By Simon Tomasi, Daniely Vicari

This paper explores the use of social media by Venezuelan refugees and migrants as they head north through the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. It is based on an analysis of 4Mi surveys conducted in Honduras, qualitative data obtained through semi-structured interviews conducted in Colombia and Costa Rica, and focus groups held in Colombia and Peru.

This paper details survey respondents’ profiles, their preferred social media and messaging platforms, the reasons they communicate through these networks, and the connectivity challenges they face in accessing them. It also explores respondents’ most trusted sources of information, the persistence of information gaps and the risks associated with the presence of smugglers in digital spaces.

This paper’s findings aim to build a solid evidence base that will strengthen knowledge about Venezuelan refugees’ and migrants’ social media habits and guide humanitarian actors’ engagement with digital platforms.

Denmark: Mixed Migration Centre, 2023. 14p.

By The American Immigration Council

New research from the American Immigration Council shows that immigrants in Santa Fe County paid over $122 million in taxes and held over $365 million in spending power in 2019. The new report, New Americans in Santa Fe County, was prepared in partnership with the City of Santa Fe’s Office of Economic Development and Somos Un Pueblo Unido. 

The report also features four profiles of community members: Ana Magaña, Iris Madely Alay, Verónica Velázquez, and Gretel Barrita. 

In 2019, more than 16,000 immigrants lived in Santa Fe County, accounting for 11.1 percent of the total population. Immigrants represented 15.2 percent of its working age population and 15.0 percent of its employed labor force, despite making up 11.1 percent of the county’s overall population. 

Washington, DC: American Immigration Council, 2023. 11p.

By The Writers’ Workshop

From the introduction: The Writing Workshop at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility has been hard at work since 1989. This is our second book; the first, More In Than Out, was published in 1992 and well received. I think this one is even better. We meet every Wednesday evening, and, as members are fond of saying, for three hours we're no longer at Bedford but at a place of unlimited freedom. It isn't always easy to get there but we always give it a try. Some of the women in this anthology are regulars, others show up once in a while, still others have come and gone, leaving us a few inspired mementos. The Workshop is an outlet for feelings, of course, but it doesn't stop there.

By Maggie Brady

In Teaching ‘Proper’ Drinking?, the author brings together three fields of scholarship: socio-historical studies of alcohol, Australian Indigenous policy history and social enterprise studies. The case studies in the book offer the first detailed surveys of efforts to teach responsible drinking practices to Aboriginal people by installing canteens in remote communities, and of the purchase of public hotels by Indigenous groups in attempts both to control sales of alcohol and to create social enterprises by redistributing profits for the community good. Ethnographies of the hotels are examined through the analytical lens of the Swedish ‘Gothenburg’ system of municipal hotel ownership.

The research reveals that the community governance of such social enterprises is not purely a matter of good administration or compliance with the relevant liquor legislation. Their administration is imbued with the additional challenges posed by political contestation, both within and beyond the communities concerned.

Canberra: ANU Press, 2017. 344p.

Edited by Douglas Edlin

Are judges supposed to be objective? Citizens, scholars, and legal professionals commonly assume that subjectivity and objectivity are opposites, with the corollary that subjectivity is a vice and objectivity is a virtue. These assumptions underlie passionate debates over adherence to original intent and judicial activism.

In Common Law Judging, Douglas Edlin challenges these widely held assumptions by reorienting the entire discussion. Rather than analyze judging in terms of objectivity and truth, he argues that we should instead approach the role of a judge's individual perspective in terms of intersubjectivity and validity. Drawing upon Kantian aesthetic theory as well as case law, legal theory, and constitutional theory, Edlin develops a new conceptual framework for the respective roles of the individual judge and of the judiciary as an institution, as well as the relationship between them, as integral parts of the broader legal and political community. Specifically, Edlin situates a judge's subjective responses within a form of legal reasoning and reflective judgment that must be communicated to different audiences.

Edlin concludes that the individual values and perspectives of judges are indispensable both to their judgments in specific cases and to the independence of the courts. According to the common law tradition, judicial subjectivity is a virtue, not a vice.

Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2016. 281p.

By Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, Rodrigo Dominguez-Villegas, Luis Argueta and Randy Capps

As U.S. deportations to Mexico continue at substantial levels and the numbers returned by both the U.S. and Mexican governments to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are increasing, it has become more urgent for countries in the region to develop successful reception and reintegration programs that meet the diverse needs of returning migrants.

Between fiscal years 2012-18, the United States carried out approximately 1.8 million repatriations of Mexican migrants, and the United States and Mexico together accomplished 1.4 million returns of migrants from the three Northern Triangle countries.

Drawing on fieldwork and interviews with government officials, researchers, representatives of civil-society and international organizations, as well as returning migrants, this report highlights promising reintegration strategies and pressing challenges. Mexico and the three Northern Triangle countries exhibit different levels of capacity and degrees of implementation in their reception and reintegration programs. While most deported migrants now receive basic reception services, their access to reintegration services is somewhat more mixed. Among the challenges: Difficulty obtaining the official ID that allows returning migrants to access these services, limited awareness and geographic distribution of services, difficulty matching returning migrants’ skills with labor-market needs, and barriers to reintegration posed by social stigmatization and employment discrimination.

The report offers a range of recommendations to governments and others, including: Prepare migrants for reintegration prior to their return, even before deportation; issue primary ID documents from abroad or upon reception; and ensure reintegration services tap into returning migrants' cultural roots. Improving reception and reintegration services represents a long-term investment for both destination and origin countries, the authors conclude, holding the potential to reduce re-migration while enabling countries of origin to benefit from the skills and assets migrants have acquired abroad.

Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute, 2019. 43p.

Edited by Jussi P. Laine , Daniel Rauhut , and Marika Gruber

Focusing on the social impact of migration, this book explores migration as an inevitable part of rural development and transition in light of the sharp political divides in European and national political arenas on the topic. It provides an innovative immigration impact assessment based on recently conducted empirical work to enhance local development in European rural and remote regions, looking to promote change in the perception of migration and related policies and practices.

Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2023. 274p.

By Yves Guermond

The crisis of citizenship in democratic countries is a topic that I am accustomed to study and that I have developed in a recent book [1]. A definitive definition of the concept is hazardous as it continuously evolves across the centuries. It is presently caught in the crossfire between two emerging trends: the diversification of the public sphere with the extension of critical analysis, and on the other side the growth of various kinds of cosmopolitism.

The leading classes became aware progressively of the depreciation of the notion of citizenship and of the need to fill the gap of an ideological perspective and of the necessity of an admitted goal for a large majority of the population throughout the diverse tendencies. In France the idea has been secularism (laïcité), meaning that the religious influences must be set aside to maintain an ideal social live. The problem is that these religious influences often stem from the various cultural backgrounds of the local population.

Academic Letters. July 2021. 3p.

By The International Detention Coalition

The arbitrary and indefinite immigration detention of Rohingya is harmful to refugees and their families. As Rohingya flee ongoing persecution in Myanmar and deteriorating security conditions in camps in Bangladesh, punitive immigration detention has not and will not deter them from coming to Malaysia for safety. Immigration detention is expensive, harmful and must be reformed.

A new joint report from the Protecting Rohingya Refugees in Asia (PRRiA) project demonstrates the far-reaching impact and trauma inflicted upon Rohingya refugees because of immigration detention. Rohingya in detention experience physical and psychological abuse that can compound pre-existing trauma. For detained children especially, the impact has long-term effects on their well-being.

The report also speaks to the incompatibility of detention practices with Malaysia’s desire to offer a protection-centred environment for persons in need.

International Detention Coalition, 2023. 32p,

By The United States Government Accountability Office; Rebecca Gambler, et al.

