Whether it is the stranding of tens of thousands of migrant workers at the Libyan–Tunisian border, or the large-scale displacement triggered by floods in Pakistan and Colombia, hardly a week goes by in which humanitarian crises have not precipitated human movement. While some people move internally, others internationally, some temporarily and others permanently, there are also those who become "trapped" in place, unable to move to greater safety. Responses to these "crisis migrations" are varied and inadequate. Only a fraction of "crisis migrants" are protected by existing international, regional or national law. Even where law exists, practice does not necessarily guarantee safety and security for those who are forced to move or remain trapped. Improvements are desperately needed to ensure more consistent and effective responses.

This timely book brings together leading experts from multi-disciplinary backgrounds to reflect on diverse humanitarian crises and to shed light on a series of exploratory questions: In what ways do people move in the face of crisis situations? Why do some people move, while others do not? Where do people move? When do people move, and for how long? What are the challenges and opportunities in providing protection to crisis migrants? How might we formulate appropriate responses and sustainable solutions, and upon what factors should these depend?

This volume is divided into four parts, with an introductory section outlining the parameters of "crisis migration," conceptualizing the term and evaluating its utility. This section also explores the legal, policy and institutional architecture upon which current responses are based. Part II presents a diverse set of case studies, from the earthquake in Haiti and the widespread violence in Mexico, to the ongoing exodus from Somalia, and environmental degradation in Alaska and the Carteret Islands, among others. Part III focuses on populations that may be at particular risk, including non-citizens, migrants at sea, those displaced to urban areas, and trapped populations. The concluding section maps the global governance of crisis migration and highlights gaps in current provisions for crisis-related movement across multiple levels.

Go to: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Humanitarian-Crises-Migration-Consequences-Responses/dp/0415857325

Amazon: Since the late 1980s the international relief community has seen its resources and personnel stressed beyond capacity by humanitarian crises - such as Somalia, Bosnia, Rwand, Chechya, and Zaire. Waged within collapsing states, political and ethnic strife targets civilians, causes mass population dislocation and widespread human rights abuses, and impedes the efforts of relief organizations to respond effectively.

Covering topics ranging from emergency public health measures to the psychological trauma of relief workers, this volume presents both a seasoned assessment of current practice and proposals for improving operational efforts in the future.

Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Humanitarian-Crises-Medical-Public-Response/dp/0674155157/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1434729112&sr=1-2-fkmr0&keywords=Humanitarian+Crises%3A+The+Medical+and+Public+Health+Response++By+Jennifer+Leaning%2C+Susan+M.+Briggs%2C+Lincoln+C.+Chen

From the introduction: Prior to the 1990s, health components of humanitarian responses to wars and disasters were dominated by a narrowly biomedical approach, emphasizing biological and physiological needs and pharmaceutical treatments (Fassin and Rechtman 2009; Powell 2000: 19; Richters 1997; Pupavac 2004).  In the last two decades, however, beginning especially with humanitarian engagements in war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina and Rwanda, aid projects targeting the mental health consequences of violence and disaster—commonly known as "psychosocial support"—have become key elements of international post-crisis remediation efforts (Pupavac 2001, 2003, 2004a; Summerfield 1998, 1999).

Humanitarian psychiatry, like other experiments in aid, development, and nation-building, introduces new or reconfigured social scientific and clinical rationalities into local discourse and social dynamics, producing side effects that ripple beyond program intentions.  Following the theme of this issue, in what follows I briefly sketch some of the ambiguous legacies and appropriations of trauma psychiatry in Bosnia.

This is my attempt to provide a case study in how social scientific theories and epistemologies can be unpredictably appropriated and adapted according to social dynamics specific to local contexts.  While these phenomena remind us that the appropriation of academic knowledge for application in new projects and contexts is a basic and inevitable social process, they also suggest the tremendous challenges (for anthropologists and others) in thinking through how this process could be better anticipated, accounted for, and managed.

Continue: http://intergraph-journal.net/enhanced/vol3issue2/5.html