Journal of Social Development in Africa (1993), 8,2,83-89 
Review Article 
Refugees and International Relations, Gil Loescher and Laila Monahan (eds) 
Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1990,430pp (ISBN: 0-19-827858-6). No price listed. 
Events within the last year in Europe, Angola, Cambodia, Central America, 
Bosnia, Somalia, and Mozambique, and the concomitant economic and human 
costs, underline the urgency for national and transnational solutions to the issues 
of reconciliation and development In fact, over the past four decades the numbers 
orpeople uprootedby war, economic stagnation, politicalrepression, environmental 
collapse, and population pressures have increased dramatically. Today, they 
number close to 80 million people worldwide. 
If present trends persist, the 1990s will demand more, not less, of those 
individuals and organisations engaged in such issues. They will demand more 
resources, commitment, political acumen, and a different paradigm of responses 
and collaboration. The emphasis of Refugees and International Relations is not 
only that the numbers of people effected by recent events are growing, but that the 
quantity and quality of protection, assistance, and durable solutions required for the 
different kinds of refugee movements world-wide has outpaced the structures and 
programmes of cooperation designed to respond to them. 
In the introduction, Loescher presents a useful overview of the entire collection 
of 17 articles, and introduces the concept of the international refugee regime, 
which is crucial to understanding and appreciating "refugees and international 
relations". The "regime" is a transnational framework of cooperation that has, 
with a certain degree of predictability, a structure, systems of operation, working 
arrangements, norms and principles, roles played by a variety of organisations, and 
agreements (legal and non-formal) thathaveevolved to address refugee situations. 
The major protagonists in the regime are the UNHCR, national and international 
NGOs, national governments and their respective ministries that work on refugee 
issues. 
The book focuses on the widening gap between regime responses, vis-a-vis the 
myriad of refugee needs/vulnerabilities, and is divided into three parts:' "The 
International Framework"; "Dimensions of the Refugee Problem" and "The 
Search for Appropriate Responses to the Refugee Problem". 
Part One describes the evolution of the international refugee framework in the 
post-World War 11 era, which was influenced heavily by the politics of the cold 
war and the Western powers. It was designed to respond to refugees who were 
generally from Eastern Europe and defined as individual "victims of persecution
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because of race, religion, nationality, or political opinion". The UNHCR, the 1951 
Convention, legal definitions and modalities of response were products of that 
time. 
However, the characteristics of uprooted people in the succeeding decades 
changed. Decolonisation and wars of liberation in the 1960s, large-scale conflicts 
in the Third World in the 1970s, and migrations from south to north and south to 
south in the 1980s provoked movements of a different size and complexity, 
requiring different legal, institutional and systemic responses. Today, most of the 
world's uprooted do not qualify as "refugees" under the conventional definition. 
Though their lives and livelihoods are threatened, they often find themselves 
outside (but in no less need of) a framework of protection, assistance, and durable 
solutions. 
Fortunately, the mandates of response and definitions have broadened over the 
decades (1967 Protocol; 1969 O AU Convention), and UNHCR has taken a greater 
role with groups that fall beyond the 1951 Convention definition. In addition, 
national and international NGOs have grown in numbers and have become 
increasingly accepted and solicited as working partners. UNHCR and NGOs find 
themselves working together for regionally-based, inter-institutional strategies, 
gender-sensitive programming, and approaches that place a higher value on 
recognising root causes and the vulnerabilities of people in flight. Staff from both 
build upon people's individual and collective stengths through community 
development, community-based programming, aimed at encouraging the building 
of self-esteem and empowerment 
Despite advocacy inside and outside of "the regime" (UNHCR, governments, 
andNGOs) for policies thatbetterreflect refugee interests and reflect less interests 
of the West and individual nations, countervailing and often dominating pressures 
emerge that enact policies that are more restrictive, nationalist, and paternalistic. 
