Fitting refugees into the normative narrative of Australian multiculturalism

Australia publicly espouses its multiculturalism as a key component of its national identity. In this paper, I argue that despite the importance of multiculturalism to Australia’s identity, political decisions and discourse has muddied its remit with respect to humanitarian migrant intake programs and outcomes. Australia’s history of selective migrant intake and restrictive refugee policy continues the Othering of past policies into contemporary settings. Refugee policy has become a political football. During the most recent national election campaign (May 2019), the plight of sick and ill refugees, currently housed offshore in detention centers, was used as a political pawn. Lost amid this political rhetoric were the traumatic narratives of forced migrants resettling in Australia’s cities. Without possibility for a loud voice in public discourse, there is little opportunity for more Australians to understand how refugees experience detention centers, struggle to attain residency visas, and make “home” in multicultural Australia. I draw on research with Sri Lankan refugees in Sydney to give voice to these micro-level, place-based experiences of vulnerable arrivals. These stories, I think, can (re)shape and enrich Australia’s multicultural identity because they challenge us to not only accept difference but recognize the circumstances through which Australia’s diversity seeds its narrative.     

Contemporary Refugee‐Border Dynamics and the Legacies of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference

While the geopolitical legacies of the World War I peace negotiations are widely recognized, this article examines the often overlooked connection between the WWI Paris Peace Conference's spatial and geopolitical logics and contemporary refugee‐border dynamics. We argue that the spatial and geopolitical logics that framed the WWI Paris Peace Conference—the creation of new states, the propagation of the Western ideal of bounded sovereign states, the nationalist goals of self‐determination and homogeneous ethnic nations, and the establishment of a system of international governance—continue to impact refugee‐border dynamics and “crises” today. The categories, ideals, and practices of the international refugee regime that emerged over the last one‐hundred years stem in great part from these logics. In this paper, we urge critical contemplation about how these foundations—including the establishment of the post of High Commissioner for Refugees in 1921, the resultant Nansen Passports, the post‐WWI minority treaties, and lastly the 1933 Convention Relating to the International Status of Refugees—connect to contemporary human (im)mobility and border violence. We also introduce the articles in this special issue and highlight key themes and future directions for research in critical migration studies.     

EXPRESSING “LOCAL CULTURE” IN HAWAI'I*

ABSTRACT. Detached from the mainland and with a distinct historical ethnic geography, the conquered kingdom of Hawai'i, now the fiftieth state, is the only U.S. state with an Asian and Pacific Islander majority as well as the highest percentage of racial and ethnic intermarriage. Hawai'i's population reflects the tensions between the culturally pluralistic “spirit of aloha” and the ethnic‐cum‐social stratification that has evolved from its historical economic geographies. In this article I focus on one of these strata—what is referred to as “local” culture—discussing its ethnogenesis and contemporary manifestations, and I apply Jonathan Okamura's 1981 model of situational ethnicity to examine how locals and new immigrants negotiate the ethnic dynamics and social expectations of their daily lives. I also discuss various ways in which “localness” is represented on O'ahu's economic landscape, with an analysis of the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet, as a holistic expression of local culture.     

避难国政策影响下的欧洲难民危机时空格局及迁移优化

欧洲是“一带一路”倡议的重点覆盖地域,是亚欧大陆经济走廊的重要组成,维护其地区安全稳定,排除干扰中欧两大市场合作互联的潜在安全隐患,对于“一带一路”倡议的稳固推进十分必要。基于地理学视角,考虑难民安置政策因素,采用灰色关联分析、层次分析、多目标规划等方法对2015-2017年欧洲难民危机时空演变过程及迁移格局优化进行分析。① 时空演化分析显示难民集中于2015年登陆欧洲,欧洲各国登陆难民、接收难民数量极化突出,双重失衡;② 灰色关联分析显示难民迁移决策具有福利优先、收入优先的导向,各国难民政策调整为迁移决策带来不确定性,既有迁移格局难以长期维持;③ 层次分析显示北欧西欧国家难民宜居性较高,东欧南欧国家宜居性相对较差,部分避难国承担安置难民数量与其宜居性不符;④ 多目标规划的优化格局显示,由于欧洲各国忽视全球化背景致使难民政策指向错误,迁移网络更加混乱失衡,优化后来自土耳其、乌克兰的难民迁移趋势向西欧集中,来自希腊、匈牙利的难民迁移趋势在空间上更加平均分散,来自意大利的难民迁移趋势向西欧南欧呈扇形分散。优化后迁移格局有助于缓解地区安全局势、为“一带一路”建设创造良好的政治、经济环境,平衡劳动力资源配置,为建设投资提供潜在市场。最后在研究结果的基础上提出若干协同合作调整难民迁移格局的危机缓解措施。     

