Debate
LUCIR Seminar: Refugees and asylum seekers in East Asia: Perspectives from Japan and Taiwan
- Date
- Thursday 21 September 2023
- Time
- Location
-
Wijnhaven
Turfmarkt 99
2511 DP The Hague - Room
- 2.19
This talk will focus on refugee regimes in two East Asian countries, Japan and Taiwan. Taiwan does not have a refugee law, is not a signatory to the major international treaties, the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees and deals with refugees and asylum seekers on an ad-hoc basis with rather inconsistent outcomes. Japan signed both Convention and Protocol and has been a major contributor to the UNHCR for decades; however, the country has often been accused of a “chequebook diplomacy” and criticised for its extremely low refugee recognition rate and detention of asylum seekers. The talk will examine how these refugee regimes relate to the ideas of national security that tend to shape refugee policies in the region and discuss their implication for human security of refugees and asylum seekers.
The presentation is based on a forthcoming book tentatively titled ““Refugees and asylum seekers in East Asia: Perspectives from Japan and Taiwan” by L. Momesso & P. Ivanova (Eds.) consisting of 15 chapters and comprising three parts: 1) legal and policy frameworks, 2) media representation and public opinion, and 3) lived experiences of refugees and asylum seekers.
Polina Ivanova
Polina Ivanova is Senior Researcher at the Asia-Japan Research Institute of Ritsumeikan University, Japan. She holds a PhD in International Relations from Ritsumeikan University. Her research interests lie in the areas of migration and migrant integration, including international students, refugees and asylum seekers and highly-skilled migrants. Her recent book is “Civil society and international students in Japan: The making of social capital” (Routledge, 2023) and her current project is “Refugees and asylum seekers in East Asia: Perspectives from Japan and Taiwan” co-edited with Dr Lara Momesso (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming 2024).