The Syrian civil war and the subsequent displacement crisis it caused, changed the international community’s understanding of forced migration in the contemporary context. Even more than a decade after the conflict began, over half the population of Syria remains displaced indicating the continued importance of this crisis. The literature has overwhelmingly focused on those Syrians who crossed international borders. However, those who remain internally displaced, and the patterns that their displacement within Syria has taken, provide insightful information on the drivers of forced migration more widely. By looking at subnational variation in migration patterns, this study seeks to answer the question: what explains patterns of internal forced displacement within Syria? I argue that the patterns seen throughout the Syrian civil war are an outcome of state policies that push displacement in certain populations and regions of the country as a method of helping ensure regime victory. These tactics go beyond common decision-making explanations, putting culpability for displacement back onto government actors. A qualitative examination of strategies employed by the Syrian regime during the civil war as well as a spatial and temporal analysis of IDP movements within Syria between 2016 and 2019 show evidence for the tactics used by the regime that have driven Syrian internal displacement.

This research explores the world of material belongings of Muslim Syrian newcomer/refugee families as they establish themselves in Canada since 2015. The study centers the cultural and emotional meanings of the material belongings by looking at both those that are brought with the newcomers and those that are left behind. It aims to shed light on how these objects hold memories and connect refugees to their cultural and personal histories while also examining the role of displacement in this context. Additionally, it investigates the different perspectives between generations by looking into how the value and meaning of belongings may alter between older and younger family members. The key questions of the study develop at the intersection of material culture and forced migration. It first examines whether material belongings hold a significant place in the everyday lives of refugees and how this reflects on their memories. Secondly, it considers if migration and the experience that comes with it alters refugees’ attachments to their material belongings and leads to changing their sentimental value over time. Thirdly, it evaluates whether the decision-making process behind what refugees choose to bring with them and what they decide to leave behind is affected under distressing circumstances. Methodologically, the study offers an alternative ethnographic approach by braiding migrant narratives with object biographies, shifting the subject of the narrative toward a demonstration of the interrelationships of persons and things. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>According to the latest refugee statistics from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR 2011), the number of people forcibly displaced worldwide has reached 43.7 million, the highest number in 15 years. Roughly 80% of this population are women and children. Afghanistan continues to be the place of origin for the largest number of refugees under UNHCR responsibility across the globe. From 1979 to 1990, the largest and most enduring forced migration in human history occurred when 6.2 million Afghans were displaced and fled their homeland to neighbouring countries such as Pakistan and Iran.</p> <p>During the processes of conflict, upheaval, exile, and resettlement, refugee women face numerous traumatic events and are exposed to various challenges at every stage of their refugee journey. Very little scholarly research has examined their strengths and resiliency during this time.</p> <p>The primary purpose of this study is to provide insight into the challenges that Afghan refugee women have faced during pre-migration, exile, and resettlement. Specifically, this inquiry using feminist theory and method examines (a) their experiences in all three contexts in which they have lived and managed, (b) the significant roles that they have played, and (c) the coping mechanisms that they have used to overcome the problems in these situations.</p> <p>The sample for this interpretive qualitative research was drawn from Afghan refugee women in the city of Hamilton and the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario, Canada. The study was conducted with six in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The results provide contextually laden detail of the Afghan refugee women’s unique lived experiences. The results revealed Afghan refugee women as resilient and as strong leaders. The dominant discourse that portrays Afghan women as weak and oppressed should be challenged. Implications for social work practice, education and policy are identified, and recommendations for improved services are outlined.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

No description available.

This thesis aims to uncover key factors shaping patterns of forced human mobility within and across borders. A panel dataset was constructed covering 161 countries during 2009 - 2021. The dataset includes country-level statistics on internally displaced persons and cross-border refugees, as well as indicators capturing economic, sociopolitical, and climate/environmental conditions in each country. Leveraging this multidimensional dataset, a gravity-type migration model was estimated to infer how different factors may operate in tandem in driving internal displacements and refugee migration. For internal displacements, conflict, age-dependency ratio, arid environment, and economic conditions play key roles. For cross-border refugee migration, political instability is a primary driver, followed by climate vulnerability, lower urbanization, and socioeconomic factors. The findings imply the mechanisms underlying human mobility can be complex, differing depending on whether the movement is within or across borders. Such difference underscores the need for comprehensive modeling approaches that can recognize refugee migration as a multi-stage process from initial displacement to onward migration and identify distinctive drivers at each stage of mobility.

My dissertation research was a 14-month ethnographic study of the post-repatriation experience of forced migrants in South Sudan. It was designed to determine if alterations to gender norms and relations that refugees experienced during asylum differed as a function of the asylum environments and if these modifications remained intact upon the refugees’ return. The forced migrants in my sample, the Dinka of Bor from South Sudan, encountered two different asylum environments and experiences: Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya and Khartoum, in northern Sudan. After 10-15 years in asylum, these forced Dinka Bor migrants returned to South Sudan. I compared the pre-flight and post-repatriation behavior of these two groups of returnees to determine to what extent gendered behaviors could be attributed to each asylum location. I found that various global forces encountered during asylum were instrumental in forging new ways of life by changing gendered livelihood practices and gendered access to status, power, and resources after return. In addition, the resettlement context played an equally critical role in the gendered behaviors after return.