As a result, many refugee groups, especially the most vulnerable (unaccompanied 
children, female heads of households, the disabled, the elderly) fall through the 
cracks (or chasms as the case often is); they: 
"...are not treated equally nor do all states respond similarly to refugee 
problems... refugees and refugee issues become entangled in realpolitik, 
instruments of foreign policy, symbols of foreign policy, and mixed with 
internal migration politics and pre-existing ethnic conflicts and nationalisms" 
(pp 9-10).
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Part Two identifies key "dimensions of the refugee problem". It includes chapters 
on: 
• the disconcerting practice of armed attacks on refugee camps; 
• the politics of humane deterrence (not humane and seldom a deterrent, but 
growing out of a real frustration by the receiving country that the regime is not 
working and other counties are not sharing the burden); 
• the detention of asylum seekers in sub-human conditions; 
• the "feminisation" of refugee and migratory movements and how indiscriminate 
gender-blind policies fail to respond to the specific needs and capacities of 
women; 
• how ad hoc and uncoordinated refugee policies and responses in the north 
burden the countries of first asylum, neighbouring countries and/or the south; 
and 
• how the varying degrees of "legality" for de facto refugees prejudices their 
possibilities for protection, assistance, and durable solutions. 
Each chapter suggests alternatives to the present modus operandi. 
One of the most compelling chapters in this section is "Refugee Women, the 
Forgotten Majority", by Genevieve Camus-Jacques. The specific vulnerabilities 
and capacities of women in refugee situations are largely overlooked, underappreciated, 
and unaddressed. Inequities that characterised life in their place of 
origin are generally aggravated in refugee camps. Poor sanitation, pregnancy, 
children's illness, gynaecological problems, and mental stress are particularly hard 
on women in refugee situations. Overburderned with economic, social, and 
cultural tasks, women find it difficult to free themselves to attend training/skill 
building sessions (which are traditionally male-focused). When they do, such 
assistance, though designed to "help", can become a form of taxation. 
Often, women are at the periphery of basic decisions that affect their lives before 
flight and at subsquent stages thereafter. They become: 
"... refugees as a result of the political choices of their husbands or fathers. 
Once in exile, typically, they become subject to dicissions taken exclusively 
by males: male refugee policy-mkers, male camp authorities, male refugee 
leaders, male heads of family - with the predictable resulting bias". 
Camus-Jacques place the above issues within the broader framework of equity, 
participatory development and empowerment:
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"Women should be included in the design, management, and implementation 
of assistance programes. Greater attention should be focused on 
women'spotential and their ability to innovate, create, adjust. In general, 
refugee groups which are in control of their own affairs seem to achieve 
more...they need less our compassion and more our solidarity and support" 
(pp!48-159). 
In a similar vein, Elizabeth G. Ferris, in "Churches, Refugees, and Politics," 
describes how church-based organisations have moved beyond compassion and 
more toward solidarity over the years. Historically, their engagement in refugee 
assistance was based on moral premises, was considered "non-political" and 
centred on the provision of social services. Over time however, they saw the effects 
of their own government's exclusionary policies on refugees. In addition their 
grassroots experience exposed them to why refugee flows happen in the first place. 
Consequently, many now see advocacy in the "political" (non-partisan) realm as 
central to their work. While much of their activity with refugee groups is still 
operational (material assistance, counselling, training, etc), strategies to raise 
public awareness and change the policies and decision-making processes of 
governments and other organizations vis-a-vis refugee issues are seen as crucial in 
producing charitable results from charitable intentions. 
The need for more policy and advocacy work becomes evident in "Responses 
of European States to De Facto Refugees" by Johan Cels. This well-researched 
and comprehensive article describes how the volume and origin of refugee flows, 
coupled withadeterioratingeconomicsituation.canprovoke xenophobic, nationalist 
and restrictive polices. Such measures end up reducing the entry of de facto 
refugees and preventing their access to protection and needed assistance/services. 
Part Three, "The Search for Appropriate Responses", looks at such topics as 
development and relief strategies, repatriation, resettlement, safe haven, and early 
warning systems. 
