https://znetwork.org/category/refugees/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Tue, 23 Dec 2025 11:30:51 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/category/refugees/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-christmas-story-the-courage-jesus-learned-as-a-refugee/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-christmas-story-the-courage-jesus-learned-as-a-refugee/#respond Tue, 23 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292685 Jesus’s birth was a silent night, when all was calm and all was bright, but there was a context to the Christmas story critical to understanding the lesson of Christmas. This context gives insight into why Jesus taught what he later taught. It was a time of foment, rebellion, near civil war, with fake news, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-christmas-story-the-courage-jesus-learned-as-a-refugee/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/europe-is-paying-libya-to-torture-migrants-on-its-behalf/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/europe-is-paying-libya-to-torture-migrants-on-its-behalf/#respond Sat, 13 Dec 2025 14:47:47 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292325 The boat took us all by surprise that morning. It was spotted by a crew member on lookout on our top deck, and soon, what had been a pinpoint on the horizon quickly became a distinct wooden boat, tightly packed with people, all waving and shouting. No one was wearing a lifejacket. The crew on [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/europe-is-paying-libya-to-torture-migrants-on-its-behalf/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/displacement-governance-and-the-illusion-of-integration-a-review/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/displacement-governance-and-the-illusion-of-integration-a-review/#respond Sun, 02 Nov 2025 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1290745 Displacement Governance and the Illusion of Integration offers an inspiring and insightful contribution to contemporary issues of migration, marginalization and integration. By thoroughly examining a series of timely theoretical issues such as vulnerability, deprivation, and the dominant narrative regarding the integration of migrant newcomers in contemporary urban environments, Shearer Demir’s approach succeeds in both highlighting [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/displacement-governance-and-the-illusion-of-integration-a-review/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/rohingya-women-carry-not-just-a-story-of-pain-but-a-plan-for-change/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/rohingya-women-carry-not-just-a-story-of-pain-but-a-plan-for-change/#respond Mon, 18 Aug 2025 18:34:30 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1287445 “In the Rohingya refugee communities, especially with whom I work, the progress on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)-3 (health and wellbeing) and SDG-5 (gender equality) has been deeply uneven and fragile – there have been small but significant steps forward,” said Noor Fatima, Specialist in Education Policy and Equity, Rohingya Maìyafuìnor Collaborative Network. “We now see [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/rohingya-women-carry-not-just-a-story-of-pain-but-a-plan-for-change/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/canada-is-poised-to-become-a-partner-in-the-us-assault-on-immigrants/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/canada-is-poised-to-become-a-partner-in-the-us-assault-on-immigrants/#respond Mon, 24 Mar 2025 15:32:40 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1281487 The Trump administration promises to double down on what it says will be the fiercest deportation program in U.S. history. Judging by history and rhetoric, the administration has no qualms about stripping kids from their parents and spouses from their partners. Many asylum seekers in the U.S., their advocates and liberal mainstream media have mused that some [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/canada-is-poised-to-become-a-partner-in-the-us-assault-on-immigrants/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-stop-trumps-plan-for-the-ethnic-cleansing-of-gaza/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-stop-trumps-plan-for-the-ethnic-cleansing-of-gaza/#respond Mon, 24 Feb 2025 15:36:01 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1280171 For now, the cease-fire deal between Hamas and the Israeli government appears to be holding, but Donald Trump’s proposal for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza has been the main focus of discussion for the past few weeks. We spoke to Paul Rogers about whether Trump is likely to follow through on his plan and what [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-stop-trumps-plan-for-the-ethnic-cleansing-of-gaza/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/immigrant-solidarity-in-2025-with-zafiro-patino-aviva-chomsky-peter-bohmer/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/immigrant-solidarity-in-2025-with-zafiro-patino-aviva-chomsky-peter-bohmer/#respond Mon, 03 Feb 2025 15:27:03 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1279223 Panelists highlight the key dangers for immigrants in Trump’s new administration, underlying causes of migration, vision and strategy for what a truly just immigration policy would look like, and practical action that can be taken to resist harm and injustice. ZNetwork.org is honored to host Zafiro Patiño, Aviva Chomsky, and Peter Bohmer, co-sponsored by CaracolDSA.org: [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/immigrant-solidarity-in-2025-with-zafiro-patino-aviva-chomsky-peter-bohmer/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-challenges-do-syrian-refugees-face-after-resettlement/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-challenges-do-syrian-refugees-face-after-resettlement/#respond Mon, 13 Jan 2025 16:32:12 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1278364 Since the eruption of the Syrian civil war in 2011, millions of Syrians have fled their country, seeking refuge in neighboring countries and beyond. Thirteen years on, a significant number of these 13.5 million refugees are identified by the UN as displaced persons in need of humanitarian assistance, particularly those who fled to Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, and Europe While the prospect of going [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-challenges-do-syrian-refugees-face-after-resettlement/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/resisting-empire-injustice-through-fiction/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/resisting-empire-injustice-through-fiction/#respond Thu, 12 Dec 2024 16:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1277019 Empire and injustice are not abstract concepts – they shape our daily lives. Awareness alone won’t change that. We can read the news, digest the facts, but change requires more than information. It demands emotional connection, imagination, a vision for something different, and a willingness to dismantle the systems that uphold these injustices. Storytelling is [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/resisting-empire-injustice-through-fiction/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/small-farming-urbanisation-and-climate-migration-beyond-the-stereotypes-in-bangladesh/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/small-farming-urbanisation-and-climate-migration-beyond-the-stereotypes-in-bangladesh/#respond Mon, 02 Dec 2024 17:27:39 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1276496 Bangladesh is a small country that sits within the Northeast of South Asia with India wrapped around it, and Myanmar to the South. Despite its small size and relatively recent independence, Bangladesh plays an oversized role in the way poverty, development, climate change and urbanisation are imagined globally. Often in discussions of climate change the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/small-farming-urbanisation-and-climate-migration-beyond-the-stereotypes-in-bangladesh/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/land-scarcity-in-northern-bahr-el-ghazal-implications-for-returns/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/land-scarcity-in-northern-bahr-el-ghazal-implications-for-returns/#respond Wed, 13 Nov 2024 20:20:21 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1275277 For two decades now, since 2005, Northern Bahr el Ghazal (NBG), a state to the Northwest of South Sudan on the border with Sudan’s East and South Darfur and West Kordofan states, has experienced two waves of returns. The first wave was between 2005 and 2009 following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended the second [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/land-scarcity-in-northern-bahr-el-ghazal-implications-for-returns/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/if-only-some-lives-matter-no-lives-matter/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/if-only-some-lives-matter-no-lives-matter/#respond Fri, 11 Oct 2024 15:36:36 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1273524 Colonialism is hardly a thing of the past – it’s alive and vibrant as ever . . . from the Middle East to Western Europe to the United States to India and God knows where else. And it can be profitable as hell, at least for the right industries. Be afraid. Be very afraid!  This [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/if-only-some-lives-matter-no-lives-matter/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/border-abolition-against-all-odds/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/border-abolition-against-all-odds/#respond Fri, 30 Aug 2024 16:10:21 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1271593 Contra Viento y Marea is a community kitchen in the Zona Norte of Tijuana that serves over 1,000 hot meals every week. The group was founded six years ago, and is made up of Central American migrant and refugee youth who arrived in the November 2018 migrant caravan and anarchist organizers from Mexico, the US, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/border-abolition-against-all-odds/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/prolonging-genocide-as-a-smokescreen-on-israels-other-war-in-the-west-bank/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/prolonging-genocide-as-a-smokescreen-on-israels-other-war-in-the-west-bank/#respond Thu, 22 Aug 2024 17:41:12 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1271210 Promises of “absolute victory” in Gaza are nothing but “gibberish”, according to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Gallant’s comments were not meant to be public, but somehow were leaked and published by Israeli media on August 12.  