More than anything else, the BEYOND project is a group project. The most important task for 2021 will thus be to find fellow team members and to fill the positions on our Advisory Board. Our research assistant Nora Milch Johnsen is already in place, doing important work behind the scenes. Towards the summer of 2021 we hope to advertise three key positions, each of which is connected to one of BEYOND’s work packages. We will be seeking two post-doctoral researchers to work on Turkey and Pakistan respectively, as well as a PhD candidate to study Bangladesh. BEYOND also includes a work package on Lebanon.
A range of approaches to refugee protection
BEYOND’s case studies constitute four out of the project’s six work packages and represent a range of approaches to refugee protection and differing national political, social and cultural contexts. Pakistan, Lebanon and Bangladesh are outright non-signatories to the Refugee Convention, while Turkey is strictly speaking not a non-signatory state.
There are nevertheless compelling reasons as to why it is warranted to analyze it as one. Turkey has maintained the Refugee Convention’s original geographical reservation, meaning that, in Turkey, only those people seeking protection ‘as a result of events occurring in Europe’ (i.e., in the member states of the Council of Europe) can obtain refugee status and protection as per the Convention. Due to this reservation, basically all of the country’s approximately 4 million refugees are excluded from the Convention’s application.
Will work closely with the REF-ARAB project
In the years to come, BEYOND will also work closely with its sister project REF-ARAB, focusing on the role and place of the Refugee Convention and the international refugee regime in countries in the Arabic-speaking Middle East. In addition to a stellar internationally based team researching these dynamics, we have newly appointed two post-docs working at UiO. Focusing on Saudi Arabia, Charlotte Lysa is studying refugee protection and UNHCR more generally, and the establishment of the Rafha refugee camp in the 1990s in particular. Mirjam Twigt researches the provision of digital legal aid in the context of Iraq.
Finetuning project goals and design
In addition to setting up the team, the first year will also be used to finetune BEYOND’s project goals, design and framework of analysis, in addition to preparing for fieldwork at the next stage through a series of workshops on everything from field research methodology to archival research methodology. BEYOND is ambitious in its interdisciplinarity and involves both socio-legal and historical perspectives. Pandemic permitting, the PI also hopes to do a first round of data collection in Geneva during 2021.
Collaboration with the Forced Migration Review
First on our list, however, is our collaboration with the Forced Migration Review on a mini feature on non-signatory states and the international refugee regime. The call for submissions is open until March 15, 2021 and we are hoping to hear from researchers, practitioners, and policymakers alike. Join the conversation!
