Search

Background: Global forced displacement has been rising steeply since 2015 as a result of wars and human rights abuses. Forcibly displaced people are often exposed to physical and mental strain, which can cause traumatic experiences and poor mental health. Physical activity has been linked with better mental health, although such evidence is scarce among those populations. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationships of self-reported physical activity and fitness with mental health indices among people residing in a refugee camp in Greece as asylum seekers. Methods: Participants were 151 individuals (76 women, 75 men; mean age 28.90 y) displaced from their homes for an average of 32.03 months. Among them, 67% were from Afghanistan and countries from southwest Asia, and 33% from sub-Saharan African countries. Participants completed self-report measures assessing physical activity, fitness, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and well-being. Results: High prevalence of mental health disorder symptoms and poor well-being were identified, with women and Asians showing poorer mental health. Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety were related to perceived fitness, but not to self-reported physical activity. Regression analysis showed that perceived fitness (β: 0.34; 95% CI, 0.43 to 1.52) and low-intensity physical activity (β: 0.24; 95% CI, 0.001 to 0.009) significantly positively predicted well-being, showing small to medium effect. Conclusions: The findings provide useful insights regarding the link between physical activity and well-being; nevertheless, further research examining objectively measured physical activity is warranted to complement these data and further explore the associations between physical activity and mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, activists and scholars from different disciplines have criticised the tightening asylum governance and the limits of the right to asylum in Europe. This paper shifts the focus to those asylum seekers who successfully accessed European grounds and were granted legal protection. It explores how their lives unfold once they have reached a legal safe haven. What are everyday meanings and experiences of legal protection? And how do they engage with these experiences? To address these questions, we draw on ethnographic research conducted among persons who received refugee status in Norway and Switzerland. Vigh’s concept of navigation combined with theoretical approaches to self-care help us explore how these persons experience and act upon the forces shaping different dimensions and implications of asylum as an everyday condition. Our findings show that the way asylum is governed at the everyday level promotes a situation of continuous crisis rather than facilitating experiences of encompassing protection. Much of what we identify as driving this crisis is closely related to the principles of refugee governance and the emphasis placed on integration requirements. As a result, these refugees remain stuck in the position of a perpetual other with few possibilities to build on their capacities to aspire. At the same time, we find that they navigate conditions of crisis in different ways to evade imminent constraints and restrictions while also trying to generate moments of recovery and self-care. We argue that there is a need to reconsider the self-image of liberal states as safe havens and to work towards lasting transformations of the structures and associated power relations that create and uphold the identified limitations of legal protection and that turn asylum into a condition of continuous struggle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a profile of Aotearoa New Zealand's asylum claimants - people who have sought recognition as a refugee or protected person and then applied for a temporary visa. Sourcing data from New Zealand's Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), we considered 11,091 refugee claimants between 1997 and 2022. The data suggests that the path to recognition can be long and circuitous, requiring multiple applications before status recognition. The data also reveals a wide health and mental health services uptake gap despite recent policy changes. When read together, we contend that this data supports the notion that everyday, discerning bordering exists in New Zealand through different forms of permeability and permanence based on gender and ethnicity. The article concludes with some insights for future policy directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea that refugees should be grateful is pervasive in popular culture and is also evident in political theory, most notably in discussing whether refugees have an obligation to obey the law in their state of asylum. We examine the normative argument that refugees have a duty to be grateful to their host society, arguing that when the workings of the system of refugee protection are examined, it becomes clear that no such duty exists. Our main concern is that state-imposed barriers and hardships that refugees must endure to access asylum undermine any gratitude to the asylum state. Indeed, if any gratitude duties are owed by refugees, it is to those social actors who help them evade state restrictions. We conclude by suggesting that, once we take account of those features, resentment rather than gratitude often seems a more apt response by refugees to their asylum state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Receiving the right to stay in Norway might seem a critical factor for refugees' well-being and belonging. Yet, this research shows that young unaccompanied refugees experience ambivalent feelings towards Norwegian society after their resettlement. The study is based on a qualitative research design with 14 young unaccompanied refugees residing in Norway. Drawing on recognition theory, we focus on how participants' psychosocial well-being is constituted through their encounters with social workers and helpers, restrictive asylum policies, and anti-immigration discourses in Norwegian society. Our findings suggest that, while social workers are central to the well-being of these young people, their interaction is sometimes perceived by the young people as emotional misrecognition. Further, while they have the right to residency, their right to family life is not fully recognised, and this poses a threat to their well-being. Anti-immigration discourses contribute further to feelings of ambivalent recognition. Participants strived to manage through active involvement in relationships, everyday coping, sensemaking, critical reflection and social engagement, insisting on their own and other refugees' worth. We argue that youth-focused social services must explicitly engage with these young people's broader legal, emotional and social (mis)recognition and with their ways of managing challenges when assisting them in achieving well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares the European Union's (EU) reception and resettlement of European and non-European refugees and asylum seekers from an intersectional viewpoint. It does so using data collected during fieldwork in Greece focusing on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV). The goal is to examine, through an empirical and theoretical study, the gendered, racialised, national and religious nature of the EU's approach to its external policies, border security approaches and its constitutive nature based on contingent, relational and non-additive vulnerabilities and inequalities that have been inherited from the EU's colonial past. The study asks how the influx of refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine exemplifies the gendered, racialised, national and religious dimension of the EU's approach to border security. It examines how the EU's approach showcases the paternalistic approach to refugees' vulnerability through essentialisation, which leads to their vulnerabilisation. It looks at the intersectional impact of the gendered, racialised, national and religious constitutive nature of non-European refugees, as well as the gendered, racialised, national and religious notion of 'others'. Based on the comparison, the article contends that, theoretically, State or EU security and human security policies should not be mutually exclusive. However, as the empirical data illustrate, there are multiple competing 'insecurities' which are prioritised over others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the labor market experiences of Sudanese forced migrants in Israel under prolonged temporary legal status. It underscores how regulatory and legal frameworks, particularly the mechanism of institutional ambiguity as a form of legal violence, shape migrants' socioeconomic outcomes. Employing