Hostname: page-component-68c7f8b79f-gnk9b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-01-01T22:02:15.727Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Democratizing the Refugee Regime Complex

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Emily Barry-Murphy  and
Max Stephenson Jr.
Emily Barry-Murphy*
Affiliation:
US Citizenship and Immigration Services, 103 Ridge Road, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, USA
Max Stephenson Jr.*
Affiliation:
Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance, Virginia Tech School of Public and International Affairs, 201 West Roanoke Street, Blacksburg 24061-0001, USA
*
Emily.c.barry@gmail.com
mstephen@vt.edu
Get access

Abstract

This article considers how civil society organizations (CSOs) may be understood in relation to the global refugee regime complex. It describes how several leading scholars have conceptualized refugee/internally displaced person (IDP) governance and explores how the neoliberal cognitive frame is impeding the possibility of democratic agency among IDPs/refugees. It argues that CSOs can play essential roles in encouraging democratization of the refugee regime complex by working to reshape their prevailing frame or orientation. Civil society organizations can also work to foster critical reflexivity among the parties that govern refugees and within that population as well. As an example of one such effort, the article employs Fraser’s (Scales of justice: reimagining political space in a globalizing world. Columbia University Press, New York, 2010) democratization framework in a brief case analysis of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Deshodaya initiative in Sri Lanka that has sought to enable IDPs in that nation to embrace critical reflexivity to reimagine themselves as governing agents who can redefine state and international organization-based definitions of refugee protection. Overall, the analysis suggests that civil society organizations can act successfully and intentionally to open democratic spaces in which refugees/IDPs may find possibilities to exercise their innate agential possibility.

Keywords

RefugeeInternally displaced personRefugee regime complexDemocratizationCritical reflexivityPolitical agency

Information

Type
Original Paper
Information
Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , August 2018 , pp. 790 - 800
Copyright
Copyright © International Society for Third-Sector Research and The Johns Hopkins University 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not represent those of the United States Government.

References

Agier, M. (2011). Managing the undesirables: Refugee camps and humanitarian government, trans. Malden, MA: Fernbach, Polity Press.Google Scholar
Alter, K., & Meunier, S. (2009). The politics of international regime complexity. Perspectives on Politics, 7, 13–24. doi: 10.1017/S1537592709090033.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alvarez, S., Dagnino, E., & Escobar, A. (Eds.). (1998). Cultures of politics/politics of cultures: Reinvisioning latin American social movements. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Barnett, L. (2002). Global governance and the evolution of the international refugee regime. International Journal of Refugee Law, 14–2, 238–262. doi: 10.1093/ijrl/14.2_and_3.238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barry-Murphy, E., & Stephenson, M. (2014). Engaging IDPs in Sri Lanka: A Buddhist approach forced migration review, 48, 59–60.Google Scholar
Benhabib, S. (2011). Dignity in adversity: Human rights in troubled times. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Betts, A. (2013). Regime complexity and international organizations: UNHCR as a challenged institution. Global Governance Journal, 19, 69–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Betts, A., Loescher, G., & Milner, J. (2012). UNHCR: The politics and practice of refugee protection. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bleiker, R. (2009). Aesthetics and world politics (Rethinking peace and conflict studies). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan doi: 10.1057/9780230244375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Copelovitch, M. (2010). Master or servant? Common agency and the political economy of IMF lending. International Studies Quarterly, 54, 49–77. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2478.2009.00577.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cornwall, A., & Coelho, V. (Eds.). (2007). Spaces for Change? The politics of citizen participation in new democratic arenas. York, NY: Palgrave McMillan.Google Scholar
D’Cruz, H., Gillingham, P., & Melendez, S. (2007). Reflexivity, its meaning and relevance for social work: A critical review of the literature. British Journal of Social Work, 37, 73–93. doi: 10.1093/bjsw/bcl001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duriex, J. (2013). Protracted displacement: A regime at a loss?. Forced Migration Review, 33, 60–61.Google Scholar
Fraser, N. (2010). Scales of justice: Reimagining political space in a globalizing world. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Gaventa, J. (2007). Foreword. In Cornwall, A., & Coelho, V. (Eds.), Spaces for Change? The politics of citizen participation in new democratic arenas. New York, NY: Palgrave McMillan.Google Scholar
Gramsci, A. (1971). Selections form the prison notebooks. New York, NY: Lawrence and Wishart and International Publishers Co..Google Scholar
Haddad, E. (2008). Refugees in international society: Between sovereigns. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Harvey, D. (2007). A brief history of neoliberalism. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Immergut, E. (1992). Health politics: Interest and institutions in Western Europe. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Joachim, J. (2007). Agenda setting, the UN, and NGOs: Gender violence and reproductive rights. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Jochim, A., & May, P. (2010). Beyond subsystems: Policy regimes and governance. The Policy Studies Journal, 38–2, 303–327.10.1111/j.1541-0072.2010.00363.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, R., & Calafell, B. (2012). Contesting neoliberalism through critical pedagogy, intersectional reflexivity, and personal narrative: Queer tales of academia. Journal of Homosexuality, 59, 957–981. doi: 10.1080/00918369.2012.699835.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuyper, J. (2014). Global democratization and international regime complexity. European Journal of International Relations, 20–3, 620–646. doi: 10.1177/1354066113497492.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, G. (2004). Moral politics: How liberals and conservatives think (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Orsini, A., Morin, J., & Young, O. (2013). Regime complexes: A buzz, a boom or a boost for global governance?. Global Governance Journal, 19, 27–39.10.1163/19426720-01901003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, F. (2011). The ethics of care: A feminist approach to human security. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Sarvodaya Shramadana Partner Coordination Unit. (2011). Final Report: Community Empowerment for Peace, Reconciliation and Development (CEPRD). (2011). Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.Google Scholar
Sarvodaya Shramadana Partner Coordination Unit. (2012) Finding a Solution Together: A Three-Year Program to Promote Citizen Engagement in Good Governance and Post-War Reconciliation in Sri Lanka, The Annual Report Year 1. Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.Google Scholar
Spivak, G. (1994). Can the Subaltern Speak?. In Williams, P., & Chrisman, L. (Eds.), Colonial discourse and post-colonial theory: A reader. Hertfordshire, UK: Harvester Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar
Tarrow, S. (1994). Power in movement: Social movements. Collective action and politics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
The Island. (2011). Report of the UNSG’s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka. http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=23146 (April 15, 2011), Accessed 15 Oct 2017.Google Scholar
Trevelyan, C., Crath, R., & Chambon, A. (2014). Promoting critical reflexivity through arts-based media: A case study. British Journal of Social Work, 44, 7–26. doi: 10.1093/bjsw/bcs090.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weaver, M. (2009). Sri Lanka Declares End to War with Tamil Tigers. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/may/18/tamil-tigers-killed-sri-lanka Accessed 15 Oct 2017.Google Scholar