94-07-19 The Plight of Refugees Today

THE PLIGHT OF REFUGEES TODAY

     The world looks at refugees quite differently in this post-
Cold War era, says Valerie O'Connor Sutter, an authority on
problems encountered by refugees.  

     "Asylum-seekers are not being welcomed as they were during the
Cold War.  They have lost their political currency," said Sutter,
who will lead a public forum on the plight of refugees at 11 a.m.
on Wednesday, July 27, at the University of Virginia's Miller
Center in Charlottesville, Va.

     Sutter studied the plight of those escaping Vietnam, Laos and
Cambodia to write The Indochinese Refugee Dilemma, a book that has
received international attention.    

     Director of the Social Foundations of Education program at
U.Va.'s Northern Virginia Center and an associate professor in the
University's Curry School of Education, she continues to study
treatment of refugees in such global hot spots as Rwanda, Haiti,
Bosnia, and South East Asia, and recently taught a course on the
difficulties encountered by refugees.  Her study focuses on the
tension between national interests and human rights.

     From her examination she concludes:  "The way we look at
refugees has changed dramatically from the Cold War days."

     For more information, Sutter can be reached July 27 at the
Miller Center, (804) 924-7236, or at her office, (703) 876-6909.

                                                    July 19, 1994

Karen A. Castle
University News Office
kac@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu
(804) 924-7116


[Submitted by: Karen A. Castle  (kac@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu)
               Wed, 20 Jul 94 10:34:01 EDT]