refugee research

Designing for all humanity is a 'thing of modernism' and nowadays capitalism and sales dictate the mindset of the spatial designer. Social awareness and community spirit are hard to find in contemporary cities, especially when it comes to allowing outsiders in. Borders and states have caused many to fall between the cracks of this civilization; is it the job of the spatial designer to include them in formal planning?

If shelter is a basic human right, the means to make it possible (geographical, spatial, material) must be a collaborative effort between designers, governments, and users. Immigrants, asylum seekers, stateless migrants or refugees, pushed from their former location or pulled towards their new location, are however, outside this law as they are not legal. Considered as a temporary problem, they are dealt with accordingly. In many cases humanitarian agencies will jump in to provide assistance depending on the scale of the problem. Different organizations operate on different timeframes which can create problems in the transitional phase between temporary response and a more permanent form of development.

"Asylum policy is a matter for governments, not the Red Cross... It is our job to meet the needs of people caught up in refugee crises, not to judge them." (Sir Nicholas, IFRC)

The UNHCR (The UN Refugee Agency) operates under the 4Rs: Repatriation, Reintegration, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction. By making repatriation the main strategy for dealing with refugees dismantles the right to permanent settlement in a new safe country. The repatriation, however, must only be to a country with a stable political system that can uphold human rights, proving problematic for most post-disaster countries ("the average life span of a refugee camp is close to seven years" - James Kennedy). Forcing a temporary character on these permanent places, the refugee camp is an oxymoron.

There is no justification for making people live in captivity stripped of the right to work, based on the fact that they were born on the other side of a border. (Jacob Appel)

The majority of refugees who leave their country seek asylum in countries neighboring their country of nationality. The "durable solutions" to refugee populations, as defined by UNHCR and governments, are: voluntary repatriation to the country of origin; local integration into the country of asylum; and resettlement to a third country. As of December 31, 2005, the largest source countries of refugees are Afghanistan, Iraq, Myanmar, Sudan, and the Palestinian Territories.

Right to seek asylum is a very old concept. The concept of borders became stronger in the late 18th century with nationalism. The international coordination of refugee affairs began after WWI. In 1930, the Nansen International Office for Refugees was established and implemented the Nansen passport, a passport for refugees, for which it was awarded the 1938 Nobel Peace Prize.

The huge forced migration following WWII resulted in the establishment of the UNHCR to assist in the return or resettlement of refugees (a subgroup of the broader category of displaced persons.) According to international refugee law, a refugee is someone who seeks refuge in a foreign country because of war and violence, or out of fear of persecution "on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group."

Until a request for refuge has been accepted, the person is referred to as an asylum seeker. Only after the recognition of the asylum seeker's protection needs, he or she is officially referred to as a refugee and enjoys refugee status, which carries certain rights and obligations according to the legislation of the receiving country.

The practical determination of whether a person is a refugee or not is most often left to certain government agencies within the host country. This can lead to a situation where the country will neither recognize the refugee status of the asylum seekers nor see them as legitimate migrants and treat them as illegal aliens.

Resettlement involves the assisted movement of refugees who are unable to return home to safe third countries. The UNHCR has traditionally seen resettlement as the least preferable of the "durable solutions" to refugee situations.

UNHCR referred more than 121,000 refugees for consideration for resettlement in 2008. This was the highest number for 15 years. In 2007, 98,999 people were referred. UNHCR referred 33,512 refugees from Iraq, 30,388 from Burma/Myanmar and 23,516 from Bhutan in 2008.

Due to the persecution of the ethnic Karen, Karenni and other minority populations in Burma (Myanmar) significant numbers of refugees live along the Thai border in camps of up to 100,000 people.