According to UNHCR data from 2018, there are approximately seven and a half million school-age child refugees, with only 61% of them having access to primary education (versus 91% of the total child population). In Greece, child migrants have been around for several years, but they have not had access to education for a long time and some children still do not. The situation was dealt with in various alternative ways, through non-profit organizations, volunteers from around the world and refugees themselves. The thesis is conceived theoretically and empirically. The theoretical part of this thesis deals with these issues. It seeks to explore the educational situation of refugee children in the world, describes the recent migration crisis in Greece, deals with the right to educate refugee children at world and European level, and also in Greece, introduces educational opportunities for refugee children in Greece, both formal, provided by the state, and informal, provided by volunteers and non-profit organizations. In the empirical part, qualitative research examines the barriers that non-formal education providers have encountered in trying to deliver education to refugee children and describes the methods overcoming these barriers. Conducted ethnographic research included volunteer observation in...

Fear is a challenge for European democracies today that is discussed in the same breath as rising populism and anti-immigrant speech. However, it seems that fear has also become a defining principle for Western (post)modern society in many other areas of life. This observation has been framed by the term culture of fear and described by recognized sociologists like Ulrich Beck, Zygmunt Bauman and Frank Furedi. They argue that changing social conditions like individualisation and globalisation have altered Western society’s preoccupation with security, uncertainty and risk. In consequence, Bauman and Furedi talk about a fear that has become “free-floating” and “liquid”. This research project asks about the implications of such a culture of fear for society and takes a closer look at what has been described as politics of fear. By conducting a critical political discourse analysis of the political talk show hart aber fair, this paper aims at tracing politics of fear in the German discourse over migration during the “refugee crisis” (2015-2017). In a three-tiered approach, the investigation embarks by defining culture of fear and its social premises, followed by a discussion of politics of fear theories drawing upon such concepts as precaution, prevention and securitisation. Emerging from this discussion, both a “traditional” politics with fear and a (post)modern politics of uncertainty are identified. The subsequent analysis of a selected hart aber fair episode from the 5th September 2016 bases on Siegfried Jäger’s approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and examines the argumentation and interaction of the guests in the debate. The findings indicate that in addition to the use of fear as a political means for populist politicians, the narrative of the “fearful society” has on a whole permeated the German political discourse over migration. Hence, culture of fear offers a new perspective for the understanding of political discourse and the current developments in political practice.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the medially conveyed open-door refugee policy approach of the German government, in light of the recent refugee crisis in Europe. To gain an understanding of the reasons for this policy approach, a thematic content analysis is carried out, identifying and extracting themes, as portrayed in the national, international media, and political debates in the German Bundestag. These themes are then used in a comparison with actual refugee polices and further analysed from a constructivist and a structural realist perspective so as to investigate underlying motivations behind them.Fifteen themes and reasons were identified, with the three most frequently occurring themes, Capacity and Capability, Humanitarian Responsibility, and Demography and Economy, making up about half of the number of themes found. The analysis also showed that both constructivist concepts – such as identity – as well as structural realist notions – for example national interests and capabilities – were largely contributing factors with regards to guiding, shaping and deciding on Germany’s refugee policies. Germany’s intake of about one million refugees was – in the context of identity – an acceptable decision, following its normative, national, moral, historical and humanitarian standards; and the perceived benefits of the policy provide strong arguments in regards to the country’s capabilities and national interests.The thesis concludes that because Germany’s highly internal-moral-driven identity aligned well with its capabilities and national interests, Germany was able to continuously pursue its “open-doors” refugee policy despite resistance from a vocal opposition.

