This thesis is concerned with examining the right of return and compensation, under international law, of Jordanian nationals who are of Palestinian refugee origin exclusively and Jordan's right as their state of nationality to bring claims on their behalf to and against Israel. It does not concern itself with other categories of Palestinian refugees who are not Jordanian nationals although the two rights of return and compensation arguably apply to all Palestinian refugees. The thesis also aims at examining Jordan's right as a host country, under international law, to bring compensation claims to and against Israel for creating the Palestinian refugee problem. It examines the legal bases for such a right, under international law in the context of State Responsibility for wrongful acts along with relevant provisions of the 1994 Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty. The thesis attempts to critically assess, analyze and examine major claims that Jordan can bring to and against Israel against principles of international law both on behalf of its nationals of Palestinian refugee origin and in relation to the right of return and compensation and claims of its own as a host state to and against Israel. It also critically assesses and examines the procedures and mechanisms available for the pursuit of such claims that are available to Jordan in the context of the 1994 Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty along with non Peace Treaty based procedures and mechanisms.

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Refugees face multiple vulnerabilities during different stages of their migration and settlement. However, the impact of the vulnerabilities on their health experiences remain diverse; also, there is paucity and limitations in application of theoretical concepts in systematically analysing and understanding the empirical evidence that exits on refugee or migrant health. The aim of this interpretive ethnographic study was, therefore, to explore the health experiences Eritrean refugee families in context of their migration journey and settlement in the UK, and consequently contribute to the efforts aimed at understanding and improving health experiences of refugees. The findings of this study are based on thematic analysis, utilizing NVvivo, of narratives of 18 parents, from 11 Eritrean refugee families, living in a Midlands city of England. The narratives were collected (March 2010 to May 2011) through semi -structured in -depth interviews conducted by the insider researcher. Three broad themes emerged from the analysis: The first theme, flight and settlement: implications of 'illegality' and social exclusion, examines how 'illegal' migration status during the course of migration journey, and social exclusion and associated factors during the asylum process in the UK, influenced the experiences, including health experiences, of the Eritrean refugee families. The second theme, refugee families: health implications and adaptation, shows the ingraining of the participants' narratives in their past and present experiences and optimism about their future lives. The third theme, health definition and experiences with healthcare services in the UK, portrays the participants' perceptions and views about health, illness and health services in the UK. Overall, having analysed the health experiences of understudied refugee group based on relevant theory and literature the study contributes to the wider refugee and refugee family health literature. The study also presents recommendations that would help improve health experiences of refugees. ABSTRACT Refugees experience multiple vulnerabilities during

This thesis is the product of four years of participation in a community project created for and with women who were at different stages of seeking a legal right to reside in the UK. It presents the elements of practice and organisational ethos which, through discussion, reflection and interviews with participants, were determined as valuable ways of countering the debilitating effects of misrecognition by the state and endemic racial prejudice. It considers, too, the problems, dilemmas and tensions which arose as we sought to be effective allies across multiple lines of difference, and to produce a research account of the experience. Beginning in 2009, and spanning the change of government a year later, the ‘Arise and Shine’ project was funded through the National Empowerment Partnership (NEP), a New Labour initiative which facilitated ‘empowerment’ activities across nine English regions between 2007 and 2011. Drawing on popular education methodology, Arise and Shine aimed to work against the barrage of hurts which so often attend the asylum process, by creating space for mutual support and collective action (including awareness raising through applied theatre workshops, and giving talks in schools). The case study of the project was made possible by an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) programme enabling practice-based research on - and for - the third sector. The thesis is written from my perspective as community worker, pro-migrant activist and PhD student. It foregrounds the experiences, insights and the demands of the women for an asylum system which is not stacked against them in its decision making, or in the conditions imposed on them as they wait for the outcome of their claims. While the case study of Arise and Shine occupies centre stage, the range of networks of services and ally groups and organisations which sustained the women and aided their integration, including their own self-initiated groups, are also considered. Running through the thesis are my reflections on political, ethical and theoretical issues surfaced by the work, which I interrogate using resources from a diverse literature centred on feminist, anti-oppressive approaches, as well as activist praxis.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is often presented either as a post-Second World War institution, or a Cold-War institution, but its origins within colonialism are rarely discussed. However, the UNHCR and the 1951 Refugee Convention are products of the colonial era. This thesis engages with the colonial legacy in the international refugee regime, to analyse how practices of colonialism are still emerging in the relationship between the host state and the refugee. Focusing specifically on how practices of language and silence control and determine the refugee regime, the thesis adopts a postcolonial framework to analyse the refugee regime at three levels. Firstly, it examines the international level, with a focus on the UNHCR itself and the construction of the 1951 Convention, viewing the use of language and silence in the construction of the refugee definition. Secondly, it turns to the regional level to examine how language employed here can advance our understanding and fill in the gaps of the 1951 Convention. Thirdly, it focuses at the state level with a detailed analyses of the British and Kenyan refugee regimes, examining how practices of language, silence, and labelling have effectively marginalised the would-be refugee, establishing idealised notions of what a genuine asylum seeker, 'bogus' refugee, or victim should be. The thesis culminates with a call to acknowledge the colonial legacy of the refugee regime, and bring about a 'colonial turn', arguing that colonialism, cannot and should not be viewed as a contained historical event. Colonialism shaped and affected both the coloniser and the colonised, and the othering that enabled colonialism, is still continuing and encompasses not only the colonial other, but the foreign other. For the thesis argues that to observe the refugee regime is to observe colonialism in action.

