International-domestic linkages in a developing-country context: the case of the Rohingyas in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

Since 1978, the Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar and taking refuge in Bangladesh. The state of Bangladesh is not a signatory to the Geneva Convention and does not recognize refugee rights, but the initial experiences with the Rohingya refugee population led the government to create a temporary and ad hoc domestic policy advisory and refugee management system, which eventually became highly politicized. There was also some degree of slow “externalization” of policy advice through the involvement of international organizations from 2006–2007 onward, mainly through the participation of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and International Organization for Migration (IOM). Over 2017–2018, there was a massive influx of refugees from Myanmar to Bangladesh. The domestic advisory and refugee management system lacked the capacity to manage the crisis and had to quickly and greatly externalize policy advice and refugee management. The UNHCR and IOM came in with a host of international organizational networks and coordinated with each other and the state through a multi-sectoral approach to manage the crisis. This externalization led to the systematization and institutionalization of the state’s domestic advisory system. However the effect of externalization on politicization is equivocal; on the one hand it decreased politicization of the domestic policy advisory system, but on the other hand, it created new levels of politicization.

KEYWORDS:

• Rohingya Refugee
• Bangladesh
• policy advisory system
• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
• International Organization for Migration (IOM)
• Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC)

Notes on contributor

Arnab Roy Chowdhury is an Assistant Professor in the school of sociology at NRU HSE, Moscow. Prior to this he was a postdoctoral fellow in the department of public policy at NRU HSE. He has received his PhD in Sociology from the National University of Singapore (NUS). His research interests cover social movement studies, environmental sociology, sociology of development, forced migration and refugee studies, historical and comparative sociology, and state-society relations.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Arnab Roy Chowdhury http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6626-3936

Notes

1 Not covered in this paper; this paper mainly focuses on the transformation of domestic policy advisory systems due to externalization (and internationalization).

2 Upazila or Sub-districts of Cox’s Bazar bordering Myanmar.

3 Skype Interview with an IOM employee on 2 March 2018.

4 Skype interview with an RRRC employee on 8 March 2018.

5 Interview of A 1 taken in Cox’s Bazar Sadar, Bangladesh on 7 May 2018.

6 Interview of A 2 taken in Cox’s Bazar Sadar, Bangladesh on 3 May 2018.

7 Interview of A 3 taken in Cox’s Bazar Sadar, Bangladesh on 5 May 2018.