Refugee Realities

How can we best protect people displaced for environmental reasons? In this episode María José Maldonado and Natalie Jade Catanach interview Manuel Marques Pereira, Head of Division of Migration, Environment, and Climate Change and Risk Reduction, at the International Organisation for Migration (IOM – UN Migration). Mr. Pereira discusses the protection risks associated with climate-related migration, the difficulties in disentangling the environment from different causes of movement, the role of the IOM in responding to this type of movement, and the importance of fostering ‘resiliency literacy’ that also accounts for the needs and aspirations of local communities.

Manuel Marques Pereira has served as Head of Division for Migration, Environment, Climate Change and Risk Reduction at IOM headquarters since August 2021. Prior to his current appointment, Manuel served in IOM Bangladesh from 2018-2021 as Deputy Chief of Mission and Head of Office in Cox Bazar for the Rohingya Refugee Response. Manuel’s previous postings with IOM include, National CCCM Cluster Coordinator in Iraq during the Mosul Response, Regional Programme Manager on Displacement Capacity Building for Governments in six Southern Africa countries and Humanitarian Shelter Operations in the Philippines after Haiyan Cyclone. Prior to that he also worked with Shelter, Displacement Management and Early Recovery Programmes in Pakistan for several years and served in Timor Leste with IOM, UNDP and the Portuguese Embassy, he started his career in the private sector. Manuel is a Portuguese national and holds a master’s degree in Emergency Practice and Development from the Oxford Brookes University, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Engineering from a Portuguese University. He speaks Portuguese, English, Spanish, French and Tetum.

María José Maldonado is an MSc candidate in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies at the London School of Economics & Political Science. Also, she is a Non-Resident Research Fellow in Peace & Security at the Global Governance Institute. Her research and work are focused on peacebuilding and international development, countering organised crime and terrorism, violent extremism, the risks and impact of misinformation and disinformation, and forms of governance of non-state armed groups. Previously, she was the Programme Manager of the Institute for Economics & Peace for Europe, Middle East, and North Africa. With over 5 years of experience in workshop and event coordination, she is an experienced public speaker, workshop facilitator, and moderator in topics related to international security, development, peace, and humanitarianism (ex. One Young World Munich Summit 2021). She holds a BA in Global Communication with a Minor in European Peace and Security Studies and a BA in International Affairs from Vesalius College – Brussels School of Governance in Brussels, Belgium.   

Natalie Jade Catanach is completing her MSc in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies. Previously, Natalie studied Politics, Law and Economics at IE University in Spain. Natalie's previous experience has been in environmental and cultural mediation, refugee assimilation, public relations and politics, and advocacy. She has a particular interest in the consequences of environmental degradation for both displaced peoples and international organizations. Natalie is passionate about understanding these issues from a humanitarian lens, while looking towards an international legal framework for solutions. 

How are refugee experiences gendered, and what is the role of education in empowering female migrants and refugees? In this episode, Freya Thompson chats with Olivia Darby, Chief Programmes Officer at the WONDER Foundation. A women-led charity, WONDER seeks to support women and girls through education. Since 2018, the organisation has been working on a collaborative project across the UK, Poland, Slovenia, and Spain to empower migrant women, and it has recently become involved in supporting Ukrainian female refugees. Discussing the work of the organisation, Olivia reflects on the politicised nature of refugee policies in the UK, the need to understand gendered power relations when assessing migrant women’s access to education, and the lessons we can learn from the crisis in Ukraine. 

Freya Thompson is an MSc Development Studies student in the Department of International Development at LSE. She previously did her BSc in Politics and History at LSE, and during this time she volunteered with the WONDER Foundation as a research and policy intern. She is passionate about upholding refugee rights, promoting gender equality, and protecting sexual and reproductive health and rights (SHRH) for all. 

Olivia Darby is Chief Programmes Officer at the WONDER Foundation. She has previously undertaken a range of policy and project management work for a number of civil society organisations. She has extensive volunteer experience, which includes setting up and leading projects for women and young people nationally and internationally. She holds the APMP project management qualification.  