a mixed-methods approach and comparative analysis, the study adopts Menjívar's, C. (2006. "Liminal legality: Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrants' lives in the United States." American Journal of Sociology 111 (4): 999–1037) concept of 'liminal legality' as an analytical lens to compare the experiences of asylum seekers and refugees. The findings reveal significant disparities between these two groups in employment patterns, wages, and exposure to exploitative working conditions, primarily driven by differences in legal status. Asylum seekers are disproportionately relegated to unskilled, precarious jobs at the bottom of the employment ladder, facing heightened vulnerability to exploitative working conditions. Refugees, despite their relatively 'premium' status, also encounter significant constraints in labor market participation, reflecting their confinement to the secondary labor market. By highlighting these disparities, this article advances our knowledge of how positions along the continuum of liminal legality shapes employment outcomes among forced migrants. It also contributes to the broader discourse on socio-political and legal barriers that hinder migrant integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, the 'Australian model' of offshore detention is promoted to restrict asylum seeker migration and preserve national sovereignty. This article analyses metaphor usage within press coverage of immigration to examine the origins of this discourse. Focusing on two high points of asylum seeker arrivals (2001–2002, 2012–2013), I demonstrate how negative metaphor use constructed asylum seekers as racialized, illegitimate, illegal Others, who breached Australian sovereignty. I argue that this was a response to a crisis of settler-colonial legitimacy, exacerbated by calls for Indigenous sovereignty, with anti-asylum discourse utilized as a tool to negate and neutralize Indigenous sovereignty claims and legitimate settler-colonial state power. I further argue that sovereignty claims were employed to reinforce Australia's positioning within regional hierarchies of power, through the enactment of offshore processing agreements with less powerful, ostensibly 'sovereign' nations, thereby reaffirming and legitimating a racialized, neo-colonial ordering of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to increased numbers of refugee claimants in 2015, the Norwegian government introduced restrictive measures aimed, in part, at deterring future arrivals. These included the mandatory cessation of refugee status when conditions underpinning the grant of asylum have changed. Unlike in Denmark, however, group-based cessation practices have not remained a distinct priority for immigration authorities. Instead, protection reviews are entangled with efforts to combat fraud in the immigration system, and stricter conditions for settlement. The interaction of these measures prolongs temporary residence status and intensifies the possibility of deportation for previously secure immigrant groups. In this article I analyze how precarious status is consolidated through three mechanisms collectively referred to as ‘revocation’ in national law and practice: cessation assessments, the revocation of residence permits, and denaturalization. I then outline two dilemmas that revocation practice poses from a rule of law perspective. I conclude that legal certainty, a core rule of law value, can only be secured by introducing an ‘end date’ to uncertainty. This could be achieved by lifting the threat of cessation after a limited period of time and by introducing a statute of limitations for revocation based on fraud. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article confronts novelties in Danish asylum policy with current and future EU standards from the perspective of deterrence and containment. The interaction between Danish policy and EU harmonisation is discussed to identify the aims and measures reflecting deterrence strategies. In this context, the terminology routinely used to depict and analyse these phenomena is reconsidered with a view to enhance understanding of the regulatory and physical barriers hindering access to territory, procedures and eventually protection. As these barriers include non-arrival and non-admission measures it is proposed to adjust the conceptual approach and focus on containment in parallel with deterrent measures. EU asylum policy is increasingly characterised by deterrence and containment of asylum seekers, yet recent Danish policy initiatives go even further in restricting asylum rights. The ‘paradigm shift’ towards temporary asylum has resulted in the revocation of asylum for Syrian refugees with subsidiary or temporary protection and in secondary movements of ‘former refugees’ to neighbouring countries with different protection policies. In addition, plans for transferring asylum seekers to a non-European country have been introduced in Danish legislation. These national developments have raised complex issues under EU law leading to the entanglement between legal and political aspects of asylum governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over a century, the federal government has wielded the immigration subpoena power in darkness, forcing private individuals, subfederal governments, and others to help it detain and deport. This vast administrative power has remained opaque even to those who receive these subpoenas and invisible to those it affects most. Indeed, the very people targeted by these subpoenas often don't know they exist, much less how they facilitate arrest and deportation. For these reasons--and more--this power has escaped the legal battles raging over other immigration enforcement tactics and the scrutiny of journalists, scholars, and courts. Thus, as state- and locality-held information has become central to immigration enforcement, this power raises urgent questions about when, how, and with what constraints the federal government uses it more broadly. This Article provides the first comprehensive account of the immigration subpoena power. Drawing upon previously undisclosed agency records and an original dataset reflecting thousands of subpoenas issued nationwide, this Article shows how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deploys a power created to facilitate racial exclusion at the border to reach deep into our communities and people's lives. It demonstrates how ICE uses subpoenas to pierce state and local sanctuary laws and force subfederal governments--and others--to become unwilling partners in arrests, detention, and removal. And it exposes a range of other unlawful practices. These findings shed vital light on the immigration subpoena regime. They help resolve important constitutional questions, illuminate new constraints, and offer lessons that transcend the immigration realm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Global North countries act to obstruct unwanted asylum seeker arrivals, the expenditure of immense amounts of financial capital is crucial to achieving their policy goals. The funding is directed toward securing the cooperation of third country governments and privatizing the operation of offshore facilities by non-state for-profit actors. We argue that in addition to the cooperation of host states, infrastructure, and service provision, the immense levels of funding purchases attenuated governance. Attenuated governance is a notion that describes policies that enable governments to evade responsibility and accountability for direct human harms and poor social outcomes caused by refugee externalization policies. What looks like financial mismanagement is, in fact, the government achieving its goals of attenuation. Australia's policy of offshore processing is an emblematic case, where significant financial investments to PNG and Nauru, and the private corporations operating the detention centers, has contributed to a weakened accountability structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the United States has expanded its border externalisation efforts to prevent migrants from making their way north through Central America and Mexico. The resources the United States has funneled to the region to outsource migration control include funding and use of new technologies. These efforts reflect a pattern of exclusion and securitization of the border, often in tension with the right to seek asylum and non-refoulement obligations under both US and international law. This article will explore the main drivers behind funding for border externalisation and the competing protections in US and international law intended to safeguard asylum seekers. The article highlights how funding decisions focused on preventing migrants from reaching the United States—without adequate