Asylum and Refugees

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Asylum and Refugees

• Lecture 5

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Part 1 Definition of terms

• What is a refugee (1951 Convention)
• Owning to a well-founded fear of being
  persecuted for reasons of race, religion,
  nationality, membership of a particular social
  group or political opinion, is outside the
  country of his nationality and is unable or, or
  owning to such fear, is unwilling to avail
  himself of the protection of that country or
  who, not having a nationality and being outside
  the country of his former habitual residence is
  unable or owning to such fear is unwilling to
  return to it.

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Part 1 continued

• - What is an asylum seeker?
• Someone seeking asylum in a country that is not
  their own
• - No such thing as an illegal asylum seeker

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Part 2 Increased migration flows

• Collapse of Eastern European Communism
• For example former Yugoslavia
• Ottoman Empire 14cth to Tito
• Factors international politics, history and
  cold war ideology

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Part 3 The meanings of popular terms

• Illegal migrants
• Genuine asylum seeker
• Economic migrants
• Bogus asylum seeker
• Root causes of these terms asylum defies the
  logic of the nation state

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Part 4 Asylum, Policy and Europe

• Push for common EU Policy
• Why?
• Nation-state hop
• Allow the free movement of European citizens
• Illegal migrants seen as threat to economy
• Racism will rise

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Part 4 continued

• Plans for common Policy include
• Ban in one country ban in all
• Exchange of information
• European Boarder guard
• Fortress Europe
• ..But yet no such policy

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Part 5 Experience economics in UK

• 1996 Immigration and Asylum Act voucher system
• 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act harsher
• Contribution unpopular industries
• Illegals and the Economy three Ds
• Human Trafficking - death

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Part 6 Gender and Asylum

• Women seen as appendages of men
• Need for women interviewers
• Example Iran Woman
• Shows Eurocentric attitudes to women
• Need for more complex understandings

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Part 7 Children and asylum

• 1951 UN Convention on the rights of the child
• State parties shall respect and ensure the
  rights set forth in the present convention to
  each child within their jurisdiction without
  discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the
  childs or his parents legal guardians race,
  colour, sex, language, religion, political or
  other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin,
  disability, birth or other status.