Spreading the Burden?: A Review of Policies to Disperse Asylum Seekers and Refugees - Hardcover

Robinson, Vaughan; Andersson, Roger; Musterd, Sako

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 186134418X ISBN 13: 9781861344182

Publisher: Policy Press, 2003

Synopsis

Europe's changing position in the global refugee system has brought many more asylum seekers to the continent than was previously the case. Many of these people have chosen to settle in particular towns and cities, either near their port of entry or near communities of people from their own country. Politicians, the media and the public have perceived this concentration of asylum seekers as a "problem" and have demanded that the "burden" be spread more evenly. As a result, European governments are now engaging in one of the largest exercises in social engineering that the continent has seen since World War II. Hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers and refugees in Europe are now being denied their basic right to choose where they live and are instead being compulsorily dispersed. This topical work outlines the expressed rationale for dispersal policies, reviews how such policies have been implemented in three European countries (the UK, Netherlands and Sweden), identifies good practice and, finally, challenges the need for dispersal. The book should be suitable reading for national and local policy makers, those interested in human rights, social policy and refugee studies, as well as human geographers and sociologists.

About this title

About the Author

Dr Vaughan Robinson is a Reader in Human Geography at University of Wales, Swansea and is the Director of the Migration Unit there. He has undertaken research and written about dispersal policies since 1977 and has recently worked on a number of projects for the Home Office on this topic. Professor Sako Musterd is Director of the Study Centre for the Metropolitan Environment at the University of Amsterdam. He is an expert in urban residential segregation and has published extensively in this field. Roger Andersson is a Professor of Social and Economic Geography in the Institute for Housing and Urban Research at Uppsala University. He has researched the distribution of ethnic minorities and refugees in Sweden over a number of years and has written widely on this topic, as well as on immigrant integration and internal migration.

Edition details

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 186134418X
• ISBN 13: 9781861344182
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224