Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System by Alexander Betts and Paul Collier, Allen Lane, 2017, 288 pages
We are living in interesting times, to put it very mildly. The world has seen tremendous opportunities for change and disruption. However not all disruptions have played out for the better. For one thing, the Arab Spring of 2011 saw major upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa. Arabs across a range of demographics came out onto public squares to protest against their rulers and leaders. Tech savvy youngsters utilised their resources to mobilise support through the use of Twitter, Facebook, and the dark web. The world witnessed something extraordinary, the regime changes and overthrowing of leaders from Ben Ali in Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, to Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. What was initially seen as a dawn of new hope for the Middle East and North Africa crumbled into a world of disarray, violence and misery.
For Syria, the growing discontent against its leader Bashar Al-Assad and his refusal to step down had led to an escalation in conflict, to the point where six years on, the ongoing struggle has led to unimaginable levels of violence. The result of which has led to five million Syrian refugees, with Turkey harbouring two million, and Jordan and Lebanon taking in one million each.
Currently there are 22.5 million refugees worldwide. The challenge then for the global refugee system is, how do we sustainably protect refugees at this scale? And how can we do so by balancing the interests of host states whilst minimising the protracted status refugees find themselves in? In Refuge, Alexander Betts, a refugee expert and Paul Collier, a development economist, argue that the global refugee regime has failed to address the needs of refugees who are fleeing not only from political persecution, but also from state fragility, famine, and drought.
The authors pass on a heavy amount of blame on the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) as well as Angela Merkel’s unilateral decision to permit one million refugees into Germany. Causing a deluge of migrants to end up on the shores of Lampedusa in Italy and Lesbos in Greece to seize on this opportunity. To some it may seem all too convenient to lay the blame on them, especially when we have seen great mis-communication and a lack of co-operation between EU member states on how and where to protect refugees. It is also irresponsible to claim that Angela Merkel’s decision alone caused the huge influx of migrants when many were already travelling to Europe beforehand.
But consider that the UNHCR’s primary role is to lead and co-ordinate states to take action on protecting refugees worldwide. It is here where Betts and Collier make the reasonable demand that the UNHCR cannot continue to strictly govern based on the rules of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, and must instead adopt a new approach.
As the title suggests, the book focuses on four main concepts when deliberating on how to work towards achieving a better functioning refugee system. Chiefly, they revolve around the concepts of our duty of rescue, rethinking the function of safe havens, establishing the autonomy of refugees in exile, and post-conflict incubation. What is highly refreshing and welcoming about Refuge is how it presents itself and its arguments. The authors remove what they call “moral grandstanding” and other emotional points of views and instead replace it with a pragmatic and level-headed approach. Something which no doubt tends to be missing in the public discourse when you consider how certain media outlets aim to demonise and vilify migrants.
The book itself is split into two core parts, the first deals with providing a diagnosis on the current refugee regime and explaining why the current global refugee system isn’t working. The second part focuses on building a workable system based upon the existing infrastructure. Betts and Collier take these ideas posed and apply them to the existing crisis in a brief exercise in the concluding chapter.
The authors offer solutions to mitigate the insurmountable problems facing host states and refugees. The case is made that, instead of only focusing on humanitarian aid relief, the global refugee regime should focus their efforts upon developing the autonomy of refugees through access to the local economy, employment rights, and creating Special Economic Zones which foster business through favourable trade legislation. An example of which being the Jordan Compact which pledged organisations to employ Syrian refugees as part of their workforce in exchange for tariff-free trade in the European markets. The results are mixed, and it’s too early to say how successful this approach will be for both refugees and Jordan itself, and whether it’ll pave the way for future engagements on refugee development.
The issue with development is that it is inherently political. A host state may refuse to integrate refugees if its government fears they’re taking jobs away from nationals or threatening national security. And what is frustrating about the book is that it fails to address how the global refugee system can work together in a unified manner. Instead, we’re left with the hope that the UNHCR will somehow drum up a way to coalesce conflicting state interests, let alone unify who states determine to be worthy of a ‘refugee’ status as opposed to an ‘economic migrant’.
The authors make bold claims that if the neighbouring host states like Turkey or Lebanon were provided with better tools and resources to provide refugees with better opportunities, then they would’ve never left for Europe. More so, by being in a proximate location to Syria, they would be more willing to go back once the conflict is over. This is speculation, and it’s difficult to gauge what a refugee is thinking once they’ve been uprooted. Some may want to go back and rebuild their home countries, others may choose to live their new lives in their host states. Either way, it becomes a gripe with the book that despite the authors delivering an excellent pragmatic approach in discussing the ideas, the outcomes of which, seemingly become almost too optimistic of human behaviour.
Refuge succeeds in seeking to diagnose and provide a root cause analysis of the current refugee crisis to the reader. What it disappoints in however, is how it borders overly optimistic on how it expects international institutions to behave and work on the practical solutions provided by the authors. One thing the authors could be absolved for though, is their acknowledgement that they’re merely defining an approach, rather than setting out a blueprint on how to tackle the crisis.
Upon reflection, the book makes for some bold gestures and presents some uncomfortable truths to the reader. It challenges the reader to view the current crisis in a new light regardless of their political inclinations. In fact, depending on the reader’s viewpoint, the solutions discussed may be deemed controversial. Regardless of which, the originality of thought behind Refuge makes it worthy of attention.
Sameer Qureshi 