Transit Beirut: UNHCR, Diaspora Networks, and the Covert Resettlement of Armenians During the Cold War
LAU Beirut Campus, Sage Hall 204
The Institute for Migration Studies (IMS) at LAU’s School of Arts and Sciences is pleased to host Professor Maja Janmyr as part of its Guest Lecture Series.
About the event
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A “most extraordinary” resettlement operation occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, during which thousands of Armenians from Bulgaria and Romania were systematically and discreetly resettled to the United States via Lebanon. This talk will discuss how and why this small Levantine country became central to such a scheme and examines the roles of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the broader refugee regime in this resettlement process.
By highlighting the contributions of diaspora organizations, such as the Armenian National Committee to Aid Homeless Armenians (ANCHA), the talk will demonstrate how the Armenian diaspora not only facilitated but also significantly shaped the work of the UNHCR. The talk will also show how Lebanon was established as a key transit site for Eastern European Armenians on their routes to the United States and foregrounds Beirut as a significant site for the articulation and development of the modern refugee regime.
This presentation builds on research conducted within the BEYOND project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 851121 (ERC Starting Grant 2019).
About the people
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- Speaker
Prof. Maja Janmyr
Professor of International Migration Law, Faculty of Law, University of Oslo
Senior Visiting Fellow, IMS, LAU
Prof. Janmyr (she/her) is a professor of international migration law at the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo. Focusing on Lebanon and the broader Middle East, her work takes a historical and socio-legal approach to international law, examining in particular how refugees and other migrants understand and engage with legal norms and institutions, and how international refugee law is interpreted and implemented in local contexts. Prof. Janmyr has led several large research projects in international refugee law, and currently holds a Starting Grant (2021-2026) from the European Research Council for the project Protection without Ratification? International Refugee Law beyond States Parties to the 1951 Refugee Convention (BEYOND). This research aims to construct a more global perspective on the nature of international refugee law by focusing on the role and practice of states that are not contracting parties to the 1951 Refugee Convention. These non-signatory states are predominantly found in the Middle East and South Asia and have traditionally been seen as ‘exceptions’ to international refugee law.
- Discussant
Dr. Cory Rodgers
Assistant Professor of Migration Studies, LAU
Dr. Cory Rodgers (he/him) is a social anthropologist. Prior to joining LAU, Dr. Rodgers was a senior researcher at the University of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre, where he was the principal investigator of the project Social Cohesion as a Humanitarian Objective (2020-2023). His research investigated the impact of projects intended to promote “social cohesion” between displaced populations and their host populations, whether merely to prevent inter-communal tensions or to promote more ambitious forms of cross-communal solidarity.
For more information, please reach out to jasminlilian.diab@lau.edu.lb.