11/06/2024 [SEMINAR] THE FUTURE OF RESETTLEMENT: VULNERABILITY REVISITED

Date and time: 11/06/2024, 08:30-10:30

Venue: Room Pierre Hassner (S1), 28 rue des Saints-Pères – 75007 Paris

Part of the seminar series « Migrations et Mobilité » and co sponsored by MIDI Migrations et Diversité 

Argument 

The resettlement of refugees – the movement of refugees from their first country of asylum to a third country that can offer permanent residency and protection – is a contested aspect of the global refugee-protection system. Traditionally, resettlement has been seen as a last resort, a ‘durable solution’ when refugees are unable to return home or settle in their countries of first asylum. In recent policy developments, however, resettlement is increasingly framed as a complementary “pathway” to protection that is embedded in broader policies of containment and deterrence. This roundtable is part of the research program The future of resettlement: vulnerability revisited, coordinated by FAFO institute (Oslo, Norway) and co-organized with the CERI Sciences Po (Paris, France). 

In this project, we use the concept of vulnerability, one of the central sorting criteria for resettlement, as a lens through which to study the broader process of refugee resettlement. The primary objective of this project is to explore how tensions in resettlement policy impact the meaning and relevance of vulnerability in resettlement and vice versa, and how these dynamic shape Norway’s implementation of resettlement programs and selection criteria. The secondary objectives are to contribute to the ongoing theoretical debates on vulnerability in forced migration studies and beyond, and to contribute policy recommendations to policymakers and practitioners in resettlement. This project’s aim is to contribute to the base of empirically acquired knowledge and to nurture better conceptualisation of how the labelling of vulnerability determines access to the scarce resource of protection. We apply a comparative design that analyses connections between different levels of governing resettlement – from policymaking at national and international levels to actual encounters between street-level bureaucrats and refugees. 

This round table intends to present some preliminary findings of the project and to discuss resettlement based on research conducted by scholars in France.  

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Scientific coordinators : Hélène Thiollet CNRS CERI Sciences Po & Kamel Dorai CNRS MIGRINTER Université de Poitiers

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Organisé par : CERI