Nikola Tohma (Masaryk Institute and Archives, Czech Academy of Sciences) and Khalida Azhigulova (Eurasian Technological University) will present in the online session entitled “Unsung asylum: The law and practice of refugee hosting in communist and authoritarian states.” It is organized within the 15th International Refugee Law Seminar Series: Moments in Refugee History and the Development of the Modern Refugee Regime: Understanding refugee law and policy today. This series is convened by the Refugee Law Initiative in collaboration with Refugee History.
Histories of refugee hosting in post-WWII Europe rarely focus on the Soviet region. This session seeks to address this gap by exploring ‘unsung’ refugee hosting in Central and Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on the hosting of Cold War refugees, including political refugees from capitalist countries, in communist Czechoslovakia. This focus on ‘unsung’ refugee hosting regions is complemented with an examination of current refugee hosting in Central Asia – another neglected refugee hosting region – particularly Kazakhstan. These historical and contemporary narratives of less known refugee hosting situations by communist/authoritarian regimes challenge common preconceptions about refugee hosting.
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