Forced Migration and Displacement Governance

Forced displacement remains one of the most consequential and contested issues in contemporary politics. Armed conflict, persecution, generalised violence, human rights violations, state fragility, disasters and environmental degradation continue to uproot people within and across borders in every world region, while responses are dispersed among international organisations, states, regional bodies, local authorities, civil society and displaced communities themselves. Governing forced migration is therefore inherently multi-level and multi-actor, and it unfolds amid geopolitical rivalry, constrained humanitarian resources and the growing politicisation of asylum.
This panel takes stock of how forced migration and displacement are governed, and how far existing arrangements match current realities. The protection regime built around the 1951 Refugee Convention and UNHCR coexists with regional instruments, complementary and temporary protection statuses, and more recent non-binding frameworks such as the Global Compact on Refugees. Whether these arrangements are converging, fragmenting or being quietly eroded remains an open question, as does the position of people displaced by disasters, environmental change and development projects, who still sit uneasily within established legal categories.
We invite contributions on any aspect of this field, including: responsibility-sharing and solidarity; externalisation, containment and border enforcement; asylum procedures and access to protection; internal and protracted displacement; durable solutions, return, resettlement and complementary pathways; the role of major host states and local communities; humanitarian financing and the humanitarian-development-peace nexus; the agency, voice and self-organisation of displaced people; the blurred boundaries between forced and other forms of mobility; and the accountability of decision-makers under emergency and crisis governance.
The panel welcomes theoretical, conceptual, methodological and empirical papers, including single-case, comparative and cross-regional studies, as well as policy- and practice-oriented analyses. Contributions from all world regions and from a plurality of disciplinary and methodological traditions are encouraged, and we particularly welcome proposals from early-career researchers and from scholars based in regions hosting large displaced populations.