Background: The common concern surrounding the poor level of displaced life is that it might cause harmful psychological conditions. Another concern of displacement is the impact of conflict and the ability to survive in adverse situations. The reasons for conducting this thesis were developed through the literature review, and noticing a lack of studies that assess psychological issues such as well-being, resilience, prejudice and forgiveness among Syrian refugees and Iraqi displaced persons comprehensively. Research aims: In particular, the studies address three issues that are fundamental to understanding how the thesis is structured. The first issue is essential in examining how war has affected individuals’ well-being in short and long term of life engagement of the refugees. The second issue investigates the impact of the displacement situation on prejudices and the possibility of forgiveness after conflict and violence between groups of people. The final issue involves identifying the factors that might help individuals to survive and face any potentially harmful situation. Methods: The overall research sample includes 1,256 individuals of both genders. For collecting the data, self-report questionnaires and objective measures were used. Results: The results show that the research samples indicated poor levels of quality of life, well-being, forgiveness and resilience. Importantly, these findings reveal the significant role played by positive relation domains of psychological well-being in improving resilience and forgiveness. The research has also has shown that the psychological health domain of quality of life recorded the highest significant associations with resilience and psychological well-being. To Sum up, this thesis illustrates the importance of positive social relations, lower prejudice and greater resilience in predicting mental health states.

This is an exploratory research study which examines the role of social enterprise in delivering services to children who migrate within China. Under the current Hukou policy framework, migrant children face a variety of challenges due to differences in the level and accessibility of welfare support available for migrant people and migrant children. Social enterprise, as one form of non-institutional welfare service provision, has become an increasingly important vehicle for addressing a variety of social problems. However, very little empirical research has been conducted regarding the contributions and constraints of these social enterprises, especially social enterprises working with internal migrant children in China. In this study, an ethnographic approach was employed to examine the nature of social enterprises working with migrant children. Two community-based social enterprises which aimed to promote social inclusion and improve unmet child well-being by providing community centre services were intensively studied. The researcher was immersed in each social enterprise for six weeks. Data from these observations were triangulated with data from interviews, focus group meetings and document analysis. The key finding of this thesis is twofold. First, it developed a multi-layered social enterprise ecosystem to explain the operation of social enterprises by looking at the macro-, meso- and micro-level environments and at the stakeholders who operate within the different layers. This framework highlights the constraints of the institutional context in China and the powerlessness of the researched community-based social enterprises to respond to the uncertain policy environment. The researched social enterprises had limited ability to respond to the substantial challenges of migrant children, but even so they each made a great contribution to migrant children’s subjective well-being. Second, the findings highlight the crucial role of the co-production process during the identification of needs and the development of an appropriate service. By looking at their daily practice, it was also possible to discuss the ‘need-driven’ mission drift, which had not been considered in previous studies. The conclusion of this study is that the social enterprise approach is an emerging mechanism for supporting migrant children but that social enterprises have great space for improving their operations.