Within the Department of Homeland Security, ICE is responsible for providing safe, secure, and humane confinement for detained noncitizens in the United States. In that capacity, ICE oversees and at some detention facilities provides on-site medical care services. ICE also oversees referrals and pays for off-site medical care when services are not available at detention facilities. GAO was asked to review issues related to informed consent for medical care for noncitizens in immigration detention facilities. Among other things, GAO examined the extent to which ICE has policies for obtaining informed consent for medical care, and how selected facilities implemented the policies; and oversees implementation of policies related to informed consent to help ensure compliance. GAO interviewed ICE officials and medical staff from six facilities selected, in part, based on whether ICE staff provided on-site medical care. GAO also reviewed 48 medical files from these facilities. Further, GAO analyzed oversight results for fiscal years 2019 through 2021, and reviewed ICE documentation in light of federal internal control standards. What GAO Recommends GAO is making three recommendations, including that ICE require detention facilities to collect informed consent documentation from off-site providers, and then require a review of this documentation as part of its oversight mechanisms for detention facilities. The Department of Homeland Security concurred with each of the recommendations.

Washington, DC: GAO, 2022. 53p.

By The United States Government Accountability Office; Rebecca Gambler, et al.

In fiscal year 2021, Border Patrol reported about 1.7 million apprehensions of noncitizens between ports of entry—a 300 percent increase over fiscal year 2020. This included approximately 451,000 apprehensions of family unit members. Compounding this increase were continued concerns related to COVID-19 and physical distancing protocols that imposed space limitations on facilities. To address these concerns and reduce time in custody, Border Patrol and ICE initiated two new processes in 2021, referred to as NTR and parole plus ATD. Border Patrol released family units into the U.S. without first issuing them a charging document—generally a Notice to Appear—which places them into immigration court removal proceedings. Instead, Border Patrol instructed them to report to an ICE field office. ICE officials are to further process family unit members who report to field offices, such as issuing them a Notice to Appear. GAO was asked to review Border Patrol’s and ICE’s implementation of the NTR and parole plus ATD processes. This report describes (1) Border Patrol and ICE implementation of the NTR and parole plus ATD processes, and (2) ICE’s efforts to initiate removal proceedings for family unit members processed with NTRs or under parole plus ATD. GAO analyzed Border Patrol and ICE policies, guidance, and data on individuals processed with an NTR or under parole plus ATD and who reported to ICE as required. GAO also interviewed officials in Border Patrol and ICE headquarters and selected field locations.

Washington, DC: GAO, 2022. 58p.

By Manlio Cinalli, Hans-Jörg Trenz, Verena K. Brändle, Olga Eisele and Christian Lahusen

This book examines the ‘European refugee crisis’, offering an in-depth comparative analysis of how public attitudes towards refugees and humanitarian dispositions are shaped by political news coverage.

An international team of authors address the role of the media in contesting solidarity towards refugees from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Focusing on the public sphere, the book follows the assumption that solidarity is a social value, political concept and legal principle that is discursively constructed in public contentions. The analysis refers systematically and comparatively to eight European countries, namely, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Treatment of data is also original in the way it deals with variations of public spheres by combining a news media claims-making analysis with a social media reception analysis. In particular, the book highlights the prominent role of the mass media in shaping national and transnational solidarity, while exploring the readiness of the mass media to extend thick conceptions of solidarity to non-members. It proposes a research design for the comparative analysis of online news reception and considers the innovative potential of this method in relation to established public opinion research.

The book is of particular interest for scholars who are interested in the fields of European solidarity, migration and refugees, contentious politics, while providing an approach that talks to scholars of journalism and political communication studies, as well as digital journalism and online news reception.

London; New York: Routledge, 2021. 220p.

