Legal Refugee Recognition in the Urban South: Formal v. de Facto Refugee Status
The legal relevance of the “urban refugee” concept in the Middle East and Africa stems from the practice of practicing different forms of refugee status determination (RSD) in rural as opposed to urban areas. Urban refugees are usually subject to rigorous individual adjudication, while rural refugees are typically recognized on a prima facie basis. This difference in procedure has no basis in the substance of refugee law, and it marginalizes urban refugees in two key ways. First, in Africa and the Middle East, refugee status recognition is used by host governments to prevent refugee integration, to force refugees to live far from population centres, and to transfer responsibility for their welfare to international agencies. Second, individualized RSD procedures in wide use by the United Nations generally lack key fairness safeguards, increasing the risk that genuine refugees will be wrongfully rejected. This phenomenon means that urban refugee populations will often be systematically undercounted, and will include a significant number of de facto refugees who are in fact refugees in danger of refoulement, but whose applications were rejected and who thus have no access to the protection and resources otherwise targeted at refugees.
Iraqi Refugees and Cultural Humility: A Mental Health Professional Training Program
This paper describes the development of a thorough nine-hour professional training program targeting the cultural humility of mental health clinicians who are treating new Iraqi refugee communities. I used the 15-step evidence-based Comprehensive Program Development Model created by Calley (2009) for the design of the structure, curriculum, and materials for this proposed program (Calley, 2011). The training program is informed by conceptual frameworks of cultural competence and humility, ecological systems theory, and social justice with goals of (a) exploring clinicians’ cultural attitudes in order to improve self-awareness at multiple levels (e.g., physiological, psychological, interpersonal), (b) increasing clinicians’ knowledge about Iraqi refugee resettlement, and (c) developing clinicians’ intervention skills with this at-risk population. The impact of personal uncertainty on extremist attitudes and behaviors is described and connected to human physiological fear responses that arise in the context of intercultural encounters. An empirical needs assessment of an exemplary rural New England clinic complements the literature review; the program is designed to be responsive to the needs faced by clinics serving new Iraqi communities. Program structure includes rigorous evaluation and quality improvement mechanisms.
Ways of Worldmaking
Required reading at more than 100 colleges and universities throughout North America.
 “In a way reminiscent of Einstein, Goodman leads us to the very edge of relativism, only then to step back and to suggest certain criteria of fairness and rightness. More so than any other commentator, he has provided a workable notion of the kinds of skills and capacities that are central for anyone who works in the arts.”
 —Howard Gardner, Harvard University