London elections – impact on asylum and refugee policy?

What are the likely effects on asylum seekers and refugees in the capital, particularly for the future of London’s refugee integration strategy, of a victory by the main candidates? While the subject of asylum and refugees is not a clear campaigning issue and is unlikely to appear explicitly in candidates manifestos, they are impacted upon [...]

Asylum Update – 23rd April 2008

Research
New from UNHCR: Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries, 2007: Statistical Overview of Asylum Applications Lodged in Europe and Selected Non-European Countries.
Hostility themes in media, community and refugee narratives by Ivan Leudar, Jacqueline Hayes, Jirí Nekvapil and Johanna Turner Baker appears in the new issue of Discourse and Society
Evasion, Reinterpretation and Decoupling: European Commission [...]

Asylum Update – 16th April 2008

Research

The Home Office’s Country of Origin Information Service has this month published a new country report on Afghanistan, and Key Documents on Angola, Mali, Gambia, and Sierra Leone.

“Symposium in migrant women: war rape disclosure in women refugees” is a symposium of articles in European Psychiatry, V. 23 No. SUPP/2, 2008 soon to be [...]

Asylum Update – 7th April 2008

Research
Immigration impact
A House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee report rejects arguments that immigration benefits the UK economy and calls for an explicit range of targets for net immigration.
See ICAR blog
Dawn raids and destitution
PAFRAS (Positive Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers) briefing papers now available on dawn raids and legal aid and destitution.
Violence against women
Southall Black [...]

Reaction to the Lords report on immigration

In addition to the IAC report, this week saw the release of a Lords report suggesting that immigration is negligible economic benefit to the UK, with a main recommendation being an annual cap on the number of migrant workers entering the UK. Irrespective of the content of the report, it has generated a number of [...]

Independent Asylum Commission launches interim findings

Last week the IAC launched its interim findings at the House of Commons from a year’s consultation and research with asylum seekers, immigration officials, policy-makers and the general public. The commission is a laudable exercise: to independently assess the efficacy of the asylum system from the perspective of a range of citizens and taxpayers in [...]