Borders, Displacement & International Law

This assignment delves into the complex interplay between borders, armed conflict, and international humanitarian law. It examines the ethical implications of border existence and analyzes their role in displacement during both international and non-international conflicts. The analysis includes a critical review of legal frameworks designed to protect refugees and displaced persons, highlighting practical challenges and limitations in enforcing these laws during armed conflicts.

Journal’s summary
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Table of Contents
Week 1: Chapter 1 'Migration's many faces: the complexity of the problem' (2001) by Peter C.
Meilaender.......................................................................................................................................3
Week 2: International Migration as a Tool in Development Policy: A Passing Phase?..................4
Week 3: Chapter 1 'The concept of citizenship'. [EBook version]..................................................5
Week 4: Social Cohesion in Australia.............................................................................................6
Week 5: Gender, Migration, and Law: Crossing Borders and Bridging Disciplines......................7
Week 6: The Economic Impact of Labour Migration.....................................................................9
Week 7: Borders on the mind: re-framing border thinking...........................................................10
Week 8: Armed conflict and displacement: the protection of refugees and displaced persons
under international humanitarian law............................................................................................11
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Week 1: Chapter 1 'Migration's many faces: the complexity of the problem' (2001) by Peter
C. Meilaender
Title: Toward a theory of immigration
Author(s): Peter C. Meilaender
Date: 2001
Publisher: Palgrave
Pub place: Basingstoke, New York
ISBN-10: 0312240341
Critical Reflection
From this chapter I learnt about the need for migration of people and the way it impacts the
country’s politics and culture. It discusses the reason behind migration of individuals. It
explained why the countries do not want to include immigrants. There has been explanation on
how every newcomer acts as a burden on the whole economy. There is no single reason which
prevails rather there are many issues which make it difficult for the newcomer to reside in a new
nation. It is an introductory chapter which lays the outline of forthcoming chapters and the topic
chosen is quite subjective in nature. This chapter has used the word “migration” as an umbrella
term and the same has been explained with different perspectives.
Limitation
The limitations of this chapter would be its language since there has been use of the first form
of person which is not preferred in the academic writing. This chapter has brought the insight
into issues of identity formation and changing into contemporary multi-ethnic Europe. This
chapter has been a complicated one because it undertook multidisciplinary approach which could
have led to misunderstandings due to varying definitions of the. So this chapter doesn’t provide
with any clarity on this concept rather it gives a brief idea of how different scholars see it. It also
showed how different chapters have used different races to explain the impact of immigration on
the nations in Europe.
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Week 2: International Migration as a Tool in Development Policy: A Passing Phase?
Type: Article
Author(s): Ronald Skeldon
Date: 2008
Volume: 34
Issue: 1
Page start: 1
Page end: 18
Web address: http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au...
Critical Reflection
This article discusses a few past areas of migration and development for policies and it shows
how individuals who migrate can also act as a part of country’s development. This report
critically assesses three of the key topics which were skilled migration, Diaspora and
remittances. By this article, I have understood the role of migration in the development of the
country. Usually the migrants are in minority, in any nation and in case the skilled people
are concentrated in the biggest urban areas then the emigration won’t have huge impact on the
poor rural segments where the demand for talent might be the most. The migration of skilled
people and the country’s development has been given more importance in the essay and therefore
all three concerns have been discussed.
Limitation
This essay is contradictory to the week1’s study because it’s shows how migration is not
anymore considered to be negative for the development of the nation. It also discusses that it is
important that is integration of overseas and internal migration for the development of the nation
and people wish to migrate to places only where they see development. This means that
migrations are basically cost due to countries growth and development. It also states that it is
important to plan for migration as a result of development in spite of considering it to be the
basis of the development Even though the essay identifies the key challenges which are faced
due to migration, still there has been very less discussion on the ways in which these challenges
can be dealt with.
