As European governments rapidly turn their attention to the implementation of the EU-Turkey agreement, this thesis raises significant questions regarding refugees’ access to international protection. At its core, the agreement aims to address the flow of irregular migrants and asylum seekers traveling across the Mediterranean from Turkey to Greece, by allowing returns of “all irregular migrants”. The aim of this thesis has been to examine if these actions limit two fundamental refugee rights; the right to seek asylum and the principle of non-refoulement. If so, are these restrictions legitimate according to Seyla Benhabib’s and Joseph Carens’ theory? These two theoreticians have been chosen because they problematize the conflicting view of state sovereignty in relation to refugees’ rights. This is significant when the state maintains border control and is responsible to prevent refugees from entering the state. This thesis shows that the EU-Turkey agreement is not compatible with the practical obligations of states under international law and the European Union asylum policy, simply because Turkey is not a safe third country for refugees to be sent back to. Thus, the actions within the agreement does restrict refugees’ right to seek asylum and the principle of non-refoulement. These restrictions cannot be considered legitimate, based on the thesis’ theoretical approach. To study the EU-Turkey agreement involves addressing one of the most urgent topics in international law and political theory, as well as providing normative grounds for future migration agreements between states.

The entry of immigrants into their incoming country as well as their subsequent spread over the country's territory occurs through processes that have a strong spatial bias. The specific migration groups (here defined as the set of immigrants with the same country of origin) tend to reveal different levels and patterns of their spatial concentrations. The understanding of these similarities and dissimilarities in spatial behaviour is important task from both academic and policy perspective. This thesis has a quantitative character and it is based on the study of "spatial relatedness" of migration groups, which is defined as a rate, how much do given migration groups concentrate into the same regions. The thesis is based on a simple assumption that the spatial relatedness mirrors mutual proximity or similarity between these groups in other respects (e.g. cultural or economical). Plenty of datasets describing spatial distribution of migrants within 32 territorial systems on various scales (from global to local) are analysed. These systems will be analysed separately at first and then a synthesis of these partial results will be done with the aim to discover prevailing pattern of the spatial relatedness of migration groups. The assessments consists of several steps, which include particularly calculation of...

Detention and its role in international migration of foreigners in the Czech Republic Aims of thesis are evaluation of detention, its influence and role in migration processes of foreigners in Czech Republic, as a restrictive action against irregular migration which is applied within common homecoming politics of EU countries, followed by analysis of conditions and informal structures which are related to irregular migration issues in Czech Republic. Individual aims are accomplished in two steps. At first is discussed present knowledge of detention, its part in migration processes, and theoretical definition of irregular migration's and detention's issues. In theoretical section of diploma project is considered mainly the detention's function in migration process from the point of view of migration concepts, negative impact of irregular migration, smuggling and trafficking, client system, EU migration politics' approach to irregular migration, migration politics' restrictive instrument and measures leading to criminalization, securitization and extraterritoriality of irregular migration, law regulation of detention and its application within detention facilities in Czech republic. The second step comprises survey aiming on detention's function and influence in migration processes of 42 foreigners...

Migration and development are a globally recurring topic within media and political discourse. In Europe, the topic gained attention following the so called "refugee crisis", accompanied by rhetoric of solving the root causes of migration and increasing coherence of migration and development policy. Even though the refugee flows mainly avoided Czechia, the crisis had an impact on public and political discourse, including links to migration, development and the need for coherence in policy strategic documents. The diploma thesis analyses trends in Czech migration and development policy and their coherence in the aftermath of global financial and refugee crisis. This thesis aims to assess the progress toward coherence and identify the key areas and causes of incoherence. The concept of policy coherence for migration and development, and a model of policy coherence cycle are used as the main theoretical frameworks. To gain an insight into the process of policy formation, a distinction is made between political commitments and policies on paper, policy coordination and implementation in practice, and the potential impact of the political discourse on this process. This thesis presents attitudes and perceptions of key stakeholders in Czech migration and development policy, based on a series of 20...

