Nothing has moved Europe in the past months like the topic of refugees. However, migration and integration have been a focus of research since before the most recent wave of refugees from areas of war and conflict. The Austrian Academy of Science and the University of Vienna are hosting the Fourth Integration and Migration Research in Austria Conference, inviting international experts to Vienna to address the diverse global and historical dimensions of migration and refugee studies, including the media portrayals of migrants, or the perspectives of those who have fled.
This year’s keynote speaker is the anthropologist and migration expert, Dawn Chatty. In an email interview the former director of the “Refugee Studies Centre” at the University of Oxford explains what Europe can learn from previous experience with refugees and refugee movements, the effects forced migration can have on the home countries of those who have fled, and how scientists and researchers can help when it comes to the current challenges.
Many refugees are currently coming to Europe. However, it is not the first time that Europe is confronted with people who were forced to flee. What can we learn from experiences from the past?
Let us take for example the Hungarian Refugee Crisis of 1956/7 and the Bosnian Crisis of the 1990s. In each case these Refugees were given asylum or temporary protection. For Hungarians, many did not want to return to a Hungary that was within the Soviet orbit and to they were resettled in the 100,000s in Europe and in North America. The Bosnians also sought asylum but temporarily until peace returned to their country. In one year alone the UK took in 75,000 Bosnians. Most have now returned. The key here is burden sharing in cases of mass influx.
Let’s take the example of the refugee situation after World War II: What are the main differences to today?
After World War II there were several million displaced people spread out through Europe the Balkans and the Middle East – yes, there were even Polish refugees in Lebanon. They were all resettled over a period of 4-5 years in Europe mainly but also in the Middle East and North America. At that time a refugee just needed to have travel documents and then on arrival in the new country began immediately to look for work to sustain himself and his family. In effect there was no distinction made between the needs of an economic migrant and a war migrant.
When many people are forced to leave their countries: What does this mean for these countries? What are the long-term effects for these countries?
There is of course a brain drain. As generally the professional classes and the middle classes leave early in conflict and generally find support and work outside. But the country of origin loses qualified professionals. They are unlikely to return until after the country is at peace again. In some cases like Iraq they will not return at all as the new government is not interested in seeing Sunni Arab Muslims come back to the country.
At the moment, attentions mainly focus on conflicts and persecution as reasons for forced migration. But there are other reasons such as climate change as well. What is the status of those refugees and do they still meet the UN-refugee definition?
The UN definition of a refugee does not extend to ´climate change` forced migrants. The UN definition focuses on people who have lost the protection of their government and have no other form of political protection. Environmental refugees or climate change refugees are deeply contested terms.
In your opinion: What can science and research do to help dealing with the current so-called “refugee crisis” in Europe?
Science and technology can help to disperse refugees and asylum seekers around Europe so that no one single community village or town is overburdened. With population of over 500 million, the granting of refuge and temporary protection to 1-2 million refugees fleeing war is very possible. The matching of skills of refugees to needs in Europe can be aided by science and technology and that would also help in the temporary settlement of these war forced migrants.