What role can refugees themselves play in responding to displacement, and how can we improve mechanisms that allow displaced communities to have an input into relief efforts? In this episode, Yanis Amirat and Maud Guibert sit down with Farida Abdulrahman, a Syrian refugee and former Head of Accountability at Violet Organization. Based in Gaziantep in Turkey, Violet Organization is an NGO that has been working with internally displaced persons (IDPs) and communities in Northern Syria since 2013. Farida fled from Syria to Turkey in 2015 and joined Violet Organization in 2016. Drawing on her experiences of being a refugee and working with the NGO, she reflects on the challenges facing Syrians in Turkey, the possibilities for refugee-led action, and the importance of accountability. Farida also discusses the impacts of the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake on the organisation’s work.

Yanis Amirat is currently a student in Conflict Studies at LSE. He is interested in debates around the refugee regime, conflict resolution, and diplomacy. Yanis had the chance to take a deeper interest in the issue of so-called "Climate refugees" and even recorded a podcast on the subject while he was doing his Bachelor's in Geneva.  

Maud Guibert is currently studying Conflict Studies at LSE. She previously worked with the Institut Montaigne, a French think-tank on French public policy issues, in which she oversaw the podcast production. She is interested in refugee issues and conflicts outcomes on displaced populations. 

Accessing employment is a challenge facing many refugees wanting to integrate in a new country. Trampoline is a London-based café that aims to tackle this by providing refugees in the city with meaningful employment opportunities. In this episode, Rebecca Huggett, Sales Manager at Trampoline Café, joins Katherine Velastegui Córdova in discussing its mission. Rebecca shares her thoughts on the difficulties facing refugees in the labour market in the UK, the role of employment in facilitating integration, and the refugee success stories that have emerged from Trampoline’s efforts. She also reflects on the challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic for refugees in the UK, and how the café tackled these, and provides advice for how young people can become involved in their local community. 

Katherine Velastegui Córdova (she/her) is an Ecuadorian MSc. Student in International Migration and Public Policy at the LSE. She holds a BSc. in Political Science and International Relations by Universidad de Las Américas (Ecuador) graduating with a full scholarship on academic merit. Her research looks at multiculturalism, migrant communities’ representation, sense of belonging, decolonial studies, and Latino diasporas. Her recent publications include Decolonial Feminism and Intersectionality: a political practice in Ecuador’s feminist movement. 

Rebecca Huggett (she/her) is the Head of Sales and Brand Development for NEMI Teas and founder of Islington-based Trampoline Café. Trampoline’s latest news publication can be found here: BBC: How barista training opens doors for refugees Evening Standard: The Islington Cafe helping solve the refugee crisis. 

In this episode, Jasmin Arciero and Oliver Nixon  interview Alexa Netty, the trustee and chair of the steering committee of SolidariTee. SolidariTee is a charity that supports NGOs offering legal aid to forcibly displaced people​, and so they begin with a discussion on the importance of legal ​aid as a key facet of refugee support. They also touch on debates surrounding the role of NGOs in refugee crises: where they fit within a complex system of assistance and whether and how it is possible to overcome structural constraints on their coordination and efficiency. Alexa also shares personal stories from her time volunteering in refugee camps to shed light on some of the lived experiences of refugees and the obstacles they are forced to overcome to receive asylum. To conclude, Jasmin and Oliver discuss the future of SolidariTee and other issues that SolidariTee is working to address.

Jasmin and Oliver are both studying for an MSc in Development Studies at the LSE. Having become engaged in the issues surrounding forced migration and displacement, they were intrigued to delve deeper into the debates surrounding humanitarian assistance and NGOs in support of forcibly displaced people. Jasmin, during her undergraduate degree, volunteered with SolidariTee (https://www.solidaritee.org.uk/), raising funds that contributed to legal aid grants, as well as leading awareness-raising events and sponsorships.

For years, thousands of forcibly displaced people have been left in limbo in Calais, France, where they suffer from a lack of care and police crackdowns. Recently, as the Russian War is devastating Ukraine and forcing millions to flee, European countries (including France) are opening their borders and homes to Ukrainian refugees. What explains such different responses? In this episode, Johana Bretou-Klein sits down with Ruby and Holly, two volunteers of the Calais Food Collective, to discuss the issue. The Calais Food Collective in a grassroots organisation supporting displaced people in Calais primarily with cooking ingredients and equipment. We asked them about their experiences with government restrictions on the ground in Calais, and if they thought the efforts put towards Ukrainian refugees could be replicated. 

Johana is an MSc student in the IDHE programme specializing in the humanitarian impacts of climate change and works as an analyst for a think tank focusing on these issues. Being French, she was especially aware of her governments’ role in treating and hosting refugees, especially in the chaos of Calais. She wants to understand more about the role of government in handling asylum seekers and wants to work towards improving refugee hosting efforts. 

