Refugees and the Asylum Dilemma in the West

1992 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gil Loescher

In recent years, political asylum and refugees have become acute issues in public debate in Western Europe and North America. The debate has become especially heated since 1989 and the breaching of barriers between Eastern and Western Europe, with East Germans, Albanians, Romanians, and Yugoslavs all trying to move west. Most asylum-seekers continue to come from the Third World. Those who manage to enter the West face growing hostility, poverty, and even violent attacks. In France immigration has already shifted political discourse sharply to the right, testing the nation's tolerance toward foreigners and shaking its liberal foundations. Xenophobia and brutal physical attacks on foreigners by skinheads and extreme right-wingers throughout Germany have caused politicians in Bonn to reconsider their country's asylum provisions. Governments everywhere appear reluctant to open their doors when they are not sure how many will benefit from their hospitality and for how long. To many industrialized countries, asylum-seekers are perceived mostly as economic migrants in search of a better life. Actual migratory pressures from the South and perceived threats of exodus from the East have only served to reinforce this restrictive attitude to asylum. The refugee problem has reached such a critical point that the very institution of asylum is being threatened.

1992 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-35
Author(s):  
Claudena M. Skran

In the 1990s, an increasing number of refugees make their way to the countries of the West. While the annual number of asylum seekers to Western Europe and North America averaged about 20,000 in the mid- 1970s, by 1990 this figure had jumped to more than 500,000. Unlike previous migrants, many of these asylum seekers came from non-Western countries, including Iran, Turkey, Sri Lanka, and Ghana. Their flight to the West was but a small part of a worldwide refugee problem that has grown larger since the 1980s, especially in the Third World. The vast majority of the 17.5 million people now considered to be refugees are located in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Despite the improved international climate created by the thaw of the Cold War, the current asylum crisis is likely to continue throughout the decade; the mass exodus of Kurds to Turkey and Iran in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf war is one reminder of this.


1971 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Tarschys

The Soviet doctrine on the legal implications of neutrality is liberal with regard to the non-aligned nations in the third world but rigid with regard to the neutral states in Western Europe. On the one hand, Soviet jurists defend the right of neutral countries to pursue a highly active foreign policy. On the other, they contend that neither membership nor association with the Common Market is compatible with Swedish, Austrian, or Swiss neutrality. This inherent tension in the Soviet theory of neutrality is not resolved at the level of abstract definitions of neutrality and neutralism where the liberal interpretation tends to prevail.


1995 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. N. Pearson

The Rise of the West, the creation of the Third World, the beginnings of disparity between Asia and Europe, or whatever other phrase is used, is obviously the great event of world history; hence the attempts to explain and date it, going back to the time when the Rise was actually beginning in the later eighteenth century. The literature is vast, complex and mostly of high quality. Some of it is concerned with causation—how did ‘the West’ get ahead, why did ‘Asia’ fall back or perhaps just stay the same? Others are interested in trying to date the beginnings of inequality—when can we see the beginnings of dominance, where did this occur and in which sectors of human life was this first to be seen? The first matter is, of course, the more important for an historian. It has been argued that, in the most general way, the fundamental cause of the beginnings of inequality is the series of changes in western Europe, and at first in England, known collectively as the Industrial Revolution. I will use this term as a shorthand for these collective changes, which Marshall Hodgson called the ‘Great Western Transmutation.’ Put most crudely, western Europe advanced and changed in a paradigmatic way, while Asia did not. At the most, Asia kept doing what it had been doing for centuries; Europe changed basically.


