My first meeting with my mentor, Professor Lauren Carruth, occurred on the fifth of September for about fifteen minutes. We discussed my background knowledge on the subject, which regarding legal knowledge, is very little. We talked some of the guiding questions I should be thinking about and researching as I move forward in my research. Such as who are the types of people receiving asylum in different nations? From where do they come? What is the path refugees take to get from Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar, Somalia, etc. to get to Sweden, Germany, and other places in Europe? Who automatically receives asylum? How do different people “game” the system? What are the different legal designations for all different categories of people leaving their homes? What are different protections given to people in the different categories? What is the international law and literature surrounding refugees and asylum-seekers? Also, from this meeting, I learned that the percent of refugee resettlement that happens is minuscule compared to the overall numbers of refugees. This realization led me to think that I should probably broaden my scope quite a bit to look at refugee “adjustment” programs and find a better term for what I meant to say which was programs that attempt to help refugees get acclimated to their new environment where they may be for an extended period.
We discussed what my next moves should be going forward and one of them was trying to answer the above questions and others surrounding refugees that we had addressed in more depth. I am also going to been looking at the scholarship surrounding the issue at large and some of my current more specific questions and dilemmas. I will start looking at the process for resettlement and the other protocols the United Nations Human Rights Council oversees and implements. I am looking at the different global organizations tasked with carrying out international law regarding refugees.