Edited by Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi and Vinh Nguyen

This Handbook presents a transnational and interdisciplinary study of refugee narratives, broadly defined. Interrogating who can be considered a refugee and what constitutes a narrative, the thirty-eight chapters included in this collection encompass a range of forcibly displaced subjects, a mix of geographical and historical contexts, and a variety of storytelling modalities. Analyzing novels, poetry, memoirs, comics, films, photography, music, social media, data, graffiti, letters, reports, eco-design, video games, archival remnants, and ethnography, the individual chapters counter dominant representations of refugees as voiceless victims. Addressing key characteristics and thematics of refugee narratives, this Handbook examines how refugee cultural productions are shaped by and in turn shape socio-political landscapes. It will be of interest to researchers, teachers, students, and practitioners committed to engaging refugee narratives in the contemporary moment.

London; New York: Routledge, 2023. 528p. 

Edited by Matthew Frank and Jessica Reinisch  

 Refugees in Europe, 1919-1959 offers a new history of Europe’s mid-20th century as seen through its recurrent refugee crises. By bringing together in one volume recent research on a range of different contexts of groups of refugees and refugee policy, it sheds light on the common assumptions that underpinned the history of refugees throughout the period under review. The essays foreground the period between the end of the First World War, which inaugurated a series of new international structures to deal with displaced populations, and the late 1950s, when Europe's home-grown refugee problems had supposedly been ‘solved’ and attention shifted from the identification of an exclusively European refugee problem to a global one. Borrowing from E. H. Carr’s The Twenty Years’ Crisis, first published in 1939, the editors of this volume test the idea that the two post-war eras could be represented as a single crisis of a European-dominated international order of nation states in the face of successive refugee crises which were both the direct consequence of that system and a challenge to it. Each of the chapters reflects on the utility and limitations of this notion of a ‘forty years’ crisis’ for understanding the development of specific national and international responses to refugees in the mid-20th century. Contributors to the volume also provide alternative readings of the history of an international refugee regime, in which the non-European and colonial world are assigned a central role in the narrative.

London; New York : Bloomsburgy Academic, 2017. 269p.

By Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera

Migration trends in the Americas recently have undergone a significant transformation. During the past few years, an increasing number of migrants and asylum seekers from different parts of the hemisphere—and other regions of the world, including Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and the African continent—have been undertaking a very long and arduous journey to the United States. Migrant mobility has been facilitated by sophisticated smuggling networks (that operate often in tandem with other criminal organizations) and corrupt officials.

Cambridge, MA: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School, 2022. 15p,

Zeynep Şahin-Mencütek, N. Ela Gökalp-Aras, Ayhan Kaya, Susan Beth Rottmann

This open access book provides a comprehensive analysis of Turkey’s response to Syrian mass migration from 2011 to 2020. It examines internal and external dimensions of the refugee issue in relation to Middle Eastern geopolitics as well as the salience of controlling irregular migration to the European Union. The book focuses on policies and discourses developed in the fields of border management, reception, asylum and protection, and integration of refugees with an emphasis on continuities, ruptures and changes. One of its main goals is to compare differences in policy practices across provinces in order to better capture ways in which Syrian refugees claim agency, develop belonging and experience integration in the context of cultural intimacy, precarity and temporariness. By providing rich empirical evidence, this book provides a valuable resource for students and scholars in migration studies, political science, anthropology, sociology and public administration disciplines as well as policy makers, stakeholders and the general public.

Springer Cham

By Martin Stillar

Trafficking in human beings is a serious violation of human rights and human dignity, and is considered one of the worst crimes of all (Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, n.d.). As a global phenomenon that can only be tackled at a global level and in an international context, human trafficking also affects Austria, which is both a country of destination and a country of transit due to its central location in Europe. Trafficked persons originate mainly from Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia. The phenomenon of human trafficking has intensified during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the area of labour exploitation, since economic hardship in particular makes people vulnerable to exploitation. Since the COVID-19 pandemic frequently has an impact on family income too, a growing number of children often have to work instead of going to school in order to support the family financially. This increases their vulnerability to exploitation. In order to tackle trafficking in human beings, Austria established a multidisciplinary task force in 2004 that includes representatives from all relevant federal ministries and government offices, the provinces, the social partners and specialized non-governmental organizations. One of the roles of the task force is to draw up the National Action Plan on Combating Human Trafficking. The current National Action Plan 2021–2023 contains over 100 concrete goals to tackle human trafficking. At the criminal law level, the offences of “trafficking in human beings” and “cross-border trafficking in prostitution” were introduced back in 2004. In Austria, people who are the object of one of these two criminal offences are regarded as trafficked. In addition, the offence of “exploiting a foreigner” was created in 2006. The number of actual convictions for one of these criminal offences is relatively low in Austria and accounts for only a fraction of those third-country nationals identified as trafficked persons in Austria. A fundamental requirement for protecting trafficked persons is that the precarious situation of these people is detected and that they are subsequently identified as trafficked persons. In Austria, a clear separation between “detection” and “identification” is discernible to only a limited extent, especially if the police – who are also responsible for identification – are involved right from the start. This distinction is also of only minor importance for care and support services. These services are funded by the State and are provided by victim protection organizations as soon as a presumed human trafficking situation is suspected, without any official intervention. Services can be accessed anonymously, voluntarily, free of charge and without the immediate involvement of the police, meaning that support is available unconditionally in Austria. In comparison with other countries, this seems to be a unique support service for trafficked persons. The victim protection organizations LEFÖ-IBF and MEN VIA can autonomously identify trafficked persons in order to provide these care and support services, and are thus able to offer support at a very early stage. The distinction between “detection” and “identification” appears blurred in an Austrian context, but a more concrete and formal separation of these two steps does not seem necessary for a better protection of trafficked persons – at least outside the setting of detention pending removal.

Vienna: International Organization for Migration, 2021. 58p.

by Johanna Schlintl, Liliana Sorrentino

This report has been developed in the framework of the Project REST, which aims to strengthen the rights to residence and international protection for third-country nationals trafficked in Europe, by examining promising practices, gaps and challenges in their actual access to these rights.

The objective of this report is to explore avenues and challenges, in order to secure a durable solution for trafficked persons in terms of long-term residence and access to socio-economic rights, including the right to work. Trafficked persons’ access to long-term or permanent residence is an integral part of their right to effective remedies. Securing a long-term residence for trafficked persons is one way to guarantee their dignity and foster their access to justice. A durable solution in terms of residence provides trafficked person with a foundation for safety and stability, and hope for a future perspective.

The report puts centre stage the protection of the rights of trafficked persons. It emphasises that they are bearers of rights as women, men, children, victims of crime, victims of gender-based violence, refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers. It underlines in particular the rights and protection needs of trafficked persons with regard to access to residence and to international protection. It intends to show how integrating and combining protection under the human rights, asylum and anti-trafficking regimes can contribute to strengthening the overall protection of the rights of trafficked persons, and enhance the prospects of long-term residence and the access to durable solutions. To this end, the report analyses the international and European legal framework on access to residence permits and to international protection for trafficked persons.

Vienna: Interventionsstelle für Betroffene des Frauenhandels (LEFÖ-IBF) . 2021. 108p.