consideration of obligations to protect refugees—raise serious questions under international law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 resulted in the largest refugee crisis in Europe since WWII. Using a unique panel conjoint experiment on refugee policy preferences carried out in Germany, Poland and Hungary just before and after the onset of the war in Ukraine, we show a heterogenous response to the influx of refugees from Ukraine across the three countries: no change of policy preferences in Germany, moderate change in Hungary and a significant change in Poland. Our results have direct implications for the development of a common EU asylum policy, as even though the countries persistently diverge on the preferred mode of asylum seekers' allocation, with Germans favouring relocation and Poland and Hungary the status quo, the results highlight the scope for consensus rooted in shared preference for the asylum seekers' unrestricted access to the labour market. This dimension consistently emerges as the most important policy dimension in all three countries before and after the outbreak of war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on the patterns of voting in EP have been consensually assuming that despite the predominance of the great coalition occurrence, ideology has been a driver for voting preferences of EP party groups. Relying on the presumptions that a growing politicisation of migration, and the refugee in particular, has been happening in Europe in the last decade, and that Europeanisation processes generate the uploading of policy preferences from the national to the supranational levels in the EU polity, and relying on a comparative politics approach, this research aims to assess if there's been a contagion effect of the populist right in the mainstream EP political groups regarding migration issues. Based on roll call votes empirical analysis, this advances signs of the creation of a pro-security grand coalition comprising centre-left, centre-right and right in asylum issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Refugees and asylum seekers might have an increased risk of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) carriage or infection due to several factors, with conflict and war known to accelerate the spread of AMR. However, data are scarce on prevalence and risk factors for AMR among refugees and asylum seekers and how they are affected globally; in addition, how their risk compares to that of the host-country population is unclear. We aimed to explore and assess global AMR data among refugees and asylum seekers. Ovid (MEDLINE and Embase) and PubMed were searched for peer-reviewed primary research articles from Jan 1, 2015, to Oct 23, 2023, and articles were included if they reported carriage or infection with laboratory-confirmed drug-resistant organisms in refugees or asylum seekers from any country. Of 884 articles identified, 41 reported prevalence of AMR among 16 970 refugees and asylum seekers and were included in the study. The most common phenotypes reported were multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (n=26; prevalence ranged from 4·2% to 60·8%), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (n=24; 0·92% to 73%), and extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Gram-negative bacteria (n=20; 1·6% to 61·1%). Refugees and asylum seekers had a higher likelihood of carriage or infection with any AMR than the host-country population (n=7849 vs n=81 283, respectively; odds ratio 2·88, 95% CI 2·61–3·18; I 2=94%). Refugees and asylum seekers are at an increased risk of AMR carriage and infection, with our data suggesting that refugees and asylum seekers might be exposed to conditions that support the emergence of drug resistance (including living in overcrowded camps and facing barriers to health and vaccine systems). Hence, more global and regional data on AMR are needed through strengthened surveillance programmes and health-care facilities, especially in low-income and middle-income countries. Increased efforts are needed to drive improvements in infection prevention and control (including vaccination), antimicrobial stewardship, treatment strategies tailored to groups at high risk, accessiblity to quality health care in these populations at risk globally, and address risk factors such as poor living and transit conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 21 December 2020, 2-year-old Awaab Ishak died at Royal Oldham Hospital. The inquest concluded that he had died from a severe respiratory condition caused by prolonged exposure to mould. Institutions which ultimately reacted to the case read this death as related to the impact of bad housing on health. The authors argue that Awaab's death emerges through the mechanics of racialised neoliberal capitalism, and the devaluation of working-class life which is linked to the racialisation of the migrant as a 'disposable subject'. For them, racialisation marks out working-class migrant communities to (in Ruth Wilson Gilmore's words) 'vulnerability to premature death'. Understanding the full context of this process is important in the building of movements against state-led austerity, racism, border violence and human disposability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the analytical frame of 'temporal dispossession', in the present article, I examine lived experiences of navigating the state production of informalization. This is connected to the increasingly blurred lines between migration regimes and labour market politics in Sweden. With temporary residence permits having become the new norm for asylum policies in Sweden, time and labour market productivity are central to the distribution of vulnerability and life chances, as labour market participation functions as the only means of qualifying for permanent residence. Theoretically engaging with 'temporal dispossession' and racial capitalism, I highlight how dispossession operates in and through the border regime, specifically through temporal governance, and how the latter is weaponized to dispossess people of their life chances. Empirically, I focus on how the interlocutors inhabit, negotiate, and defy the precarization of asylum through their labour market participation. Their work, however, is marked by super-exploitation, as they are pushed to the margins of the labour market, often in informalized, underpaid, or unpaid positions with the promise of future employment and stability. The analysis focuses on the strategies of defiance enacted by the interlocutors and their different ways of interrogating contemporary capitalist formation through their experiences of devaluation at the intersection of asylum and labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores what "care" looks like in the specific context of Muslim refugees and asylum seekers within the dominant discourse of humanitarianism. India and Australia are chosen for this comparative analysis because our aim is to emphasise multidimensional anti-Muslim alliances that are now in place in both contexts between the governments and official and unofficial media that influence humanitarian policies and practice. We argue that the "information disorder" that dominates current media ecologies about Muslim refugees in both countries is produced at this nexus of official agents—both state and media institutions—as well as social media content produced by local and global actors that perpetuate anti-Muslim bias. More specifically, this article examines how India has responded to emergencies involving the Rohingya refugees, and Australia's treatment of post-9/11 Muslim refugees and asylum seekers. We demonstrate that these states and the media they sponsor are linked to the use of disinformation, or deliberately inaccurate information to seed and perpetuate Islamophobic sentiments and thereby practice a form of "calculated care". The examples in this article highlight the need to build on our understanding of what constitutes humanitarian care towards vulnerable and stateless populations. Furthermore, they call for response strategies that take into cognizance the fact that Islamophobia has been institutionalized in the public sphere in order to promote culturally supremacist discourses of traditional values as well as national security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contemporary European border regime is shaped by an apparently paradoxical set of developments: while the securitisation of borders and the violent exclusion of displaced people intensifies, the demand for foreign workers is rapidly growing, driven by severe labour shortages across European economies. In this article, we develop the concept of the migration fix to study how different economic and political logics interact at the heart of European