THE STATE OF THE GLOBAL

However, the contrast between the Declaration and the global reality of today's protection system is greater than ever. The promises and paradoxes of global agreements on refugees and migrants: the need for new global, regional and national responses.

RESEARCH BRIEFS

Theme Lectures

Module A: Promises and Paradoxes of a Global Gaze – Ranabir Samaddar

Module B: Responsibility to Protect: Questions of Race, Religion, Resource and the Unspoken Fourth – Paula Banerjee

Module B: The Responsibility to Protect: Issues of Race, Religion, Resources and the Unspoken Fourth - Paul Banerjee. Module C: Population Flows, Refugees and the Responsibility to Protect in a Global Protection System - Shibashis Chatterjee.

Module C: Population Flows, Refugees, and the Responsibility to Protect in the Global Protection System – Shibashis Chatterjee

Module D: Global Capitalism and Refugee and Migrant Labour – Ranabir Samaddar

Module E: Addressing the New Frontiers of Statelessness – Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury

Module F: Migrants and Movements Across Asia Mobility, Global Migration Governance and the European Response – Anita Sengupta

Module F: Migrants and movements across Asia Mobility, global migration management and the European response - Anita Sengupta. Laurence Juma delivers a lecture on 'African Union's Refugee Management and Protection Framework and the Cooperation Agenda of the Global Compact on Refugees'.

Workshop Sessions

Race and Migration in South Africa

Module A: Promises and Paradox of the Global Compacts on Refugees and Migrants: The Need for New Global, Regional and National Responses

Module B: Racialisation of Migration: Race, Religion, Gender and Other Faultlines in Forced Migration

In response to a question regarding the state's response to these violent incidents, Fahurdeen suggested that the state has been proactive; however, the processes of legal challenges and lawsuits have drawn out the impact of these proactive measures. Module C: Power and responsibility in the global protection system in the context of mixed and massive population flows: The need to redefine.

Module C: Power and Responsibility in the Global Protection System in the Context of Mixed and Massive Population Flows: The Need to Redefine the

Responsibility to Protect”

Module D: Refugee and Immigrant Economies: Privatisation of Care and Protection

The paper provided an overview of the changing trend of migration among coal mine workers and how coal mining as an extractive industry thrives on the amalgamation of workers from both the formal and informal sectors. He spoke about the history of development in the coal region, the dynamism of migrant demographics and its impact on the composition of the working class population, and examined the various risks associated with the practice of coal mining by artisanal workers as an informal parallel economy. .

Module E: Statelessness, International Conventions and the Need for New Initiatives

It documented the gradual transformation of habitats in previously forested land into urban space that was populated by migrants, mostly from rural areas and low caste, who found work in Barrackpore's industries. Detailing in the form of key refugee life stories, different dimensions of settler camp life, identity, desire for documentation and belonging, it was noted that a major concern was that most participants with refugee cards could not obtain refugee cards for their children. In addition, the majority of undocumented refugee youth expressed their lack of interest in the refugee card due to its limited use and the stress associated with it.

Module F: Migration and Movements Across Asia: Common Features with the European Scenario

While comparing refugee situations in the two countries, the document addressed concepts such as similarities and differences in the implementation of the strategy, the challenges they faced in implementing it, and the best practices observed in the respective countries. She stressed that the “Right of Return” ideology could prove irrelevant due to the greater number of Palestinian citizens than the Israeli Jews in the occupied territory itself. She concludes that the peace process must take place in the context of the full Arab-Israeli peace process.

Special Lectures

Abraham also explored how political identity can emerge from language, as seen in the acceptance of Hanifi Rohingya by Unicode Consortium members. This will help in the lack of official documentation such as birth certificates for Rohingyas. He proposed that migrants and refugees be surrounded not only in the envelope of the plane, but also within the seating arrangement.

Conference Panels

Global Compact on Refugees and Migrants: Promises and Paradoxes Governing Refugees at a Distance - Bandana Purkayastha

Racialisation of Migration: Race, Religion, Gender and Other Faultlines in Forced Migration

However, the paper also warned that education can be a form of cultural imperialism, fostering social polarization, inequalities and hierarchies, all of which work against peacebuilding. To empirically demonstrate education as a practice, the paper presented a case study from the context of Toronto where most migrants are economic migrants and where the migrant population is geographically concentrated in urban areas. The paper highlighted the need for disability and mental health to be added to the axis of race, religion and gender when discussing and addressing issues of forced migration.

Power and Responsibility in the Global Protection System: Need to Redefine the Responsibility to Protect

The paper further emphasized that democracy itself had brought about this idea of responsibility and it was no coincidence that Lytton's country, Great Britain, was a democratic country. Citing Foucault's idea of "Technologies of the Self", the paper argued that this had given rise to the idea of responsibility towards self and others, eventually giving rise to the modern idea of responsibility. This peace, the paper explained, although not absolute peace, was about living with differences, resolving conflicts and not using violence.

Statelessness in South Asia: International Conventions and the Need for New Initiatives

The paper began by presenting the need for new initiatives using a case study involving the life of an ethnic Assamese man in Bhutan. The paper describes the plight of the Bhutanese population who were forcibly relocated to Nepal due to the many discriminatory laws of the Royal Government of Bhutan. More critically, the paper highlighted the current issue of withdrawal of UNHCR support and a closed resettlement process despite 6,656 people living there.

