12 - Recalibrating Refugees

Summary

Reviewing the other chapters in the book, this chapter identifies six key topics that must be taken into account in comparing how societies have responded to refugee crises: the framing of refugees in terms of belonging; the legal and social opportunity structures in the receiving countries; refugees’ agency; the rise of international NGOs; the attitudes of state and civil society; and migration as a factor in social change. The author concludes that some of the case studies in this collection and more recent events point to the spread of more restrictive asylum policies on the part of more affluent nations and a move away from the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 follow-up protocol.