bordering and generate a range of new policies and practices. We theorise this concept drawing from the critical literature on racial capitalism, border studies and the political economy of migration, to understand how border regimes operate within broader logics of capitalist development and function as temporary and unstable fixes between different interests and tendencies, sustaining nativist political projects while creating opportunities for the exploitation of migrant labour. We develop this concept in relation to contemporary EU and member state policies in Germany, Italy and Greece, showing how a set of migration and border policies seek to reconcile business pressures for greater labour migration with the further securitisation of bordering, through the negotiation of partnerships with neighbouring countries and the drive towards what we term the workerisation of asylum seekers and refugees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses how the Russian invasion and the mass influx of Ukrainians have impacted the Europeanisation dynamics in EU asylum policy, notably the process of reforming the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). We argue that these extraordinary events have fostered a more consensual and cooperative mode of governance in EU asylum policy, which has facilitated the adoption of the Pact on Migration and Asylum. The Commission strategically used venues created for dealing with Ukrainian refugees to also tackle other migratory challenges in a more consensual manner. Furthermore, the negotiations of the Pact were facilitated by a convergence of member states around security– and migration control-oriented norms. Asylum rights were increasingly seen as a potential vulnerability in a geopolitical competition with Russia and other hostile governments. The objective of member states to have more tools to respond to crises’ situations and the potential ‘instrumentalisations’ of migrants became drivers for completing the reform. As a result, migrants’ access to the right of asylum will get more dependent on the political will of member states, notably in a perceived emergency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I analyse the complexity of the status of "migrant" in relation to myths of belonging and what we call "home". I look at status labels that Iranian border-crossers embrace after migrating to the Global North and the ways in which they practice adaptability in accordance with the systemic and structural meanings associated with their migration status and their racial complexity. Ethnic and Racial labels adopted by Iranian migrants can include "Persian", "Iranian", "Middle Eastern", "White", or "Aryan", and migration status labels range from "migrant" to "refugees and asylum seekers", "exiles", "expats" etc. Using a mixed approach of digital ethnographies, autoethnography and textual analysis, together with an intersectional and decolonial lens, I investigate the ways in which migration status such as skilled categories are associated with not only "fitting" into the neoliberal and capitalist systems of border crossing but also "blending" into racial hierarchies and maintaining class status post migration within White contexts. This article takes an empathetic approach to the lived experiences of minority and racially complex migrants and emphasises the epistemic value of their narratives and the ways in which these stories can inform us about the covert systemic structural and racially loaded bias that exists within migration economies of the Global North. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

News images have been powerful agents in chronicling humanitarian crises, shaping public engagement with vulnerability, and inhibiting or supporting societal and political interactions. Research critically indicates that refugees frequently face dehumanizing visuals in news media. However, the humanitarian communication literature has primarily limited itself to surveying the vulnerability of the global South as visualized by Western media. This study addresses this gap by employing an inductive-then-deductive framing approach to compare how the news media in the UK, the US, and China visually depict the humanitarian crises in Afghanistan and Ukraine. The analysis shows that the way humanitarian crises are visualized in the news media is influenced by journalism culture across media systems and the geographical origins of suffering. The UK and US media perpetuate a post-humanitarian routine of cultural assimilation, while Chinese authoritarian media instrumentalize distant humanitarian crises for geopolitical purposes, both reinforcing the visual dehumanization of humanitarian vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Refugee Tales IV, edited by Anna Pincus and David Herd and published in 2021, is the fourth volume to date of the Refugee Tales short-story collections. While these stories are told by individuals who have been in detention centers, it is renowned writers such as Dina Nayeri and Robert Macfarlane who generally help these refugees and asylum seekers capture their experiences on paper. The project was set up and is organized by the Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group "as a response to the silence that surrounded indefinite immigration detention in the U.K. [and other countries around the world]" (Herd 2017, 113), which criminalizes the asylum process, "mak[ing] the commitment of a crime (for instance, trying to leave the country under false papers) so much more likely" (117). In this article, I will explore how the short stories in Refugee Tales IV contribute to helping refugees and asylum seekers achieve a space of self-determination where their stories, which are often disesteemed or ignored, can be heard. By emulating some of the main themes and features of The Canterbury Tales, these stories shed light on the traumatic experiences many refugees face in the U.K. and other countries with regard to their indefinite detention and a legal system that marginalizes them. I will pay particular attention to the various forms in which the individuals express the impotence of not being able to decide things for themselves, as well as the ways in which the act of storytelling allows them to occupy a literary space from where to speak up and become active agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a time when Cuban immigrants are seeking political asylum at historically unprecedented rates, most press and scholarly accounts consistently mirror earlier portrayals of Cubans’ mass exodus from the island in one key aspect: they ascribe to refugees a primarily economic reason for their decision to leave and offer little discussion of political factors. To illuminate the need for such analysis, this article examines the Mariel Boatlift of 1980, when approximately 125,000 Cubans, most of them thirty years old or younger, left Cuba. No other exodus of Cubans was more demonized than the Mariel, both by Cuba’s supporters and leadership and by exile opponents of the communist state. Exploring how the intensification of ideological criteria for inclusion in the Cuban Revolution undermined the quality of Cubans’ liberation under socialism prior to Mariel, this article explores state policies and the deep politicization of everyday life and identity. Key political factors explain many young people’s alienation and the degree to which the Cuban state sanctioned and directed extreme measures of repression to discredit those who wanted to leave as lazy, sexually degenerate escoria (human trash). