Public lecture: Transforming a broken refugee system

Tuesday, 26 September 2017

The University of Adelaide's 2017 Hugo Lecture will offer audiences a new vision for a global refugee system and will explore what that might mean for Australian refugee policy.

The free public lecture – Transforming a Broken Refugee System – will be delivered by Professor Alexander Betts, Director of the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford.

The event will be held in the University of Adelaide's Bonython Hall at 5.30pm Tuesday 3 October.

"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," Professor Betts says.

"Camps and boats have too often become the dominant focus of policy, perpetuating an assumption of refugees as inevitably vulnerable or threatening," he says.

Professor Betts, an author and editor of numerous academic books and articles on refugee issues, will draw on his extensive research into the economic lives and contributions of refugees.

He will demonstrate that, under the right conditions, refugees can be a benefit to their host societies, and will argue for changes to refugee policy.

The Hugo Lecture, established in memory of the late demographer Professor Graeme Hugo AO, is hosted by the University's Hugo Centre for Migration and Population Research.

WHAT: 2017 Hugo Lecture: Transforming a Broken Refugee System by Prof Alexander Betts (Oxford University)
WHERE: Bonython Hall, North Terrace campus, University of Adelaide
WHEN: 5.30–7.00pm Tuesday 3 October 2017
COST: FREE, all welcome – please register

This event is supported by the Don Dunstan Foundation, Multicultural SA, and the Australian Migrant Resource Centre, and is part of Open State.

 

Contact Details

Dr Romy Wasserman
Email: romy.wasserman@adelaide.edu.au
Website: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/hugo-centre/
Research Associate and Engagement Programme Coordinator
Hugo Centre for Migration and Population Research
The University of Adelaide
Business: +61 8 8313 3500
Mobile: +61 (0)422 269 909


Mr David Ellis
Email: david.ellis@adelaide.edu.au
Website: https://www.adelaide.edu.au/newsroom/
Deputy Director, Media and Corporate Relations
External Relations
The University of Adelaide
Business: +61 8 8313 5414
Mobile: +61 (0)421 612 762