The essay centers of the efforts by the League of Nations to rescue women and children survivors of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. This rescue -- a seemingly unambiguous good -- was at once a ...constitutive act in drawing the boundaries of the international community, a key moment in the definition of humanitarianism, and a site of resistance to the colonial presence in the post-Ottoman Eastern Mediterranean. Drawing from a wide range of source materials in a number of languages, including Turkish, Armenian, and Arabic, the essay brings the intellectual and social context of humanitarianism in initiating societies together with the lived experience of humanitarianism in the places where the act took form. In so doing, it draws our attention to the proper place of the Eastern mediterranean, and its women and children, in the global history of humanitarianism. The prevailing narrative of the history of human rights places much of its emphasis on the post-World War II era, the international reaction to the Holocaust, and the founding of the United Nations. yet contemporary human rights thinking also took place within practices of humanitarianism in the interwar period, and is necessarily inseparable from the histories of refugees, colonialism, and the non-West.
Academic literature supports cultural adaptation (CA) of evidence‐informed interventions to increase accessibility and effectiveness of behavioral health treatment to meet the needs of a culturally ...diverse society. While several meta‐analyses have shown positive outcomes of CA mental health interventions, there is a need for more information about how theoretical CA models have been applied in practice to meet the cultural and contextual needs of specific groups. This scoping review was conducted to understand how CA models have been applied to adapt evidence‐informed behavioral health interventions for people with refugee backgrounds in resettlement. Eighteen manuscripts were identified and analyzed, resulting in five categories: Reasons for Engaging in CA, Processes of CA, Types of CAs, Resources Needed to Support CA, and Evaluating Adaptation Choices. Only four studies utilized any existing model to guide their adaptation efforts, three of which used CA models. Level of detail regarding CA processes and justification for choices varied considerably among articles. Significant gaps were identified, posing challenges for replication. Although articles reported that adapted interventions were effective, it is unclear which, if any, CA choices contributed to the successful outcomes. Findings indicate a need for emphasis on clear and thorough documentation of CA processes and more rigorous assessment of the impact of adaptation choices.
Highlights
While cultural adaptation (CA) is supported by literature, processes of CA are not well‐documented.
Research is needed on the actual impact of specific adaptation choices.
Actual adaptation processes vary greatly in depth and are not well‐documented in existing literature
This article examines how borders are discursively reproduced in representations of the ‘refugee crisis’ in the German media. Based on an extensive content and discourse analysis of German press ...representations in 2015 and 2016, we argue that the discourse of crisis obscures the reasons for migration and instead shifts the focus to the advantages and disadvantages that refugees are assumed to bring to their host country. More specifically, we contend that press discourses construct a figure of the (un)deserving refugee around three key themes: economic productivity; state security; and gender relations. In doing so, we illustrate how the framing of some lives as more deserving of protection than others directly mirrors and extends the humanitarian securitization of borders into public discourse.
Despite growing numbers of unaccompanied refugee minors (UMs) in Europe, and evidence that this group is at risk of developing mental health problems, there still remain important knowledge gaps ...regarding the development of UMs’ mental health during their trajectories in the host country and, in particular, the possible influencing role of traumatic experiences and daily stressors therein. This study therefore followed 103 UMs from the moment they arrived in Belgium until 18 months later. Traumatic experiences (SLE), mental health symptoms (HSCL-37A, RATS) and daily stressors (DSSYR) were measured at arrival in Belgium, after 6 and 18 months. UMs reported generally high scores on anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Linear mixed model analysis showed no significant differences in mental health scores over time, pointing towards the possible long-term persistence of mental health problems in this population. The number of traumatic experiences and the number of daily stressors leaded to a significant higher symptom level of depression (daily stressors), anxiety and PTSD (traumatic experiences and daily stressors). European migration policies need to reduce the impact of daily stressors on UMs’ mental health by ameliorating the reception and care facilities for this group. Moreover, regular mental health screenings are needed, in combination with, if needed, adapted psychosocial and therapeutic care.
