Refugee Realities

In this episode, Leah Trotman chats with Pablo Escribano, the Regional Thematic Specialist at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for the Americas and the Caribbean on climate change and migration. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre reported that nearly 3 million people across the Caribbean and United States were displaced in 2017 due to Hurricanes Irma, Maria, and Harvey. With a rise in global warming, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) can expect an increase in sea levels, the severity and frequency of hurricanes, and other climate shocks that influence population movement. With a majority of the Caribbean’s population situated within 1.5 km of the coast, gaining a better understanding of what climate-induced migration looks like in the region is crucial.

Leah hails from the US Virgin Islands and is completing the Health and International Development programme at LSE. Leah is also the US Virgin Islands’ first Marshall Scholar and is also a Truman Scholar. At LSE, Leah focuses on the intersection of climate change and health in the Caribbean, a topic she began researching following her junior year in undergrad. Her most recent work looks at forced migration due to climate change and its impacts on youth mental health.

Today’s theme in the Refugee Realities podcast series focuses on a birds-eye perspective of the challenges facing the global humanitarian system. And who better to speak with than the person who was responsible for coordinating this system: Sir Mark Lowcock, the former ‘Relief Chief’ of the UN humanitarian agency. Nina and Shanyce discuss Mark’s experience during his 4-year posting, highlighting the power of the individual stories that stuck with Mark along the way.

In this bonus episode, Kaweh Beheshtizadeh speaks to Jenifer Elmslie about his journey from asylum seeker to refugee lawyer. Kaweh sought asylum from Iran after participating in pro-Kurdish activism in the country, a group which is heavily persecuted and discriminated against. After a short stay in Turkey under the protection of UNHCR, Kaweh entered the UK in 2004 and gained asylum status after one year. His experience motivated him to study for the bar at University and he now represents the cases of other asylum seekers. He discusses how the UK government’s hostile environment policy has affected the asylum cases of those who he represents today.

In this episode, LSE Master’s student Ezgi Ilhan interviews Valentina Spinedi, Director of Student Advising at Paper Airplanes. Paper Airplanes is a fully virtual non-profit organization providing educational services to conflict-affected individuals, focusing on displaced Syrians with refugee status. Though many organizations struggled to transition to operating remotely after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Paper Airplanes had the unique advantage of already being virtual, proving advantageous for their programs. In the episode, Ezgi and Valentina talk about the advantages and challenges of providing virtual educational services to refugees, the impact their programs have, why virtual education and language programs are advantageous for forcibly displaced individuals, and the unique way that Paper Airplanes began. What started off as a simple folded paper airplane in a classroom in Turkey has now transformed into an organization with hundreds of volunteers, students, and staff. Listen to the episode to hear all of this and more information on how you can get involved.  

In this episode, Konstantina Mirtzani and Valeria Miglio speak with Giulia Cicoli, co-founder and Advocacy Director of Still I Rise NGO. Still I Rise was first founded in 2018 to address the lack of appropriate education services for minors living in the Samos hotspot. Since then, the organisation has opened schools for displaced youth in Syria, Kenya, and Turkey. These projects focus on providing education in emergency contexts (Syria, Greece) as well as in protracted refugee crises (Kenya, Turkey). The organisation is also involved in a series of advocacy projects, including an ongoing lawsuit on the human rights violations towards unaccompanied minors at the Samos hotspot. During the episode, Giulia shares her field experience of working to promote education to refugee children and fight against the several barriers encountered by displaced youth when accessing this fundamental human right. Along with the importance of education for refugee livelihoods, the importance of building trust with the local community and the topical issue of criminalisation of aid workers assisting refugees are covered. To find out more about the organisation, check out www.stillirisengo.org or @StillIRise on Facebook and Instagram.  

This podcast takes listeners to the forefront of the internal displacement issue in Somalia where Mogadishu officials are spearheading a policy to address the needs of the hundreds of thousands of IDPs in their city. 

In the first part of the podcast, Durable Solutions Consultant for the Municipality of Mogadishu, Amun Osman, speaks with Research and Report Officer for the UN Secretary-General's High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement, Mark Yarnell (speaking in his personal capacity), about the practical challenges, opportunities, and daily realities of addressing the needs of IDPs in the lively and dynamic metropolis. From providing relief to victims of forced evictions to navigating sensitive relationships with "gatekeepers,” Amun's hands-on perspective depicts the nitty gritty reality of implementing positive change for some of the city's most vulnerable residents.