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Week 3: Chapter 1 'The concept of citizenship'. [EBook version]
Type: Book
Author(s): Christian Joppke
Date: 1991
Publisher: Polity Press
Edition: 1
ISBN-13: 9780745658391
Critical Reflection
This e-book version has been taken from the book by C. Joppke, who explained about citizenship
and immigration along with fresh discussion regarding the amendment of citizenship in period of
the modern human rights. From this, I have learnt that that there have been changes in the rules
regarding citizenship and nationality along with the support provided by anti-discriminatory
policies. It has been a useful content because it gives brief about the latest areas of immigration
and nationality. It also offered me with a new perspective and fresh arguments with respect to
change of citizenship in the human rights sections. This chapter compares the conceptual
assessment in practical terms with respect to the historical terms. Herein, the history of
citizenship and immigration process has been unfolded and the same has been compared to the
modern citizenship. There have been two theories for citizenship, which are political and social.
This chapter explains how the past citizenship and the contemporary immigration or citizenship
gets interconnected. However there are certain critics to this perspective with a huge political
effect which can have a great impact on the society. There have been various theoretical queries
answered however it seems to be less realistic. There have been various policy changes in the
modern world, particularly in Europe and therefore this chapter shows that a set of immigration
on the re-formation of citizenship and there has been a shift from social theory to the existing
policy developments in North America, Australia and Europe.
Limitation
The limitation of the book can be - it’s more inclination towards politics and political
enlargement.
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Week 4: Social Cohesion in Australia
Chapter 2- 'Conceptualizing social cohesion'. [E-book version]
Type: Webpage
Author(s): James Jupp, J.P. Nieuwenhuysen, Emma Dawson
Date: 2007
Critical Reflection
This chapter is the resource to support the areas where the Australian community can become
socially cohesive. Through this the author has made us learn how the communities of Australia
have social cohesion. Social cohesion is positive social relation which is a bonding among
individuals. As for the study a socially cohesive community is one where in the communal works
are focused on benefit of all the members of the society and there is a sense of belongingness
with promotion of trust among the members. This way the social cohesion in Australia provides
its citizens with an opportunity of development and upward mobility. When comparison is made
to other nations then Australia has a great level of social cohesion because of its diversity level.
But maintaining of this cohesion can be a challenging task. From this chapter I learnt how quick
social change especially in the development areas can bring disharmony among new migrants
and newly set up communities. The social stress among the wider community can participate at
the local level too.
Limitation
Therefore, as per the chapter it is important that the government of Australia understands the
communities and assesses its social cohesion. It is important that the communities are engaged
and partnerships are built among key stakeholders. The limitation of this chapter is that the need
of strategic plans for communities is not given importance. The community also needs to
monitor, assess and share the results. It is important to avoid and respond to events of racism or
conflicts among various communities and communal groups.
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Week 5: Gender, Migration, and Law: Crossing Borders and Bridging Disciplines
Type: Article
Author(s): Kitty Calavita
Date: 2006
Volume: 40
Issue: 1
Page start: 104
Page end: 132
Title: The International Migration Review
Publisher: Center for Migration Studies of New York, Inc.Center for Migration Studies of New
York, Inc.
ISSN: 01979183
EISSN: 17477379
Critical Reflection
The article states that the gender holds a key place in the determination of the law and policy to
be applied for the immigration procedure. By examples of countries like Spain and Italy I have
learnt how the gender affects the immigration procedures. The article also explains that there
have been changes in the policies of immigration to Italy and Spain. There have been different
policies which have new perspective towards immigration with respect to the role played by
race, caste, gender, and marginality or migration status. This article reflects the commonalities
among the migratory experiences and the major causes behind the migration. This article gives
an overview of how gender and migration are interconnected and the way in which these affect
the policies and laws of the nations. The limitation of this approach is that there has been a
difference in approach in which female send kids are segregated from men in detention by
different practices in various years. The presumption for this is that females are usually further
vulnerable and males of more than age of 13 years are tough. Therefore, I have realized that
when people migrate to these places, they assume that males have more options to get jobs rather
than females for kids.
Limitation
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There are different gendered policies which have been applicable from years like cereals to not
get job in asylums or when can do better laborious jobs etc. The limitation of article is that only
two nations have been taken as a sample and this cannot be used for representing the complete
set of European nations.
