Event: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

The number of people displaced by war and persecution is at an all-time high. As needs grow, governments are struggling to find responses that are sustainable at scale, and international institutions are failing. Camps and boats have too often become the dominant focus of policy, perpetuating an assumption of refugees as inevitably vulnerable or threatening.

Drawing upon his pioneering research on the economic lives and contributions of refugees in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, Betts shows that under the right conditions refugees can be a benefit to their host societies. He offers a new vision for our global refugee system and explores what it might mean for Australian refugee policy.

Betts is author or editor of numerous academic books and articles on these topics, and has consulted and advised for international organizations and governments around the world. Professor Betts’ work has featured in leading global media such as The Guardian, The New York Times, The Economist, Nature, CNN and the BBC, to name a few. His two TED talks – on why Brexit happened, and how to fix the global refugee system – have been viewed over three million times.

The Hugo Lecture is an annual public oration delivered by a prominent academic thought-leader on a topic of contemporary global importance. It was established in 2015 in memory of the late Professor Graeme Hugo, an internationally renowned demographer based at the University of Adelaide for several decades.
The Lecture is hosted by the Hugo Centre for Migration and Population Research, a global hub for innovative, interdisciplinary research on migration and population issues also established in Graeme’s honour.

This event is sponsored by the Don Dunstan Foundation, Australian Migrant Resource Centre and Multicultural SA.

Who: Professor Alexander Betts, Professor of Forced Migration and International Affairs and Director of the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford

Where and When: Bonythan Hall, North Terrace Campus,
Tues 2nd October 2017, 5:30pm

This event is FREE 

Visit www.openstate.com.au for more information