L’objet de cette recherche est d’examiner deux formes de violence d’Etat : la disparition forcée et la migration forcée, dans le contexte du conflit Kurde. Cette étude se fonde sur un travail de terrain conduit dans deux villes, représentatives du contexte des disparitions forcées, de la migration forcée et des projets de transformation urbaine, à savoir à İstanbul et à Şırnak. Ces formes de violence d’Etat sont examinées dans le contexte politico-historique des années 1990 en se centrant sur l’appareil d’Etat, l’espace juridique, la vie quotidienne et la mémoire. En outre, l’une des conséquences les plus importantes de la migration forcée, à savoir les projets de transformations urbaines, sont également étudiées afin d’approfondir l’analyse concernant les migrants Kurdes dans le milieu urbaine. La thèse principale de cette recherche est la suivante: les formes de violence d’Etat mise en œuvre pendant les années 1990 dans les marges spatiales et politiques de la Turquie offrent des informations cruciales permettant de procéder à une analyse approfondie de l’appareil d’Etat, de l’espace juridique et du débat sur la mémoire du centre-même de la Turquie. L’analyse de ces formes de violence d’Etat révèle également leurs dimensions holistiques, structurées et spatialisées qui façonnent les subjectivités et les performances de différentes parties prenantes, y compris des parents proches des disparus, des déplacés et des résidents des zones urbaines informelles. Les relations complexes, transformatrices et à multiples facettes entre la région kurde et le centre de la Turquie met en lumières l’interconnectivitée de ces entités géographiques, politiques et historiques qui sont beaucoup plus liées qu’elles n’y paraissent. / This study aims to examine two forms of state violence, namely, enforced disappearance and forced migration, in the context of Turkey’s Kurdish conflict. The analysis will be mainly based on a field research on two cities representative in the context of the enforced disappearance, forced migration and urban transformation projects, İstanbul and Şırnak. These forms of violence are investigated in the broader historico-political momentum of the 1990s focusing on state apparatus, juridical field, quotidian life and memory. Moreover, one of the crucial effects of the forced migration on the urgan space, urban transformation projects will also be evaluated for a deepened analysis of Kurdish migrants in the urban milieu. The main argument of the dissertation is the forms of state violence implemented at the spatial and political margin of Turkey during the 1990s offer crucial insights for a deepened analysis of the state apparatus, juridical field and memory debate of the very center of Turkey. An analysis of these forms of state violence also reveals their holistic, structured and spatialized dimensions that shaped subjectivities and performances of different stakeholders, including relatives of the forcibly disappeared, internally displaced persons and inhabitants of the informal urban areas. Complicated, transformatory and multi-faceted relations between the Kurdish region and the center of Turkey highlight the interconnectedness of these geographical, political and histroical entities that are far related than it appears.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--University of North Texas, Aug., 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 255-266). Also available on the Internet.

Inanda Dam situated near Durban in the Mngeni River, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal was completed in the late 1980s. As a typical large dam of the modern era, one major impact of the dam was the displacement and resettlement of over 1300 rural households living under communal ("tribal") tenure. Households were relocated to different places some kilometres away from their original places. These new relocation areas, where different tenure and other arrangements prevailed, then became their permanent residential location. This study was initiated to investigate two key issues. It sought to understand how the relocation altered the quality of life of removed families. It also sought to explore adaptation strategies adopted by the settlers and constraints to effective adaptation. Primary data were collected by means of in-depth interviews and direct observation of certain indicators of quality of life in the study area, over a period of five months. Fourteen households participated in the study. Simple quantitative methods were used to supplement the overall qualitative research design. Because of the small sample that was used, the study is perhaps not widely generalizable. However the study does provide insights into the long-term impacts of this inadequately mitigated displacement. It is also a case study of the nature of long-term environmental injustice and disruption associated with the construction of large dams. This is an injustice made worse by the political system of apartheid prevailing when the dam was planned and built. The general findings are that the dam did impact negatively on the quality of life of the displaced families. Thirteen years after compulsory relocation, the quality of life of several families has deteriorated instead of slowly improving. While the process of adaptation for some families has been easy, other families are still battling to reconstruct their livelihoods and quality of life. Where benefits of access to services such as potable piped water and electricity are enjoyed, these benefits are overshadowed by inability to pay and lack of access to other goods such as proper housing and adequate land. Loss of access to common property resources has meant a shift towards more money-based livelihood generation strategies. Constraints to adaptation are both internal and external. Low levels of socioeconomic status, poor access to environmental resources and the unfavourable political conditions in the relocation areas are some of the major constraints to effective adaptation. While the individual and group coping strategies employed have assisted families in the adaptation process, it is argued that the inadequacy of state support mechanisms significantly retarded the ability of households to adapt to life in the relocation areas. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.