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ObjectivesMethodResultsConclusions\nKEY POINTSAttitudes towards asylum seekers in Australia tend to be negative, and this prejudice is prevalent and not always well understood. There is also widespread support for policies about how to process asylum claims that are criticised globally for being overly punitive. The present study explored the relationships between trait empathy and both prejudice towards asylum seekers and support for a range of policies pertaining to the treatment of asylum seekers who claim asylum to be resettled in Australia.A sample of 193 Australians completed self-report measures assessing classical and conditional forms of prejudice, four facets of trait empathy and support for integrative policies (i.e. community processing) and separative policies (i.e. offshore detention and “turn back the boats” policies).The results revealed that higher levels of prejudice were associated with support of separative policies, whilst higher levels of empathy were associated with support of integrative policies.The results of this study have real-world implications regarding the prejudice and discrimination that is often specifically directed towards Australia’s asylum seekers, with ramifications for the ongoing debates about how governments can and should handle the ever-increasing number of asylum seekers and refugee claimants.What is already known about this topic: Attitudes towards asylum seekers are often negative and widespread, which impacts their health and wellbeing.Policies about how their asylum claims should be handled vary widely across the globe – Australia’s policies have been criticised for being excessively punitive.Attitudes towards asylum seekers can predict support for policies about how their asylum claims should be treated.Attitudes towards asylum seekers are often negative and widespread, which impacts their health and wellbeing.Policies about how their asylum claims should be handled vary widely across the globe – Australia’s policies have been criticised for being excessively punitive.Attitudes towards asylum seekers can predict support for policies about how their asylum claims should be treated.What this topic adds: Prejudice towards asylum seekers predicts support for punitive policies, including those mandating off-shore processing and “turn-back-the boats”.Trait empathy levels predict greater support for integrative policies, including those involving releasing the applicants from detention centres and processing their asylum claims whilst they await the decision on-shore.Higher levels of prejudice against asylum seekers are related to lower levels of all facets of trait empathy.Prejudice towards asylum seekers predicts support for punitive policies, including those mandating off-shore processing and “turn-back-the boats”.Trait empathy levels predict greater support for integrative policies, including those involving releasing the applicants from detention centres and processing their asylum claims whilst they await the decision on-shore.Higher levels of prejudice against asylum seekers are related to lower levels of all facets of trait empathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In recent years, the increasing presence of refugees and asylum seekers displaced from their country of origin, determined significant social, economic, humanitarian and public health implications in host countries, including Italy. These populations are exposed to several potential stressful experiences which make them vulnerable to psychological distress. In fact, the majority of studies addressing the topic found a higher prevalence of mental disorders, especially post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder, in refugees and asylum seekers with respect to the general population. However, heterogeneous prevalence rates have been reported among studies, due to methodological factor as well as to the impact of a variety of risk factors related to stressful experiences lived in the country of origin, during the migration journey and in the host country. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to assess the prevalence of the main psychiatric diagnoses in a large group of adult refugees and asylum seekers (N=303) in the reception centers of two provinces of the Campania region, as well as to investigate the impact of potential risk factors on the occurrence of psychiatric disorders. Methods: The diagnosis of psychiatric disorders and the identification of subjects at high risk to develop psychosis were carried out by means of structured diagnostic interviews. The following variables were explored as potential risk/protective factors to the occurrence of psychiatric disorders: socio-demographic variables, migration status (refugees/asylum seekers) and characteristics of the reception center,assessed by means of an ad hoc questionnaire; cognitive indices assessed by using standardized neuropsychological tests; traumatic experiences and level of political terror in the country of origin, assessed by means of reliable and valid self-report questionnaires. Results: At least one mental disorder was found in 29.7% of the sample. Most prevalent diagnoses were depressive disorders, anxiety disorders and PTSD. Women showed, with respect to men, a higher prevalence of anxiety disorders, higher trauma levels, and came from more at-risk countries. Higher trauma levels, better cognitive abilities and unemployment and refugee status were associated to the presence of a current psychiatric disorder in the whole sample. Conclusions: Our findings showed a higher prevalence of depressive disorders and PTSD in the sample of refugees and asylum seekers with respect to the general population and highlighted the role of potential risk factors whose identification may guide the implementation of preventive strategies and early treatments in these people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adequate maternity care and appropriate clinical interventions during labour and delivery can reduce adverse perinatal outcomes, but unnecessary interventions may cause harm. While studies have shown that refugees and asylum seekers face important barriers when accessing maternity care, there is a lack of high-quality quantitative data on perinatal health interventions, such as induction of labour or caesarean sections, among refugees and asylum seekers and the findings reported in the literature tend to be inconsistent. Our goal was to examine and synthesise the evidence regarding the rates of intrapartum clinical interventions in women who are refugees and asylum seekers in high-income countries compared to other population groups. Methods: We conducted a scoping review of peer-reviewed studies published in English since 2011 that report original quantitative findings regarding intrapartum clinical interventions among refugees and asylum seekers in high-income countries compared to those in non refugee, non asylum seeker populations. We examined reported rates of clinical pain relief, labour induction and augmentation, episiotomies, instrumental deliveries, and caesarean sections. Results: Twenty-five papers were included in the review. Findings indicate that refugees and asylum seekers were less likely to receive pain relief, with 16 out of 20 data points showing unadjusted ORs ranging from 0.20 (CI: 0.10–0.60) to 0.96 (CI: 0.70–1.32). Similarly, findings indicate lower odds of instrumental delivery among refugees and asylum seekers with 14 of 21 data points showing unadjusted ORs between 0.25 (CI: 0.15–0.39) and 0.78 (CI: 0.47–1.30); the remaining papers report no statistically significant difference between groups. There was no discernable trend in rates of labour induction and episiotomies across studies. Conclusions: The studies included in this review suggest that asylum seekers and refugees are less likely to receive clinical pain relief and experience instrumental delivery than non-refugee groups in high-income countries. This review strengthens our understanding of the links between immigration status and maternity care, ultimately informing policy and practice to improve perinatal health and the provision of care for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the nexus between the green and demographic transitions in the European Union (EU) through the analysis of the challenges and opportunities that agroecology offers for the settlement and socioeconomic participation of Italian city‐dwellers‐turned agroecological farmers and non‐EU agroecological farmworkers in ageing and marginalised rural areas in Italy. Many such areas in Italy have recently experienced an influx of newcomers, including non‐EU labour migrants, refugees and asylum seekers and Italian city‐dwellers looking for a different lifestyle. Municipalities and NGOs have developed initiatives, like agroecology, for newcomers to participate in local societies while simultaneously contributing to sustainable rural (re)development in the context of the EU Green Deal. We discuss the potential of agroecology for the ‘emplacement’ of diverse groups of newcomers in these unlikely places through the analysis of the interpersonal, cultural, economic and institutional relations between newcomers and long‐time residents, and across different groups of newcomers, in two Italian villages. Our findings suggest that everyday interactions among long‐time residents and newcomers contribute to the emplacement of the latter. The analysed agroecological initiatives show potential for the emplacement of newcomers through their strong ethical stance and aspirations for environmental sustainability and improved life quality. However, short‐term contracts for the non‐EU farmworkers combined with tight economic returns for the Italian agroecological farmers may lead to distributional and procedural injustices, including the hyper‐exploitation of migrant farmworkers in the name of environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Aim Findings Conclusion This research study explores how