Dr Stuart Gordon

This course is available on the MSc in Conflict Studies, MSc in Development Management, MSc in Development Studies, MSc in Gender, Development and Globalisation, MSc in Gender, Peace and Security, MSc in Health and International Development, MSc in Human Rights, MSc in Inequalities and Social Science, MSc in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies, MSc in International Migration and Public Policy and MSc in International Migration and Public Policy (LSE and Sciences Po). This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

First priority is given to students on the MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies and MSc in International Migration and Public Policy, then International Development (ID) and joint ID MSc programmes and then students external to ID.  At each stage course places will be allocated by random selection according to the priorities detailed above.

The course deals with the global governance of forced migration with a particular focus on refugees and their experiences.  The first lectures critically evaluate the ways in which the drivers of forced migration, particularly conflict and environmental change, are identified. It problematizes notions of mono-causality in favour of more complex and dynamic understandings of the reasons which may underpin individual, familial and collective experiences of forced displacement or immobility. 

The next section looks at the linkage between the refugee regime, international society and global order. We explore the governance of the overall refugee regime, looking in detail at the UN organisation with a specific mandate for refugee protection and relief, the UNHCR, as well as the issue of international refugee ‘burden sharing.’  We also explore the intersection between human rights and refugee law; challenging the idea of a separation between the regimes and asking whether this transforms the nature and role of UNHCR.  We also examine the extent to which the securitisation of refugee issues has occurred and how these processes impact on their governance and management.

The final section brings to the fore the agency of refugees and explores differing approaches to the study of refugees’ own lived experiences in flight and exile. We explore the tensions between the international community’s interest in fixing refugee populations in camps and refugees’ own practices (often irregular) of self -settlement in towns and cities.  We also devote considerable attention to a critical examination of the significance of gender and its intersection with other identities (age, generation and disability) in narratives and analyses of displacement.  We explore gendered experiences of immobility and displacement, looking at the multiple ways in which processes of and responses to forced migration influence broader gender identities, roles and relations. The final section looks at how we might ‘solve’ protracted refugee situations and the limitations of the current approaches. It begins by looking at why refugee return has dominated international attempts to solve crises, the problems that have arisen from this ‘push to repatriate’ and the types of challenges faced by returnees.

This course is delivered through a combination of lectures and seminars in the LT. Seminars will be at or upwards of 45 minutes duration and lectures will be at or above 60 minutes duration.

The teaching strategy is diverse and innovative: using both conventional discussions as well as a variety of small group exercises. These will feed directly into a formative piece of work related to the summative assessment.

Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6.

Students will co-produce seminar presentation. Students produce a formative essay of 1000 words by week 8 of LT.   Normally students will produce their formative essay within two weeks of presenting in seminar on that topic.

1. Sarah Kenyon Lischer, ‘Conflict and Crisis Induced Displacement’ in Elena Fiddian- Qasmiyeh, Gil Loescher, Katy Long and Nando Sigona (Eds) The Oxford Handbook of Refugees and Forced Migration Studies (OUP: Oxford, 2014) pp 317-329.

2. Adhikari, Prakash. "Conflict-Induced Displacement, Understanding the Causes of Flight." (2011). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=pols_etds

3. Justin Schon, ‘Motivation and opportunity for conflict-induced migration: An analysis of Syrian migration timing’ at justinschon.com/resources/JPR_forthcoming_main%20text.pdf

4. Williams, N.E., Ghimire, D.J., Axinn, W.G. et al. A Micro-Level Event-Centered Approach to Investigating Armed Conflict and Population Responses Demography (2012) 49: 1521. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-012-0134-8     

5. Anna Knoll and Lidet Tadesse Shiferaw, ‘Tackling the triggers of violence-induced displacement: the contribution of the African peace and security architecture and African governance architecture’

6. European Centre for Development Policy Management September 2018 Discussion Paper No. 228 at www.ecdpm.org/dp228

Take-home assessment (100%) in the ST.

The exam paper will be released in week 11 of the Lent Term. The course is assessed through the submission of two 2000-word essays by Tuesday of week 1 of the Summer Term