1. Understanding the everyday politics of the global refugee regime:
Collective action in a time of populism?

4. The global refugee regime
“Regime”: a set of norms, institutions and decision- making procedures for the regulation of a particular issue area
Examples: International Trade; Human Rights
Global refugee regime
UN General Assembly resolutions 319 and 428
1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees
Norm of non-refoulement
UNHCR and its Executive Committee (ExCom)
Challenge of compliance and enforcement

5. UNHCR’s core mandate
UNHCR’s 1950 Statute, Paragraph 1: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, acting under the authority of the General Assembly, shall assume the function of providing international protection, under the auspices of the United Nations, to refugees who fall within the scope of the present Statute and of seeking permanent solutions for the problem of refugees by assisting Governments and, subject to the approval of the Governments concerned, private organizations to facilitate the voluntary repatriation of such refugees, or their assimilation within new national communities.

6. Funding
UNHCR’s 1950 Statute, Paragraph 20: The Office of the High Commissioner shall be financed under the budget of the United Nations. Unless the General Assembly subsequently decides otherwise, no expenditure other than administrative expenditures relating to the functioning of the Office of the High Commissioner shall be borne on the budget of the United Nations and all other expenditures relating to the activities of the High Commissioner shall be financed by voluntary contributions.

9. Consequences for collective action
Preamble of the 1951 Convention: CONSIDERING that the grant of asylum may place unduly heavy burdens on certain countries, and that a satisfactory solution of a problem of which the United Nations has recognized the international scope and nature cannot therefore be achieved without international co-operation…
35+ UN General Assembly Resolutions recognize the need for international cooperation and collective action…
But no binding obligations to cooperate, no enforcement or accountability mechanisms, and limited leverage for UNHCR

13. Institutionalization v. implementation
Soroos (1986): ‘The ultimate test of a policy is the impact that it has had on the problems that it is designed to address’
Howlett et al (2009): Need to understand the range of actors involved in implementation and the ‘particular interests, ambitions and traditions’ of each.
Betts (2013): ‘If the processes that shapes implementation can be understood, they can be influenced’

14. Understanding global refugee policy
Focus of 30th Anniversary Conference for the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, December 2012 and pre-conference workshop
Special issue of Journal of Refugee Studies, December 2014
Milner: Editorial introduction
Miller: Lessons from global public policy
Fresia: ExCom Conclusion on children at risk
Landau and Amit: Urban policy in South Africa
Milner: Protracted refugee situations in Tanzania
Gammeltoft-Hansen: Transnational policy networks
Kneebone: Global refugee policy and the Bali Process

15. Studying global refugee policy
Global refugee policy is both a product (the text of the policy document itself) and a process by which the policy is made, implemented and evaluated:
Agenda setting: How do certain issues make it on to the GRR’s agenda?
Policy formulation: Who presents different policy options?
Decision-making: Where and how are policies formalized?
Policy implementation: What factors condition variation in implementation?
Policy evaluation: How does evaluation inform revision?
Understanding the process will contribute to better uses of, and engagement with, global refugee policy

16. Implementation and everyday politics
Milner (2014): Implementation is the moment when ‘global refugee policy leaves the global level and intersects with dynamics at the regional, national and local levels.’
National level: Governments determine refugee policy on their territory
Local level: Refugee policy and practice must be negotiated with a range of local actors, such as local police, business owners, and other brokers
Milner and Wojnarowicz (2017): New tools to understand expressions and experiences of power at global, national and diverse local levels
Refugee camps: Hilhorst and Jansen (2010): Humanitarian actors condition everyday politics and the governing of ‘humanitarian spaces’
Urban spaces: Landay and Amit (2014): Power brokers not conditioned by the relationships of the global refugee regime.

17. Everyday politics and ‘international’ cooperation
Beyond traditional notions of international cooperation being an activity undertaken between states, facilitated by international organizations, through financial and physical burden sharing
Studying the everyday politics of the global refugee regime not only highlights form of resistance and contestation, but also cooperation
Who cooperates? Municipalities, private sector, diaspora communities, local business elites, development actors
What forms of cooperation? Beyond refugee-specific activities
Why do they cooperate? Diverse range of interests that can be encouraged to cover to form new local win-sets

18. LERRN: Local Engagement Refugee Research Network
Partnership between Canadian universities, NGO partners, national working groups and advisory committee (GAC, UNHCR, IDRC and NRV)
Understand and enhance impact of civil society in the refugee regime
Collaborative research: Efforts to implement global refugee policy in diverse contexts to identify range of actors, interests and factors that affect implementation
Training: For Canadian students conducting research and for communities of practice in East Africa and the Middle East
Knowledge translation and mobilization: Creating new space for dialogue within and between contexts, and from the local to the global
Everyday politics and new opportunities for collective action

19. Kenya

20. Tanzania

21. Jordan

22. Lebanon

23. Everyday politics and ‘international’ cooperation
Studying the everyday politics of the global refugee regime not only highlights form of resistance and contestation, but also cooperation
Who cooperates? What forms of cooperation? Why do they cooperate?
Collective action with and beyond national governments
Collective action with new range of sub-state and non-state actors
New forms of cooperation beyond traditional burden sharing
How variation and interpretation during implementation changes win-sets that, in turn, affect external behaviour of states
How can civil society engage with new forms of collective action?
What implications for other areas of international cooperation?

24. Understanding the everyday politics of the global refugee regime:
Collective action in a time of populism?