The RefMig project aims to re-examine the refugee regime through the lens of mobility and migration. In order to achieve a deeper understanding of the laws, norms, institutions and practices that govern refugeehood and the migration and mobility of refugees, the project examines the division between refugees and (other) migrants in several contexts. The project’s premise, that ‘refugees are migrants’ aims to open up for scrutiny those practices that limit refugee flight and onward mobility, to examine how migration control concerns have come to permeate the refugee regime. It also questions the notion that international protection is only for refugees, and aims to understand how human rights and migration control may be reconciled.
The RefMig project is led by Professor Cathryn Costello, Professor of Fundamental Rights and Co-Director of the Centre for Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School. It is a collaborative project based at the Centre for Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School in Berlin and the Refugee Studies Centre (RSC), Oxford Department for International Development, University of Oxford. The project is a Horizon 2020 award funded by the European Research Council and runs between January 2018 to December 2023 (grant number 716968).
Recognising refugees
Comparing Refugee Recognition Regimes
This strand examines the institutional practices that seek to distinguish refugees from migrants. We take a purposefully broad conception of refugee recognition, encompassing not only individual refugee status determination (RSD) but also the institutional processes that determine access to RSD (registration, admissability processes etc.), as well as prima facie and group determination. We examine the role of state institutions in this context (bureaucracies, legislatures, and the judiciary), as well as UNHCR’s mandate RSD practices, and its handovers to state authorities. The strand looks at these practices globally, as well as by developing in-depth comparative case studies in Turkey, Lebanon, Kenya and South Africa.
This strand also explores empirical legal and ethical issues surrounding refugee resettlement, and the use of ‘vulnerability’ criteria and assessments in this context.
Organisations of Protection
Understanding the role of international organisations in the refugee regime - spotlight on the IOM
The project also focuses on the refugee / migrant bifurcation in the practice of international organisations. The Organisations of Protection strand focuses on the role of international and humanitarian organisations, with a particular focus on the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). IOM has recently become a UN-related organisation, and the project will address important questions related to its mandate, functions and accountability.
“The Global Compact is a historic opportunity to achieve a world in which migrants move as a matter of genuine choice. It’s time for the international community to come together to more responsibly and humanely manage the movement of people.”