ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 poses the questions of who is a refugee and who is an asylum seeker, both under international law and in a broader sociological sense. The chapter details international legal definitions, including the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees and other definitions contained within regional mechanisms for protecting refugees. The right to seek asylum will also be explored, including processes of refugee status determination (RSD). Thereafter the geography of the world’s refugees are examined with consideration around where refugees come from, statistics and how many people are refugees, including Palestinian refugees, and where the world’s refugees are hosted. There is a short overview of statelessness and, then, people who live in what has become known as protracted refugee situations (PRS) will be considered. A short outlined of the history of the ‘durable solutions’ of resettlement, local integration and voluntary repatriation is provided to consider what solutions are available for people who flee persecution. There is then a section on the power of definition and labelling refugees, forced migrants and the forcibly displaced. Throughout the chapter, summaries of four key thinkers are provided – Barbara Harrell-Bond on Imposing Aid, Lisa Malkki on Purity and Exile, Jeff Crisp on topics relating to durable solutions and Roger Zetter on labelling ‘refugees’.