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Week 6: The Economic Impact of Labour Migration
Type: Article
Author(s): Mark Kleinman
Date: 2003
Volume: 74
Issue: s1
Page start: 59
Page end: 74
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-923X.2003.00581.x
Critical Reflection
This article is a part of the journal known as “the political quarterly court. This article helped me
to learn that that refugees and migrants utilize educational Services for improving their linguistic
capabilities and qualifications. Therefore many nations have established a structured framework
for settling of refugees with a stress on training and employment. There have been specific
programs set up for females. Therefore this article reviews the economic effect on the host nation
when labor migrates from other parts of the world. There has been labor shortage in some sectors
of UK and therefore government has to create policies so that there can be a match created
between demand and supply of the labor market. This article has been useful for exploring the
kind of demand for migrant employees and a set of migration on the native workers as well as
the new comers. For studying such impact, the example of UK has been considered along with
examination of the effect of demographic deficit.
Limitation
There have been some policy decisions drawn too. This article shows that migration has
a positive effect on the host nation however there is a limitation to it because the impact is not
huge. There distributional impacts also which has to be considered while assessing the economic
effect of migration. In the article it has been expressed that a few points of immigration are
advantageous to the local people whereas others are expensive. However, when whole of this is
considered then these impacts generally cancel out.
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Week 7: Borders on the mind: re-framing border thinking
Type: Article
Author(s): John Agnew
Date: 2008
Volume: 1
Issue: 4
Title: Ethics & Global Politics, suppl. Special issue: At the Border
ISSN: 1654-4951
Critical Reflection
This article provides insight that borders have to exist and they are there for some purpose. This
article discusses the existence of borders and their importance. There are different perspectives
of looking at waters. One of those perspectives is that it is a real fencing of pieces of territory or
land. Through this article, I learnt how the borders can be enabled or disabled. With the
globalisation in place, the model of disabled borders has been applied. However for national
security and political reasons borders need to exist. The author concludes that the borders have
been extra equivocal in practice and in their impacts. The author explains how the realistic and
moral equivocality of borders can be linked to 4 key points that have to be considered regarding
the airports and other checkpoints of border. These four key points have been discussed in the
article because airport is an important site of territorial control and is usually neglected.
Two significant aspects of the article that it counters the highly laudatory accounts of Airports as
transversal locations wherein interior and exterior in heavily confuse later in effectiveness of
airports fulfilling the security practices due to inherited problems. The author discusses the two
major perspectives of borders and their positive and harmful impacts. There has been discussion
on how people can benefit or get impacted by the borders.
Limitation
The limitations of this article is that it does not explain how the positive can be enhanced and
how negative impacts can be limited.
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Week 8: Armed conflict and displacement: the protection of refugees and displaced
persons under international humanitarian law
Chapter One 'The prohibition of forced displacement in international armed conflicts'
Type: Book
Author(s): Melanie Jacques, Cambridge University Press
Date: 2012
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Pub place: Cambridge, UK, New York
Volume: Cambridge studies in international and comparative law
ISBN-10: 1107005973
ISBN-13: 9781107005976
Critical Reflection
From this chapter, I have learnt that forced displacement of civilians and issues are linked to
conflicts even if those are inside or outside of the national border. Therefore, through this chapter
I have learnt how the internally displaced people are treated and how refugees are treated. There
are certain laws which are set by the state which have to be considered in international and non-
international armed conflict. This chapter reproduces the idea of international armed conflict and
not international armed conflict. The international humanitarian law provides guarantee that the
refugees and displaced people would be helped in cases of armed conflict. The parties which are
conflicting have to provide with the relief supplies like blankets, food stuff, medicines and basic
necessities to such people.
Limitation
However the limitation of this has been ignorance of such laws and rules in a lot so fast conflicts,
which has made the displaced people to be in a risky situation. This risk then we prevented only
by the regulations set for armed conflicts.
The chapter states that this is necessity of legal framework for protecting the displaced people in
armed conflict. This chapter considers the case study of is the daily settlements in Palestinian
territory and similar other issues which are faced due to displacement. It also considers the
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problem of displacement due to civilian wars. There are various concepts which are inadequate
and which need to be dealt with proper formation of international humanitarian laws.
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