Author(s):  
Ildus Yarulin ◽  
E. Pozdnyakov

The article deals with the reasons for the emergence of ideological differences between the Eastern and Western Europe. The article also describes how the views of the population of "new" Europe give rise to a demand for the right-wing state policy. The methodological basis was the principles of comparative analysis. The differences in the worldview of Western and Eastern Europeans are analyzed. The author suggests that the confrontation between a number of the EU countries (Poland, Hungary) with Brussels is caused, first of all, by serious ideological differences between the worldview concepts of the population of different regions of Europe. It is concluded that the inhabitants of the East largely disagree with the progressive views of the West, which gives rise to misunderstanding at the level of the population of the current EU policy (in particular, the problems of discrimination against minorities and the dispute over quotas for the admission of migrants are mentioned). It is concluded that in the society of the "new" Europe, a demand for right-wing politics has been formed, based on the cultural past of these countries. The request finds a way out in the victory of the conservative parties in the elections, which complicates relations with Brussels. The author concludes that the confrontation between the West and the East largely arises from the desire of the first to "level" the Europeans according to a certain standard of liberal democracy, although in the countries of Eastern Europe the population it does not agree with the imposition of such a system.


Author(s):  
Ayokunle Olumuyiwa Omobowale

The world is technologically advancing, but the management of resultant waste, commonly known as e-waste, is also becoming very challenging. Of major concern is the incessant flow of this waste into the developing world where they assume secondhand value in spite of the associated environmental threats. This study adopts the qualitative approach to examine this phenomenon in Nigeria. The study reveals that aside from being cheaper than the new products, second-hand goods are usually preferred to the new products due to the substandard nature of most new electronics largely imported from Asia (especially China). The tag of Tokunbo or ‘imported from the West’ associated with second-hand goods imported from developed countries makes them more preferable to the public relative to new electronics imported from China, disparagingly termed Chinco. Yet both the second-hand electronics that are socially appreciated as Tokunbo and the substandard new electronics imported into Nigeria together render the country a huge recipient of goods that soon collapse and swell the e-waste heap in the country. This situation may be mitigated through strengthening the Standards Organisation of Nigeria and the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, and also by sensitizing Nigerians on the dangers inherent in e-wastes.


1989 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
R N Villar ◽  
V K Solomon ◽  
J Rangam

The pattern of knee pathology seen in an Indian mission hospital following the introduction of knee clinics is described. This paper reports the results of the first 200 consecutive patients seen at these clinics, relating the findings to anticipated treatments. The occurrence of degenerative disease was high. The importance of knee flexion, in order to be able to squat, is highlighted. The necessity to adopt this position materially alters the types of treatment that can be offered to this group of people. It is concluded that treatments common to the West are not always suitable for patients in the Third World.


1987 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph H. Carens

Many poor and oppressed people wish to leave their countries of origin in the third world to come to affluent Western societies. This essay argues that there is little justification for keeping them out. The essay draws on three contemporary approaches to political theory — the Rawlsian, the Nozickean, and the utilitarian — to construct arguments for open borders. The fact that all three theories converge upon the same results on this issue, despite their significant disagreements on others, strengthens the case for open borders and reveals its roots in our deep commitment to respect all human beings as free and equal moral persons. The final part of the essay considers communitarian objections to this conclusion, especially those of Michael Walzer.


1998 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Cammack

It is doubtful as to whether the countries of the Third World are likely to move to the kind of liberal democracy that is regarded as characteristic of the West. In particular, parties are often remaining ‘parties of the State’ and not organizations truly competing with each other. This is in part a consequence of economic globalization, as the requirements of global economic liberalization do not fit with the requirements of democracy. In such a context, clientelism around the State may be inevitable and it contributes to ensuring that the main party in the country, and indeed all parties become ‘parties of the State’, as is the case in Mexico or Malaysia and perhaps in the Ukraine and South Africa. Thus, globalization does not mean the end of the State, but possibly the end of liberal democracy.


1980 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miles D. Wolpin

Although the analysis which follows centres upon the West African state of Mali, much of what is said applies in varying measure to other examples of military state capitalism in Africa and elsewhere. Its importance is underscored by the fact that this is an increasingly common régime variant in the Third World. Similarly, domestic militarism has been transformed from an unusual occurrence to a phenomenon which evokes little more than a déjà vu response. Today nearly half of the governments of the ‘South’ are directly or indirectly dominated by the military, whereas three decades ago little more than 15 per cent could be so classified.


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