only search openDemocracy.net

How well protected are Syrians in Turkey?

EU policymakers hope Syrians will stay in Turkey, but while they have some rights there lasting solutions are elusive.

openDemocracy.net - free thinking for the world

Mediterranean journeys in hope seeks to humanise the debates on migration and question the delineation of refugees from other migrants by taking 'hope', a basic pathway for survival in the context of human mobility, as our starting point. Our aim is to reposition human rights as legal and political priorities, and to open a space for treating human mobility as both a symptom and a feature of global and regional geopolitics.

How well protected are Syrians in Turkey?

EU policymakers hope Syrians will stay in Turkey, but while they have some rights there lasting solutions are elusive.

openDemocracy.net - free thinking for the world

The future of refugee protection

The regime governing the treatment of refugees was put in place at the end of World War II. Does it remain ‘fit for purpose’? openGlobalRights explores this and more in its recently launched debate

A global solution to a global refugee crisis
JAMES C. HATHAWAY
Refugee reform must become a global project
ALEX NEVE
Putting on the pressure: domestic constituencies and refugee policy
EMILY ARNOLD-FERNANDEZ
Political realities challenge refugee reform
BILL FRELICK
The struggle for sans-papiers human rights
UPENDRA BAXI
Protection and pragmatism: the EU-Turkey refugee deal in historical perspective
JEFF CRISP
Refugee protection is politics
RONI AMIT and LOREN B. LANDAU
Burden-sharing: Utopian dream or principled pragmatism?
IRENE KHAN

Our World

Our World is a award-winning web magazine from the United Nations University.

Humanitarian engagement and the Mediterranean crisis: civil society responses
FANNY DESVACHEZ
The contributions of refugees: lifting barriers to inclusion
ALICE BESTE
‘The dream lottery’ tells the stories of the Mediterranean displaced
CLAIRE MC GOVERN, ZAID CLOR AND TENDAYI BLOOM
EU regularisation programmes: an effective tool to manage ‘irregular migration’?
CLAIRE MC GOVERN

Spotlight on Idomeni

Idomeni, Greece – dead end
ANA CATARINA MILHAZES
You are the border, not us: Greek – Macedonia border
DIANA IHRING
The will of Idomeni
CAMERON THIBOS

How well protected are Syrians in Turkey?

EU policymakers hope Syrians will stay in Turkey, but while they have some rights there lasting solutions are elusive.

Giving birth as a refugee

Pregnant women and recent mothers in refugee camps are exceptionally vulnerable, yet they often lack the care they need. New research in Greece documents forced cesareans, malnutrition, and post-natal neglect.

Calais demolition: ‘mission accomplished’, the politics of exhaustion and continued struggles for mobility

The destruction of the Calais camp last month did nothing other than displace the already-displaced, pushing them one step closer to exhaustion.

The futile destruction of the Jungle in Calais

The ‘Jungle’ isn’t the first camp to be demolished by the French authorities, and it is unlikely to be the last.

Introducing this week's special theme: 'Cities of welcome, cities of transit'

openDemocracy and its partners brought activists, academics, and policy makers together in Barcelona late last July to discuss a way forward for refugee-related activism and city welcome policies. 

Refugees, displacement, and the European ‘politics of exhaustion’

Refugees and humanitarian workers alike are drained by years of uncertainty, movement, destitution, and the threat of criminal sanction or deportation, created by EU and state policies.

Solidarity in European asylum policies: response to a problem or part of it?

Solidarity in EU asylum policies has become a euphemism for bargaining responsibility, and proposed reforms to the Dublin regulations will only entrench that misuse of the concept.

The long year of migration and the Balkan corridor

How European narratives are being challenged by migration movements.

The myths of migration

The conversation surrounding migration is full of disinformation. Challenging the resulting misconceptions is crucial to changing the everyday cost-benefit analysis of migration.

When refugees appear, we take them to the art museum

The German city of Karlsruhe uses art to bring new arrivals together with local citizens, creating a dialogue that is the foundation of integration.

Welcoming refugees despite the state

Cities and activists across Europe are fighting their national governments to better welcome refugees.

Toward a more reasonable European asylum system

National governments must cede some control over immigration to EU-level institutions if migrants are ever to be received and dealt with humanely.

