The CoSME Project’s Research Team at the 20th International Association for the Study of Forced Migration Conference (IASFM20) - Forced Displacement in an Urbanizing World - Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 21-23 January 2025

The CoSME Project is pleased to announce that some of its members have been selected to participate in the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration 20th Conference, which will take place from 21 to 23 January 2025 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia!

CoSME Panel

The CoSME panel, titled "Resettlement and Complementary Pathways as Disguised Externalisation: Lessons Learnt from National and Regional Practice,” will be chaired by Daniela Vitiello and presented by Luca Galli, Cristina Milano, and Marilù Porchia.

In recent years, collective responsibility towards refugees has been acknowledged as a key goal on the international agenda. The 2016 New York Declaration and the UN Global Compacts on Migration and Refugee expressly recognised the pursuit of durable solutions as a global responsibility.

This has triggered the development of resettlement and complementary pathways in many countries as a promising way to deal with protracted displacement. Lacking any legal basis for these schemes under international or regional law, the proliferation of cooperation on resettlement and complementary pathways risks, on the one hand, expanding fragmentation and asymmetry, on the other, prompting consequences on refugees’ rights.

This panel engages in a critical appraisal of the potential and pitfalls of resettlement and complementary pathways with a view to demonstrating how they can be turned into measures of disguised externalisation and deterrence. The analysis takes into account both North-South and South-South resettlement and/or complementary pathways, by investigating three national case studies – Australia, Canada and Argentina – and comparing them with the developments in the European Union (EU).

These case studies have been selected due to the commonalities that can be identified among their resettlement and/or complementary pathways, both in terms of conceptualisation of these tools as safe route alternatives and with regards to the intended goal of enhancing the responsibility-sharing among the states. Drawing on the outcomes of the previous analysis, this panel aims to contribute to the scholarly and policymakers’ debate on how to reduce the fragmentation in the design of resettlement and complementary pathways, while preventing an instrumental use of these safe route alternatives as migration management tools..

We look forward to contributing to the discussion on creating safe and effective legal pathways for migrants and refugees on a global scale!

For more information, please refer to the panel abstract and the acceptance letter.