The aim of this dissertation is to examine the Swedish government’s responses to the Prague Spring, the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, the anti-Semitic campaigns in Poland and, first and foremost, to Czechoslovak and Polish-Jewish refugees fleeing their native countries as a result of these event during the formative period of the late 1960s and early 1970s. This has been accomplished by examining the entire process from the decision to admit the refugees in 1968, to their reception and economic integration into Swedish society during the seven-year period necessary for acquiring Swedish citizenship. This study also analyzes discourses in Swedish newspapers relating to these matters and compares the media’s treatment of these two groups. The investigation is guided by factors influencing refugee policy formation such as bureaucratic choices, international relations, local absorption capacity, national security considerations, and Cold War considerations. Press cuttings, diplomatic documents, telegrams, protocols from the departments and government agencies involved, as well as reports from the resettlement centres, and, finally, refugees’ applications for citizenship form the empirical basis of this study. The period under investigation coincides with three key developments in Sweden’s foreign, refugee, and immigrant policies – the emergence of a more activist foreign policy, the shift from labour migration to refugee migration and, finally, the shift from a policy of integration to multiculturalism. In this regard, the overarching objective of the study is to shed some light on these developments and to determine whether the arrival, reception, and integration of these refugees should be regarded as the starting point for new policies towards immigrants and minorities in Sweden, or if it should rather be seen as the finale of the policies that had begun to develop at the end of World War II. The results demonstrate that Sweden’s refugee policy formation of the late 1960s and early 1970s was hardly affected by these major developments. It could be argued that a more active foreign policy was evident in the criticism of the events in Czechoslovakia and Poland and in the admission of the Czechoslovak of Polish-Jewish refugees to Sweden, but a detailed analysis of the motives shows that these decisions were primarily the result of international relations, national security considerations, and economic capacity, along with other considerations that had guided Swedish refugee policy in previous decades. Similarly, at the centre of Sweden’s reception of the Czechoslovak and Polish-Jewish refugees during the late 1960s and early 1970s was, like in previous decades, the labour market orientation of Sweden’s refugee policy. The Czechoslovaks and Polish-Jews did not experience any multiculturalist turn. Overall, Sweden’s responses to the Czechoslovak and Polish-Jewish refugees were consistent with the objectives developed at the end of World War II and thus did not represent a transition in Swedish refugee policymaking.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how a Breitbart News Network text represented Muslim and Syrian refugees in the weeks leading up to the 2016 United States presidential election. Using a methodological framework based on Norman Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis, the analysis seeks to reveal the linguistic semiotic choices made by the text producer in the representation of Muslim and Syrian refugees and to explain how these semiotic choices were used to achieve their effect. By revealing these linguistic semiotic choices, the beliefs, attitudes, and ideologies that are present in the text─ but not necessarily easily seen─ can be brought out into the open. Once out in the open, they can be critically questioned, contested,  and they can be examined to find out how their beliefs, attitudes, and ideologies can be understood to have destructive consequences on the audience and the groups of people they represent.

Univ., Diss.--Basel, 2006.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Sciences

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis examines the Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the United States from the perspective of Canada's obligations vis-a-vis asylum seekers under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Safe Third Country Agreement requires asylum seekers to lodge their refugee claims in the first country of arrival, as between Canada and the United States. Asylum seekers on the United States side of the border who are seeking to enter Canada for the purpose of claiming refugee status will be deflected to the United States to lodge their claims there. By deflecting asylum seekers in this manner, Canada effectively conscripts the United States to carry out its obligations under the Charter to furnish procedural and substantive protections to asylum seekers. This thesis examines certain features of the United States asylum system to which asylum seekers deflected under the Safe Third Country Agreement would be subjected, in order to determine whether, according to relevant Charter jurisprudence, deflection constitutes a deprivation of security of the person under section 7 of the Charter and whether such deprivation can be justified under section 1.

