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COPYRIGHT 2004 Centre for Refugee Studies
Abstract
Discussion about resettlement is increasing worldwide. Traditional resettlement countries look to the EU to establish new programs to expand the use of this durable solution. Some EU Member States appear most interested in resettlement for the potential it might offer in resolving the problems of smuggling, high asylum seeker arrivals, and widespread anti-immigrant tendencies. This article sets out four key arguments on: the reasons for conducting resettlement; the "see-saw" numbers hypothesis; perceptions of refugees according to their means of arrival; and the links between asylum and resettlement, while discussing the European developments and global discussion of the strategic use of resettlement.
Resume
La reinstallation devient de plus en plus un sujet de preoccupation au niveau international. Les pays de reinstallation traditionnels se tournent vers l'Union Europeenne et s'attendent a ce qu'elle developpe de nouveaux programmes pour etendre l'usage de cette solution durable. Certains pays de l'UE semblent extremement interesses dans la reinstallation en vue du potentiel qu'elle offre pour resoudre les problemes de passages clandestins de personnes, de hauts niveaux d'arrivee de demandeurs d'asile et des tendances generalisees anti-immigrants. Cet article met de l'avant quatre arguments principaux: les raisons d'avoir une politique de reinstallation; l'hypothese des nombres en balancoire a bascule; la perception variable qu'on a des refugies selon leur mode d'arrivee; et, les liens entre le droit d'asile et la reinstallation--tout en discutant des developpements europeens et des pourparlers globaux sur l'utilisation strategique de la reinstallation.
1. Introduction
"Resettlement" has become one of the most frequently heard words in refugee protection policy discussions in the developed world. After decades as a barely-spoken-of means by which some refugees reached western states, the approach is centre stage. To countries that have long-standing resettlement programs there are aspects of this re-emergence that must be bemusing, aspects that pose challenges to their own programs, and aspects which are encouraging for the future of a protection tool and durable solution which has served them and refugees well. The existing resettlement countries inspired the discussion: their initiative coincided with new European interest in resettlement as an approach to refugee protection.
While wanting to see other states get involved and take on part of the resettlement caseload, traditional resettlement countries are also concerned that resettlement should be well managed by all actors involved for the benefit of all. Within the framework of the Convention Plus and Forum, launched in 2002 and 2003 respectively by UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, the "Strategic Use of Resettlement" has become the foremost subject of discussion. Further, both the U.S. and the EU have sought independent studies in the past year, assisting policy makers and political leaders in thinking about changes in, or the development of, resettlement programs. (1)
The European Union is starting to think about resettlement and how it could be used strategically. The developments which have led to this discussion included the challenges posed by human smuggling, over-burdened asylum systems in which some 50 per cent of the applicants were being rejected by the end of all appeals process, and an increasingly pervasive tide of anti-immigrant sentiment. By the time a significant number of the EU Member States had engaged the discussion in 2003, the United States was facing significant challenges to its long cherished and well-established resettlement program. Those challenges were highlighted by heightened security concerns in the aftermath of 9/11, but in fact started earlier. The program had become somewhat anachronistic. It was well suited to the Cold War, but ten years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall it had not significantly changed in terms of groups targeted. In changing priorities on groups eligible for selection, the program also needed to adapt its methods.
In the final paragraphs of this Introduction the four key points or arguments to be made in the article will be set out. The following section will explain "resettlement" as a concept and a protection tool in more detail. After posing questions about who could benefit--and how--from the strategic use of resettlement, the focus will be on Europe and on the "global" level discussions about resettlement of the past few years. The challenges to resettlement, as well as the opportunities which resettlement appears to some policy makers to offer, will permeate the rest of this article.
Key Points
1. There is a risk in discussing the "strategic use" of resettlement that motives, goals, and functions of the policy approach become confused and conflated in such a way that the essence of resettlement as a humanitarian program could be lost. This is a serious challenge not only to resettlement itself, but to refugee protection policies in developed countries generally--and a challenge which needs to be addressed.
2. While attention is on resettlement there may be room to deal with the difficulties presented by asylum and irregular entries, in a climate which is more beneficial to good policy making and supportive of refugees than that which prevails today. This is already evident in both Canada and the U.S. This is an opportunity. There lies potential danger, however, in the use states could make of resettlement as a "humanitarian alibi" for restrictive asylum policies. This is demonstrated to an extent in Australia, where asylum seekers are sometimes characterized as "queue jumpers," i.e., people who should have waited for the resettlement program to find them, if indeed they are refugees. The notion underlying the use of the alibi is that people who wait in camps are deserving of compassion and protection, whereas those who take the initiative, even if they are from the same population group as those later resettled, might be vilified. Ironically, we could hypothesize that asylum seekers are in fact showing the type of resourcefulness that would qualify them as those who will succeed in western societies and economies. Nonetheless, in Europe, some focus on positive aspects to refugee admissions could be used effectively to change the debate which currently casts all irregular arrivals as asylum seekers, and describes them all--whether determined to be refugees or not--as scroungers on the welfare states of European countries.
3. Any discussion on the strategic use of resettlement that is based on a see-saw hypothesis in regard to arrival numbers is not only refutable, but also dangerous to the desirable establishment of broad resettlement programs on a global level. The see-saw hypothesis suggests that, whereas in Europe today there are significant asylum-seeker arrivals and is very little resettlement, if in the future there were to be significant resettlement, there would be a decrease in asylum-seeker arrivals. This hypothesis is mostly being employed in the EU discussions; but it is being broadly employed by officials (from Europe and beyond), NGOs, and others in an attempt to "sell" resettlement as an effective protection tool. That resettlement is an effective protection tool is not at issue here; but "selling" the policy to politicians and the general public, as a tool for effectively reducing asylum-seeker arrival numbers, is a great risk. The risk is that a very good resettlement program, which is very effective in broadening access to refugee protection, might be undermined if it were to be evaluated on the basis of its impact on asylum-seeker arrival numbers.
4. Resettlement is not asylum, or part of an asylum system. Rather, both asylum and resettlement are elements in a broad, well-functioning and robust international protection system.
2. What Is Resettlement?
Although the word "resettlement" is much used, not everyone knows what it is--or means the same thing when they use the term. (2) In this article, and in the broadest policy sense, resettlement involves the selection and transfer of refugees from a state in which they have initially sought protection to a third state...
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