Barcelona: city of refuge

Barcelona seeks to welcome refugees and migrants into the fabric of the city, but its efforts have been stymied by the national government.

Video: John Akomfrah on sea-migration, borders, and art

Acclaimed British artist John Akomfrah speaks on his new installation Vertigo Sea and explains the impact of recent migration on his art.

Protecting the human rights of migrants in a time of fear

The United Nations has a chance this September to move migration discussions past the migrant/refugee divide and to re-focus on the vulnerability of all people who move. Will it take it? 

Building a refugee political movement

Refugees in Europe assert their political agency in many ways, but must do so informally. A new movement seeks to give refugees a seat at the policy table.

On the walls of Zollamtsstrasse refugee camp

The refugees who once lived in this Austrian shelter left plenty of traces, their voices echoing off the walls through dozens of messages and murals depicting hope, strength, love, and language class.

'Elmar the Elephant' in Arabic, and other experiences of integration in Berlin

Residents of a neighbourhood in Berlin engage with refugees through community arts and education initiatives, revealing personal stories of welcome and integration.

From containers to computers: the challenges of refugee integration in Germany

“The future of Europe depends on a fair situation for all weak people”.

'They want me to fly like a bird': travels in the Belgian asylum system

Syrian refugees are in the news, but Europe is full of other refugees. They languish in centres while they wait for decisions, then trying again after they are almost certainly refused.

Fortifying the outer defences under the guise of partnership

The EU is moving deeper into its project of externalising border management, further endangering its claim to be a defender of human rights.

Warfare on the logistics of migrant movements: EU and NATO military operations in the Mediterranean

Operations in the Mediterranean are billed as either humanitarian or necessary to prevent human trafficking, however the expansion of the military presence there means nothing less than warfare on migrants.

Fleeing for simply being: the legal and subjective battles faced by LGBTI refugees

LGBTI refugees contend with compounding layers of vulnerability. They are rarely afforded additional protection, and fear of persecution due to sexual orientation is often an insufficient basis for an asylum claim.

Revealing truths: talking with refugees in Samos

Both creating and ameliorating suffering for refugees are profitable businesses. Refugees are aware of this, and they looking for solidarity in an unsolidaristic world.

Pancakes for peace! The school bus project in Calais

Sharing food and mutually teaching each other can help bring people together. In the Jungle camp of Calais, one woman from Brighton has started a new project to demonstrate this truth.

Preparing for Ramadan in the refugee camps

Fasting in a refugee camp is not easy, but by observing Ramadan’s rituals refugees are clawing back an element of their own agency.

The common humanity of Nuit Debout

The Nuit Debout movement has effectively challenged state power in many cities, forcing people to think about how their struggles articulate with those of others.

A humanitarian battlefield: redefining border control as saving victims

Care and control both fuel and feed off each other, nurturing a ‘compassionate repression’ that fails to bridge the gap between ‘us’ and ‘them’.

Concentric cages: the hotspots of Lesvos after the EU-Turkey agreement

Hotspots used to be mainly areas for registration, but now they are used to sort and detain people in preparation for their deportation.

Entrepreneurs of Idomeni

The Greek government emptied the Idomeni refugee camp this week, but what all was removed? The resilience and human spirit of its occupants was formidable and deserves to be remembered.

From refugees to prisoners

New data show that large swathes of the European public want their governments to show more solidarity with refugees, but instead the EU-Turkey deal has paved the way to mass detention.

Idomeni: a devil’s game

The most important and most asked question in Idomeni is, what is the West waiting for? Your agreement with Turkey does not handle our cause. The Europeans are using us to scare other refugees away.

Humanitarian space and border management in Lesbos

The EU-Turkey deal and the creation of ‘hotspots’ has catalysed a shift from humanitarianism to securitisation on the Greek islands, shrinking the space for humanitarian action.

Refugees and migrants: a crisis of solidarity

With more people on the move than at any other time on record, what will it take to convince nations to start working in solidarity with each other?

Afghanistan's refugees: the politics of fear and hope

Afghans continue to hope for protection in Europe despite the launch of new campaigns to deter them from seeking sanctuary.

Syndicate content