After so many years of effort by thousands of programmes and organisations, 
why is the regime not more effective? The search for more appropriate responses 
has been stimulated by many factors that include donor fatigue, experience, 
calculations of cost-effectiveness, renewed calls for accountability and questions 
of ethics. Many institutions recognise the need to move as quickly as possible 
beyond relief programmes (that emphasise care, maintenance and induce 
dependency) into development responses (that build on and strengthen individual 
and collective capacities, potential and self-esteem). 
Jacques Cuenod, in "Refugees: DevelopmentorRelief?"proposes that refugees 
be trained as community development workers and that an international fund (with 
a structure and mechanisms to manage it) be established to support longer-term 
development work that enhances greater self-reliance.
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Guy Goodwin-Gill in "Voluntary Repatriation" emphasises that refugees' 
interests, rights, security and welfare must be the starting point of any efforts to 
repatriate, and that "coercion and compulsion are unacceptable". Further, the 
successful coordination of repatriation requires a common agreement and 
commitment from a number of parties that include refugee leaders, governments, 
national and international organisations. Within the process itself, however, 
measures must be taken to provide for protection, security, and the conditions for 
integration and long-term development of retunees and their communities. 
Fred Cuny and Barry Stein in "Prospects for and Promotion of Spontaneous 
Repatriation", highlight repatriation patterns in different regions of the world 
(Tigray, Cambodia, Mozambique, Uganda, and El Salvador). They show that an 
overwhelming percentage of people that repatriate do so outside the framewo± of 
institutional and legal protection and without assistance form the UNHCR and 
other international organisations. Cuny and Stein stress that the UNHCR is 
constrained by having to deal with sovereign governments, and though necessary, 
this is "ponderous and time consuming", and inadequate in promoting, coordinating 
and keeping pace with the repatriation process. In order to provide for proper 
protection and assistance, other non-state, non-UN, and non-official actors shuld 
be involved. Often ICRC and other organisations are better equipped by their 
mandates and nature to play this role and fill the gap left by UNHCR restraints. This 
thought-provoking article is sobering, timely and challenging for those agencies 
working in the southern Africa region with Mozambican refugees. 
RobertL Bach in "Third Country Resettlement" briefly discusses the advantages 
and disadvantages of different durable solutions, with a focus on resettlement. 
First 
"...repatriation involves more than return to a place or people ... homes 
may have changedirrevocably... Villages... have become battlefield monuments,
family and friends may be gone, and the economic realities may be 
changed... (returnees may) encounter discrimination and intolerance" (p 
314). 
Third countryresettlement, however, is beset with negative factors as well. Today, 
unlike after World War 11, the world community is: 
"...facedwith ethnic and national groupswhich have virtually no tradition 
of resettlement in those receiving countries and do not have a community 
organisation waiting to receive them" (p 318).
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The variety of refugee movements has rendered traditional legal and policy 
concepts more and more irrelevant The subsequent piecemeal measures by 
governments, however, have created multiple,unequal and inequitable legal status 
that result in unequal and inequitable treatment, access to assistance, and 
socioeconomic opportunities for advancement. 
Similarly, 'Temporary Safe Haven" by Dennis Gallagher, Susan Forbes Martin, 
andPatriciaWeiss-Fagen,describes how theseadhocmechanisms resulting from 
domestic politics or foreign policy, are not necessarily responsive or relevant to the 
needs and circumstances of those in search of safe haven.The Declaration of 
Human Rights gives people the right to seek asylum, but governments are not 
obligated to take them in. Further: 
". ..large scale complex movements do not necessarily have recourse to the 
international instruments of refugee protection" (pp 334-347). 
The article offers a comparative analysis of safe haven traditions in Europe, 
Canada, and the United States; and convincingly argues that international and 
regional agreements are crucial in setting up ways to deal with legal and socialeconomic 
problems that really cannot be resolved by any one country. 