The explanation of why Netanyahu is pursuing a losing war in Gaza has been largely confined to the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/prolonging-genocide-as-a-smokescreen-on-israels-other-war-in-the-west-bank/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/beyond-refuge-empowering-rohingya-to-lead-their-own-future/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/beyond-refuge-empowering-rohingya-to-lead-their-own-future/#respond Tue, 20 Aug 2024 17:15:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1271075 “The vast majority of my people are in refugee camps or in apartheid villages, struggling every day just to make a living… They deserve to have a biography, not someone like me, living in Canada with a decent job in the government,” said Raïss Tinmaung. Tinmaung is Rohingya and when we met last month in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/beyond-refuge-empowering-rohingya-to-lead-their-own-future/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/europe-shouldnt-rely-upon-the-rsf-militia-on-immigration/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/europe-shouldnt-rely-upon-the-rsf-militia-on-immigration/#respond Mon, 05 Aug 2024 15:40:03 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1270418 In April 2023, a war broke out in Sudan between the Sudanese armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces. The impact has been devastating. Thousands were killed in addition to massive destruction in buildings and infrastructure, causing many to fear that the whole country will fall into a cycle of violence.  One of the primary [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/europe-shouldnt-rely-upon-the-rsf-militia-on-immigration/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/migrants-die-at-sea-because-governments-let-them-drown/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/migrants-die-at-sea-because-governments-let-them-drown/#respond Sat, 27 Jul 2024 15:43:18 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1269887 When someone drowns, we gather in the Parc de Richelieu. We arrange ourselves in a circle. Somebody might bring a microphone and speaker. Behind us, statues of Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle stare into the void before a row of metal arches shaped like the borders of France. We try to give words to [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/migrants-die-at-sea-because-governments-let-them-drown/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/inside-the-struggle-to-stop-the-social-cleansing-of-paris-for-the-olympics/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/inside-the-struggle-to-stop-the-social-cleansing-of-paris-for-the-olympics/#respond Wed, 24 Jul 2024 18:40:53 +0000 With the approach of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, organizers and aid groups are working to ensure the continuation of social services in the city. They are also trying to stop the evictions of over 12,500 of the city’s most vulnerable people, who often face the destruction of their dwellings, belongings and documents.  “Those are [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/inside-the-struggle-to-stop-the-social-cleansing-of-paris-for-the-olympics/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/cairos-faustian-bargain-with-brussels-sends-sudanese-refugees-back-into-the-cauldron/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/cairos-faustian-bargain-with-brussels-sends-sudanese-refugees-back-into-the-cauldron/#respond Mon, 08 Jul 2024 15:32:19 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1268994 In mid-March this year, the European Union signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Egypt aimed at curbing irregular migration to Europe’s shores partly via the kind of incentivised cash transfer that gives the impression that Brussels is serious about boosting the North African country’s economy. While the EU touted the €7.4 billion aid package as the silver [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/cairos-faustian-bargain-with-brussels-sends-sudanese-refugees-back-into-the-cauldron/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/seeking-fantasies-across-the-sea/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/seeking-fantasies-across-the-sea/#respond Tue, 28 May 2024 17:33:54 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1267060 A young boy, no more than sixteen, steers a battered trawler boat with an unyielding focus on the darkness ahead. Between the congestion of bodies on board, a pregnant woman passes in and out of consciousness. “I know you don’t want to come,” the boy cries into the boat’s phone. “You want to let us [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/seeking-fantasies-across-the-sea/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/climate-as-border/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/climate-as-border/#respond Mon, 18 Mar 2024 16:53:17 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1263811 Boats full of African migrants set sail from North and West African shores destined for Europe. Whether they reach their destinations or not, climate is to blame. In life so in death: climate and environmental factors are, paradoxically at once, the drivers, the detractors, and the solutions to the “pathology” of human mobility.  Countless pirogues [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/climate-as-border/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/glimpses-of-gaza-anwars-story/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/glimpses-of-gaza-anwars-story/#comments Mon, 18 Mar 2024 16:01:38 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1263798  Another family died yesterday. A dozen families die everyday. They usually manage to pull a few bodies out of the rubble. The rest remain. No one has the energy to dig them out. They’re too busy being tired and hungry. Besides, what would they do with the corpses? They don’t have funerals anymore, just mass [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/glimpses-of-gaza-anwars-story/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nz-can-help-people-fleeing-gaza-with-emergency-family-reunification-will-the-government-act/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nz-can-help-people-fleeing-gaza-with-emergency-family-reunification-will-the-government-act/#respond