FMO Podcast

A new podcast from Forced Migration Online (FMO): "Obama’s policy challenges and the future of US immigration." You can listen to it online or download it.

New FMO Podcast

The latest podcast from the Forced Migration Online (FMO) team focuses on Kurdish forced migration in Turkey. Visitors can listen to the episode online or download it.

Other podcasts are available here.

WebCast: Humanitarian Studies Conference

The first World Conference on Humanitarian Studies begins Wednesday, February 4, in Groningen, The Netherlands. Happily, those of us who cannot attend will still be able to view live broadcasts through a streaming service provided by the university. The service is only supported by Internet Explorer, though, not Firefox and other browsers. Worth trying out though.

Podcast: Instant Guide to Refugees

The Forced Migration Online Blog reported today that the BBC Radio World Service, as part of its Instant Guide series, has made a podcast available on the refugee situation. A number of experts are interviewed, including the director of the Refugee Studies Centre (RSC). You can listen to the podcast via the FMO Blog, or download it from the BBC.

23 Things: NetLibrary

NetLibrary is a service that provides access to electronic content in the form of digital books, e-journals and audiobooks. I determined that my public library has a subscription to NetLibrary, and I was able to log in from home. Unfortunately, when I began exploring, I discovered that in fact, my library only has access to digital books and not the other types of content. From a refugee & forced migration standpoint, I didn't find the ebook collection terribly up-to-date. I did take a look at "Human Rights: A Reference Handbook." (Interestingly, there is another book in the same Contemporary World Issues series that focuses on refugees but it's not included in this collection.) It was the 1998 edition, but I know that there is a revised 2006 edition that's been published.

As it happens, the local library also offers a separate digital catalog of audiobooks, ebooks and video. No hits here for "refugees," though, so I browsed the various subject categories instead. An easy site to navigate and certainly useful if you want to listen to a good mystery or if you aren't able to get your hands on the latest sci fi title!

23 Things: The Fourteenth Tool = Podcasts

Podcasts are a digital means of distributing audiovisual resources. Wikipedia lists some examples of the ways that podcasts are used, including "rebroadcast of traditional radio and television content, distribution of school lessons, official and unofficial audio tours of museums, conference meeting alerts and updates," among others.

Specific examples from the forced migration sphere include:

- Educational lectures; e.g., Public Lecture Series
- Event sharing; e.g., Forced Migration Online and U.S. Institute of Peace
- News and information-sharing; e.g., IRIN News and UNICEF
- Raising awareness and campaign support; e.g., Refugee Council
- Reflections from aid workers in the field; e.g., International Rescue Committee and Doctors without Borders

There are a number of audio search engines that can help you locate additional podcasts. I tried several, searching specifically on 'harrell bond lecture' to see if FMO's podcasts of the annual Barbara Harrell-Bond lecture series at the Refugee Studies Centre would be located. I was a bit disappointed with the results. The three SEs (Odeo, Mevio and podOmatic) listed on the 23 Things wiki returned zero hits. PodcastDirectory.com had a listing for it, as well as other refugee- and forced migration-related podcasts, so it delivered the best results although its structure and presentation are a bit challenging! This is definitely an area to keep testing.

23 Things: The Thirteenth Tool = Video Sharing

YouTube is the principal video sharing site. It is fairly widely used by a number of forced migration organizations for promoting awareness, fundraising and advocacy purposes. Examples include:

Doctors without Borders
Forced Migration Online
InterAction
IRIN News
Italian Council for Refugees
Refugees International
UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children

There is also a Forced Migration Group on YouTube.

Audiovisual Library of International Law

The UN Office of Legal Affairs recently launched an audiovisual library of international law. The cornerstone of the library is a lecture series that covers most international law subjects. Currently, under "International Migration Law," visitors will find two lectures by Guy Goodwin-Gill, entitled respectively "International Migration Law: An Introduction" and "Forced Migration - The Evolution of International Refugee Law and Organization." Two additional lectures by Prof. Goodwin-Gill are forthcoming. Other forthcoming relevant lectures will be presented by Jan Egeland and Margareta Wahlström on disaster relief and Walter Kälin on IDPs, among others.

The library also offers an "Historic Archives" section, that includes an entry for "refugees and stateless persons." There, visitors will find an introductory note by Prof. Goodwin-Gill on the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, which includes a procedural history, links to related documents, and information on the instruments' status. Two additional introductions will be made available on the two conventions relating to statelessness and stateless persons.

Webcasts of Recent Meetings/Presentations

5th Annual Immigration Law and Policy Conference - 2008 and Beyond: Immigration Challenges the New Administration Will Confront, 20 May 2008 [access]

Climate Change, Migration & Environmental Refugees. Professor Andy Pitman, Dr Jane McAdam and Anna Samson, speaking UNSW, 23 May 2008 [access]

Five Years Later, A Hidden Crisis: The Plight of Iraqi Refugees. George Biddle, Senior Vice President of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), speaking at Princeton University, 21 April 2008 [access]

IDP Voices

A new country has been added to the IDP Voices site. Visitors can listen to 29 personal stories in English, Georgian or Russian that detail the experiences of displaced people in Georgia. Thirteen of these stories have been compiled into a book, A Heavy Burden - Internally Displaced in Georgia: Stories of People from Abkhazia and South Ossetia - which is also available on the site.

Fourth IASFM Conference Podcast

The theme of this fourth podcast is "The Voices of the Displaced in Forced Migration Research," chaired by Elzbieta Gozdziak, with Eftihia Voutira, Giorgia Donna, Arild Birkenes and Zachary Lomo as the panelists. The panel discussion was preceded by poetry readings by Stephanos Stephanides and Mehmet Yashin.

Previous IASFM podcasts are available on the FMO podcast page.

Third IASFM Conference Podcast

The IASFM conference podcasts are being released weekly now. The theme of this third podcast is "Regions at the Crossroads: Transregional Forced Migration," chaired by Susan Forbes Martin, with Aicha Belarbi, Ahmet Icduygu, Mark Schlakman, Susan Kneebone, and Jeffrey Crisp as the panelists.

Second IASFM Conference Podcast

As reported on the Forced Migration Discussion List and the Forced Migration Blog, the second podcast from the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) plenary session at the January 2008 conference is now available on Forced Migration Online (FMO).

This podcast includes the keynote address ‘Palestine refugees in the contemporary context: a view from UNRWA’ by Karen Abu Zayd, Commissioner General of UNRWA, followed by a panel discussion ‘The situation of refugees in the Middle East’ chaired by Maysa Ayoub, and including Helen Young, Patricia Fagen and Shahira Samy.

For other recordings in the series, visit the podcasts page on FMO.

FMO Podcasts: IASFM Conference

Forced Migration Online (FMO) announced today that it has released the "first podcast of a series recorded at the bi-annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM)." Held in Cairo in January 2008, the "opening plenary event covered the subject of ‘Emerging patterns of irregularity and their effects among migrants and refugees in the Middle East’."