Making Sense of the Global: A Systematic Review of Globalizing and Localizing Dynamics in Refugee Governance

Abstract

What does the research literature on refugee and asylum migration tell us about the impact of global norms and standards on the protection of asylum-seekers and refugees? Do we see the effective reach of global standards or do we see responses to be dependent on ‘local’ contexts? We conducted a systematic review of the literature across six case countries on two key issues in contemporary refugee governance: ‘mobility’ and ‘containment’. After coding 252 documents, we found that while ‘the global’ has an important normative and aspirational resonance and is an identified source of rights expansion and increased mobility, there is significant evidence for the ‘localisation’ of global standards on asylum and refugee protection. This has important implications for the diffusion of global norms and standards. Our results also reveal a strong focus in the research literature on ‘containment’ policies and on the role of state actors in developing these policies.

Refugee Policy Amidst Global Shocks: Encampment, Resettlement Barriers and the Search for ‘Durable Solutions’

“…We discuss a case study that extends concerns about colonial orientations to refugee policies and the prevailing ‘ontology of containment’ (Benhabib, 2020) that constricts mobilities in circumstances of protracted displacement and confinement. Our approach challenges policy discourses that obscure the underlying political economy of ‘localization’ and containment (Brankamp, 2022; Brankamp & Daley, 2020; Brumat et al, 2021; Landau, 2019; Weima & Hyndman, 2019), calling attention to the suppressing of local and Indigenous philosophies of collective responsibility and care (Arat‐Koc, 2020; Swanson, 2015) in global refugee policy discourse. In addition to analysis of policy documents and recent literatures, we provide reflections that draw on articulated experiences of refugees and former refugees in Eastern Zimbabwe, where the first author has been conducting research on displacement since 2005 and where the second author serves as Tongogara Refugee Camp Administrator.…”

Faith Actors and the Global Compact on Refugees: A Local Role, a Global Norm?

“…Localisation processes are subject to power dynamics between various governance actors and they are also heavily mediated by their ideas, interests as well as local knowledge (Betts and Orchard 2014; Pincock, Betts, and Easton-Calabria 2021). These factors largely explain the enormous degrees of variation in the local incorporation of international norms and standards (Brumat, Geddes, and Pettrachin 2021). Local knowledge can increase the legitimacy of interventions, together with their efficiency and effectiveness (Fiddian-Qasmiyeh 2017).…”

“…As Wurtz and Wilkinson (2020b) also argue, to better understand the legitimacy of faith actors in international refugee governance, there are dynamics to unpack between the global North, who is viewed as the influencer or norm-maker of norms such as the GCR, and the global South, where most of the world's refugees live and where faith actors are ubiquitous. It is plausible that what we see in the implementation of the GCR is illustrative of the dynamics surrounding changing flows of power in the localization of international norms for refugee protection (see Brumat, Geddes, and Pettrachin 2021).…”

The Role of International Organizations in Global Migration Governance: Sustainable Development as a Strategy for Extending Global Public Goods

“…Global migration governance does not only happen in international forums, such as UN summits, it can also happen and have effects on people's daily lives by, for example, expanding or constraining their opportunities for obtaining a regular migratory status in a foreign country. For these reasons, "regional" governance is a form of global governance (Brumat et al, 2021). This definition highlights the importance of the structural relations between states, institutions and non-political actors in the governance of international migration.…”