Beyond the nexus: UNHCR's evolving perspective on refugee protection and international migration

This paper talks about UNHCR's engagement in broader migration discourse and asylum-migration nexus. It concludes that UNHCR is currently engaged in a difficult balancing act. On one hand, the organization recognizes the need to underline the distinctive status, rights and obligations of refugees, and is sensitive to charges that it wishes to extend its mandate to broader migration issues that lie beyond its legitimate concern. At the same time, UNHCR is aware that human mobility is growing in scope, scale and complexity, and acknowledges that other stakeholders, especially states, increasingly regard the movement of refugees, asylum seekers and irregular migrants as part of a single (and often unwanted) phenomenon.