Just returned from the Migrant Security conference (inclusion, citizenship, etc) at
USQ Toowoomba. Gave paper (abstract below as promised earlier) on refugees and
work rights, more importantly met people doing extraordinary things and learnt
more about impacts on refugees elsewhere: Sophia Rainbird from Uni Sth
Australia spent 2002 in Great Yarmouth researching asylum seekers in UK communities and was enlightening on plus/ minus consequences of UK dispersal
policy. Centre for Refugee Research at UNSW is quietly important, connects to
UN (Centre Head Eileen Pittaway was understated, gifted, passionate speaker).
Anna Hayes and Robert Mason are to be congratulated for convening.
Seeking asylum, seeking
employment
The paper argues matters of rights and of belonging in the relationship between forced migration and paid work. It explores the significance of work in social identity and the imperative that this be recognized in meeting the dispossessed. ... argument derives from observations on threatened peoples' mobility and the dignity of labour as a human rights challenge. While forced / voluntary migration is one political consequence of war, another is the associated loss of work opportunity that threatens individual economic survival and social well-being. Residents of conflict zones have their capacity to work diminished or denied: any subsequent forced migration exacerbates that loss. ... despite obligations under Articles 17-19 of the UN Convention on the Status of Refugees, [government] policy may ignore the humanitarian need to facilitate employment for people granted asylum. Hence the critical and ongoing insecurity of migration is intensified at point of integration to the 'host' nation-state.
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