Global Capitalism and Refugee and Migrant Labour Coloniality of Power: The Displaced and Claims of Justice – Ayse Caglar

The document proposes several steps, including but not limited to: regional protection mechanisms and bilateral/multilateral responses to care and protection and increasing the use of local and provincial government, together with the empowerment of local communities on laws and policies. The paper discussed the challenges that women domestic workers often face when seeking work in foreign countries for economic reasons and compared the challenges and experiences of women from three different South Asian countries, India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. The paper provided an overview of the governance system and immigration practices in India.

Refugee and Migrant ‘Crisis’ in the European Mediterranean Region Borders at the Geographical and Geopolitical Interface: The Crisis of Refugee Migration

The paper combines the notions of technical landscape and border, coining the term "techno-borderscape" to describe how borders and places of transit have been transformed by the use of new technologies. Furthermore, the paper also suggested that mobile technologies have allowed for new digital forms of humanism and activism. Some conditions for a European institutional agreement on refugees – Petar Bojanić The paper proposed an interesting method to look at the institution of Europe.

The Asian Migration Scenario: Afghanistan and Turkey

The case study used in the paper to support this showed how a mobile phone was used by a Syrian refugee to monitor security on a route through Greece and ensure safe passage. The newspaper began with the remark that in recent times there was a supposed 'European refugee crisis' unfolding both inside and outside Europe and had brought both a humanitarian and a political dilemma to the table. The paper raised questions regarding alternative solutions, as well as the viability of projects such as the Belt and Road Initiative.

The Asian Migration Scenario: The Rohingya Refugee ‘Crisis’

This highlights the uneven development associated between Italy, migrants and other displaced persons, such as the sharecroppers. However, for the Syrians, Turkey was not a preferred destination due to its autocratic way of management which cannot guarantee safe and fair treatment of the refugees. To date, there has been much unrest and protests by the Syrian refugees as human rights groups.

Roundtable Discussion

Key services include child education, community-based protection mechanism, psychosocial activities, primary health center facilities, shelter improvement kits, WASH hygiene kits, total caseload handling, cross-sectoral information services and facilities, livelihood support in cash/in-kind, food assistance and other necessary benefits.

NRC and Possibilities of Statelessness

Vipin Tripathi spoke about the plight of the Bangla speaking Assamese and the complexities behind why these people are considered Bengali. The stateless statistics presented highlighted the importance of document availability and emphasized that admissibility depended on the validity of the certificates held. Vipin Tripathi, Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury, Nasreen Chowdhory and Paula Banerjee (left to right) in a round table discussion on the "NRC and the possibilities of statelessness".

RESOLUTION

Kolkata Declaration

30 November 2018

The Asian situation therefore calls for greater scrutiny of the state of the global protection regime for refugees, stateless persons and migrants. In any restructuring of the global protection framework, perpetrators of violence and displacement must be held accountable for their actions. In the context of widespread forced migration and statelessness in Asia, a protection regime aligned with the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and its regional systems and institutions is imperative.

PROGRAMME

Research Workshop

25 November 2018 Venue: Pearl Hotel
26 November 2018 Venue: Hotel Hyatt Regency

Racialization of Migration: Race, Religion, Gender and Other Faults in Forced Migration Chair: Sanja Bojanić, Center for Advanced Studies of South East Europe, University of Rijeka, Rijeka. Power and responsibility in the global protection system in the context of mixed and massive population flows; The need to redefine the "Responsibility to Protect". Protection system in the context of mixed and massive population flows; The need to redefine the "Responsibility to Protect".

International Conference

29 November 2018 Venue: Hotel Hyatt Regency

Discussed: Sudeep Basu, School of Social Sciences, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar & MCRG, Kolkata. Giorgia Dona, Forced Migration and Refugee Studies and Center for Migration, Refugees and Belonging, University of East London, London. Petar Bojanić, Center for Ethics, Law and Applied Philosophy, Belgrade, & Institute of Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade, Center for Advanced Studies- Southeast Europe, University of Rijeka, Belgrade and Rijeka.

30 November 2018 Venue: Hotel Hyatt Regency

Chair: Jennifer Hyndman, Departments of Social Sciences and Geography, and Director, Center for Refugee Studies, York University, Toronto. Itty Abraham, Southeast Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, Singapore - From abject to agent: the Rohingya quest to become digitally visible. Jennifer Hyndman, Departments of Social Sciences and Geography, and Director, Center for Refugee Studies, York University, Toronto.

PUBLICATIONS

Publications

THE RESEARCH COLLECTIVE

List of Researchers, Discussants and Chairs

मुजीब अहमद अज़ीज़ी, अफगानिस्तान अनुसंधान और मूल्यांकन इकाई, काबुल नसरीन चौधरी, दिल्ली विश्वविद्यालय, नई दिल्ली और एमसीआरजी, कोलकाता नयना बोस, यूएनएचसीआर, नई दिल्ली। पेटार बोजानिक, बेलग्रेड विश्वविद्यालय और रिजेका विश्वविद्यालय, बेलग्रेड और रिजेका प्रशांत रे, एमसीआरजी, कोलकाता। संजय बारबोरा, टाटा इंस्टीट्यूट ऑफ सोशल साइंसेज, गुवाहाटी और एमसीआरजी, कोलकाता संजुक्ता भट्टाचार्य, जादवपुर विश्वविद्यालय, कोलकाता।

Press Coverage

Print Media

A piece was published in The Echo of India, a newspaper from Siliguri, on 6 December 2018, which mentions the event.