killmicrosoft
02-04-2008, 12:18 PM
NEW ISSUES IN REFUGEE RESEARCH
http://www3.hants.gov.uk/forced_migration.pdf
The 1951 Convention is the main yardstick for deciding whether people fleeing
persecution will get asylum – in extreme cases, the definition can literally decide over
life or death. Since the end of the Cold War, receiving states have become more and
more restrictive in their interpretations of the refugee definition. Discourses about
‘bogus asylum seekers’ and ‘economic refugees’ have paved the way for increasingly
restrictive asylum and immigration rules. Many refugees cannot lay claim for the
status because visa rules and sanctions against airlines imposed by Northern
governments make it impossible for them ever to get out of their countries. The ‘non-
departure’ regime of the Cold War has been replaced by the ‘non-arrival regime’ of
the New World Order. More people now die trying to cross the Straits of Gibralter or
the Rio Grande than were ever shot on the Berlin Wall.
It is important to remember that the rich countries of the North are still responsible for
the greatest environmental problems. This applies in a direct sense: the average
American produces ten times as much greenhouse gas and global warming as the
average Indian or Chinese. But it is also true in a much more pervasive way.
Globalisation as a new world order is based on the opening up of all regions of the
world to economic activities largely controlled by Northern-based transnational
companies and motivated by their profit interests. The global economic institutions –
the IMF, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation – impose conditions of
privatisation, free trade and investment and control of intellectual property which
protect the dominance of the transnationals. The military might of the only super-
power is available to police this world order if it is threatened by those it designates
as rogue states, fundamentalists or terrorists.
http://www3.hants.gov.uk/forced_migration.pdf
The 1951 Convention is the main yardstick for deciding whether people fleeing
persecution will get asylum – in extreme cases, the definition can literally decide over
life or death. Since the end of the Cold War, receiving states have become more and
more restrictive in their interpretations of the refugee definition. Discourses about
‘bogus asylum seekers’ and ‘economic refugees’ have paved the way for increasingly
restrictive asylum and immigration rules. Many refugees cannot lay claim for the
status because visa rules and sanctions against airlines imposed by Northern
governments make it impossible for them ever to get out of their countries. The ‘non-
departure’ regime of the Cold War has been replaced by the ‘non-arrival regime’ of
the New World Order. More people now die trying to cross the Straits of Gibralter or
the Rio Grande than were ever shot on the Berlin Wall.
It is important to remember that the rich countries of the North are still responsible for
the greatest environmental problems. This applies in a direct sense: the average
American produces ten times as much greenhouse gas and global warming as the
average Indian or Chinese. But it is also true in a much more pervasive way.
Globalisation as a new world order is based on the opening up of all regions of the
world to economic activities largely controlled by Northern-based transnational
companies and motivated by their profit interests. The global economic institutions –
the IMF, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation – impose conditions of
privatisation, free trade and investment and control of intellectual property which
protect the dominance of the transnationals. The military might of the only super-
power is available to police this world order if it is threatened by those it designates
as rogue states, fundamentalists or terrorists.