When refugees stopped being migrants: Movement, labour and humanitarian protection

Katy Long in an article "When refugees stopped being migrants: Movement, labour and humanitarian protection" published in February 2013 recalls the need to open for refugees new legal avenues to host countries that secure economic livelihood :

States and refugee advocates often insist that ‘refugee’ and ‘migrant’ are separate distinct categories, despite ample evidence that these labels blur in practice. However, little attention is paid to the fact that in the past refugees were considered as migrants, with international attention focusing on securing their access to existing migration channels. 

The article traces this tangled history of refugee and migrant identities through the 1920s to the 1950s, when ‘refugee’ and ‘migrant’ categories were separated. The article argues that treating refugees as migrants in the 1920s and 1930s failed to ensure their protection from persecution because their admission was entirely dependent upon economic criteria. Separating refugees from migrants in the 1950s—by providing refugees with an exceptional right to cross borders and claim asylum—helped to address this protection gap. However, the article shows that in creating a special route for admission deliberately set apart from migration, the humanitarian discourse that protects refugees from harm actually prevents refugees from finding durable solutions, which depend upon securing an economic livelihood and not just receiving humanitarian assistance.

Asylum Access and The Refugee Work Rights Coalition release Global Refugee Work Rigths Report

Asylum Access and the Refugee Work Rights Coalition have recently released the publication, Global Refugee Work Rights Report 2014: Taking the Movement from Theory to Practice. We reproduce hereafter the abstract of this major paper (as posted on Asylum Access Refugee Work Rights blog). 

The report examines the laws, policies and practices for refugee work rights in 15 countries around the globe (affecting a total of 30% of the world’s refugee population). The reports' findings reveal that almost half of the 15 countries examined in the report have a complete legal bar to refugee employment, and in the countries where some legal right to work exists, significant de-facto barriers to employment, like strict encampment, exorbitant permit fees or widespread discrimination, undermine refugees’ ability to access lawful employment.

In simple terms, refugees’ work rights are respected as the exception, not the rule.

The publication also calls upon stakeholders – governments, UN agencies, civil society, refugee and local communities – to take concrete steps to bring national employment laws and policies around the world into line with international human rights and refugee law standards. In doing so, the report (i) provides a breakdown of the right to work under international law, which may be used by advocates to inform policy makers of their legal commitments; (ii) an explanation of the economic arguments in favor of granting refugees’ work rights, which may be used to supplement legal arguments; and (iii) concrete recommendations for achieving legal reform, and administrative and judicial support for work rights domestically.

Join Asylum Access Refugee work Rights Coalition, fill in their Survey!

Asylum Access is conducting a survey on the right to work of refugees and asylum seekers and is initiating the Refugee work Rights Coalition. We invite all individuals and organisations active on this topic to fill in Asylum Access' questionnaire and to join the Coalition. 
Who should fill out the survey?  Academics, service providers and those generally familiar with the refugee population in their area of residence are invited to answer this short survey. 

Why you should join the Coalition? NGOs, academics, advocates and service providers committed to advocating for and facilitating access to safe, lawful employment for refugees are welcome to join this international forum. Together we can put this issue on the agenda, make informed recommendations, and help refugees access their right to work around the world. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to be a part of this discussion.

Interested in being a part of the movement? Sign up for updates and meeting notices by joining the Refugee Work Rights Coalition Google group.To obtain more information on Asylum Access campaign and survey: click here. To fill in Asylum Access survey on the right to work in English (click here) or in Spanish (click here)

Asylum Access campaign on the right to work for refugees

Asylum Access is an American NGO campaigning, among others, for the right to work of refugees around the world.