BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//pretalx//conferences.acspri.org.au//2026//talk//VPL9TU
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:AEST
BEGIN:STANDARD
DTSTART:20000326T040000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=-1SU;BYMONTH=3;UNTIL=20050326T170000Z
TZNAME:AEST
TZOFFSETFROM:+1100
TZOFFSETTO:+1000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:STANDARD
DTSTART:20060402T040000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYMONTH=4;UNTIL=20060401T170000Z
TZNAME:AEST
TZOFFSETFROM:+1100
TZOFFSETTO:+1000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:STANDARD
DTSTART:20070325T040000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=4SU;BYMONTH=3;UNTIL=20070324T170000Z
TZNAME:AEST
TZOFFSETFROM:+1100
TZOFFSETTO:+1000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:STANDARD
DTSTART:20080406T040000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYMONTH=4
TZNAME:AEST
TZOFFSETFROM:+1100
TZOFFSETTO:+1000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
DTSTART:20000827T030000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=4SU;BYMONTH=8;UNTIL=20000826T170000Z
TZNAME:AEDT
TZOFFSETFROM:+1000
TZOFFSETTO:+1100
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
DTSTART:20011028T030000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=-1SU;BYMONTH=10;UNTIL=20071027T170000Z
TZNAME:AEDT
TZOFFSETFROM:+1000
TZOFFSETTO:+1100
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
DTSTART:20081005T030000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYMONTH=10
TZNAME:AEDT
TZOFFSETFROM:+1000
TZOFFSETTO:+1100
END:DAYLIGHT
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:pretalx-2026-VPL9TU@conferences.acspri.org.au
DTSTART;TZID=AEST:20261126T114500
DTEND;TZID=AEST:20261126T120000
DESCRIPTION:From independence until 2005\, the Sri Lankan government manage
 d refugees and asylum seekers under the Immigrants and Emigrants Act No. 2
 0 of 1948\, which classified asylum seekers and refugees as irregular immi
 grants\, rendering them vulnerable to arrest\, detention\, and deportation
 . The “Memorandum of Understanding – 2005” signed by the Government 
 of Sri Lanka and UNHCR was the first legal document to allow refugees and 
 asylum seekers to remain legally in Sri Lanka temporarily until resettleme
 nt in a third country. Therefore\, since 2005\, Sri Lanka has provided tem
 porary shelter to refugees. However\, from 2005 to 2025\, two broad groups
  of actors with different policy goals can be identified within Sri Lanka
 ’s refugee policy subsystem. One coalition primarily focused on protecti
 ng the humanitarian rights of refugees\, while the other emphasized nation
 al security and border management. The main objective of this study is to 
 examine how the policy environment shapes the role of humanitarian coaliti
 on actors within the refugee policy subsystem in Sri Lanka. To address thi
 s objective\, the study used the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) as its
  primary theoretical framework. Focusing on the period from 2005 to 2025\,
  the study adopts a social constructivist and interpretivist approach\, re
 cognizing that social realities are shaped by human experiences\, interact
 ions\, historical contexts\, and institutional practices. In Sri Lanka's r
 efugee policy context\, concepts such as “refugee\,” “protection\,
 ” and “state responsibility” are socially constructed through politi
 cal narratives\, historical experiences\, legal contexts\, sovereignty con
 cerns\, and the experiences of various policy actors. This approach allows
  the researcher to analyze how humanitarian coalition actors construct\, n
 egotiate\, and interpret refugee-related issues within policy communities 
 and advocacy coalitions over time. Also\, as indicated above\, this study 
 adopts a longitudinal single-case study design spanning 2005 to 2025\, div
 ided into three periods: 2005–2013\, 2014–2022\, and 2023–2025. The 
 rationale for using a longitudinal study is that it aims to examine policy
  developments over an extended period\, while the Advocacy Coalition Frame
 work (ACF)\, as a public policy theory\, is particularly well-suited to an
 alyzing policy subsystems that evolve over more than a decade. Therefore\,
  both the research objectives and the theoretical lens require a methodolo
 gical approach that can capture changes and developments over an extended 
 period. Accordingly\, adopting a longitudinal research design enables the 
 study to examine how humanitarian actors\, coalitions\, beliefs\, strategi
 es\, and policy dynamics change over time in response to the policy enviro
 nment. To enhance the validity of the findings\, data triangulation is emp
 loyed by combining primary and secondary data sources. Accordingly\, the s
 tudy conducted 20 semi-structured interviews to collect primary data\, alo
 ng with secondary data from books\, journal articles\, websites\, etc. The
  interview was conducted with actors in both humanitarian and security coa
 litions to verify their involvement since 2005. Purposive sampling was ini
 tially used to identify key actors\, followed by snowball sampling to reac
 h additional participants who were difficult to identify or access\, parti
 cularly because of the sensitive nature of refugee policy and the changing
  involvement of organizations over the 2005–2025 period. Finally\, the f
 indings from NVivo-assisted thematic analysis revealed that external event
 s in the policy environment significantly influenced the roles of the huma
 nitarian coalition's actors in Sri Lanka’s refugee policy subsystem\, mo
 re than other policy-environment factors.
DTSTAMP:20261013T080040Z
LOCATION:Holme Room
SUMMARY:The Impact of the Policy Environment on the Role of Humanitarian Co
 alition Actors in Sri Lanka’s Refugee Policy Subsystem - Uswatta Liyanag
 e Himasha Dilsh Perera
URL:https://conferences.acspri.org.au/2026/talk/VPL9TU/
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR