Refuge Quotes

“But when norms and interests come into tension, most states will side with their own interests. And yet pro-refugee rights advocacy and policy-making is dominated by a dogmatic insistence that reciting international law is the most effective way to influence state behaviour.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“Humanitarianism may be appropriate during an emergency phase but beyond that it is counter-productive.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“More than fifteen years later, Uganda's Self-Reliance Strategy has endured as a relatively unique experiment. It was further formalized within Uganda's 2006 Refugee Act, now regarded as one of the most progressive pieces of refugee legislation in Africa. At times, self-reliance has been criticized for legitimizing the premature withdrawal of food rations. The quality of plots of land distributed to refugees has also become uneven as numbers have increased. And refugees still clearly face challenges, including discrimination and informal barriers to market participation. But compared to the alternatives in neighbouring countries, the model is both a shining beacon of policy innovation and a rare opportunity to understand what happens when refugees are given autonomy.”
― Paul Collier, Refuge: Rethinking Refugee Policy in a Changing World

“Six man variables... determine variation in refugees' income levels. First, regulation: the greater the degree of full participation in the national economy, the better refugees will do... Second, nationality... Third, education... fourth, occupation... fifth, gender... sixth, networks”
― Paul Collier, Refuge: Rethinking Refugee Policy in a Changing World

“The humanitarian silo model is also increasingly out of touch. It fails against almost any metric. It doesn't help refugees, undermining their autonomy and dignity. It doesn't help host governments, transforming potential contributors into a disempowered and alienated generation in their midst. It doesn't help the international community, leaving people indefinitely dependent on aid, less capable of ultimately rebuilding their countries of origin, and with onward movement as their only viable route to opportunity.”
― Paul Collier, Refuge: Rethinking Refugee Policy in a Changing World

“One way of grounding how we should identify refugees in a changing world is through the concept of force majeure - the absence of a reasonable choice but to leave.”
― Paul Collier, Refuge: Rethinking Refugee Policy in a Changing World

“Today over half the world's refugees are in 'protracted refugee situations' and for them the average length of stay [in camps] is over two decades.”
― Paul Collier, Refuge: Rethinking Refugee Policy in a Changing World

“For every $135 of public money spent on an asylum-seeker in Europe, just $1 is spent on a refugee in the developing world.”
― Paul Collier, Refuge: Rethinking Refugee Policy in a Changing World

“In other words, people are morally lazy. Unfortunately, wisdom is sometimes demanding.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“The attempt to stabilize Afghanistan is estimated to have cost American taxpayers $3tn to date.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“The inability of refugees to earn a living within the standard UNHCR approach was not only psychologically diminishing for the refugees, but also highlighted the lack of viability of the financing model. Paying for 4 million refugees to live without work for ten years was manifestly unsustainable. Even at a cost of only $1,000 per refugee per year, which would have implied a drastic reduction in lifestyle relative to Syrian pre-refugee conditions, the bill would have amounted to $40bn.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“Since the Syrian refugee situation was just one of many, the approach was completely unfeasible. Financially, the only reason it did not break down earlier was itself a devastating critique: refugees overwhelmingly bypassed the camps. Since the Syrian refugee situation was just one of many, the approach was completely unfeasible. Financially, the only reason it did not break down earlier was itself a devastating critique: refugees overwhelmingly bypassed the camps.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“Today, due to 24/7 media, the internet, and broadcast news, we know more about suffering elsewhere than any previous generation, and yet we are turning our backs to it.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“Refugees are not a homogeneous group of people. Some are attracted by the prospect of succeeding in a high-income society; others, a majority, hope to return to Syria.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“A new approach to safe havens that is radically more supportive is urgently needed in order to address this dysfunctional imbalance, and to simultaneously meet the concerns of donors, hosts, and refugees.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“One way of grounding how we should identify refugees in a changing world is through the concept of force majeure - the absence of a reasonable choice but to leave. More specifically, the threshold for refuge would be: fear of serious physical harm. And the test would be: when would a reasonable person not see her- or himself as having a choice but to flee? In other words, if you were in the same situation, what would you do?”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“The cooperation problem in the refugee regime can be thought of as what game therorists would describe as a 'suasion game': one in which weaker players are left with little choice but to cooperate and stronger players are left with little incentive to cooperate.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“From a refugee's perspective, long-term encampment has described as a 'denial of rights and a waste of humanity'.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“Over half of the world's refugees, including 75 percent of Syrians, live in urban areas in neighbouring countries. But, in cities, assistance is limited and the formal right to work is usually restricted.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“Although UNHCR has an Urban Refugee Policy, it offers very little assistance in practice, with most urban refugees receiving no tangible help. By moving to cities, most refugees relinquish all formal support but also end up locked out of the formal economy.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“The world simply has not created a refugee assistance model compatible with a world of global cities.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“Around the world, refugees are effectively offered a false choice between three dismal options: encampment, urban destitution, or perilous journeys.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“Historically, on average international wars have lasted only six months. In contrast, the average civil war has been much longer, with estimates ranging from seven to fifteen years. If a family are going to be refugees for over a decade, their priority is not emergency food and shelter. It is to re-establish the threads of normal famiy life, anchored materially by a capacity of whoever is the breadwinner to earn a living. The camps run by UNHCR met the basic material needs of refugees, but they provided few opportunities to earn a living. Consequently, they left families bereft of autonomy.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“But generosity of spirit is not enough: our responses must be grounded in wisdom. The headless heart may lead to outcomes little better than the heartless head. So we need to be a little more specific about what generosity of spirit implies. What shoud it mean in the context of Syria, and, by extension, what should it mean more widely in the global context of refugees?”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“As we have seen, the geographical reality is that the overwhelming majority of the world's refugees are in countries that neighbour conflict and crisis. These 'countries of first asylum' in developing regions today host 86 per cent of all refugees, up from 72 per cent a decade ago. In consequence, it is the countries with the least capacity to host refugees that bear the greatest responsibility.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“Imagine if, instead of the humanitarian silo, we could conceive of an approach that could support refugees' autonomy and dignity while simultaneously empowering them to contribute to host communities and the eventual reconstruction of their country of origin.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“There is an alternative. And it starts with recognizing that refugees have skills, talents, aspirations. They are not just passive objects of our pity, but actors constrained by cruel circumstance. They do not have to be an inevitable burden, but instead can help themselves and their communities - if we let them.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“The catch-22 is that urban refugees are expected to help themselves and yet cannot freely access the labour market.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“The humanitarian silo model is increasingly out of touch. It fails against almost any metric. It doesn't help refugees, undermining their autonomy and dignity. It doesn't help host governments, transforming potential contributors into a disempowered and alienated generation in their midst. It doesn't help the international community, leaving people indefinitely dependent upon aid, less capable of ultimately rebulding their countries of origin, and with onward movement as their only viable rout to opportunity.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“For the period that refugees are in limbo, we should be creating an enabling environment that nurtures rather than debilitates people's ability to contribute in exile and when they ultimately go home. This should involve all of the things that allow people to thrive and contribute rather than merely survive: education, the right to work, electricity, connectivity, transportation, access to capital.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System