In the summer of 2015, an ‘European refugee crisis’ hit the world, as thousands of desperate Syrian refugees seeking safety and survival tried to reach the borders of Europe.

This called for a re-evaluation of the global protection mechanism for refugees and migrants, and under the aegis of the UN, two new global compacts, a Global Compact on Refugees and a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, were signed in 2018.

On the Margins of Protection critiques the global protection regime and connects geopolitics in the Global North, their asylum policies, and dislocations in the Global South, highlighting how it all functions to serve the needs of late capitalism.

The book also focuses on newly emerging and technologically advanced bordering strategies, such as offshore detention techniques and hotspots, often located outside the state where refugees seek asylum.

A central theme of the volume is the emerging cracks in the protection regime along the lines of race, religion, and gender. The authors show that while women constitute near about 49 per cent of the world’s refugee population, the existing protection regime often ignores the gendered and racialised nature of migration.

The Editor

Paula Banerjee is IDRC Research Chair on Gender and Forced Displacement and Director, Center on Gender and Forced Displacement, Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok. She is also a member and former Director of Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata.

Abbreviations
Acknowledgements

Introduction
Paula Banerjee

1. Distancing as Governance: Reflections on Migrants and Contemporary (in)Securities
Bandana Purkayastha

2. The Leash and the Rip: Struggles and Conflicts Beneath Migrants’ and Asylum Seekers’ ‘Secondary Movements’
Federico Rahola

3. Population Flows, Refugees, and the Responsibility to Protect in the Global Protection System
Shibashis Chatterjee

4. Migrants and Movements Across Asia: Mobility, Global Migration Governance, and the European Response
Anita Sengupta

5. Reframing the Refugee Crisis: Resistances and Solidarities
Priya Singh

6. On the Edge of Law and Society: Stateless People in a Westphalian Order
Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury

7. Responsibility to Protect: Questions of Race, Religion, Resource, and the Unspoken Fourth
Paula Banerjee

8. Asian Women Domestic Workers in the Gulf: Experiences from Kerala, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines
Ilina Sen

9. Refugee Economy: An Inside Realm of Global Capitalism
Byasdeb Dasgupta

Notes on the Contributors
Index