Tue, 05 Mar 2024 17:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1263181 In the looming shadow of a threatened Israeli invasion of Rafah at the onset of Ramadan, New Zealand has the opportunity to extend a lifeline to families trapped in the middle of the war in Gaza. The dire humanitarian situation has been well-documented: more than 30,000 lives lost, nearly a fifth of buildings destroyed, countless people injured and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nz-can-help-people-fleeing-gaza-with-emergency-family-reunification-will-the-government-act/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/the-myth-of-palestinian-division/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/the-myth-of-palestinian-division/#respond Sat, 02 Mar 2024 17:06:24 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1263002 Anti-Zionist activist and author Miko Peled discusses the notion of alleged division among Palestinians and the need for a Nelson Mandela-like leader.]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/the-myth-of-palestinian-division/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/international-law-selective-compassion-and-refugee-children/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/international-law-selective-compassion-and-refugee-children/#respond Sun, 11 Feb 2024 15:01:03 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1262017 After the International Court of Justice ruled that Palestinians in Gaza faced a “credible risk” of genocide due to Israel’s war against Hamas, the Irish barrister prosecuting South Africa’s case suggested “the very reputation of international law … to protect all peoples equally hangs in the balance.” We are witnessing today, on an unprecedented scale—on almost every continent—the displacement [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/international-law-selective-compassion-and-refugee-children/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nowhere-to-run/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nowhere-to-run/#respond Thu, 11 Jan 2024 16:45:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1260578 Back in 1968, my father announced that, if Richard Nixon were elected president that November, he was going to move us all to Canada. I’m not sure who “us all” actually was, since my younger brother and I were then living with my mother and my parents had been divorced for years. Still, he was [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nowhere-to-run/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/africas-refugee-crisis-deepens-un-budget-shortfalls-amplify-hunger/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/africas-refugee-crisis-deepens-un-budget-shortfalls-amplify-hunger/#respond Mon, 25 Dec 2023 16:05:34 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1259792 For refugees living in settlements across Africa, life got more difficult in 2023. Shortfalls in the operating budget of the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, and the World Food Program have brought increased precarity into the daily lives of millions of displaced people across the continent. Having fled violence, famine and insecurity in search of survival, many African refugees now find [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/africas-refugee-crisis-deepens-un-budget-shortfalls-amplify-hunger/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-pick-up-soccer-group-is-helping-welcome-refugees-to-new-york-city/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-pick-up-soccer-group-is-helping-welcome-refugees-to-new-york-city/#respond Mon, 20 Nov 2023 17:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1257822 Every Wednesday night, members of Woodbine Soccer, a collective of soccer players, haul a generator, lights and goals to a local public park in Ridgewood, Queens. About 50 regulars of varying skill levels and backgrounds trickle in and we set up the field together for a few hours’ worth of scrimmaging. Among them are friends we’ve [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-pick-up-soccer-group-is-helping-welcome-refugees-to-new-york-city/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/prioritizing-human-rights-in-relations-with-saudi-arabia/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/prioritizing-human-rights-in-relations-with-saudi-arabia/#respond Wed, 06 Sep 2023 16:37:04 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1253416 There is a refugee trail that goes from the Sahel drought region in Africa, into war-ravaged Yemen, and up through Saudi Arabia towards Iraq and Turkey. It’s known as “the Eastern route,” or sometimes “the Yemeni route.” The Saudi monarchy, already leading an eight-year starvation and bombardment campaign against Iran-aligned, rebel-governed Yemen, has been massacring [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/prioritizing-human-rights-in-relations-with-saudi-arabia/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/no-mercy-we-have-stepped-over-a-line-into-the-inhumane/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/no-mercy-we-have-stepped-over-a-line-into-the-inhumane/#respond Fri, 28 Jul 2023 13:52:43 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1250079 Zealously following the GOP dictate to inflict mindless, bloody cruelty on vulnerable people, Texas’ Greg Abbott has created a hellhole state that tortures migrants – razor wire “death traps” in the Rio Grande, troops pushing children back in the water, no drinks in extreme heat, bussed out of sight. It’s also killing workers and inmates, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/no-mercy-we-have-stepped-over-a-line-into-the-inhumane/feed/ 0