Refugees and Forced Migration

New Protection Paradigms for Forced Migrants

The Project will take stock of recent developments in, and challenges to, the protection of forced migrants, with the goal of reconceptualizing the international regime and introducing specific recommendations at the Global Refugee Forum in December 2023 as well as other policy processes, as appropriate, as well as proposals for advocates and organizations in this sphere. It will assemble a group of experts—a number with field experience—to generate a bold but feasible set of ideas. And it will work in collaboration with civil society (including refugee-led organizations), multilateral institutions, and member states to devise and implement an advocacy program to bring the initiative’s proposals to fruition.

We propose the convening of an experts group to take stock of recent developments and to consider whether they point toward a reconceptualization of a system of protection for displaced persons. Specifically, we would (1) commission (short) papers or presentations on a number of these topics; (2) examine new legal and policy responses; and (3) ask how such responses relate to the refugee protection system. From that analysis, we would evaluate whether the current protection regime is “fit for purpose” or whether new norms and practices (and perhaps institutions) need to be formulated and made coherent. The project’s goal would be to prepare a set of conclusions—and hopefully, an intervention—for the Global Refugee Forum in December 2023 and beyond.

Building on our current work with OSF, and in support of the protection-related elements of OSF’s Migration Opportunity strategy, this project aims to critically assess recent developments, opportunities, and challenges facing the international system for the protection of forced migrants, with the objective of identifying, elaborating, and building coalitions to advance bold ideas for reshaping the protection regime.

Through a series of consultations, convenings, analytic undertakings, and public and private advocacy efforts, the project aims to introduce new energy, urgency, and possibility into the movement for change within the sector, including by:

1. Engaging and securing buy-in across a diverse group of leaders and experts on the necessity of transcending traditional siloes and moving beyond incremental reform strategies centered on status quo maintenance;
2. Facilitating a structured examination of ambitious ideas and proposals that could appreciably move the needle (in the short-term or over the longer-term) on protection, inclusion, and mobility, and coalescing a consensus among key stakeholders in support of these;
3. Identifying and seeding 2+ especially ripe ideas that hold the promise of such transformative change;
4. Engaging in public advocacy/narrative-change work as well as quiet political dialogue/coalition building aimed at re-humanizing the politics of forced migration, in furtherance of the initiative’s objectives and recommendations.