Considering Refugees Through 100 Years of Geographical Review

Given the role of the American Geographical Society and its flagship journal, Geographical Review, in the Paris Peace Conference and its prominence in the discipline of geography ever since, this paper considers how the journal takes account of refugees in its pages from 1916 to 2018 using a bibliometric approach. The term “refugee” was tracked in every Geographical Review article published during this time period, using content to generate data and analysis in QSR NVivo. First, we identify key trends in scholarship over time, then we note the rise and fall of important key terms, and finally, we examine both the countries analyzed and how these geographies change over time. The results of this bibliometric analysis of refugees in Geographical Review reflect both global geopolitical dynamics and refugee governance structures, and broader trends in epistemology in the discipline of geography. Observations made on these trends and variations indicate a need to further explore shifting paradigms and master narratives, both past and emerging, built around the “refugee” concept and its treatment within the discipline of geography.     

Reconsidering neoliberal urban planning in times of crisis: urban regeneration policy in a “dense” space in Lisbon

In this article, I contribute to recent debates about the concept of neoliberalism and its use as an explanatory concept, through the analysis of urban planning and regeneration policy in Lisbon amidst crisis and austerity. Suggesting a look at neoliberalization from a threefold perspective—the project, governmentalities, and policymaking—I analyze how current austerity-policy responses to the European economic crisis can be understood as a renewed and coherent deployment of neoliberal stances. The article presents implications for urban planning in Lisbon and thus suggests an exploration of the negotiations and clashes of hegemonic neoliberal governmentalities and policies with the local social and spatial fabric. For this exploration, I select a “deviant” case—the Mouraria neighborhood, a “dense” space in which the consequences of policies diverge sharply from expectations. In conclusion, I suggest that neoliberalization (in times of crisis) should be understood as a coherent project compromised by a set of highly ambiguous governmentalities, which bring about contradictory policymaking at the local level.     

AMENITY MIGRATION IN THE U.S. SIERRA NEVADA*

ABSTRACT. Since 1960 California's Sierra Nevada counties have ranked among the regions with the strongest relative population growth in the state. Reassessment of peripheral areas has been the main force driving population and settlement growth in the central Sierra Nevada of California and Nevada, termed “amenity migration” or “counterurbanization.” This study analyzes the impacts of amenity migrants—“urban refugees”—on socioeconomic conditions in high‐mountain regions. We define these regions as the “High Sierra,” comprising zones at elevations more than 1,800 meters above sea level. People who migrate to the High Sierra tend to be white and well educated, with considerable household earnings. Unlike the population in the foothills, these migrants are not senior citizens. Their demand for periodic or permanent residences has caused housing prices to increase enormously. As a result, a majority of homes are now priced well beyond the reach of local salaries, which may lead to potential conflict between locals and newcomers. The massive settlement expansion in high‐mountain areas requires a new approach to land‐use planning, one that takes functional regions into account. Therefore, it is expedient to reassess existing jurisdictional boundaries.     

