MPI's Migration Information Source Newsletter
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June 15, 2021
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Feature
Borderless Europe: Seven Decades of Free Movement
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/borderless-europe-free-movement
Between Brexit and COVID-19, Europe's 31-country zone of free movement has been profoundly tested. Still, the area has constantly evolved over the last 70 years, to include new groups of individuals who can freely move for work, study, or leisure, as well as cover larger geographic areas. This article examines the history and challenges to free movement, a crowning success of the European project.
Spotlight
Refugees and Asylees in the United States
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/refugees-and-asylees-united-states-2021
The United States historically led the world in refugee resettlement, but was surpassed by Canada in 2018--and U.S. refugee admissions fell to a record low 12,000 in 2020. With the country now on course to rebuild resettlement capacity, this article examines the U.S. refugee and asylee populations and how they have changed over time, including key demographic characteristics.
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EDITOR'S NOTE
In places around the world, migrants and asylum seekers are being blocked from reaching their destinations or are being forcibly removed from them. Borders have become both militarized and externalized, and migrants have been beaten, stripped, attacked with water cannons, and subjected to other brutal treatments to halt their movement.
Such are the findings contained in a new report on migrant pushbacks by UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants Felipe González Morales, which will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council later this month. By failing to provide individual assessments of migrants' situations or taking other procedural safeguards, González wrote, "pushbacks result in human-rights violations incompatible with states' obligations under international human-rights law, in particular, the prohibition of collective expulsion and refoulement."
The general findings will not be surprising to most people following international responses to asylum seekers and other migrants. There have been extensive reports of pushbacks, defined broadly as any effort to prevent migrants from reaching a territory or removing them without conducting an individual assessment. Among them have been European initiatives on land, in the Mediterranean, and in the Aegean, as well as numerous incidents at the U.S.-Mexico border, in the waters around Australia, between Algeria and Niger, and elsewhere.
Pushbacks are "widespread" and have been reported "along most migration routes from all regions of the world experiencing mixed movements of migrants," González reported. Many situations have been aggravated during the overall chill on global movement prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new report is further evidence of the strain on the international humanitarian protection system. As it marks its 70th anniversary next month, the Refugee Convention continues to look unsuited for the changing times. The Global Compacts on Refugees and for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration, meanwhile, remain works in progress.
My colleagues with MPI's International Program recently launched a three-year project examining new ways to advance global protection, called the Beyond Territorial Asylum Initiative. Their research will be helpful in advancing new thinking about effective strategies to update the global protection system.
In the meantime, reports of pushbacks and other abuses of vulnerable migrants are likely to continue. Despite a few promising measures, including legal changes in many countries to codify protections for refugees and asylum seekers, the new UN report makes clear that the picture is overall a bleak one.
Best regards,
Julian Hattem
Editor, Migration Information Source
[email protected]
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NEW FROM MPI
Strengthening Services for Unaccompanied Children in U.S. Communities
www.migrationpolicy.org/research/services-unaccompanied-children-us-communities
By Mark Greenberg, Kylie Grow, Stephanie Heredia, Kira Monin and Essey Workie
Leaving Money on the Table: The Persistence of Brain Waste among College-Educated Immigrants
www.migrationpolicy.org/research/brain-waste-college-educated-immigrants
By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix
Achieving the "Partnership" in the European Union's Talent Partnerships
www.migrationpolicy.org/news/european-union-talent-partnerships
By Kate Hooper
Rebuilding the U.S. Education System for the Nation's English Learners
www.migrationpolicy.org/news/pandemic-investment-rebuilding-education-english-learners
By Melissa Lazarín and Jazmin Flores Peña
Lessons from Europe: The U.S. Opportunity to Rethink the Links Between Development Assistance and Migration
www.migrationpolicy.org/news/rethink-links-between-development-aid-migration
By Camille Le Coz and Ariel G. Ruiz Soto
From Unilateral Response to Coordinated Action: How Can Mobility Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa Adapt to the Public-Health Challenges of COVID-19?
www.migrationpolicy.org/research/covid19-mobility-systems-sub-saharan-africa
By Ling San Lau, Kate Hooper and Monette Zard
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HAVE YOU READ?
Despite Trump Invitation to Stop Taking Refugees, Red and Blue States Alike Endorse Resettlement
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/despite-trump-invitation-stop-taking-refugees-red-and-blue-states-alike-endorse-resettlement
Under Lockdown Amid COVID-19 Pandemic, Europe Feels the Pinch from Slowed Intra-EU Labor Mobility
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/covid19-europe-feels-pinch-slowed-intra-eu-labor-mobility
Syrian Refugees in the United States
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/syrian-refugees-united-states-2017
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MEDIA CORNER
English-born sports and culture commentary Roger Bennett describes his experiences moving to the United States in "Reborn in the USA: An Englishman's Love Letter to His Chosen Home."
www.harpercollins.com/products/reborn-in-the-usa-roger-bennett?variant=32903734886434
Gil Loescher provides a 152-page primer on forced migration in "Refugees: A Very Short Introduction."
[link removed]
In "The Coffin Ship: Life and Death at Sea during the Great Irish Famine," historian Cian T. McMahon uses migrants' letters and diaries to shed light on travel from Ireland in the mid-19th century.
[link removed]
Catherine S. Ramírez leads a team of editors interrogating the notion of citizenship in "Precarity and Belonging: Labor, Migration, and Noncitizenship."
www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/precarity-and-belonging/9781978815629
"Citizen Humanitarianism at European Borders," edited by Maria Gabrielsen Jumbert and Elisa Pascucci, reviews how volunteers, activists, and others have intervened at the edge of Europe.
www.routledge.com/Citizen-Humanitarianism-at-European-Borders/Jumbert-Pascucci/p/book/9780367557133
Jeannette Money and Sarah P. Lockhart are the editors of "Introduction to International Migration: Population Movements in the 21st Century."
www.routledge.com/Introduction-to-International-Migration-Population-Movements-in-the-21st/Money-Lockhart/p/book/9780367415334
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