Canada’s response to the Syrian refugee crisis includes a unique program where private citizens can raise funds to sponsor a refugee family. This private refugee sponsorship program tasks citizens with both the financial and social aspects of a refugee’s integration for their first year in Canada. The success of the program has led many other countries, particularly in Europe, to consider adopting a similar approach. Although there has been an increased interest in the program, there is a lack of research into the sponsorship experience. This study aims to provide further insight into the sponsorship experience by studying whether it includes an element of learning for the sponsors. This was done by conducting in-depth interviews and analyzing them based on situated learning theory and placing the results in the context of previous research done on sponsors in Canada during the Kosovo crisis. The principle findings of this study show that private refugee sponsorship groups are indeed sites of adult learning for the sponsors. However, the degree to which this is the case differs depending on how sponsorship groups are positioned vis-à-vis the refugee family and the professional settlement community.

This thesis is a qualitative study focusing on the situation that has evolved in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) from the beginning of 2018, when migrants and refugees started entering the country in large numbers in the context of the so-called Balkan route. The approach adopted in the thesis is informed by critical studies emphasizing the asymmetries entailed in the emerging multilevel governance of migration. The European Union (EU), the BiH state, IOM, civil society, activists, and citizens, are inserted in a “situational map” presenting their inter-relations, and the potential of each to influence the situation of concern. This thesis analyses in details the role of the EU, which is implementing in BiH its security-informed approach to irregular migration through externalization and multilevelling strategies. Eight semi-structured interviews allow the investigation into the potential and challenges of a “governance from below”. The main argument of this thesis is that the EU, outsourcing its strategy to curb irregular migration to BiH, fails to address the humanitarian crisis that is developing there, besides mining the stability and democracy of the country.

The idea of this study is based on the legislative process of the Swedish temporary asylum law. Due to an increasing number of request for asylum in 2015, the parliament appointed a temporary asylum law to create a more restrictive migration policy. This measure was criticized by several parliamentary committees which were emphasising different negative aspects that could possibly affect the refugees. The government responded to the critics by referring to the EU minimum level and by comparison with other EU countries. In 2019 the parliament decided to extend the temporary law even though the number of asylum seekers had decreased. The main argument for this extension was to prevent an increasing amount of asylum seekers as soon as the migration policy in Sweden were to become more generous again. Previous research has shown that not long after the first proposition of the temporary asylum law the law was implemented, indicating a rushed decision made by the Swedish parliament. Thus is our purpose with this study to examine the political negotiations of the legislative process regarding the temporary asylum law and its extension. In addition to that the aim of the study is also to research if the extension of the law contributed to different discourses. Through a critical discourse analysis our main conclusion is that the underlying negotiations of the legislative process cover four main areas: economy and resources, EU, the asylum system and consequences. Within each field we discovered discourses that could be applicable in both the legislative process of 2016 and in the process of extension 2019. Nevertheless the result of the analysis also presented two discourses that became important parts in relation to the extension. These discourses were convention on the rights of the child and EU. Even though these discourses could be found in the first legislative process, they reach a remarkably higher state of importance in the extension of the asylum law and therefore are appointed as new since they did not held the same level of relevance before.

The main objective of this research paper is to analyze the international effects the Syrian Conflict has had to the global community. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has declared this conflict to be the worst humanitarian crisis of our time. Millions of Syrians have fled their home country to avoid unjust persecution and are looking to not only neighboring countries, but the European Union for assistance in resettlement. Since the outbreak of the conflict in Syria in 2011, more than 220,000 people have been massacred, leaving fifty percent of the population in unrest due to home displacement. According to Amnesty International, apart from the twelve million Syrians who are in dire need of humanitarian assistance inside the country, there are about four million refugees fleeing to countries such as Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq. These five countries are unable to maintain the capacity of refugees that are desperate to pour in from Syria. Further gulf countries such as Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia have refused to offer any resettlement venues for these migrants. Therefore, a plethora of European Union countries have received many asylum applications over the course of four years. Germany and Sweden have pledged resettlement locations for these refugees however relying on these two countries is not enough. This paper provides a historical background of the civil war in Syria, along with what the United Nations has done thus far to end the conflict. It will also analyze similar refugee situations in other countries in the region and compare it that in Syria. Finally, it will provide possible solutions of how the Refugee Agency, Human Rights Council, and Security Council can operate as a whole to distinguish this horrifying hostility in the region.