Edited by Peter Scholten Han Entzinger Rinus Penninx Stijn Verbeek

This book is the outcome of a truly European exercise. It all started in May 2008 with a conference called ‘Research-Policy Dialogues on Migration and Integration in Europe’, held at the University of Twente, organised by Peter Scholten, the first editor of this book, who was based at Twente at the time, and Rinus Penninx. This conference was co-sponsored by the IMISCOE Research Network, and some of its contributors decided to continue their joint activities in this field in a special research group under the IMISCOE umbrella. They were all intrigued by the vast differences between European countries in the use of scientific knowledge in policymaking and in the patterns of communication between academic researchers and policymakers when it comes to analysing the impact of immigration and migrant integration. Peter Scholten and Rinus Penninx invited several speakers at the Twente conference to transform their paper into a book chapter. Updated versions of these chapters are included in the present volume. In addition to this, a research proposal was developed by some of the members of the research group. The proposal primarily aimed at gathering more empirical evidence on the functioning of the research-policy nexus in the field of immigrant integration in several EU countries as well as in the EU as such. The proposal was called ‘Science-Society Dialogues on Migration and Integration in Europe’, abbreviated DIAMINT. It was accepted for funding by the Volkswagen Foundation in Hanover under its programme ‘Science, the Public and Society’. The DIAMINT project was carried out between September 2011 and September 2013, under the supervision of Han Entzinger of Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Peter Scholten, who had moved meanwhile to that university. Stijn Verbeek, also at Erasmus University, contributed significantly to both the contents and the organisation of the project. The theoretical design of the present volume as well as most of its chapters constitutes the final report of the DIAMINT project. The project, and the IMISCOE Standing Committee of which the project was part, has also produced a considerable number of journal articles and other output, of which a list appears elsewhere in this book..

IMISCOE Research Series . Cham, SWIT: Springer Nature, 2015 341p.

Edited by Barak Kalir and Malini Sur

This book is a collection of ethnographies of transnational migration and border crossings in Asia. Interdisciplinary in scope, it addresses issues of mobility and Diaspora from various vantage points. Unique to this volume is an emphasis of studying globalisation from below, privileging the narratives and views of —people on the move˜ ­ or the transnational underclass ­ and their sense of belonging to places and communities. The collection is further distinguished by its focus on the sources of authority and the social configurations that are created in the intersections between legality and illegality across Asia. Though previous studies on transnational flows have deconstructed the notion of nation-states as having fixed political boundaries, and have engaged in spaces beyond the nation-states, seldom has an entire region, Asia, been privileged in one integrated volume. We emphasize hitherto marginalized debates that have significant policy relevance. Other than a serious academic interest from lecturers and students, we are confident that the book will be of significant interest for development practitioners and NGOs.

Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2012. 268p.

By Emily Ryo and Reed Humphrey

Every year, tens of thousands of migrant children are taken into custody by U.S. immigration authorities. Many of these children are unaccompanied by parents or relatives when they arrive at the U.S. border. Others who are accompanied by parents or relatives are rendered unaccompanied when U.S. immigration authorities separate them upon apprehension. Together, these minors are called unaccompanied alien children (UACs) and transferred to the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), unless and until their immigration cases are resolved or until the children can be placed with a sponsor in the United States pending the adjudication of their immigration cases. In fiscal year 2019, the ORR held the highest number of UACs in its UAC program history. This study presents the first systematic empirical investigation of children in ORR custody using original administrative records pertaining to migrant children who were in ORR custody between November 2017 and August 2019. Our analysis reveals an increasing number and proportion of children in U.S. custody who are extremely vulnerable: girls, young children of tender age (260 of whom are U.S. citizens), and children emigrating from countries with high rates of crime and violence. This trend suggests that insofar as punitive immigration enforcement policies may have deterred some children from undertaking the dangerous journey to the United States, those who continue to arrive at the U.S. border are likely children who are most in need of special care and legal protection. Yet our analysis raises serious questions about the system’s capacity to afford such care and protection. We find that most migrant children held in custody were concentrated in a small number of states, which are different from the states in which their sponsors reside. Only about 11 percent of children reunified were discharged from facilities located in the same state as their sponsors’ states of residence. In addition, most migrant children were in facilities that are extremely large—for example, shelters with capacities of 100 or more children. We also find deep inequalities in the system that suggest that custodial experiences and outcomes of UACs in ORR custody are closely tied to the particular facility and type of program in which a child happens to be placed. Among other findings, our analysis shows that the median time to reunification varies widely between facilities. For example, one ORR shelter’s median time to reunification was nearly eight times as high as that of another ORR shelter. We discuss the policy implications of these findings and consider critical issues that require further investigation—issues that are central to evaluating how, whether, and to what extent the U.S. government is fulfilling its moral and legal obligation to protect migrant children inside our borders.