Abstract
The unprovoked aggression of Russian military forces on Ukraine in February 2022 has caused a high influx of refugees, including children, to neighboring countries, particularly Poland. This ...caused additional pressures on the healthcare system and the need to meet challenges for public health, such as those related to infectious diseases. Here, we discuss the potential epidemiological risks associated with the war-induced influx of refugees (coronavirus disease 2019, measles, pertussis, tetanus, and poliomyelitis) and highlight the need for their swift management through institutional support, educational campaigns, counteracting antiscience misinformation, and pursuing vaccinations of refugees but also improving or maintaining good levels of immunization in populations of countries welcoming them. These are necessary actions to avoid overlapping of war and infectious diseases and associated public health challenges.
The war in Ukraine in 2022 and the associated influx of refugees to neighboring countries is a call for urgent measures to mitigate risks related to infectious diseases, particularly coronavirus disease 2019, measles, pertussis, tetanus, and poliomyelitis, because of low vaccination rates.
In The World Refugees Made , Pamela Ballinger explores Italy's remaking in light of the loss of a wide range of territorial possessions—colonies, protectorates, and provinces—in Africa and the ...Balkans, the repatriation of Italian nationals from those territories, and the integration of these national refugees into a country devastated by war and overwhelmed by foreign displaced persons from Eastern Europe. Post-World War II Italy served as an important laboratory, in which categories differentiating foreign refugees (who had crossed national boundaries) from national refugees (those who presumably did not) were debated, refined, and consolidated. Such distinctions resonated far beyond that particular historical moment, informing legal frameworks that remain in place today. Offering an alternative genealogy of the postwar international refugee regime, Ballinger focuses on the consequences of one of its key omissions: the ineligibility from international refugee status of those migrants who became classified as national refugees. The presence of displaced persons also posed the complex question of who belonged, culturally and legally, in an Italy that was territorially and politically reconfigured by decolonization. The process of demarcating types of refugees thus represented a critical moment for Italy, one that endorsed an ethnic conception of identity that citizenship laws made explicit. Such an understanding of identity remains salient, as Italians still invoke language and race as bases of belonging in the face of mass immigration and ongoing refugee emergencies. Ballinger's analysis of the postwar international refugee regime and Italian decolonization illuminates the study of human rights history, humanitarianism, postwar reconstruction, fascism and its aftermaths, and modern Italian history.
Abstract
Background
Despite child marriage receiving increased attention over the past two decades, research on child marriage in humanitarian settings remains scarce. This study sought to quantify ...child marriage among Somali adolescent girls residing in Kobe refugee camp in Ethiopia and to identify its correlates and consequences.
Methods
A cross-sectional survey was conducted using multi-stage cluster-based sampling with probability proportional to size. We randomly sampled households that have at least one female aged 15–49 and at least one adolescent female aged 10–19. In addition to calculating the proportion of girls married under age 18, we used survival methods – namely Kaplan Meier graphs and Cox proportional hazard models – to identify risk factors associated with child marriage in this context. We also used descriptive statistics to describe marital age preferences among female adults and presented measures of important sexual and reproductive health indicators among married adolescent girls.
Results
A total of 603 adult women were surveyed and a household roster was created with information on 3319 household members, of whom 522 were adolescent girls aged 15–19. Of those, 14% were currently married (95% Confidence Interval CI 0.11–0.18), and 11% were ever married under age 18 (95% CI 8–15%). Several variables were found to be significantly associated with hazard of child marriage including schooling, sex and employment status of head of household, as well as number of girls under age 18 in the childhood home.. Adult women tended to incorrectly identify minimum legal age at marriage and preferred low marital age for boys and girls – particularly in households of child brides. Among married adolescent girls, contraceptive use was very low (11%; 95% CI 4.94–22.40), and early childbearing was common (60%; 95% CI 45.56–72.89).
Conclusions
This research contributes to the evidence base on child marriage in humanitarian settings. Insights generated from this study have the potential to inform programs and interventions aiming to prevent and mitigate the impacts of this harmful practice.
The displacement of Venezuelan citizens represents an important test for Latin American refugee policies. In mid‐2020, over 5 million people in need of international protection had left Venezuela, ...and there have been repeated calls for their recognition as refugees. Although fifteen countries in Latin America have included the refugee definition of the Cartagena Declaration into their domestic laws, only Mexico and Brazil have applied this definition to Venezuelan citizens. After a brief discussion of the history and scope of the Cartagena Declaration refugee definition and its incorporation into domestic legislation across Latin America, in this article, we provide a systematic legal analysis of its applicability to Venezuelan displacement. We conclude with policy recommendations and suggestions for further research.
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