International refugees: a geographical perspective

In the modern era, the world's refugee problem has changed magnitude and location; it has expanded from a local to a continental, and now global, scale issue. About 90% of the world's 10 million refugees are from developing countries, and over 90% of these will stay there. Refugee generating and receiving countries are concentrated in 5 world regions: Central America, Southwest Asia, Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Each concentration is unique and is associated with a particular set of regional conflicts. International efforts address short-term relief needs, whereas political instability and repression that generate refugees continue unabated. Refugees along sensitive border regions affect bilateral relations, large groups of refugees can pose political and security problems for the host country, and disputes over refugee policies and their implementation can complicate diplomatic ties. Some highlights of the data follow. 1) The 3 million cross-border refugees and 5.5 million internally displaced persons make the many governments in Sub-Saharan Africa increasingly dependent on Western assistance to solve their problems. Refugees are fleeing armed conflict, tribal violence, and drought, and often generate additional regional turmoil. 2) 3-4 million Afghans have fled their country since the 1978 Marxist coup; about 2.5 million have entered Pakistan. Most choose to remain in camps near the Afghanistan border where they are targets of cross-border attacks. 3) 1.2 million Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and Nicaraguans live outside their native countries. Official refugee and unofficial migrant populations are active in various rebel insurgencies, contribute to strained bilateral relations and tensions in border areas, and are the subject of heated political debate in host countries. 4) 90% of the 1.7 million Indochinese who fled from 1975-May 1986 have been resettled; 168,000 refugees remain in 1st-asylum camps, not including 240,000 Khmer without refugee status, in temporary camps in Thailand. Thailand's large refugee population is involved in factional strife, smuggling, and guerrilla activities. The Thai are particularly concerned about Hmong refugees, who are accused of opium cultivation and destruction of Thai forests through slash-and-burn cultivation. 5) Nearly 62% of the thousands of present Vietnamese refugees to Hong Kong have been in camps 3 years, and 17% 6 years. Many have turned to crime, alcohol, drugs, or prostitution.     

缅孟边境罗兴亚难民的人口学特征及其对区域地缘政治关系的影响

基于联合国难民署的动态监测数据,对2018年1月至2020年9月期间的缅孟边境罗兴亚难民人口规模、人口结构及其对区域地缘政治关系的影响进行分析。研究表明：1）缅孟边境罗兴亚难民规模大且呈不断增长的态势;女性难民多于男性,难民年龄结构趋于年轻型,以18岁以下的未成年人为主,青壮年难民占总人口比重次之且增长快速;在空间分布上表现出典型的“距缅孟边境的距离衰变规律”,即难民营地向西部扩张,难民规模呈现自东向西递减的分布规律。2）罗兴亚难民的人口规模及结构对区域地缘政治关系产生了显著影响。一是深刻影响着缅甸的民主化进程;二是对缅孟边境安全形成挑战,导致缅孟关系趋于紧张;三是引发了多地缘行为体的介入与关注,进而引发了围绕难民问题的地缘政治博弈,导致东盟内部的分化及其地缘政治的外溢效应。3）相较于部分西方国家及国际组织,中国提出的“三步走”解决方案符合缅孟两国的实际情况,在中缅孟联合工作组机制下,罗兴亚难民问题正朝着合作共商的道路积极推进解决。     

Humanitarian assistance to refugees in rural Ghana: Implications for refugee–host relations

In the face of protracted refugee situations worldwide, peaceful co-existence with host populations is necessary to ensure a meaningful life for refugees. Refugees need assistance to survive, especially in the emergency phase of their arrival in host communities. However, establishing refugee camps in predominantly rural communities with poor living conditions questions the type of assistance that should be offered in order to avoid resentment from rural hosts. The article explores the implications of humanitarian assistance to refugees in Krisan Refugee Camp in Ghana for refugee–host relations. Where assistance to refugees is perceived to be above average living conditions in the host communities, there is likely to be resentment among hosts. This may create antagonism between refugees and hosts, thereby jeopardising peaceful co-existence. It is concluded that assistance should also take the needs of local populations into consideration in order to create a congenial atmosphere for co-existence.     

Making “Unofficial” Sacred Space: Spirit Mediums and House Temples in Singapore

Although there has been significant work done on the creation of sacred space in residential housing, not enough attention has been paid to a particular segment of Chinese religion leadership in Singapore – spirit mediums – and the processes in which they practice within the political ideology of the modernist Singaporean state. In this paper, I will show how spirit mediums operate within “unofficially sacred” spaces, specifically house temples that subvert and resist functionalist policies of the Singapore state. Using two visually focussed, participant‐observation case studies, I will argue that this subversion is sustained in two inter‐related ways—one, through the visual comportment of the spirit medium's body through behavior and aesthetic markers and two, through the social prominence of the spirit medium when he or she is in a trance. These two factors come together to temporally displace the importance of the physical location, allowing a spirit medium to operate in any location, “official” or “unofficial.”     

