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Revista CIDOB d’Afers Internacionals n.º 129, p. 227-237Cuatrimestral (octubre-diciembre 2021)ISSN:1133-6595 | E-ISSN:2013-035XDOI: doi.org/10.24241/rcai.2021.129.3.227 Reseña de libro: FitzGerald, David Scott. Refuge Beyond Reach. How Rich Democracies Repel Asylum Seekers. Oxford University Press, 2019, 359 págs. Revista CIDOB d’Afers Internacionals n.º 129, p. 227-237Cuatrimestral (octubre-diciembre 2021)ISSN:1133-6595 | E-ISSN:2013-035XDOI: doi.org/10.24241/rcai.2021.129.3.227 Book review: FitzGerald, David Scott. Refuge Beyond Reach. How Rich Democracies Repel Asylum Seekers. Oxford University Press, 2019, 359 págs. >> The full text articles of this issue are available only in Spanish language Revista CIDOB d’Afers Internacionals n.º 129, p. 227-237Cuatrimestral (octubre-diciembre 2021)ISSN:1133-6595 | E-ISSN:2013-035XDOI: doi.org/10.24241/rcai.2021.129.3.227 Reseña de libro: FitzGerald, David Scott. Refuge Beyond Reach. How Rich Democracies Repel Asylum Seekers. Oxford University Press, 2019, 359 págs.

The Rights of Others examines the boundaries of political community by focusing on political membership - the principles and practices for incorporating aliens and strangers, immigrants and newcomers, refugees and asylum seekers into existing polities. Boundaries define some as members, others as aliens. But when state sovereignty is becoming frayed, and national citizenship is unravelling, definitions of political membership become much less clear. Indeed few issues in world politics today are more important, or more troubling. In her Seeley Lectures, the distinguished political theorist Seyla Benhabib makes a powerful plea, echoing Immanuel Kant, for moral universalism and cosmopolitan federalism. She advocates not open but porous boundaries, recognising both the admittance rights of refugees and asylum seekers, but also the regulatory rights of democracies. The Rights of Others is a major intervention in contemporary political theory, of interest to large numbers of students and specialists in politics, law, philosophy and international relations.

Objetivo: analizar el proceso por el cual el asilo pasó de la esfera religiosa a la política en el marco de la configuración de los Estados americanos en la primera mitad del siglo XIX. Metodología: con el apoyo de los principales aportes de la historia conceptual tomé como campo de observación los principales manuales de doctrina jurídica y recopilaciones de leyes que circularon en México durante la primera mitad del siglo XIX. Originalidad: los resultados de esta investigación me permitieron clarificar los diversos niveles de significado que se han mantenido en el concepto de asilo político y que cronológicamente proceden de épocas diferentes, es decir, que se dan en la simultaneidad de lo anacrónico. Conclusiones: a partir de este análisis identifiqué y analicé el momento de transición en el cual convivieron el asilo en sagrado, el territorial y el diplomático, así como el proceso paulatino de control y prohibición de la forma eclesiástica del asilo, en el marco de los procesos de secularización. De igual manera analicé la politización del asilo por la cual aquello que podía entenderse como delito político dejó de estar excluido radicalmente de cualquier forma de asilo, bien fuera religioso o secular, para ser el único tipo de infracción a la ley considerada como sujeta de protección asilar. Objective: To analyze the process by which asylum passed from the religious to the political sphere within the framework of the configuration of the American States in the first half of the 19th century. Methodology: With the support of the main contributions of conceptual history, I took as a field of observation the main manuals of legal doctrine and law compilations that circulated in Mexico during the first half of the 19th century. Originality: The results of this research allowed me to clarify the different levels of meaning that have been maintained in the concept of political asylum and that chronologically come from different periods, that is, they occur in the simultaneity of the anachronistic. Conclusions: Based on this analysis I identified and analyzed the moment of transition in which sacred, territorial, and diplomatic asylum coexisted, as well as the gradual process of control and prohibition of the ecclesiastical form of asylum, within the framework of the secularization processes. Similarly, I analyzed the politicization of asylum, through which what could be understood as a political crime was no longer radically excluded from any form of asylum, whether religious or secular, thus becaming the only type of violation of the law considered subject to asylum protection. Objetivo: analisar o processo pelo qual o asilo passou da esfera religiosa para a política no marco da configuração dos Estados americanos na primeira metade do século XIX. Metodologia: com o apoio das principais contribuições da história conceitual, tomei como campo de observação os principais manuais de doutrina jurídica e compilações de leis que circularam no México durante a primeira metade do século XIX. Originalidade: os resultados desta pesquisa permitiram-me esclarecer os vários níveis de significado que se mantiveram no conceito de asilo político e que cronologicamente provêm de épocas diferentes, ou seja, ocorrem na simultaneidade do anacrônico. Conclusões: com base nesta análise, identifiquei e analisei o momento de transição em que coexistiram o asilo sagrado, territorial e diplomático, bem como o processo gradual de controle e proibição da forma eclesiástica de asilo, no marco dos processos de secularização. Da mesma forma, analisei o processo de politização do asilo pelo qual o que poderia ser entendido como crime político deixou de ser radicalmente excluído de qualquer forma de asilo, seja religioso ou laico, para se tornar o único tipo de violação da lei considerado elegível para a proteção asilar.

