is one of ten countries with a planned humanitarian migration programme and on a per capita basis…
As a criminologist, I am interested in the ways that the press represents refugees and asylum seekers as deviants, particularly in relation to the integrity of the nation state and race. This article, monitoring press coverage of refugee and asylum…
Earlier this year I received a phone call from a journalist wanting to do a story about immigration detention. I explained in detail the issues for asylum seekers placed in centres in remote parts of Australia, the problems associated with…
Uganda currently hosts over 200,000 refugees. Recent conflicts in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi, as well as the long-standing civil war in southern Sudan, continue to generate a steady flow of displaced people. In many cases the…
At the end of this year, a new High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR) will be appointed to take over the helm from Sadako Ogata, who has led UNHCR for the past 10 years. While the selection process has traditionally taken…
Gender and Development (GAD) takes as its starting point the idea that the behaviour of men and women is conditioned by social and cultural expectations, rather than by innate or natural differences between the two sexes. These assumed differences result…
Women’s issues have become increasingly central in UNHCR’s policies over the past 15 years. Often lumped together with children in surveys, they are perceived as vulnerable victims of war: “Among the people hit hardest by the violence and uncertainty of…
Young men are among the most visible of all groups in Puttalam District of the North Western Province, Sri Lanka. Almost 40 per cent of the young male residents are internally displaced Muslims expelled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil…
When displacement occurs, far more damage results than simply the loss and destruction of goods and property. People's lives and their social fabric are left in tatters; new, often unfamiliar, living environments affect the social roles and responsibilities of men…