A quem os estados devem justificar suas ações quando regula o fluxo de pessoas nas suas fronteiras? Contra a suposição de que a pergunta normativa mais relevante que surge quando alguém é considerado indesejado e está nas fronteiras de uma comunidade política é aquela sobre se os estados têm o direito de excluir novos membros, este trabalho sustenta que, antes, é preciso ouvir o grito de quem denuncia: isso é injusto. Recolocar a pergunta nesses termos é uma resposta ao diagnóstico segundo o qual um dos traços fundamentais da injustiça que sofrem os sujeitos indesejados nas fronteiras é o desrespeito, como também é uma tentativa de recolocar o problema normativo da ética da migração, de modo tal que não incorra em um dos erros partilhados tanto pelas visões que afirmam como pelas visões que recusam o direito dos estados de fecharem suas fronteiras. Está-se falando do erro de silenciarem as experiências e as perspectivas de quem migra como relevantes para uma ética da migração internacional; um erro que pode ser traduzido nos termos de um tipo específico de injustiça, qual seja, aquela que recebe traços epistémicos. Uma teoria política crítica e normativa que escuta a afirmação de que essa situação é injusta e precisa responder à pergunta sobre a quem os estados devem justificação, reflete uma proposta metodológica e epistemológica que questiona tanto o nacionalismo/estatismo quanto o cosmopolitismo epistemológico como perspectivas adequadas. A proposta defendida é a de que uma resposta adequada ao problema da justificação, que nasce nas fronteiras dos estados quando identifica uma pessoa como indesejada e a envia, por exemplo, para centros de detenção, é aquela que propõe como solução normativa e política para esse contexto um processo de justificação em dois níveis um é normativo e o outro é político-deliberativo. Com essa formulação, este trabalho defende que, enquanto agentes morais, migrantes nas fronteiras podem reivindicar o respeito à sua dignidade, mas também que, enquanto agentes políticos, é preciso que se reconheça a necessidade de garantir espaços institucionais em que possam lutar pelos termos da relação que gostariam de estabelecer com a comunidade de chegada. Ao propor tal passo esta tese realiza seu objetivo transformador mais ousado: imaginar um mundo de fronteiras porosas não-opressivas no qual a migração deixa de ser tratada como um problema a ser combatido em nome do funcionamento normal daquelas peças que compõem a engrenagem dos estados soberanos territorialmente delimitados. / borders? This dissertation argues that, before posing the normative question regarding whether the states have the right to exclude new members or not, we should listen to the grievances cry of this is unjust. Recasting the migrations priority question on these terms, the dissertation acknowledges, at one hand, that instances of disrespect are among the main sources of injustice on the states borders and, on the other, it tries to avoid a mistake shared by both sides of the ethics of migrations literature, that is, the systematic disregard of the personal perspectives from those who actually are crossing borders on our world. This forceful disregard, it is argued, should be conveyed as a specific instance of injustice, namely, a form of epistemic injustice against migrants. A critical and normative theory of migration, i. e., capable of paying attention to peoples own voices regarding what is just or not, attempts to bring about a theoretical and methodological framework in which we can evaluate and criticize both sides of migrations theory, the nationalist/statist theories, on one side, and the cosmopolitan ones, on the other. None of them is able to address normative justifications two-tier levels at play on the states borders: the normative and the political-deliberative level. Based on this framework, the dissertation argues that not only have international migrants a legitimate claim on the respect of their dignity, qua moral agents, but also, we should acknowledge some space in the democracies main political institutions for their agency qua political subjects. Agents who should have a say on the terms under which their relations with potential arrival communities are stablished. Taken this step, the dissertation aims at a more transformative goal, namely, conceiving a world of states based non-oppressive porous borders, in which interstate migrations will no longer be treated as a technical problem for the national-based delimited state functioning.

Theorists of constitutional patriotism argue that the binding sentiment of shared national identity can be replaced with allegiance to universal principles, interpreted into particular constitutions through ongoing deliberative processes. In this thesis, I explore the implications of such an approach for the defensibility of restrictions on migration, a subject which has previously received very little attention. I argue that constitutional patriotism implies a commitment to the free movement of individuals across borders; but that freedom of movement itself creates challenges for the implementation of constitutional patriotism. This is because it may increase anti-immigrant, nationalist sentiment in the host community. I term this phenomenon the ‘post-national paradox’. I then draw on independently collected qualitative data on Eastern European migration to English rural communities to explore this post-national paradox. I analyse the argumentative strategies, as the well as the perceptions of difference, evident in justifications of anti-immigrant and nationalist sentiment in these contexts. I highlight both perceptions of cultural and economic threat, as well as a ‘banal’ sense of national loyalty, underpinning such attitudes; and suggest that discursive practice at the most local level is necessary for the bottom up construction, or growth, of an inclusive form of identity and belonging.

