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CHAPTER 17
GLOBAL HEALTH: REFUGEES AND CARING FOR THE FORGOTTEN
Overview
This is a new chapter on “global health” with special attention to growing migration crises in
many parts of the world, especially the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. We also include
some revised sections of the Food and Hunger chapter from the 6th edition of the text. In
recent years the media has focused on some 65 million displaced people the world over who
The plight of migrants and refugees is interconnected with many IPE issues such as global
security, the distribution of global wealth and power, and social transformation. IPE scholars
and medical researchers have shown increasing interest in refugees as part of a greater
Key Terms
•
migrants
•
refugees
•
displaced people
•
internally displaced people (IDPs)
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United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
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asylum seekers
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Food for Peace
•
Green Revolution
•
lifeboat ethics
•
Food First
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Teaching Tips
• U.S. students are currently very interested in the issue of refugees and migrants (and many
European students have been interested in the issue for over a decade). Many students may
• This chapter provides another opportunity to use the different IPE perspectives, levels of
analysis, and IPE structures when asking students about the causes of and solutions to
refugee crises. In addition, ask students if they think migrants and refugees are a threat to a
• For some students the issue of global health itself is not that exciting. Many students think
of global health in purely medical terms. We think that global health can be a more
engaging topic if it is tied to the problems of refugees. Many students are concerned about
1. The Discussion Topics at the end of the chapter can easily be adapted for different essay
assignments. For example:
o Using some of the IPE concepts and tools, explain 4-5 ways in which the topics of
global health and refugees intersect. Explain some of the ways in which one topic
2. Compare and contrast “horizontal” and “vertical” approached to global health. What
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arguments do proponents of each approach make? Which counties and organizations tend
to favor which approach, and why?
Sample Multiple-Choice Questions
1) Which of the following statements about the concept of “global health” is least accurate?
a) It concerns not just medical problems and infectious diseases that people face
2) Which of the following is not one of the theses of the chapter?
a) Poverty, drought, hunger, and conflict are the biggest direct causes of migration.
3) People who leave their country in search of a job or economic opportunities are called
a) migrants.
4) The UNHCR estimates that by the end of 2016 there were ____ million displaced people
in the world.
a) 20
5) Which region of the world had the largest number of internally displaced people (IDPs) at
d) Latin America and the Caribbean
6) The financial aid that state and multilateral development agencies give to low- and
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d) CARE
7) Which of the following is an NGO in Syria that rescues people from bombed buildings
and fighting?
a) MSF
8) Which country has the largest number of Syrian refugees?
a) Jordan
9) Which of the following countries has some of the most generous resettlements policies in
Africa?
10) Since 2012 Australian officials have held hundreds of male migrants and asylum seekers
on this island for up to four years while they waited for judicial proceedings to determine
where they will go.
a) Lampadusa
11) Which of the following statements about the Rohingya situation in Burma is false?
a) The Myanmar government has for many years denied the Rohingya citizenship and
legal rights.
12) Who popularized the argument that over-bureaucratized, inefficient, and sometimes
corrupt IOs and NGOs often do little to help countries develop?
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d) Paul Collier
13) Which noted expert below is most closely associated with the idea of “accompaniment”?
a) Paul Collier
14) The ideas related to the “Food First” movement are attributed to:
d) Bill Gates
15) Which of the following statements related to “lifeboat ethics” is false?
a) It is ethical to let the hungry in developing nations die rather than give them aid that
16) Which of the following statements about either “food security” or “food sovereignty” is
false or incorrect?
17) Which of the following statements about food and hunger is incorrect?
a) Between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of the world’s population that is malnourished
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18) Which of the following countries gives the most foreign aid (official development
assistance) as a percentage of its gross national income?
a) The United States
Suggested Readings and Links
Andrée, Peter, Jeffrey Ayres, Michael Bosia, and Marie Josée Massicotte, eds. Globalization and
Food Sovereignty: Global and Local Change in the New Politics of Food. Toronto: University
of Toronto Press, 2014.
Audiovisual Resources
4.1 Miles. Daphne Matziaraki, dir. 2016. Produced at the Graduate School of Journalism,
University of California, Berkeley in association with The New York Times Op-Docs and
Africa’s Billion Pound Migrant Trail. Narrated by Benjamin Zand. BBC Panorama, 2017.
Aquarius: Rescue in Deadly Waters. Frank Dhelens and Jean-Paul Mari, dirs. Point du Jour
and Public Sénat, 2017. Documents the efforts of the crew of SOS Méditerranée’s ship
Fire at Sea. Gianfranco Rosi, dir. 21unoFilm, 2016. Nominated for an Academy Award for
Best Documentary Feature, this excellent film documents the difficulty mostly Africans
have had crossing from Libya to the Italian island of Lampedusa. The film is about the
Inside Yemen. A four-part series that aired on PBS NewsHour in May 2018. Reporter Marcia
Biggs examines the humanitarian crisis—especially health problems, the spread of
diseases, and malnutrition.
The Rohingya: Silent Abuse. Harri Grace, dir. Aljazeera World, 2017.
Syria’s Disappeared: The Case Against Assad. Sara Afshar, dir. Afshar Films, 2017.
Documents cases of Syrians killed in detention centers during the civil war.
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