Acute respiratory infections in an adult refugee population: an observational study

The presence of acute infectious respiratory diseases (ARD) is one of the main reasons why recently arrived refugees seek medical help. This paper investigates the incidence rates of acute respiratory diseases in an adult refugee population as well as associated sociodemographic factors and drug treatments. We conducted a retrospective observational study of deidentified medical records. The data were collected between 2015 and 2019 in the health care centers of two large German initial reception centers for refugees. Multivariable analyses controlling for sociodemographics were carried out using generalized estimating equations. Out of 10,431 eligible residents, 6965 medical encounters of 2840 adult patients were recorded over 30 months. Of all the adult patients, 34.4% sought medical help for a respiratory symptom or diagnosis at least once. Older patients and patients from Sub-Saharan Africa sought help less often. The occurrence of ARD showed a typical distribution over the course of the year. Facility occupancy was not associated with ARD occurrence. Acute respiratory symptoms are a leading cause for adult refugee patients to seek medical care. The doctor contact rates due to ARD were consistently two to three times higher among refugees than among German residents.

The Great Idea is Dead, Long Live the Great Ideas

The “Asia Minor Catastrophe” cast its heavy shadow over Greek interwar era developments in two fundamental ways: first, there was the terror of the ideological void after the bankruptcy of the Hellenic “Great Idea” due to the military defeat in Asia Minor; and second, the physical arrival in Greece of an almost 1,500,000 refugee population after their expulsion from Turkey. This paper argues that against this background, the issues of national reconstruction and a new cultural orientation for the Greek nation were strongly connected. Moreover, it argues that various projects and discourses emerged in search of the new Great Ideas that would successfully replace the irrevocably lost one. They had as a common denominator the “modernist ethos” of a “new beginning” which was necessary for the nation’s and society’s regeneration to be achieved. Thus, in exploring these projects, it attempts to identify their convergences, their mutual exclusions, as well as their cultural, ideological and political imprints.

Growing refugee debate ups pressure on Erdogan

Significance Erdogan is partly motivated by domestic alarm at the prospect of more Afghan refugees, which has heightened discontent over his policies regarding migration and the large, mainly Syrian refugee population ahead of elections in 2023. Viral social media posts this week amid a row over refugees 'provocatively' eating bananas that some Turks complain they cannot afford have resulted in the detentions of seven foreign nationals. Impacts Ankara will maintain its close interest in Afghanistan, and Afghan refugees could become the major factor in Turkey-Iran relations. Turkey’s incentives to control territory in Syria will include keeping IDPs within Syria and supporting returnees from Turkey. International assistance for refugees in Turkey may have to focus on material benefits for both refugees and local communities. Integrating refugees and asylum-seekers could slow further, and liberalising work or residence permits may favour the best-qualified. Officials may treat Syrians more harshly and hostility towards them may be tolerated, but a clampdown on cheap irregular labour is unlikely.

Under pressure: when refugees feel pressured to leave their host countries

A significant portion of the global population of 270 million migrants are refugees who were forcibly displaced from and are unable to return to their country of origin for reasons ranging from personal safety to economic instability. Almost 30 million refugees are protected by an international refugee regime, which obliges host states to provide safehaven and protections against forced expulsion. Nonetheless, refugee experiences in host countries are highly varied, including with respect to how welcome they feel in their host states. This matters because refugees that feel pressured to leave may be more likely to look to move on to a third country or return home involuntarily and before conditions are safe to do so. We argue that whether or not refugees feel pressured to leave host countries is affected by the varied nature of their quotidian interactions with authorities and regular citizens. To test the validity of this argument we draw upon approximately 1,700 responses to a survey administered among the Syrian refugee population throughout Lebanon in June and July 2018. Our statistical analyses demonstrate that individuals who are registered with the UN and the Lebanese government both feel more pressure to leave the country, as do individuals who are subject to ill treatment at the hands of Lebanese residents or authorities. We also find some tentative evidence that individuals who are not well socially connected within Lebanese society—those that live in predominantly Syrian neighbourhoods in Lebanon—also feel more pressure to leave the country.

DESIGN CONSIDERATION OF CONTAINER SHELTER IN MALAYSIA

Freight container can become a potential candidate for shelter provision to resolve the housing crisis from increasing refugee population. Currently the freight container is made in accordance with ISO standard, but for living purpose other consideration must be included, especially the requirement from local government. This paper aims to investigate the design consideration of container shelter from legislative perspective in Malaysia. Uniform Building By-Law 1984 was referred, and ventilation, structural and fire requirement of by-law were compared with ISO standard for freight container. Suggestions were made to ensure the structural and legal integrity of container shelter in Malaysia. Potential container building concept was proposed based on design suggestion.

Consolidating the Rule of Experts: A Model Village for Refugees in the Jordan Valley, 1945–55

This article examines the history of the establishment and work of the Arab Development Society (ADS) in Palestine from 1945–55. While this study contextualizes the project within the broader history of global rural development projects in the post-Second-World-War era, it mainly frames the ADS’s activities within the regional context of Palestine, Jordan, and Israel and the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The discussion traces the alteration of the ADS’s mission after 1948 from a rural development project into a project that utilized its village modernization ethos to deal with the pressing problem of Palestinian refugee housing in the Jordan Valley. Drawing on archival research, the article scrutinizes ADS’s encounters with states, international bodies, and the refugee population. It shows that though the ADS was able to challenge the rule of experts on the specific case of the possibility of resettlement in the Jordan Valley, it generally consolidated the patronizing logic of expertise and failed to engage with the political visions of the refugee population. In shedding light on the widely-forgotten ADS experimental scheme, the article contributes to enriching the understanding of the overlapping nature of rural development and to the questions of resettlement and repatriation in Palestine in the aftermath of 1948.