Protection challenges around the globe require innovative legal, policy and practical responses. Drawing primarily from a new generation of researchers in the field of refugee law, this volume explores the ‘boundaries’ of refugee law. On the one hand, it ascertains the scope of the legal provisions by highlighting new trends in State practice and analysing the jurisprudence of international human rights bodies, as well as national and international Courts. On the other hand, it marks the boundaries of refugee law as ‘legal frontiers’ whilst exploring new approaches and new frameworks that are necessary in order to address the emerging protection challenges.

In Temporary Protection in Law and Practice, Meltem Ineli-Ciger provides guidance to states on how to implement a viable temporary protection regime in line with international law by analysing temporary protection laws and policies in Europe, Southeast Asia, Turkey and the United States.

Germany will spend around $6.6 billion to cope with an estimated 800,000 refugees expected to have entered the country in the year 2016; this reality indeed extending further into 2017. Despite this overwhelming number of people entering the country, Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that there is “no legal limit to the number of asylum seekers Germany will take in in the coming years.” The announcement by Merkel’s coalition government followed Germany and Austria opening their borders to the large numbers of refugees making their way north and west from the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere. In particular, this statement came after the Syrian refugee crisis created the biggest refugee crisis the world has seen since the Second World War. Germany is seen as the immigration hub of Europe. It also happens to be the second most popular destination for immigrants after the United States of America. Germany is also the country in Europe with the highest numbers of foreign nationals to date. Germany established a new immigration law in 2005 which was born out of a realization that it was coming to terms with a demographic crisis stemming from an ageing population and further complimented by a sharp decline of national birth rates. In foresight, and within this unfortunate context, migration was seen by much of the German political class as an economic necessity, and the answer to the German economic and demographic time bomb. Between the years 2009 and 2014, annual net migration in Germany rose from 100,000 to 580,000 individuals. Moreover, the inflow of foreign nationals increased from 266,000 to 790,000 individuals. As of January 2015, approximately 10% of residents in Germany were foreign nationals, with around 12% born outside the country. Naturally, these figures have all risen significantly following Merkel’s decision to allow what has reached one million refugees and migrants into Germany across 2016 and moving into 2017. Moving from this reality, the research will focus on the importance of the compliance of Germany’s migration policy with International Refugee and Migration Law, as it is crucial for the country’s survivability and move forward throughout this phase of its history. The importance of the research lies in whether or not Germany’s migration policy towards the Syrian Refugees in particular complies with its duties toward international law embodied in the treaties and conventions it has committed to.

Refuge in a Moving World draws together more than thirty contributions from multiple disciplines and fields of research and practice to discuss different ways of engaging with, and responding to, migration and displacement. The volume combines critical reflections on the complexities of conceptualizing processes and experiences of (forced) migration, with detailed analyses of these experiences in contemporary and historical settings from around the world. Through interdisciplinary approaches and methodologies – including participatory research, poetic and spatial interventions, ethnography, theatre, discourse analysis and visual methods – the volume documents the complexities of refugees’ and migrants’ journeys. This includes a particular focus on how people inhabit and negotiate everyday life in cities, towns, camps and informal settlements across the Middle East and North Africa, Southern and Eastern Africa, and Europe.

In Blurring Boundaries scholars from law and social sciences offer a critical account of the main topics of forced migration and advance a much-needed fresh view on forced migration through the lens of human security.

This book aims to address ‘boat migration’ with a holistic approach. The different chapters consider the multiple facets of the phenomenon and the complex challenges they pose, bringing together knowledge from several disciplines and regions of the world within a single collection. Together, they provide an integrated picture of transnational movements of people by sea with a view to making a decisive contribution to our understanding of current trends and future perspectives and their treatment from legal-doctrinal, legal-theoretical, and non-legal angles. The final goal is to unpack the tension that exists between security concerns and individual rights in this context and identify tools and strategies to adequately manage its various components, garnering an inter-regional / multi-disciplinary dialogue, including input from international law, law of the sea, maritime security, migration and refugee studies, and human rights, to address the position of ‘migrants at sea’ thoroughly.

In an age of ethnic nationalism and anti-immigrant rhetoric, the study of refugees can help develop a new outlook on social justice, just as the post-war international order ends. The global financial crisis, the rise of populist leaders like Trump, Putin, and Erdogan, not to mention the arrival of anti-EU parties, raises the need to interrogate the refugee, migrant, citizen, stateless, legal, and illegal as concepts. This insightful Research Handbook is a timely contribution to that debate.