UCLA Law Review, 2021. 75p.

By Marie Segrave, Rebecca Wickes, Chloe Keel and Shiih Joo (Siru) Tan

This research was developed to support and enhance the Australian Government’s A Roadmap for Respect: Preventing and Addressing Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces (2021). Aligning with national commitments to report on and respond to sexual harassment in the workplace, this research fills a recognised gap in addressing the specificity of migrant and refugee women’s experiences. These are not adequately captured in national data currently collected by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). By building a detailed national picture of the experiences of a diverse group of migrant and refugee women, this research will inform more targeted engagement with women and workplaces regarding unacceptable workplace behaviour.

The research employed a mixed methods approach comprising of two phases: a national survey and a national qualitative project talking to migrant and refugee women and stakeholders across Australia. This report details the findings from a survey of 701 migrant and refugee women.

NSW: Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety Limited (ANROWS), 2023. 76p.

By Paul Gowder

What is the American rule of law? Is it a paradigm case of the strong constitutionalism concept of the rule of law or has it fallen short of its rule of law ambitions? This open access book traces the promise and paradox of the American rule of law in three interwoven ways. It focuses on explicating the ideals of the American rule of law by asking: how do we interpret its history and the goals of its constitutional framers to see the rule of law ambitions its foundational institutions express? It considers those constitutional institutions as inextricable from the problem of race in the United States and the tensions between the rule of law as a protector of property rights and the rule of law as a restrictor on arbitrary power and a guarantor of legal equality. In that context, it explores the distinctive role of Black liberation movements in developing the American rule of law. Finally, it considers the extent to which the American rule of law is compromised at its frontiers, and the extent that those compromises undermine legal protections Americans enjoy in the interior. It asks how America reflects the legal contradictions of capitalism and empire outside its borders, and the impact of those contradictions on its external goals.

Oxford; London; New York: Hart, 2021. 215p.

By the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre

The release of this report marks ten years since Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, made the choice to send over 3000 men, women and children who sought asylum by sea to offshore detention centres and deny them permanent resettlement. The report touches on the stories of seven people subjected to offshore detention since July 19, 2013. The people interviewed and the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre call for the immediate evacuation of the 80 people remaining in Papua New Guinea (PNG), permanent resettlement for all, and a Royal Commission into offshore detention. The Albanese Government evacuated refugees from Nauru. However, people are still trapped in PNG and thousands have been denied the ability to rebuild their lives in Australia.

Footscray VIC : ASRC, 2023. 29p.

Edited by Herbert R. Reginbogin, ‎Christoph Safferling

60 years after the trials of the main German war criminals, the articles in this book attempt to assess the Nuremberg Trials from a historical and legal point of view, and to illustrate connections, contradictions and consequences. In view of constantly recurring reports of mass crimes from all over the world, we have only reached the halfway point in the quest for an effective system of international criminal justice. With the legacy of Nuremberg in mind, this volume is a contribution to the search for answers to questions of how the law can be applied effectively and those committing crimes against humanity be brought to justice for their actions.

Berlin: De Gruyter Saur, 2006. 320p.

Edited by Carin Kuoni and Laura Raicovich

There have been few times in US American history when the very concept of freedom of speech—its promise and its contradictions—has been under greater scrutiny. Guided by acclaimed artist, filmmaker, and activist Amar Kanwar, the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School convened a series of public seminars on freedom of speech with the participation of some of the most original thinkers and artists on the topic. Structured as an open curriculum, each seminar examined a particular aspect of freedom of speech, reflecting on and informed by recent debates around hate speech, censorship, sexism, and racism in the US and elsewhere. Studies into Darkness emerges from these seminars as a collection of newly commissioned texts, artist projects, and resources that delve into the intricacies of free speech. Providing a practical and historical guide to free speech discourse and in-depth investigations that extend far beyond the current moment, and featuring poetic responses to the crises present in contemporary culture and society around expression, this publication provocatively questions whether true communication is ever attainable.

Amherst, MA: Amherst College Press, 2022. 390p.