Complementing the aforementioned policy of legal and programmatic proposals 
to enhance regime effectiveness in refugee responses, Leon Gordenker advances 
another mechanism in "Early Warning of Refugee Incidents." A small and wellorganised 
early-warning centre could, with advanced technology and a representative 
body to conceive and manage it, predict to some degree forced migrations. 
This would give organisations time to make preparations (stockpiles, logistics, 
institutional linkages, etc). Sometimes an isolated event (hurricane, earthquake, 
sudden outbreak of conflict, etc) causes the mass movements of people, butat other 
times, the cause is a process that can be seen, measured, and reported on over a 
period of time (the graduated deprivation of rights, crop failure and food shortages, 
insurgency and counter-insurgency, etc). Staff can be trained and agencies can set 
up systems to detect and advise on such early-warning signs, enabling the regime 
to make more timely and adequate responses. 
Gervase Coles, in the concluding chapter "Approaching the Refugee Problem 
Today", makes a call to the international community to move beyond its traditional 
Euro-centric bias and its misplaced emphasis on care, maintenance, and external 
settlement He urges instead that more focus should be given to the causes of 
refugee flows and their prevention, as well as to reconstruction and restoration. 
Refugees and International Relations, successfully conveys the message that 
the regime and its composite institutions (UNHCR, NGOs, governments, etc) can 
no longer go on with "business as usual". The uprooted people of the world require 
a new paradigm of policies, partnerships, programmes, and practices that go 
beyond our traditional legal and institutional framework and responses. Loescher 
reminds us that refugees are a:
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"...global problem requiring global solutions ... movements are neither 
marginal to central issues, nor unique and isolated events... (they are) an 
integral part of international politics and relations" (p 2). 
The book is prophetic in that current events in Europe suggest that the more the 
regime and governments are seen as incapable of coping and responding to the 
volume and nature of refugee movements, the more pressure there is by people and 
governments to become restrictive and closed. Reactive and restrictive policies 
based on prejudice and fear can become self-fulfilling prophecies. We have seen 
that restrictive and negative measures that pass the burden to neighbouring 
countries, or to the south, are neither effective nor just, and in the long run tax the 
whole system (albeit unevenly). Thus, the countries that can least afford it, pay 
the price; and the people who most need cooperation, suffer the consequences. 
The book is excellent background reading for its coverage of a comprehensive 
range of problems and questions surrounding refugee issues; and appropriately 
punctuates the needfor broader and deeper thinking by governments, organisations, 
the public and policy makers. Its own premise, however, is that the refugee regime 
is to a great degree a reflection of international politics and relations; and it 
therefore (now only three yearsold),does not reflect (and could not have reflected) 
the implications, dilemmas, challenges, and changes inherent in cases like Somalia, 
Angola, Bosnia, or Cambodia. Nor did it try to project what the regime would look 
like in a changing world order, or what the new roles, responsibilities, activities, 
and patterns of cooperation would be for UNHCR.NGOs and governments. Also, 
what is an effective role for the UNHCR and NGOs in today's conflicts: conflict 
management?; creating the conditions forpeace and reconciliation sodevelopment 
can take place?; to more effectively respond to the most vulnerable/high risk goups 
(unaccompanied children, female heads of households, the disabled, the elderly)? 
These questions require serious consideration and there are no easy answers. 
The recent events and the above issues provide a challenging research agenda 
for scholars and practitioners engaged in "refugees and international relations". 
Hopefully the partners in the southern Africa region will heed the call for better 
planning, partnerships, programmes, policies and cooperation across institutional 
and geographic boundaries. A great need exists to better identify, document, and 
disseminate lessons learned and experience gained. 
Schumacher in Small is Beautiful admonished us to construct an economics as 
if people mattered; may the regime construct a legal and programmatic structure 
and pattern of response to the plight of refugees, as if people mattered as well. 
Reviewed by Tom Lent, Director of Training, Save the Children Federation 
(USA).