Forced Migration in the OIC Member Countries:
Policy Framework Adopted by Host Countries
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By contrast, changing conceptions of national identity, particularly with regard to migration,
also matter. In Turkey and Morocco, a shifting self-understanding of each country as not only a
transit point for migration flows to Europe, but also as host and destination countries in their
own right has bolstered conversations around the creation of more comprehensive migration
and asylum laws—and even small steps toward integration policies. Further afield, a multi-
decade debate on whether or not Germany was an “immigration country” culminated in the
summer of 2015 in a broad societal and political movement to welcome refugees arriving to
Europe in large numbers.
5. Dynamics external to a country, including the involvement of regional bodies or
donor countries, can also influence protection approaches
While regional bodies and protection frameworks are underutilized and ineffective in many
contexts, there are some examples where they have successfully influenced national practice.
In Uganda, the OAU Convention has resulted in a broadening of protection to include some
categories of non-refugee forced migrants. Perhaps most notably, both the EU asylum
legislation and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which are binding on their
members, have had a substantial impact on asylum practice in Europe, including Sweden. Both
bodies of legislation have a court of appeals which offers the opportunity for individuals to
initiate legal challenges if they feel governments have violated their rights under the ECHR or
EU law. Beyond shaping the drafting of protection legislation in Europe, the appeals courts
have also had a direct impact on the practice of protection on the ground in European
countries.
Outside of formal regional bodies, countries’ protection approaches may also be influenced by
interested third countries, particularly those that are major donors of humanitarian
assistance. At a practical level, funding from international donors may allow asylum countries
to provide services, such as education in Turkey and Jordan, that might not otherwise be open
to refugees. Politically, leverage from donors may convince asylum countries to alter policies
on legal status or provide access to certain rights like the right to work. In Jordan, pressure
from donor countries regarding the status of Syrians—as well as additional aid and trade
concessions—persuaded the government to grant work permit fee waivers to Syrian refugees
although other national groups that had not been the target of international debate were not
accorded this same benefit. While in Morocco, domestic and international pressure following a
poor human rights report on the treatment of migrants and refugees in the country helped to
generate momentum for a whole-scale reform of the country’s migration regime.
III. The intersection of poverty and forced migration
Forced migrants’ circumstances outside their communities or countries of origin, as well as
their often tenuous legal status, expose them to unique vulnerabilities and often put them at
greater risk of social and economic marginalization.
The lack of a means to earn income and support themselves is a major vulnerability and risk
factor for poverty for most forced migrants. In some cases, such as in Turkey and Jordan,
practical or procedural barriers to obtaining work permits by refugees and asylum seekers
(particularly non-Syrians) prevent these groups from earning a living in the formal labor
market. In other countries, as in Sweden, Morocco, and Uganda, local labor market conditions
may limit the opportunities for refugees to work or the quality of jobs available. Where
refugees and asylum seekers do find work, they are often channeled into lower paid jobs or
forced to take employment in the precarious informal labor market. Child labor is often
reported as a coping mechanism among refugee communities, as has been seen among Syrian
refugees in Jordan and Turkey. Without a steady source of income, refugees and asylum