Heterolocalism,Networks of Ethnicity,and Refugee Communities in the Pacific Northwest: The Portland Story*

Geographic studies of refugee issues have emerged as salient topics of inquiry in the past decade. This spatial analysis of the migration experiences and heterolocal settlement patterns of refugees in an increasingly diverse part of the Pacific Northwest focuses on a place that the Atlantic Monthly recently called the last Caucasian bastion in the United States. Perceived as a region better known for its dense forests, progressive environmental policies, and rural ambience, the Portland metropolitan area and its hinterland in the Willamette Valley now resonate with ethnic and racial diversity. This article analyzes the spatial patterns and related networks of the three largest refugee groups in the region. Findings indicate that an overlapping and interrelated set of political, social, cultural, and economic networks are the most important factors in determining refugee residential patterns.     

Gender and Migration Policies in Southeast and East Asia: Legal Protection and Sociocultural Empowerment of Unskilled Migrant Women

This paper is concerned with how existing migration policies affect individual migrant women's choices, in particular, with the advancement, or consolidation, of a migrants' rights perspective. The focus is thereby on those migrants classified as unskilled, who constitute the largest and most vulnerable category among migrants. The analysis of migration policies has conventionally been approached from a state/government‐centred viewpoint that sees states as the key actors. This paper, however, emphasises a larger number of actors ‐ governmental and non‐governmental ‐ as well as the power relations among them to argue that protection through “legal regulation” in the absence of actual implementation is an incomplete solution to alleviate unfair labour conditions that migrants in general, and migrant women specifically, experience. Measures designed to “protect” migrants must be accompanied by measures that empower them, a role that has largely been taken on by existing migrant worker non‐governmental organisations (NGOs). Focussing on intra‐Asian migration flows in which Southeast Asia is the main labour sender and East Asia the receiver of Southeast Asian migrants, the paper explores the nexus between law and civic activism in the specific subject area of international labour migration and its gender implications.     

SEAFARERS' “MARITIME CULTURE” AND THE “I‐KIRIBATI WAY OF LIFE”: THE FORMATION OF FLEXIBLE IDENTITIES?

This paper aims to examine how seafarers from the Pacific Republic of Kiribati cope with the experience of working with crews of different nationalities, and, further, how the exposure to different cultures during their journeys through international waters influences both their own identity as well as their perceptions of I‐Kiribati culture. Based on examples from open and semi‐structured interviews with seafarers working on German merchant ships and Japanese fishing vessels, the paper questions the application of concepts of “hybridity” in the case of these I‐Kiribati men in favour of the idea of “cultural flexibility”. It further considers to what degree seafarers strongly rooted in the clearly confined cultural values of Kiribati have adapted the values received through their training and employment by German or Japanese and Korean companies and officers. The paper adds to the framework of transnationalism by advancing the notion of emporion, in which the circular and transversal journeys of seafarers are viewed as a connecting space between land‐based areas; a space which provides a basis for an extended knowledge and understanding of different cultural outlooks as well as relations between nations.     

Local Uniqueness in the Global Village: Heritage Tourism in Singapore

It is commonly assumed that the development of tourist attractions, the formulation of tourism policies, and the marketing of destination areas are dictated by the needs and interests of foreign visitors. What is ignored is the role that local factors and agencies play in these processes. This paper explores the way local and non-local factors are responsible for shaping the form and function of tourism development. Drawing upon the case of Singapore, I examine the country's heritage tourism phenomenon as the outcome of “local” and “global” forces. This argument is elaborated along three lines of enquiry. They include: (a) a study of the government's tourism policies; (b) an examination of marketing and promotional strategies; and (c) a look at a particular urban landscape—the Little India Historic District. To conceptualize the global-local nexus, the paper embraces two bodies of theory. They are the “locality concept” advanced by industrial geographers in the 1980s, and writings on “globalism/localism” by cultural/economic geographers in the 1990s. Both theoretical discussions reinforce the argument that place uniqueness need not be sacrificed as a result of globalization. They also provide a way of viewing tourism geographies as the product of global and local forces.     