therapists in the United Kingdom (UK) navigate the issue of loneliness when working with destitute asylum seekers (DAS). Loneliness and social isolation have adverse effects on the mental and physical health of individuals, and migrants, including asylum seekers and refugees, are particularly vulnerable to these challenges.The study aimed to provide valuable insights into the strategies employed by therapists to address loneliness in this specific population and may contribute to the development of effective interventions and programmes in mental health services for asylum seekers.Braun and Clarke's reflexive thematic analysis of focus group data revealed two main themes: (1) perceived factors that impact loneliness and (2) therapeutic strategies for alleviating loneliness.This paper concludes with a discussion of the findings of this study and provides recommendations for future research directions, aiming to further enhance our understanding and support for DAS in addressing loneliness and to continue improving mental health services for this vulnerable population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the ways Australia's overseas 'public information campaign' on asylum based around the phrase 'No way. You will not make Australia home' has been adopted by far-right movements in Europe. Considering examples of anti-asylum online video campaigns and activism in a range of European countries, we note semiotic and discursive similarities with the Australian campaign. We discuss the implications of such discursive transfer from official Australian government policy to far-right campaigns promoting a blatantly racist agenda in Europe. We also consider the broader question of the fundamental challenge to international law inherent in the promulgation of information that denies the right to seek asylum in Refugee Convention signatory states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of COVID-19 restrictions and the shift to online teaching has contributed to a growing interest in distance learning across social work education. The authors of this paper are from the Open University, which has over 50 years of experience in distance learning and over the past 30 years e-learning through blended and fully online methods. The paper shares insights from teaching a social work law module to nearly 400 students across the UK. This paper addresses the challenges of integrating social work values and human rights into teaching asylum and immigration law amidst a UK legal discourse that often creates a ‘hostile environment’ for people with precarious immigration status. It explores teaching from a social justice perspective in the context of restrictive domestic laws. Highlighting the co-production of learning materials with civil society groups through videos and podcasts, the paper emphasizes the importance of including practitioner and migrant, asylum seeker or refugee voices to enrich content. Insights into the practicalities of incorporating these elements into e-learning, along with reflections on the challenges and opportunities, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay uses an examination of communication in Los Angeles Immigration Court (2014–2017) to demonstrate how legal professionals' beliefs about language foster and entrench underexplored linguistic dimensions of the US crimmigration regime. Scholars have shown that within courtroom interactions, legal ideas about language hold back the administration of justice in asylum proceedings, and language interpretation itself can perpetuate the administrative violence of these proceedings. I combine ethnographic courtroom observations and critical examination of internal agency policy to show how ideas about language, inherited from legal professional culture and training, aggregate into adverse working conditions, allowing for only a performance of procedure, and amplifying the US crimmigration system. Of particular interest are ideologies of a monoglot standard and national language imaginaries, referentialism and referential transparency, and decontextualization. Abolitionist logics and reform of legal education offer possible strategies for structural intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the literature suggests that forced migration negatively affects mental health, fewer studies focus on the mental health of refugee claimants waiting to be granted asylum. In addition, despite the high numbers of refugee claimants in the Global South, fewer studies compare refugee experiences globally. This study attempts to fill these gaps by addressing the mental health of refugee claimants from Iran during the asylum waiting process. Focusing on the Turkish and Canadian contexts, this study asks the following questions: How does the waiting process affect Iranian refugees' mental health and wellbeing? How do their lived experiences of mental health and wellbeing differ based on the country of temporary asylum? In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 Iranian refugees. Nine of them spent their waiting process in Türkiye, and six others spent it in Canada. The analysis results showed that the waiting process is characterized by a sense of temporariness, lack of belonging, precarity, and uncertainty of the future, which lead to adverse mental health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An overview of emerging trends on trafficking of human beings in Italy shows not only an extremely heterogeneous phenomenon but also a complex overlapping of experiences and need of protection of every single victim. In the context of mixed migration flows, persons reaching Italy through the Central Mediterranean and the Balkan routes have often experienced or are at risk of trafficking, and they also apply for international protection upon arrival. Legal categories such as "victims," "asylum seekers," and "refugees" are increasingly interconnected and not exhaustive in describing individual experiences and multifaceted vulnerabilities. Against this background, ensuring early identification and assistance for victims of trafficking among asylum seekers is extremely relevant. In Italy, this has led to the development of good practices aimed at implementing the coordination between the asylum and the anti-trafficking systems. In particular, specific Guidelines for Asylum authorities have been adopted to preliminarily identify potential victims of trafficking within the asylum procedure and enable their effective access to protection measures. To comply with specific provisions of the European Trafficking Directive and its transposition into the Italian legal framework, the Guidelines have created a referral mechanism among the asylum authorities and the anti-trafficking system that is unique in the European context. For this reason, the present contribution aims at describing this good practice, its implementation and effects--also at the juridical level--and its limits. Indeed, after the adoption of the instrument, a higher recognition rate of international protection for victims of trafficking has been registered in Italy, both at the administrative and judicial levels; asylum seekers and refugees have also increased their access to the specific protection program for trafficking survivors. In general, the system has strengthened its capacity to fulfill the legal obligation of identifying victims through a multi-agency approach. On the other hand, the ability to conduct screening and preliminary identification of victims of trafficking among asylum seekers is still limited to the "victim model" in terms of gender (women) and form of exploitation (sexual), and to certain stages of the asylum procedure (the first instance before the asylum authorities). With reference to this latter, a comprehensive protection response at the borders is missing despite the political debate on sea and land arrivals to Italy and the recent introduction of border procedures for the assessment of asylum applications. Given the geographical and political centrality of the south-Mediterranean situation in the current migration agenda, the goal of this paper is to analyze the Italian experience on referral mechanisms among trafficking and asylum as an experience that would help to shape future European prospects. The ongoing evolution of mixed migration flows--with particular reference to secondary movement across European countries--and the revised European Directive on trafficking in persons impose the promotion of a reflection on referral mechanisms with a transnational perspective enabling effective protection and the meeting of specific human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legislation governs both the admittance and treatment of forced migrants in the United States. Increasingly, many forced migrants are offered few welfare