Citizenship Rights and Repatriation of Refugees

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between access to or lack of access to citizenship rights in countries of asylum and the propensity of refugees to return. It hypothesizes that in situations where refugees enjoy civil, social and economic citizenship rights in the context of favorable structural factors ‐ relatively secure employment, self‐employment, social services such as housing, schools, health care and social security ‐ the importance of repatriation may diminish as a viable option. In North America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand, where refugees are able to enjoy rights of citizenship with definite prospects for becoming citizens (through naturalization) or denizens through acquisition of permanent status, and where favorable structural factors provide for the enjoyment of a decent standard of living, they tend to remain regardless of whether the conditions that prompted displacement are eliminated. The policy environments and the structural factors for refugees sheltering in Less Developed Countries (LDCs) are the antithesis of those refugees in Developed Countries (DCs). As a result, millions of refugees in the South have been ‘voting with their feet’ homewards to recoup citizenship rights which they lost in connection with displacement and which they have been unable to achieve in exile.

Migration and Citizenship : Legal Status, Rights and Political Participation

“…30 See Fink-Nielsen, Hansen & Kleist 2004 for evidence that migrants may choose a western citizenship if they intend to return to their countries of origin. See also Kibreab (2003) for a more general argument. 31 See Scott 2004 andBevelander &Veenmann 2004 for European case studies based on relatively comprehensive data.…”

“…Note that de facto refugees in many third world countries are kept in a similarly precarious legal position, irrespective of the length of their stay (Holborn 1975, Kibreab 2003. 3 The 1991 Immigration Law in Greece, for example, introduced permanent residence permits.…”

The Dynamics of International Migration and Settlement in Europe : A State of the Art

“…One must, however, also consider that, in a world with huge economic inequalities and large zones of great political instability, the citizenship of wealthy and democratic states has a strong instrumental value. There is empirical evidence that migrants from crisis-ridden regions holding a Western citizenship are more likely to take the risks of return than their counterparts with a lesser legal status (Fink-Nielsen et al 2004;Kibreab 2003).…”

Understanding the Politics of Refugee and A Way Forward

“…The protection of the asylum space, instead of the protection of refugee, was the main concern behind the formation of separate category of refugee in 1951 and addition of the presence of objective facts proving fear of persecution. 11 Provision of socio economic protection would possibly reduce the chances of their repatriation. Even the amendment of expansion in geographical coverage of the convention to incorporate the refugees of the Third World through 1967 Protocol has also been alleged of being an attempt to avoid the detailed debate and amendments in refugees' protection.…”

“…The principle of non refoulement has been derived from Kant's philosophy on the right of temporary sojourn [11]. 13 Immanuel Kant, the advocate of human rights and cosmopolitanism, has propagated for the humanity's coexistence on earth where everyone possesses equal right on the common sphere, earth.…”