Background: Due to their experiences of major stressful life events, including post-displacement stressors, refugees and asylum seekers are vulnerable to developing mental health problems. Yet, despite the availability of specialized mental health services in Western European host countries, refugees and asylum seekers display low mental healthcare utilization. Objective: The aim of this study was to explore structural and socio-cultural barriers to accessing mental healthcare among Syrian refugees and asylum seekers in Switzerland. Method: In this qualitative study, key-informant (KI) interviews with Syrian refugees and asylum seekers, Swiss healthcare providers and other stakeholders (e.g. refugee coordinators or leaders) were conducted in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Participants were recruited using snowball sampling. Interviews were audiotaped and transcribed, and then analysed using thematic analysis, combining deductive and inductive coding. Results: Findings show that Syrian refugees and asylum seekers face multiple structural and socio-cultural barriers, with socio-cultural barriers being perceived as more pronounced. Syrian key informants, healthcare providers, and other stakeholders identified language, gatekeeper-associated problems, lack of resources, lack of awareness, fear of stigma and a mismatch between the local health system and perceived needs of Syrian refugees and asylum seekers as key barriers to accessing care. Conclusions: The results show that for Syrian refugees and asylum seekers in Switzerland several barriers exist. This is in line with previous findings. A possible solution for the current situation might be to increase the agility of the service system in general and to improve the willingness to embrace innovative paths, rather than adapting mental healthcare services regarding single barriers and needs of a new target population.

In this article, I track shifting paradigms of refugee management in Italy in times of austerity and welfare state restructuring. Drawing on an ethnographic analysis of asylum-related bureaucratic work in Bologna, the essay explores paradoxical and violent effects of welfare decline both on reception workers’ labor conditions and on the dynamic of aid that they end up providing to asylum seekers. On the one hand, recent developments in asylum management in Italy suggest a transition to post-compassionate forms of aid, hinged more on the making of dutiful subjects ready to repay the “hospitality” offered by the state than on the moral imperative to rescue suffering bodies and lives. On the other hand, reception workers’ precarious positioning and unrest hold the potential for exposing the inherent contradictions of state-based narratives, thereby shaping alternative discourses on the causes and responsibilities of both refugee and economic “crises.” Questo articolo ricostruisce l’emergere di nuovi paradigmi di gestione dei rifugiati in Italia, in tempi di austerità e ristrutturazione dei sistemi di welfare. Prendendo spunto dall’analisi etnografica di un ufficio di supporto per l’asilo a Bologna, l’articolo esplora effetti violenti e paradossali dello smantellamento del welfare pubblico, sia sulle condizioni di lavoro degli operatori dell’accoglienza, che sulle dinamiche di aiuto a richiedenti asilo che essi finiscono col contribuire a produrre. Le recenti trasformazioni nella gestione dell’asilo in Italia suggeriscono uno slittamento verso forme di aiuto post-compassionevoli, incentrate più sulla costruzione di soggetti attivamente impegnati nel ricompensare “l’ospitalità” offerta dallo stato, che sull’imperativo morale di salvare corpi e vite sofferenti. Al tempo stesso, la precarietà e il dissenso dei lavoratori dell’accoglienza sono potenzialmente in grado di illuminare alcune delle contraddizioni intrinseche alle narrazioni statali, elaborando così discorsi alternativi sulle cause e responsabilità della “crisi”, sia migratoria che economica.