benefits, temporary protection, and no pathway to permanent residency. This paper explores forced migrants' legal categories and access to social welfare, focusing on five humanitarian protection statuses: Temporary Protected Status, Humanitarian Parole, Asylum Seeker, Refugee, and Asylee. Based on the concepts of welfare nationalism and the Protestant Work Ethic, our historical analysis examines the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 to see how this landmark legislation shaped access to welfare for noncitizens. We then focus on the emergence of humanitarian statuses since the 1950s and the legislation that constructed them. We conclude that immigration legislation governing forced migrants underlies an ideology of deserving, where some are treated as more meritorious than others. Thus, we call for welfare scholars to elevate immigration status as a key category in their research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Suicide-related behaviours and individual risk factors for suicide differ between ethnicities and demonstrate additional variation based on voluntary and forced migration. People forcibly displaced by violence and conflict, such as those seeking asylum and refugees, are likely to face stressors that can increase suicide risk. Research into evidenced-based suicide prevention strategies among people from asylum-seeking and refugee backgrounds is scarce. However, early, contextually-appropriate, identification and intervention may be a promising way to facilitate support for people in these groups. This research proposes that a contextually-responsive gatekeeper training is an appropriate strategy to increase the identification and support for people from asylum-seeking and refugee backgrounds. Methods: The present article relates to the statistical findings of a larger mixed-method study used to validate and refine a contextually-responsive gatekeeper training program. The qualitative results of this research will be published separately. The outcome measures – knowledge about suicide in multicultural contexts, attitudes towards suicide and prevention, and self-efficacy to intervene were measured quantitatively, adopting a similar pre- and post-training procedure used in previous training evaluations. Using Generalised Estimating Equations, statistical comparisons were made between three identical self-report surveys completed by participants across three consecutive time points – pre-training, immediately post-training, and three months following training completion – known in this investigation as time-point zero (T0), time-point one (T1), and time-point two (T2). Lastly, during the T2 follow-up, additional open-ended questions were included to understand which areas of training they feel prepared them effectively and how the program could have better prepared them to intervene. Results: A total of 28 participants took part in the study. Quantitative analysis indicated the program's capacity to exert a significant favourable and lasting influence on knowledge about suicide and self-efficacy to intervene. In addition, follow-up measurements suggest that the content delivered to participants transferred effectively into real-world suicide prevention behaviours. Conclusions: Findings suggest that tailored suicide prevention training can have a significant influence on knowledge about suicide in multicultural contexts, self-efficacy to intervene in a crisis, and that course content translates effectively into real-world suicide prevention behaviour. Modifying training practices, based on feedback from contextually-experienced attendees, appears to be a pivotal factor in promoting the support of people from asylum-seeking and refugee backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extant literature shows that well-being is one of the key drivers of attitudes towards migrants as well as preferences for asylum and refugee policies. Less in is known, however, about the relationship between well-being and attitudes towards migrants during sudden micro-level events that may elicit the sense of existential threat. To investigate the underpinnings of these relationships, two studies on samples of 600 Slovaks each were conducted before the Russian invasion of Ukraine and during its initial phase. The results show that well-being had a stable positive relationship with attitudes towards migrants across the studies, albeit not with preferences for asylum and refugee policies. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the negative feelings elicited by the war predicted preferences for asylum and refugee policies beyond well-being. The results indicate that incorporating psychological factors, such as emotional responses to the looming threat of war, may considerably inform the debate surrounding the support for inclusive asylum and refugee policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Membre d'associations artistiques, littéraires et scientifiques dont la Société médico-psychologique (1881), A. Rist ouvre une clinique psychiatrique privée à Versailles : La Châtaigneraie (1890–1891). Enseignant de médecine légale à la faculté de droit de Lausanne du temps où il exerçait en Suisse, il devient médecin-expert près le tribunal de Versailles. Auteur d'un ouvrage de philosophie naturelle (1904), A. Rist nous montre son goût prononcé pour les mathématiques qui l'inclinait plus vers les sciences physiques et leur aspect spéculatif que vers la biologie, discipline d'observation et d'expérimentation. Dans cette partie, A. Rist nous apparaît comme un homme de conviction et d'opinion. Dreyfusard et Républicain, il signe « L'Appel à l'Union » (1899). Il n'hésite pas à prendre la plume s'opposant à Ferdinand Brunetière (1849–1906) qui avait déclaré la guerre à l'esprit scientifique et à la Science. Il témoigne de son opinion dans la presse de son opposition à la réforme de l'enseignement secondaire entreprit par le ministre de l'Instruction publique Léon Bourgeois (1851–1925). Il s'engage politiquement en étant élu au conseil municipal de Versailles (1896–1900) et adhère au parti l'Alliance républicaine démocratique (1901). Il meurt en 1923 dans sa maison de santé La Châtaigneraie qui ne survivra pas à son décès. A member of artistic, literary and scientific associations including the Société médico-psychologique (1881), A. Rist opened a private psychiatric clinic in Versailles in the years 1890–1891 called: La Châtaigneraie. This establishment will open its doors shortly before those of the old people's home (1892); they will complete the establishment opened in 1858: the civil hospital. In addition to his work as physician director of La Châtaigneraie, he was a medical expert at the court of Versailles. While practicing in Switzerland, he taught forensic medicine at the Law School of Lausanne. For example, A. Rist assessed Marie Christmann, a spiritualist masseuse, known as "the witch of Versailles", who was denounced for the illegal practice of medicine and the mummified body of a woman was found in her house or Fernand-Théodore Charlatte, known as "the satyr of Saint-Cloud", who simulated madness. Being an alienist was not without risk. He was threatened with death by an insane Arthur-Désiré Ferger who had twice escaped from the asylum; inspectors were assigned to protect him. A. Rist was a doctor fighting against alcohol abuse; the head office of the Versailles section of the French Anti-Alcohol Union was located at his home 11 rue des Deux Moulins. The National League against Alcoholism has founded "rooms of the soldier" in different cities of France (Cherbourg and Le Havre). A. Rist had one such room located at 29 rue de Béthune (Versailles). Author of " La philosophie naturelle intégrale les rudiments des sciences exacts" (1904), A. Rist shows us his pronounced taste for mathematics which inclined him more towards the physical sciences and their speculative aspect than towards biology, a discipline of observation and experimentation. In this second part, A. Rist appears to be a man of conviction and opinion. He was Dreyfusard and Republican. He was among the signatories of the "Appel à l'Union" (1899) like his friend Gabriel Monod (1844–1912), a member of the Institute. This founding document aimed to calm the political situation in the middle of the Dreyfus affair in order to save the parliamentary republican regime then in place. He does not hesitate to take up the pen to oppose Ferdinand Brunetière (1849–1906); director of the Revue des Deux Mondes , he was an antidreyfusard but not an antisemite. The latter had declared war on the scientific spirit and on Science which was not the point of view of A. Rist. In a national daily newpapers, he expressed his opposition to the reform of secondary education; this was a measure which had been advocated by the