There is symbiosis between theatre and belonging. This thesis examines the ways in which a sense of belonging can be more effectively facilitated for adult refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and their families through drama practices rooted in a relational ethic of care. Findings engendered by practice-based research projects in the London Boroughs of Hackney, Barking and Dagenham and Redbridge are articulated by this thesis. These projects, carried out between 2008 and 2010, were framed as creative approaches to English language learning and were developed in partnership with the charities Lifeline Projects and the Open Doors Project. They modelled access for all regardless of age or English speaking ability, focusing on participant-centred play and improvisation. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the impact of UK government policy on the lived experience of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants and their negative representation across different media has resulted in a need to develop alternative strategies for support that work in conjunction with agencies and voluntary sector organisations and fulfil a need for a sense of belonging from their clients. My methodologies have included practice-based research, interviews with participants and other practitioners and reading across the fields of performance studies, relational ethics, psychology and education. I identify ‘practice’ in practice-based research as professional practice consonant with the fields of health and social care. The theoretical frameworks I am working within include: Brown’s (2010) definition of genuine belonging; Pettersen’s (2008) mature, reciprocal care; Maslow’s (1954) hierarchy of need; Krashen’s (1983) theory of adult second language acquisition and Thompson’s (2009) argument for the radical potential of joy and beauty. The thesis addresses the need for a greater understanding of the practices which generate authentic belonging in drama and second language education outside a formal education context.

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This thesis explores the co-production of public services in the case of asylum seekers in Glasgow. It makes contributions on the theoretical and empirical levels. First, it integrates two theoretical standpoints on co-production from the public administration/management and services management literatures. This integration forms the basis for the development of an original conceptual framework which differentiates three modes of co-production at the level of the individual service user: consumer co-production; participative co-production; and enhanced co-production. The thesis then extends co-production to consider organizational modes, considering specifically the role of voluntary and community organizations (VCOs) in the production of services. This discussion contributes to the expansion of the conceptual framework, by introducing the concepts of co-management and co-governance to refer to VCOs co-production in service delivery and in service planning and delivery, respectively. The result is the development of a ‘Typology of Co-production’ which differentiates all five types of co-production according to who co-produces public services and when. These two conceptual frameworks are used to explore the case of asylum seekers and the social welfare services they receive in Glasgow. The case of asylum seekers is particularly interesting given the marginal nature of the group and their legal position as non-citizens. This serves to sharpen the focus on co-production. Three research questions emerged from the theoretical work which are explored in the case of asylum seekers: to what extent is co-production dependent upon citizenship? Can co-production act as a conduit to build social inclusiveness and citizenship? And is individual service user co-production a prerequisite for co-production and partnership working by public service organizations? The study took a mixed methods approach, consisting of policy/practice interviews, a small survey of public service organizations providing services to asylum seekers and an embedded case study design of Glasgow, which involved a series of interviews, observations and document analysis. The empirical context provided a fertile ground to explore and better understand the five types of co-production differentiated in the theory. It further suggests that citizenship is not a prerequisite for each mode of co-production and also that the co-production of public services can positively impact the lives of asylum seekers, particularly around issues of integration.

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / The study assesses the application of policies on the right of refugees and asylum seekers with regard to the education of their children, and the many challenges impeding this right. Fundamental changes in the legal framework protecting the right to education of the children of refugees and asylum seekers have been in place since 1994, when South Africa became a democratic state. The principles of international treaties recognising the rights of children were incorporated into the Constitution of South Africa of 1996, demonstrating South Africa’s commitment to the protection of children’s rights. However, studies have suggested that, refugees’ and asylum seekers’ children have been discriminated against in terms of access to education, despite the legislative framework which provides for equal and inclusive education in South Africa. Access to education for migrant children in South Africa is invariably met with challenges which constitute a violation of the Constitution and international law. This study assessed policies and practices affecting refugees’ and asylum seekers’ children to access primary schools in a democratic South Africa. The researcher argues that access to education for refugees and asylum seeker’s children must be guided by the social justice principle of “every child deserves an education”, regardless of the legality of their parents in South Africa. Failure to afford them the opportunity to study is a violation of the Constitution and international law. The study used semi-structured interviews based on a questionnaire. Participants included parents who were refugees or asylum seekers,schools’ principals, and officials from Scalabrini Centre and the Western Cape Education Department (WCED). The data collected from respondents was presented, discussed and analyzed through a thematic analysis approach. From data collected, it was possible to identify the barriers preventing refugees’ and asylum seeker’s children from accessing education. Some of the barriers were generated from gaps in migration policy, ineffective policy implementation, poor documentation and various institutional challenges. Based on the study findings, it is recommended that South African lawmakers formulate policies that speak to the needs of the refugee child and amend the current migration policy to make it more reasonable and accommodative with regard to meeting the needs of migrants’ children in general, and refugee’ and asylum seekers’ children in particular. This would enable South Africa to uphold the constitutional values and its international obligations in relation to the promotion and protection of the right to education for all children.

Research on inequities, especially in health care access among immigrants in Germany, has always reflected some of the disparities between the resident population and the immigrants. However, little attention is always placed on the potential inequalities regarding health care within the immigrants (Arab immigrants). Across Europe, Germany is known to receive the highest immigrant numbers, especially from the Arabic world. Since 2013, Germany has received at least 400,000 to 1500,000 immigrants from the Arab world. For this reason, this study analyses challenges faced by the Arab immigrants in access to healthcare in Germany and the underutilization of the medical care services by the Arab immigrant community. The methodological angle undertaken in this study considers relevant literatures to the topic in analysis the state of the matter in Germany by comparing findings from the considered literatures from previous research on the same topic as the study herein. Upon carrying out the research, this study found out that apart from poor communication between Arab speakers and native German medical practitioners, unimplemented governing policies, inadequate knowledge of the services, discrimination, lack of data for medical preparedness, and financial problems instigated by the slow integration of...