In Mexico, thousands of people have disappeared since 2006 due to the so-called ‘War on Drugs’. The government has been unable or unwilling to search and identify many of the disappeared, so families have organised their own searches to locate their loved ones. Through a one year ethnography conducted with relatives searching for their disappeared persons in Mexico, this thesis advances a feminist forensics that not only takes into account attacks inflicted on women, or the lack of female contributions to scientific production, but also looks at Mexico’s disappeared and the contribution their relatives are making to forensic knowledge. The practices, conceptions and struggles of these relatives of disappeared persons reveal the politics of forensic science practice amidst mass atrocities. This alternative forensic practice is one in which citizen’s active participation in spotting, mapping and delineating possible sites where their relatives might be held captive, are transforming the politics and notions of what constitutes evidence and expertise. The politics of forensic expertise is a thread that runs throughout this thesis, and that connects the diverse ways in which disappearance, materiality and subjectivities reconstitute each other to bring forth what I identify as citizen forensics. Thus, by exploring the way in which private citizens are transformed into forensic investigators after the disappearance of a loved one, I contribute a new understanding to the geographical approach to missingness and disappearance. Throughout this thesis I understand disappearance as a fluid technology, at once a political category, created against the backdrop of state violence and pervading insecurity, and also a constantly shifting practice where signifier and signified collapse. The disappeared, in their constant absent/presences and embodiment in maps, GPS, pictures and databases, challenge the distinctions made between the ‘person as such’ and cold bureaucratic technologies such as counting, mapping or case-filing procedures.

Based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in two neighbourhoods in Istanbul, this thesis explores Syrian refugees’ migration processes to reach Europe, which are the result of the revolution in Syria and the protracted fighting there. Syrian refugees present in Istanbul are under the temporary protection of Turkish state, and the thesis examines their experiences of the temporary protection in relation to their border crossings. Crossing the border to Europe entails movements and waits. I focus on Syrian refugees’ endeavours to cross the border to Greece or Bulgaria, or arrive elsewhere in Europe by passing through Istanbul’s main airport. Syrian refugees’ migration processes bring the border with Europe into Istanbul, and their attempts to cross the border foreground the effects of the European Union externalising its border management to Turkey. Syrian refugees experience different waits enforced by multiple actors such as Turkish border guards, smugglers, their families and European bureaucracies. Their relations with these actors produce the different spaces of the detention centres and neighbourhoods in Istanbul as spaces of varying temporariness. I focus on the ways refugees endure and counter the waits to argue that the imposed waits influence their subjectivities in particular ways. While temporarily present in Istanbul, they establish ties with fellow refugees to counter the uncertainty they face in their endeavours - ties that give rise to particular ethical acts and tensions. In the final chapter, I foreground the securitisation of air travel and the racialisation of Muslims by looking at the ways Syrian refugees move through the airport in Istanbul.

The following thesis has engaged an empirically informed liberationist’s analysis to investigate the role of discriminatory tendencies in the destruction and demonizing of asylum seekers in the UK. The argument is that the hostility directed towards asylum seekers appears to be rooted in a racist connotation that has been perpetuated by successive governments through the legislation of immigration laws that criminalize this group will be explored. Refugees and asylum seekers, by virtue of their position in British Society, face discrimination because of the embedded hegemony of the masked sociological racism, which has replaced biological racism. Successive governments’ control of asylum seekers through immigration has brought to this group a life of destitution and the inability to integrate and develop active citizenship. This study was done with the partnership and participation of Manchester Refugee Support Network (MRSN), which is a refugee led organisation that advocates for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers thus giving a voice to the voiceless. A triangulation approach which involved participatory action research, encompassing formative activities and comparative and liberating perspectives in the quest for social justice was used. This approach inspired the participants to develop participatory and collaborative principles, which in turn presented a channel for them to have a voice. As a result of this the participants were able to challenge and educate those who had oppressed them. The formative approaches in the feedback of my data analysis given to the participants in strategic meetings not just gave them the freedom of deliberation and having the final decision on the course of action to follow but also taking the lead in the implementation. The key actions included improving the services provided by MRSN, fundraising, and developing new campaigns, hence building its capacity. The capacity building entailed the exploration of suggested new projects and training of community leaders to embrace collaborative principles, which aimed at improving governance in community organisations and MRSN. New fundraising strategies were explored in order to seek flexible funds that would allow for projects that had in the past proved difficult to get despite being of paramount demand for example immigration advice. Campaigns included the fight for Basic Rights, Right to Work and against destitution, and the campaigns became more inclusive, and focused on the agenda set by the participants and directed at the right people and were educational.