Minister of Public Instruction: Léon Bourgeois (1851–1925). At the end of the 19th century, A. Rist made a political commitment having being elected member of the municipal council of Versailles (1896–1900); he joined the Democratic Republican Alliance party (1901). During his career, A. Rist did not communicate or publish very much. In addition to his imposing work on " La philosophie naturelle intégrale ", we find among his works an article on phrenology published in the Dictionnaire de Dechambre , which he considered to be a science lacking a scientific basis; a case of idiopathic anorexia, which he said was a mental illness caused by a direct attack on the nerve center that regulates the need to eat; a case of forensic expertise on an anarchist sentenced to prison because he was not fit for internment. He was also supposed to publish a second volume of his natural philosophy, but it never saw the light of day. He died in November 1923, "La Châtaigneraie" closed its doors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The degree to which asylum or refugee integration policy influences a forcibly displaced individual's decision to settle in one European country versus another remains understudied, yet highly visible in policy and public debate. This work asks what explains this decision‐making via Spanish case study. The authors analyse 30 in‐depth interviews with persons seeking international protection from Spain combined with surveys among Spanish NGOs conducted in 2021. Main results firstly demonstrate that few individuals were previously aware of their intended destination's integration policies. Second, decision‐making affected by policies differs between individuals, related to socio‐demographic characteristics (origin country, age, gender). Third, EU policies serve as an auxiliary consideration. Finally, individual personal networks serve as the recurrent, principal pull factor. This paper contributes by highlighting that Spanish integration policies do not serve as a primary influence on decision‐making; instead, they serve as secondary or mediating factors, alongside the main factor of personal networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article questions digital agency as a subjective experience of refugees when crossing Europe's external and internal borders. More concretely, the article asks how refugees experience digital agency, and how this concrete experience is constituted in specific border practices. In doing so, it examines the contradictions that arise between European laws and human rights in the context of border practices. The analysis of the data of this paper reflects two important components of digital agency: the sense of ownership and control of one's body and actions, and the capacity to think independently and thus make considered choices. This study is based on a qualitative research approach based on narrative interviews. The data was imported to MAXQDA, a software package that allows data to be efficiently collected, organised, analysed and visualised electronically. The article shows how refugees and asylum seekers, when crossing the border to Europe, do not simply enter another country, but a (powerful) institutional system. In having their biometric and digital data collected, they are confronted with several practices of border and risk management that have become routinised and thus 'normalised' on an institutional level. Thus, their digital agency must be understood as precarious, underscored by an installed coercive environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

World War II led to a massive displacement of people in Europe and other parts of the world, which prompted joint responses from the international system. From UNRRA to UNHCR, and including IRO, various agencies have sought multilateral solutions to the issue of refugees and displaced persons. The 1951 Geneva Convention and the 1967 New York Protocol were fundamental instruments in the international protection of refugees, establishing the legal framework that defines who is considered a refugee today and the rights they are entitled to. Despite these advances, the right of asylum faces serious challenges today. On one hand, there is the lack of development of robust asylum policies in many countries; on the other, the weakening of asylum processes in countries that have developed them. The aim of this article is to highlight these weaknesses, which threaten the right of asylum as we know it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While global needs for protection of refugees and other migrants are increasing, rising barriers and deterioration of migrants' rights have become a reality in Europe. Hence, the role of civil society organisations (CSOs) to empower citizens is more important than ever. CSOs practice solidarity by building alliances and influencing policy-makers towards policies and practices that uphold the right to asylum and advance migrants' rights, at national and European level. Migration is one of the main political battlefields that is dominated by the narratives of the right, depicting people on the move as a threat. CSOs work to shift the dominant narrative by talking to the public and promoting diversity. CSOs run a wide range of reception and inclusion activities. They carry out valuable work assisting and often substituting for government action, by managing directly or providing support in reception as well as medium- to long- term inclusion processes. To ensure they can keep on advancing migrants rights, it is crucial to work in parallel on promoting an enabling civic space and meaningful participation of CSOs in policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural competence (CC) in the refugee context remains under-addressed in the literature. This study explores the perceptions of asylum seekers and refugees (N = 25) concerning the CC of healthcare providers. This study was conducted in 2019, on the island of Lesvos in Greece. A major finding is that, for the participants, CC means the provision of equal and human treatment and not the knowledge of culture-specific information from healthcare providers. Moreover, our findings highlight the necessity of rethinking CC in the refugee context and integrating relevant components to enhance the provision of equal treatment and ultimately end perceived or existing discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the decision of U.S. President Joe Biden to restrict asylum claims by migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Through a complementary framework of laws, policies, and practices, the Biden administration has built upon the immigration agendas of previous United States (US) administrations, restricting the right to seek asylum for those arriving at the southwest border almost entirely. Principally, it has expanded certain laws and policies implemented by the Trump administration – some of which it has vigorously defended in court – and implemented new laws and policies, specifically a final rule entitled 'Circumvention of Lawful Pathways', which limits asylum but for the most exceptional circumstances. As this article demonstrates, these exceptional circumstances have been interpreted and applied by Customs and Border Protection officers in terms even narrower than the final rule permits. The restriction of asylum has been realized through two specific modifications to US immigration law and, by extension, fundamental precepts of international refugee law: the conflation of asylum seekers and migrants as classes of individuals subject to undifferentiated legal processes, and the qualification of asylum based on the mode of arrival, specifically, arrival by land at the southwest border after having travelled through another Central American State – a condition that applies to all land arrivals by non-Mexican nationals. Through an analysis of quantitative data, and a series of qualitative interviews with legal service providers, shelter providers, independent researchers at US ports of entry, and a former senior US Border Patrol agent, the article demonstrates that the implementation of the Biden administration's immigration agenda and the practice of Customs and Border Protection officers forms part of a 'unified immigration agenda' of multiple sequential US administrations, the purpose of which is to restrict access to asylum, create conditions unconducive to spontaneous arrival at the southwest border, and impose extreme hardships on those who seek to enter the US via the southwest border. The Biden administration has continued to pursue this unified immigration agenda by implementing Circumvention of Lawful Pathways, essentially ending the provision of asylum, even for those who are clearly in need of protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]