The Calais Food Collective: https://calaisfood.wixsite.com/calaisfood  

Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, tens of thousands of Afghans fled to foreign countries. The UK evacuated around 18,000 people, who are now placed in temporary housing. Organizations such as British Red Cross are now seeking to assist Afghans resettle into more permanent homes. In this episode, Sveto Muhammad Ishoq speaks to two guests: Halima, a British-Afghan evacuated last year from Kabul, and Nadine, the Afghan Relocations Project Officer at the British Red Cross. Sveto speaks about Halima's evacuation experience and her life in one of London’s hotels and learns about the British Red Cross' programs for newly arrived Afghans.  

Sveto is an Afghan women’s rights activist, Afghanistan’s first Schwarzman Scholar, and is currently pursuing a degree in Gender, Development and Globalisation at LSE. The experience of living mostly as a refugee in 6 different countries and witnessing the negative assumptions about life in Afghanistan inspired Sveto to create a storytelling platform, Chadari (https://chadariproject.com/), which gives an opportunity for Afghan women to express their perspectives, talk about their achievements, and to show the world that Afghanistan is much more than what can be seen in the media. Sveto proudly represents Afghanistan on national and international platforms, including the British Red Cross, UNHCR, and UN Women, and recently gave a TEDx talk at LSE promoting unheard experiences of Afghan women.

Little has captured our attention like the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24th of this year. Constituting Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II, the UN estimates that more than 14 million people have fled their homes, with nearly 7 million Ukrainians seeking asylum in neighbouring countries. One of these people is Olena, a 24-year-old Ukrainian national working in the film industry in the suburbs of Kyiv when Russian forces invaded. In this episode, Madison and Sydney sit down with Olena to gain a better insight into what that experience was like being in Ukraine this past February, and what led to Olena’s decision to leave her native country for Poland.

Sydney Stevenson is in the International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies programme at the LSE. During her bachelor’s degree Sydney volunteered with organizations in Montreal, Canada which seek to secure status and resettle refugees. Sydney also is passionate about climate change and climate migration and has worked on multiple research projects surrounding such topics. Madison Jansen is also in the IDHE program at the LSE. Upon completion of her bachelor’s degree in Global Studies and Spanish, Madison moved to Ukraine with the United States Peace Corps where she lived and worked in a small town outside Kyiv. It was in Ukraine where she befriended Olena, and where she became further inspired to pursue a career in international development. Following her time at the LSE, Madison aims to apply her education and passion for Ukraine to aid in the humanitarian response to the war.  

In this podcast, Yujia Zhang invites two women, Nadia and Fatima, to talk about their stories as both refugees and social workers in Lebanon. Nadia, a third generation Palestinian refugee, lives in the Beqaa Valley. Currently, she is the director of Manara centre of the Lighthouse Peace Initiative, a NGO offering English and art training to refugee students. Fatima, a successful businesswoman in Damascus, became a refugee in 2013 due to Syrian war and fled to Beirut. In 2019, she founded her own social enterprise making embroidery. Yujia sits down to discuss their different living experience as refugees, to hear them share inspiring stories from their work, and how their work has impacted the lives of other refugees.  

Bio 

Yujia Zhang is an MSc student in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies. Prior to LSE, Yujia worked in the communication team of Common Future Foundation, a China-based NGO which assists refugees in Lebanon, where she had the chance to encounter the two guest speakers and their organizations featured in this podcast. During her work, she and her team worked closely with partner organizations and produced dozens of interviews and stories, a comic book, and a board game on the topic of displacement.  

Additional Info 

The Manara Centre, Lighthouse Peace Initiative: https://lpicorp.org/manara-center/.

This podcast explores the physical and emotional challenges that arise from refugees' journeys to safety. Sam, a former refugee from Iraq, describes his experience gaining asylum in the UK and how he has persevered through years of challenges. Sam discusses his reasons for fleeing, his time living in displacement, and his assimilation to his new community in the UK.

Molly is an MSc student in the Development Studies program. While completing her undergraduate degree in Florida, Molly immersed herself in the local migrant and refugee community through various volunteering efforts. In 2019, Molly volunteered with Chios Eastern Shore Response Team, an emergency response organization in Chios, Greece, where she met Sam. Molly hopes to continue her work with refugee communities after graduation from LSE.