Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.31297/hkju.18.2.4
Guidelines for the Design of a Refugee Policy in the Western Balkans
Veran Stančetić
orcid.org/0000-0002-5574-0132
; Faculty of Political Sciences, Belgrade, Serbia
Abstract
In the introduction to this paper, the importance of a refugee policy is emphasized if some refugees were to permanently settle in the Western Balkans. It is also noted that Western Balkan countries are characterised by numerous public problems and cultural, social, and economic specificities (compared with traditional immigrant-accepting states). Consequently, the refugee policy should comply with the specifics, as well as with the EU framework. In the following section of the paper some general questions about public policy are discussed.
The main questions are: what exactly is public policy and what are the rules and criteria for creating a good public policy, designed to deal with a specific problem (in this case refugees)? As important aspects of a good public policy, the technical and financial aspects of public policy are discussed, as well as their political acceptability/feasibility and administrative operability. The second backbone of this article are general human needs, defined by research and prominent authors within the social sciences. This topic is discussed in the third section of the paper. Physiological needs, safety, belonging, esteem, and self- ctualisation are noted to be primary human needs. As a result of combining these two fields, some guidelines for a refugee policy are given. This is preceded by a description of the relevance of this topic in previous academic research, as well as a description of ongoing policies in Serbia and the Western Balkans that may be assessed as poor. In the sixth part of the paper recommendations are given. A successful refugee policy should be built on four pillars. The first two would be
on a short-term scale, whilst the third and fourth would cover long-term segments of the policy. These pillars are the following: existential (space and basic living conditions), socio–economic (employment, building sustainable families), cultural–educational, and integrative (full integration into the system).
Keywords
public policy; human needs; refugees; Western Balkans; integration
Hrčak ID:
201717
URI
Publication date:
19.6.2018.
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