By AIT Public Affairs
Prof. Paula Banerjee, IDRC Endowed Research Chair and Director of the Centre of Gender and Forced Displacement at AIT, has edited a book titled “On the Margins of Protection.”
In the summer of 2015, the world witnessed a major “European refugee crisis” as thousands of Syrian refugees risked their lives to reach Europe in search of safety. This led to a reevaluation of the global system for protecting refugees and migrants. In response, the United Nations introduced two new global compacts in 2018: the Global Compact on Refugees and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.
This book examines the global protection system and how it functions in practice. It connects geopolitics in the Global North, their asylum policies, and the resulting dislocations in the Global South, revealing how these systems often serve the interests of late capitalism. It also highlights technologically advanced bordering strategies, such as offshore techniques and hotspots, often located outside the state where refugees seek asylum.
The central theme of the book is the emerging cracks in the protection regime along the lines of race, religion, and gender. The authors show that while women constitute approximately 49 percent of the world’s refugee population, the current protection regime often overlooks the gendered and racialized nature of migration.