The housing wealth experiences of ethnic minority home owners is relatively unexplored within the UK literature. This thesis makes a contribution to this field by exploring the experiences of African Caribbean post war families. There are a number of original points of departure to this literature that this study makes. Links are made with Caribbean migration and social anthropology literatures in developing fresh perspectives on the study of housing wealth among this group. The study avoids treating housing wealth in isolation from other networks within African Caribbean communities. Instead it develops a single asset network that positions housing wealth within a broader resource framework used to interpret home ownership careers and return migration planning. The study incorporates literature drawn from cultural consumption theory in exploring values and meanings attached to inheritances in the UK and Caribbean. An original methodological contribution is made in the use of life history methods in exploring consumption and transmission of housing wealth across two generations of the same family. The 13 families included in the study are drawn from Birmingham and London. The findings suggest that there is a complex interaction of networks used throughout home ownership careers. Informal financial networks in the form of intergenerational exchanges are used in supporting younger family members at the start of home ownership careers. There is evidence that inheritance of 'family land' in the Caribbean provided a focus for the investment of UK housing wealth to facilitate return migration. Other forms of housing wealth leakage took place, with evidence of investments in second homes in the Caribbean, kinship networks and entrepreneurial activity. This investment of UK housing assets in second homes across the Caribbean region suggests the creation of 'transnational housing markets'.

My research bridges the gap between Anglophone postcolonial studies and Francophone literary studies by looking at Francophone literature from West and Equatorial Africa, which remains under-studied in France. This work answers key questions: how can this literature be interpreted beyond its current confines? How does it rethink local and global identities? What theoretical configurations can be applied to these writers to bring them into greater academic and public prominence? I propose a comprehensive analysis of this literature’s significance in the world through a comparative reading of five contemporary regional novels in their political, social and historical context. This multidirectional reading allows me to evoke what Dominic Thomas calls an ‘intercultural dynamics’ in which colonialism ‘finds itself relocated as a mechanism that proceeds from globalization’, and integrates various spatial zones in which thinking is produced. It brings forward key writers situated ‘outside of the parameters of Frenchness’ inscribed in cosmopolitan decolonizing and cultural reconstruction trends, such as Léonora Miano, a young Cameroonian author and winner of six French literary prizes; Fatou Diome, a Senegalese best-selling writer; Sénouvo Agbota Zinsou from Togo, 63 and in political exile; one contemporary writer, Kangni Alem (Togo), and one more established intellectual, Boubacar Boris Diop (Senegal).

This thesis examines the twenty-first-century intercultural performance of Shakespeare in Kerala, India. The thesis highlights Shakespeare’s function in invigorating local performing arts traditions that navigate tensions between paradigms of former feudalism, post-Independence democracy and capitalist globalisation. Throughout, individual artistic perspectives in interview illustrate local productions of \(Macbeth\) for indigenous Keralan performing art forms, ranging from the two-thousand-year old kutiyattam to contemporary postmodern Malayalam-language drama. My introduction contextualises these hybrid productions in their global, national, and local historiography, exploring intersections of the sacred, supernatural, and secular; postmodernism and rasa theory; intercultural Shakespeares and Keralan performing arts; and Shakespearean works with Indian literary and theatrical traditions from the colonial to the postmillennial era. Chapter One highlights cultural translation, focusing on kutiyattam artist Margi Madhu’s 2011 \(Macbeth\); Chapter Two discusses cultural collaboration, studying kathakali artist Ettumanoor P. Kannan’s \(Macbeth\) \(Cholliyattam\), 2013; Chapter Three considers cultural fusion, profiling Abhinaya Theatre’s experimental local-language production of \(Macbeth\), 2011. In closing, the thesis underscores the importance of giving a voice to Keralan theatre artists on Shakespeare, recognising the hitherto critically unexamined potential for the meeting point of two great dramatic cultural traditions as a forum, underpinned by residual colonial and Communist legacies, for intercultural discourse.

This thesis is an ethnographic investigation into how Pentecostalism impacts on the religious, family and work life of Nigerian migrants in London, and overall how such religious engagement shapes informants' relationship with the United Kingdom. It brings together the study of migration, Pentecostal Christianity and gender relations. The thesis focuses on the members of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). The RCCG is one of the biggest Pentecostal churches in Nigeria, where it has developed into a significant social and political player and has spread worldwide. In London, the RCCG caters for a good portion of the local Nigerian Christian community. The RCCG is part of a transnational social and moral field that I term ‘London-Lagos', which Nigerian migrants inhabit. RCCG members' relationships in church, with significant others and with wider society are embedded in power relations – relations that are mediated and rendered meaningful by a Pentecostal morality. The negotiation of moral authority is therefore central theme in this thesis. I trace how it shapes and is shaped by church doctrines and wider British society. The central modes employed to mould Pentecostal Nigerian selves in London are self-discipline, the dialectic of submission and responsibility, and the disciplining of others. Such dynamics around Pentecostal authority are crucially articulated in gendered terms. Hence, they are investigated in relation to gendering processes in singlehood, marriage and the raising of children. The requirements of non-Pentecostal contexts such as wider British society and state institutions sometimes contradict this three-fold way of becoming a morally sound Pentecostal. To navigate this tense and morally complex situation RCCG members tend to employ skills (‘smartness') they have obtained in Nigeria.