In the second part of the podcast, LSE MSc Conflict Studies student, Ben Grazda, speaks with Mark about the ins and outs of the High-Level Panel's work during the pandemic, what it takes to incorporate the perspectives of thousands of displaced persons, how climate change is making urban development an even more urgent priority, and ways that researchers and academics can currently contribute to the UN's work.

For more information visit the Durable Solutions Unit (DSU) under the leadership of the Mayor of Mogadishu and Governor of Benadir Region of Somalia: https://dsu.so/ and the UN Secretary-General's High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement: https://www.un.org/internal-displacement-panel/

In March 2021, the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, made headlines with the announcement of the Governments ‘New Plan for Immigration’. This ‘New Plan’ outlined the most significant overhaul to the UK’s existing refugee and asylum policy in decades. The government stated that this overhaul will create a ‘fairer’ system and insists that it was ‘breaking the business model of people smuggling networks and protecting the lives of those they endanger’. However, despite the government's claims, the new plans have been heavily criticised, with adversaries claiming it lacks compassion, is impractical, and undermines the UK’s commitment to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 protocols. In this podcast, we will break down what this new bill proposes, assessing what these proposals will mean for those trying to seek asylum within the UK. To aid us in our discussion, we have with us two guests: Our first guest is Zoe Gardner, a policy advisor for the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, a UK based charity whose work includes providing legal support and assistance for refugees and asylum seekers. Our second guest is Dr. Matilde Rosina, an LSE Fellow in International Migration at the European Institute. Her work examines the criminalisation of irregular migration in Europe, investigating its functioning, effectiveness, and consequences. In addition to breaking down the changes this new bill will make, this podcast also assesses the legality of these changes, the extent to which the bill will impact people smuggling, as well as a discussion on how this new plan represents the trend of securitising the refugee regime.  

In this podcast, Gabriele Canavan and Taitum Caggiano interview Dr. Aiko Holvikivi and Dr. Audrey Reeves who recently published an article titled “Women, Peace and Security After Europe’s Refugee Crisis,” and they are here to tell us more about the nexus between the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda and the refugee security regime. For background, the United Nations’ Security Council Resolution (SCR) 1325 is often considered a watershed moment for WPS activists seeking gender equity within responses to conflict, as it was the first SCR to address women and gendered issues within conflict and post-conflict settings. UNSCR 1325, subsequent SCRs (1820, 1888, 1889, 1960, 2106, 2122, 2242, 2467, 2493), and National and Regional Actions Plans (NAPs, RAPs) on WPS all comprise the WPS agenda. The WPS agenda has famously drawn international attention to gendered issues in conflict, such as conflict-related sexual violence and male-dominated decision-making spaces. With their experience in both policy and academia, Dr. Holvikivi and Dr. Reeves will be exploring the potential for a refugee inclusive WPS agenda. 

In this interview by MSc student in International Development, Gender and globalisation Jenifer Elmslie, Mustafa Ali discusses his experience leaving Afghanistan as an unaccompanied minor at the age of 13, and his 10-year journey to gain asylum in the United Kingdom. Ali discusses his journey to graduate from Cambridge University in 2017with a degree in Architecture. He talks about the difficulties he encountered during his time studying for his undergraduate degree while simultaneously attempting to secure the right to stay in the UK. He discusses how the UK government’s heavily politicised and hostile domestic policies towards immigration have affected the right of asylum seekers to seek refuge in this country. 

In Western countries, refugees are often seen as a burden, as an indistinct mass of people threatening our “values and well-being”. In this podcast, MSc student in Gender, Development and Globalisation Simona Camillini hears the incredible stories of two of the hundreds of thousands of people who every year are forced to flee their homes and leave everything behind to start a new life elsewhere. 

Paul is from Nigeria and, since 2014, he has been living in Sankt Poelten, a city in Lower Austria near the Austrian capital Vienna, Nour is from Syria and she has been living in Vienna since 2017. Their experiences of refugeehood are very different and yet, in a way, very similar. Not only because they are both very well integrated into the Austrian society, but also because being a refugee deeply marked their lives. However, despite the traumatic experience they both went through, Paul and Nour remain hopeful and have a message for governments and politicians: believing in the human capital of refugees and in their potential is the first step to creating a more just, open, tolerant and inclusive society for all.