城市规模与旅游成长空间关系、演变及驱动因子——长江三角洲城市级别体系新认识

以“揭示规律、验证规律”为研究逻辑起点,提出“城市规模-旅游成长-城市级别”数理空间分布模型及其时空演变模型,以长江三角洲地区城市体系为例,系统搜集1995~2014年系列基础数据,探讨城市规模与旅游成长的空间关系及其演变机理。结果表明：① 20 a来长三角地区城市规模、旅游成长、城市级别的数理空间分布呈三段“金字塔”式结构,城市级别越高,分布数量越少;② 三元空间关系在演变中,1995~2009时期内的三阶段符合演变模型的A线关系趋向,2010~2014阶段呈“核”式分布,旅游对城市规模存在倒逼效应;③ 依据城市4个基本象限类分布,级别高的城市分布在Ⅰ类区,Ⅳ类区与Ⅱ、Ⅲ类区间存在单向转换与演变关系;④ 对驱动因子剖析,政府政策的倾斜、城市规模效应以及旅游的快速发展共同促成三元关系的演变格局。     

‘Ageing out of place’: Experiences of resettlement and belonging among older Bhutanese refugees in New Zealand

Previous research has suggested that older refugees are particularly vulnerable to the stresses of resettlement in developed countries. However, to date the voices of older refugees have largely been missing from the body of refugee resettlement research. Using in‐depth interviews and thematic analysis, this paper explores the personal resettlement experiences of three former refugee elders from the Bhutanese community in Palmerston North. The findings suggest that culture, religion and social connections are of vital importance to the well‐being of these Bhutanese elders and their ability to foster a sense of self and place in a foreign land.     

Organization‐Led Migration,Individual Choice,and Refugee Resettlement in The U.S.: Seeking Regularities

The role of organizations in migration has received less attention than warranted; individual choice has typically been emphasized. As an in‐depth illustration, we consider refugee resettlement in the United States, post–World War II, wherein intermediary organizations play(ed) a major role. Central to this system are voluntary agencies (VOLAGs) and community organizations, but secondary migration also is critical. Attention is given to all refugees between 2000 and 2010, and in greater detail to Somalis. The latter provides deeper understanding through state refugee coordinators and case studies of Columbus, Ohio, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Lewiston, Maine. Aside from process, it is evident that the geography of the foreign‐born settlement has been altered. While refugee resettlement and subsequent migration is the example, we broaden that to argue that migration studies have neglected the derived nature of movement via intermediary organizations; directed migrations and/or similar interventions have played a significant, if not dominant, role in population redistribution; and organization‐led migration should be considered in terms of general aspects, not simply as discrete case studies.     

“The city is an apartment house”: property,improvement and dispossession in early twentieth-century Halifax,Nova Scotia

In early twentieth-century Halifax, municipal policies of property taxation and assessment became an important object of political discussion and contestation. Central to these political contests was a particular, theoretically informed distinction between “land” and “improvements.” This distinction would ultimately ground a set of changes in municipal taxation and assessment (introduced between 1914 and 1918) and would help to constitute a new and consequential logic of state action within property relations. Drawing on the literature on property “enactment,” this article examines how early twentieth-century struggles over municipal taxation and assessment reshaped the prevailing understanding of real property in the city of Halifax. Consistent with existing research, I demonstrate how a new perspective on property—including a new distinction between land and improvements—gradually came into being through a series of performances, practices and material devices. Embedded within this new perspective, crucially, was a specific logic of dispossession, a new and calculative rationale for the expropriation and redevelopment of the city’s “underimproved” land. While the literature on property enactment has quite often investigated practices of dispossession, I point out that its analysis of dispossession’s logic or rationale has tended to be confined to a single property theorist, John Locke, and his justifiably famous distinction between land and improvements. Emphasizing the rather different, post-Lockean conception of property that emerged in early twentieth-century Halifax, I suggest that more attention ought to be paid to the multiple and varying logics of dispossession that are liable to be contained within prevailing property enactments.     

Local Bordering Practices,Refugees, and Civil Society: The Case of Berlin

Using the case of Berlin, this article examines civil society actors in relation to local bordering practices following the large number of refugee arrivals in 2015. Combining critical border, migration, and urban studies and adopting a Foucauldian lens, the article aims to illustrate to what extent civil society actors have challenged and transformed local bordering practices vis‐à‐vis refugees within a specific urban space. The analysis illustrates that civil society actors have created new spaces of inclusion for refugees and brought new political and normative challenges to the established notions of belonging. On the other hand, they have also reproduced bordering practices either by their integration into formal state structures or by reinforcing hierarchical categorizations and unequal power relations embedded in the notion of humanitarianism. Finally, the article argues that these de/re‐bordering practices of civil society actors should be understood in line with the constraints that established bordering processes and the existing political and structural dynamics placed on them.