This article contributes to broader discussions of early Latin American nation-making by focusing on the interplay among territory, sovereignty and human movement in nineteenth-century Central America. How did early Central American nations create sovereign spaces? And how did human movement in turn impact the meanings of bordered spaces? Drawing from constitutions, legal codes and archival documents related to the implementation of migration laws, the central argument of this article is that Central American governments typically treated free migration not as a threat to sovereignty but as an opportunity to reinforce sovereignty over the fixed spaces through which people moved.

Reseña de:  HABERMAS, J. (2022). Refugiados, migrantes e integración. Una breve antología. Ed. Juan Carlos Velasco. Madrid: Tecnos.

Background: Prevalence rates of posttraumatic stress disorder and depression are high among refugees in Germany. However, knowledge on subjective as well as objective need for psychotherapy and utilization of psychotherapeutic treatment is scarce. Both structural and personal barriers regarding utilization of mental health services must be addressed in order to increase treatment efficiency. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the objective as well as the perceived need for treatment, the utilization of mental health care among refugees in the past 12 months, and the perceived barriers to treatment. Method: By means of face-to-face interviews, an unselected convenience sample of 177 adult refugees were interviewed in either Arabic, Farsi, Kurmancî, English, or German. The general sample was reached through social workers. In addition to the Refugee Health Screener-15 (RHS-15), utilization of psychotherapeutic and psychiatric care as well as the subjective needs and barriers to treatment were assessed. Results: According to the RHS-15 54.8% of participants (n = 97) suffered from relevant mental health problems. However, although 28 (28.9%) of the 97 participants who scored above the RHS-15 cut-off perceived a need for therapy, none of them had received psychotherapy as recommended by the German S3 Guidelines. Missing information about mental health and language difficulties were the most frequently cited barriers to mental health services. Conclusions: Psychologically distressed refugees do not receive sufficient treatment. The reduction of barriers to treatment as well as extension of mental health services to lower thresholds should be considered in the future. There is a large gap between the number of refugees who are suffering from mental strain and the number who are actually getting treatment. Besides conventional psychotherapy alternative approaches are needed to increase the availability and minimize (perceived) barriers to mental health service utilization.

Is there still a right to seek asylum in a globalised world? Migration control has increasingly moved to the high seas or the territory of transit and origin countries, and is now commonly outsourced to private actors. Under threat of financial penalties airlines today reject any passenger not in possession of a valid visa, and private contractors are used to run detention centres and man border crossings. In this volume Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen examines the impact of these new practices for refugees' access to asylum. A systematic analysis is provided of the reach and limits of international refugee law when migration control is carried out extraterritorially or by non-state actors. State practice from around the globe and case law from all the major human rights institutions is discussed. The arguments are further linked to wider debates in human rights, general international law and political science.

Este artículo tiene como objetivo analizar las herramientas mediante las cuales los Estados europeos actúan frente a las solicitudes de protección internacional, centrando la atención en el caso español. Se parte de un trabajo de campo desarrollado entre 2014 y 2019, continuado en el tiempo en cuanto al análisis legislativo y evolución de las solicitudes y resoluciones de asilo y refugio. Se utiliza una metodología cualitativa basada en análisis de fuentes secundarias (legislación internacional, europea y española) y entrevistas en profundidad con personal técnico y personas refugiadas. Se parte de un análisis inicial sobre la protección de la vida como máxima responsabilidad a garantizar por los Estados, haciendo hincapié en un abordaje teórico sobre la protección, para llegar a la recopilación de acuerdos internacionales y legislación a nivel estatal por ser la base sobre la que se construye el procedimiento de asilo. Se recoge así el análisis de los tres niveles de legislación para posteriormente resaltar dos particularidades del caso español: tener un pasado de emisor de población refugiada hacia otros países donde su población fue acogida y el peso de la apatridia principalmente de personas procedentes de territorios no reconocidos por España como país soberano. Estas particularidades emanan del trabajo de campo, mostrándonos cómo a pesar de la armonización que a nivel europeo se pretende con el Sistema Europeo Común de Asilo, existen características concretas que inciden en la reivindicación de una mayor apertura a la acogida de población, que fundamentalmente emanan de la sociedad civil y que tienen su impacto en la gestión de la protección internacional. A modo de conclusión se destaca cómo se articulan estas características, las obligaciones internacionalmente adquiridas y el protocolo armonizado en el procedimiento de asilo.