The European refugee crisis sparked many debates within the European Union member states, as European countries had different ideas about handling the situation. As a result to the long negotiations without decisions, the crisis escalated, resulting in anti-immigrant, populist parties to emerge with big support among European citizens.The Hungarian government was among the first countries in the European Union to capitalise upon the refugee crisis by politicising the question of immigration, therefore, several anti-immigration campaigns were initiated in Hungary during 2015 and 2016.By analysing and comparing two campaign materials (one from 2015 and one from 2016) via the three-dimensional critical discourse analysis model of Fairclough, the thesis sought to identify the milestones and the rhetoric shifts of the communication of the Hungarian government that changed the public discourse in Hungary, as well as to point out similarities with populist practices in the anti-immigrant campaigns. The empirical analysis was carried out in the theoretical framework of discourse and power, populism, post-factuality, and agenda setting and framing.The text argued for a rhetorical shift between 2015 and 2016, in which the target of the governmental communication changed from refugees towards the European Union and its immigration policy. The thesis found evidence for the usage of populist practices that vastly affected the way Hungarians approach the question of immigration.It is hoped that this thesis could highlight the imbalance in the power relations of the public discourse in Hungary, and the findings could contribute to further analyses of populist campaigns in the period of the European refugee crisis.

Many strategies can be used to support the use of research evidence in decision-making. However, such strategies have been understudied in crisis zones, where decision-making may be particularly complex, many factors may influence decision-makers’ use of research evidence, and professional judgements may be particularly relied upon. Using synthesis and qualitative research methods, this dissertation examines the role of research evidence in crisis zones and strategies to support its use in decision-making. First, chapter 2 describes a critical interpretive synthesis, which drew upon a broad body of literature around evidence use in crisis zones to develop a new conceptual framework that outlines strategies that leverage the facilitators and address the barriers to evidence use in crisis zones in four systems, namely the political, health, international humanitarian aid, and health research systems. Second, in chapter 3, the focus narrows, and an embedded qualitative case study design was used to gain a deeper understanding into one of the four identified systems, the political system, and specifically the factors that influenced the use of research evidence in the governmental health policy-development processes for Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Ontario. Finally, in chapter 4, a user testing study design was used to zero-in on decision-makers’ experiences with a particular strategy within the health research system, namely an evidence website focused specifically on topics relevant in crisis zones. This dissertation provides a rich understanding of research evidence use by examining knowledge translation strategies in a setting that has been largely unexplored in the broader KT map: crisis zones. The findings from this thesis point to the need for comprehensive strategies to support evidence use in decision-making that draw upon the existing literature and are adapted for crisis zones, which can occur sequentially or simultaneously within or across the four identified systems. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / In humanitarian aid, and specifically in crisis zones, there are many different types of information decision-makers can draw from when making decisions. One specific type of information is research evidence; however, the use of research evidence, and the ways it can inform decision-making in crisis zones, has been understudied. This dissertation addresses this key gap in understanding by: 1) developing a new tool that can help decisions-makers use research evidence to inform their decisions in crisis zones within the political, health, humanitarian aid and health research systems; 2) examining the factors that influence the use of research evidence in the governmental health policy-development processes for Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Ontario; and 3) examining the perspectives of decisions-makers around using one way of supporting the use of research evidence — an evidence website — to support evidence-informed decision-making in crisis zones.

This thesis explores the impact of the Syrian refugee crisis on the Common European Asylum System. It evaluates the extent to which the European Union was able to implement a common asylum system, identifies discrepancies between different European countries, primarily Germany and Hungary, and briefly examines the roots of these differences. To this end, the structure of the international refugee protection regime and the German and Hungarian asylum systems are analyzed. Furthermore, the thesis explores how the governments of the two countries perceive the rights of refugees and how their views have affected their handling of the crisis. The case studies of Germany and Hungary have revealed that the treatment of Syrian refugees varies enormously within the EU. Hence, the implementation of the Common European Asylum System has not been achieved, which can be attributed to the deficiencies within the system and the growing ideological rifts within the EU.