Abstract  In 2001, the Australian government implemented the Pacific Solution, which is known today as Operation Sovereign Borders. This policy is designed to hold asylum-seekers arriving by boat to Australia on Pacific islands that are geographically and politically external to Australia, keeping them in what is commonly known as offshore processing and detention centers. This thesis examines the way in which these offshore processing detention centers are portrayed in the media and provides a comparative study between Australian and international publications through qualitative text analysis of the consistently occurring themes in news coverage of the issue. The importance of the thesis originates from the previous lack of international media coverage and criticism revolving around the offshore processing detention centers.

Thesis advisor: Utku Unver / Thesis advisor: Bumin Yenmez / This dissertation consists of two chapters. Both are centered around the theory and design of markets, in which the use of money is prohibited and/or strongly undesirable. In my first chapter, I study multi-object assignment problems. Here, the assignment of graduate students to teaching assistant positions over the course of two semesters, serves as an illustrative application. In my second chapter, I propose an alternative way to distribute asylum seekers among European member states based on the preferences of both sides. Chapter 1: Multi-Object Assignment: Booster Draft In my first chapter, I ask the question of how to divide among a set of n individuals a set of n × m indivisible objects without using monetary transfers, in a way that is efficient, incentive compatible, and ex-post fair. A well known impossibility result shows that the only mechanisms that are both incentive compatible and efficient are dictatorship mechanisms. I fill a gap in the literature by describing a novel mechanism that is both incentive compatible and fair in the responsive preference domain. The mechanism is inspired by booster drafts used in competitive card game tournaments. The idea is to arbitrarily divide the set n × m objects into m \boosters" (sets) of size n and specify a priority order for each such booster. Afterwards the individuals pick objects from the boosters in order of priority. The outcome of the booster draft mechanism can be improved if additional knowledge about a particular market is incorporated into the creation of boosters. I point out a special case of multi-object assignment problems, motivated by the allocation of teaching assignments among graduate students. In this domain the creation of the boosters is straightforward. Indeed, at the Boston College economics department, graduate students are assigned exactly one fall and one spring semester task over the academic year. Here the optimal way of creating boosters is to group up all spring teaching assignments in one booster and all fall semester assignments in the other. In this case the balanced booster draft is not only strategyproof and fair, but also weakly efficient (dominance efficient). Moreover, for this restricted assignment domain I characterize the set of all booster drafts as any (strongly) strategyproof, neutral and non-bossy mechanism. In the final part of the paper I take a closer look at the teaching assistant assignment problem, using date on the submitted rankings over semester-tasks by graduate students. The simulation exercise provides additional evidence that the proposed mechanism is a sensible practical solution. In particular, I show that for a simple measure of welfare students prefer a balanced booster draft to a serial dictatorship mechanism if they are mildly risk averse. Chapter 2: An Alternative Asylum Assignment The 2015 refugee crisis has demonstrated the necessity of revising the current European asylum system. As an alternative, I propose to take into account preferences of asylum seekers as well as preferences of member states. Asylum seekers indicate how long they are willing to wait for their asylum application for any given member state, allowing them to avoid overburdened member states by opting for \less popular" member states. Within the market design literature, this is the first paper proposing to match asylum seekers as opposed to refugees. In other words, its stays much closer to the template of the Common European Asylum System. From a theoretical perspective, it turns out that the asylum seeker framework can be formulated as an application of the well-known matching with contracts model by Hatfield and Milgrom (2005a). This simplifies the analysis a great deal, as matching with contracts is a well studied framework within the matching/market design literature. I show that the standard cumulative offer mechanism (Gale and Shapley, 1962a; Hatfield and Kojima, 2010a) is asylum seeker incentive compatible and leads to stable outcomes, using the fact that the proposed choice functions have a completion satisfying substitutability and the law of aggregate demand Hatfield and Kominers (2016). Moreover, stability implies two sided Pareto efficiency, giving consideration to both preferences of member states and asylum seekers. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

The phenomenon of asylum seekers seeking refuge in foreign countries has become an intricate global challenge, often raising questions about successful integration and participation within host societies. This paper dwells on the multifaceted relationship between asylum seekers and their active engagement in the integration process. Drawing from interdisciplinary research encompassing psychology, peace and migration studies, the paper offers a comprehensive analysis of the factors that shape asylum seekers' participation and contributions to their host communities. The thesis provides a nuanced understanding of integration, emphasizing its multidimensional nature encompassing economic, social, cultural, and policy level dimensions. It then explores the barriers and facilitators that impact asylum seekers' participation in these dimensions, such as personal experiences, social attitudes, language proficiency, legal frameworks, and access to education and employment opportunities. Moreover, the study examines the role of host society's perception and attitudes in influencing asylum seekers' willingness and ability to integrate. Highlighting the significance of reciprocal interactions, the paper also investigates the ways in which asylum seekers' active engagement contributes to the host society's own integration process. This includes fostering intercultural communication, enriching diversity, and potentially challenging stereotypes and prejudices. The analysis sheds light on potential avenues for policy and practice interventions that can enhance the integration process and maximize the benefits of asylum seekers' participation. The research provides a comprehensive evaluation of the complexities surrounding asylum seekers’ integration and participation. Using a qualitative research framework, the research examined responses from 15 asylum seekers who had first-hand experience of the barriers and motivators to participating in integration programs. The study adopted an interpretivist research perspective guided by inductive reasoning to deduce critical themes from the responses. The researcher used semi-structured interviews that were analyzed using thematic analysis.

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