Worldwide the experiences of refugees on place and their integration into host countries are understood differently. This study seeks to understand how asylum seekers and refugees found a place and settled in South Africa cities. The study focuses on asylum seekers and refugees, not on economic immigrants. By using a qualitative case study approach, the research has been able to explore how Great Lakes region refugees, living in the eThekwini Metropolitan Area, negotiate their place in the city and to what extent they are and they can be integrated into the eThekwini municipal IDP (Integrated Development Planning). The study explores their life experiences of place, social exclusion, social networks and views on their integration. Refugees and key stakeholders in Durban Metropolitan were interviewed and conclusions are drawn from their responses and the literature consulted. The eThekwini Metropolitan inner-city area was chosen as the focus of the research because the majority of Great Lake region refugees are living and working in this area (personal life experience - the researcher, 2010). Nineteen refugees (including three community leaders), and ten stakeholders were chosen and interviewed by using purposive and snowball sampling methods. Interviews were conducted by using in-depth interviews while data was analyzed using the interpretative-descriptive research approach. A multicultural theory is used as the main approach to understand and to guide this study. Therefore some of the findings emanating from this study will add to the understanding of how to deal with the complexity of our urban spaces and provide challenges and opportunities which planning needs to understand and engage within the response of refugee communities in South African cities. This includes installation of refugee reception centres at the point of entry, refugees' integration of municipal policies, and efficient implementation of the existing South African refugee policies. / Thesis (M.T.R.P.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

L’état actuel des travaux ne rend pas compte de l’ampleur des questions philosophiques et des enjeux moraux suscités par l’apparition sur la scène internationale des réfugiés climatiques. Il est pourtant urgent de leur accorder une protection à travers des accords internationaux. Les philosophes qui se sont penchés sur le sujet ont été induits en erreur tant par la multiplicité des termes employés que leur absence de définitions. Ce travail critique la tendance actuelle des militants écologistes à vouloir englober des populations aux problèmes divers sous le terme de réfugié. Banaliser l’emploi du terme de réfugié n’est pas seulement fallacieux mais également dangereux. A terme, les militants se tourneront vers la Convention de Genève pour revendiquer que les populations déplacées soient considérées comme des réfugiés. Or la Convention de Genève n’est pas un outil adéquat pour remédier au sort de ces populations. De plus, on ne peut élargir le statut de réfugié pour inclure ces populations sans risquer de perdre sa crédibilité et son efficience. Suivre la pente qu’emprunte les militants nous mènerait à accorder le même traitement aux réfugiés climatiques et aux réfugiés politiques, ce qui est une erreur. Notre hypothèse est que les habitants des petits pays insulaires à l’inverse des autres populations ont besoin d’un élargissement de la Convention de Genève. Nous arguerons que nous avons des devoirs et des responsabilités envers eux que nous n’avons pas envers les réfugiés politiques. Pour défendre ce point de vue, il faut définir clairement ce qu’est un réfugié climatique et justifier cette appellation. Nous devrons donc confronter la notion de réfugié climatique à d’autres notions concurrentes. Une fois les termes définis, nous envisagerons les enjeux éthiques à travers le prisme des questions de justice globale. Nous verrons que pour déterminer qui devrait remédier au sort des réfugiés climatique, il ne suffit pas de se référer à la responsabilité causale. Cela nous mènera à arguer que bien que séduisant, le principe pollueur-payeur n’est pas un outil adéquat pour guider la réflexion. Nous serons également amenés à nous interroger sur la pertinence d’une institution environnementale globale. / Current works on the forced migration area does not reveal the magnitude of the philosophical and moral issues raised by the appearance of climate refugees on the international scene . Yet it is urgent to provide protection to them through international agreements. Philosophers who have studied the subject have been misled by both the multiplicity of terms and the lack of definitions. This work criticizes the current trend set by environmental activists who want to include people with various issues under the term of refugee. Trivializing the term of refugee is not only misleading but also dangerous. Eventually, the activists will turn to the Geneva Convention to demand that displaced populations be treated as refugees. But the Geneva Convention is not an appropriate tool to address the plight of these people. Moreover, we can not extend the status of refugees to include those people without losing the credibility and efficiency. Following the path taken by activists would lead us to give equal treatment to climate refugees and political refugees, which is a mistake. Our hypothesis is that the inhabitants of small island countries, in contrast to other populations require a broadening of the Geneva Convention. We shall argue that we have duties and responsibilities to them that we do not have to political refugees. To defend this view, we must clearly define what a climate refugee is and justify this term. We must therefore confront the notion of climate refugee to other competing concepts. Once the terms are defined, we will consider the ethical issues through the prism of global justice issues. We will see that it is not enough to refer to causal responsibility to determine the members who should address the plight of climate refugees. This will lead us to argue that although attractive, the polluter pays principle is not an appropriate tool to guide our reflection. We will also be led to question the relevance of a global environmental institution.