Refugee solutions in the age of global crisis

Subtitle
Human rights, integration, and sustainable development

Author David Androff

Refugee Solutions in the Age of Global Crisis: Human Rights, Integration, and Sustainable Development" addresses the question of what to do about the global refugee crisis. One in every ninety-five people on the planet has been forcibly displaced from their home, the collective response is woefully inadequate. Through comparative case study, this book provides the first policy analysis of all three durable solutions in the context of the global refugee crisis. The durable solutions are designed to find a permanent place for refugees were developed more than 70 years ago. Last year, fewer than two percent of refugees found their way any of these solutions. Reforming yesterday's solutions requires understanding how they have been used, how they have failed, and how they can be improved. Comparative case studies of the Somali Voluntary Repatriation Program, the Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement, and the Arizona Refugee Empowerment Project provide a comprehensive, global, and timely policy analysis grounded in social work, human rights, and sustainable development. The policy analysis of all three durable solutions is comprehensive, these are rarely considered together. The policy analysis is global in scope as the case studies are from refugee policies and populations from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and North America. The policy analysis is timely in its focus on contemporary voluntary repatriation, local integration, and third country resettlement programs. This book offers implications for improving refugee solutions to promote human rights, integration, and sustainable development. This is vital to counter the rising tide of restrictionist, anti-refugee sentiment and policies.

Bio

David Androff, Ph.D., M.S.W. is Associate Director for Doctoral Education and Professor in the School of Social Work at Arizona State University. Dr. Androff earned his Masters and Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Androff is an internationally recognized scholar in the areas of human rights, immigrant and refugee rights, social development, and global social work. Most recently this recognition includes being elected a Fellow of the Society for Social Work and Research in 2023 and receiving the Partners in Advancing International Social Work Education Award by the Global Commission of the Council of Social Work Education (CSWE) in 2022.

Dr. Androff co-chaired the 21st International Consortium for Social Development conference in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in 2019 where he was Visiting Professor in the Department of Development and Social Welfare at the University of Gadjah Mada. He is a Research Associate with the Centre for Social Development in Africa at the University of Johannesburg, and was a founding member of the CSWE Committee on Human Rights.

He is the editor of the forthcoming Routledge International Handbook on Social Development, Social Work, and the Sustainable Development Goals, the author of Refugee Solutions in the Age of Global Crisis: Human Rights, Integration, and Sustainable Development (Oxford University Press, 2022) and Practicing Rights: Human Rights-based Approaches to Social Work (Routledge, 2016).


Praise for this book

At a time in history when refugees are traversing lands and seas―often risking death or succumbing to it―we need to think about solutions. In Refugee Solutions in the Age of Global Crisis, Androff lays out the viability of voluntary repatriation, local integration in the country of asylum, and resettlement to third countries. These and many other solutions are important to consider seriously. Androff has done this and invites the reader to do the same.

Luis H. Zayas Provost and Senior Vice President, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

David Androff's new book on refugees is based in his deep global understanding and practical commitment to solutions. He recognizes that climate change and other global crises will lead to more refugees, and the refugee challenge, while already large at over 82 million forcibly displaced people, is likely to become larger. Professor Androff offers illuminating case studies and sensible solutions to achieve human rights, successful integration, and sustainable social development.

Michael Sherraden Distinguished University Professor, Washington University in St. Louis