Displaced person

About: Displaced person is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1730 publications have been published within this topic receiving 17979 citations. The topic is also known as: displacee & forced immigrant.

Representing the “European refugee crisis” in Germany and beyond: Deservingness and difference, life and death

Abstract: The European refugee crisis has gained worldwide attention with daily media coverage both in and outside Germany. Representations of refugees in media and political discourse in relation to Germany participate in a Gramscian “war of position” over symbols, policies, and, ultimately, social and material resources, with potentially fatal consequences. These representations shift blame from historical, political-economic structures to the displaced people themselves. They demarcate the “deserving” refugee from the “undeserving” migrant and play into fear of cultural, religious, and ethnic difference in the midst of increasing anxiety and precarity for many in Europe. Comparative perspectives suggest that anthropology can play an important role in analyzing these phenomena, highlighting sites of contestation, imagining alternatives, and working toward them. [refugee, media, immigration, crisis, Germany, Europe]

Risks and reconstruction : experiences of resettlers and refugees

Abstract: The magnitude of population displacement and its consequences have placed the issues of reconstructing the livelihoods of those displaced on the world's development agenda. Addressing these issues from a novel perspective, 'Risks and Reconstruction' offers a comparative analysis of the two largest groups of the world's displaced populations: resettlers being uprooted by development programs and refugees fleeing military conflicts or natural calamities. The book explores the condition of being 'displaced, ' the risks of impoverishment and social disarticulation, the rights and entitlements of those uprooted, and most importantly, how these groups can reconstruct their livelihoods. It uses a common set of concepts, derived from the impoverishment risks and reconstruction model. The world's interest in forced resettlers and refugees has considerably increased in the last two decades. About 10 million people around the world are displaced and resettled every year by development programs. Many governments, responding to national and international concerns, have strengthened their policies and assistance programs in this area. In the book, scholars and practitioners report on new empirical research, ideas and development projects from many parts of the world, including China, India, Africa, Argentina, Colombia, Greece. Although this volume focuses on developing countries, experiences from developed countries are also discussed. 'Risks and Reconstruction' is an invaluable reference tool for policymakers, academics, development practitioners, nongovernmental organizations, aid and refugee agencies, and anyone interested in today's international development issues.

The Migration-Development Nexus Evidence and Policy Options State-of-the-Art Overview

Abstract: In September 2001, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned a study of the present and potential links between migration and development. In January 2002, the new Danish Government announced a decision to enhance the links between its aid and refugee policies as part of the overall focus on poverty reduction. The present paper provides a state–of–the–art overview of current thinking and available evidence on the migration–development nexus, including the role of aid in migrant–producing areas. It offers evidence and conclusions around the following four critical issues: Poverty and migration People in developing countries require resources and connections to engage in international migration. There is no direct link between poverty, economic development, population growth, and social and political change on the one hand, and international migration on the other. Poverty reduction is not in itself a migration–reducing strategy. Conflicts, refugees, and migration Violent conflicts produce displaced persons, migrants, and refugees. People on the move may contribute both to conflict prevention and reconciliation, and to sustained conflicts. Most refugees do not have the resources to move beyond neighbouring areas, that is, they remain internally displaced or move across borders to first countries of asylum within their region. Aid to developing countries receiving large inflows of refugees is poverty–oriented to the extent that these are poor countries, but it is uncertain what effect such aid has in terms of reducing the number of people seeking asylum in developed countries. Furthermore, such aid may attract refugees from adjacent countries experiencing war or political turmoil. Migrants as a development resource International liberalization has gone far with respect to capital, goods and services, but not to labour. International political–economic regimes provide neither space nor initiatives for negotiations on labour mobility and the flow of remittances. There is a pressing need to reinforce the image of migrants as a development resource. Remittances are double the size of aid and target the poor at least as well; migrant diasporas are engaged in transnational practices with direct effects on aid and development; developed countries recognize their dependence on immigrant labour; and policies on development aid, humanitarian relief, migration, and refugee protection are internally inconsistent and occasionally contradictory. Aid and migration Aid policies face a critical challenge to balance a focus on poverty reduction with mitigating the conditions that produce refugees, while also interacting constructively with migrant diasporas and their transnational practices. The current emphasis on aid selectivity tends to allocate development aid to the well performing countries, and humanitarian assistance to the crisis countries and trouble spots. However, development aid is more effective than humanitarian assistance in preventing violent conflicts, promoting reconciliation and democratization, and encouraging poverty–reducing development investments by migrant diasporas. The paper is a synthesis of current knowledge of migration–development dynamics, including an assessment of the intended and unintended consequences of development and humanitarian policy interventions. We examine whether recent developments in the sphere of international migration provide evidence of a “crisis”, as well as the connections between migration, globalization, and the changing nature of conflicts. We summarize current thinking on the main issues at stake and examine available evidence on the relations between migration and development. Then the consequent challenges to the aid community, including the current debates about coherence and selectivity in aid and relief are discussed and, finally, we elaborate on the four conclusions of the overview.

Between War and City Towards an Urban Anthropology of Refugee Camps

Abstract: Two elements constitute a new category of world population, that of 50 million displaced persons and refugees: on the one hand, so-called `dirty' or `low-intensity' wars, with the endless exoduses, suffering and multiple losses they provoke; on the other, the humanitarian response that accompanies them very closely. The camps are both the emblem of the social condition created by the coupling of war with humanitarian action, the site where it is constructed in the most elaborate manner, as a life kept at a distance from the ordinary social and political world, and the experimentation of the large-scale segregations that are being established on a planetary scale. Created in a situation of emergency as a protective device intended to provide for the physical, food and health safety of all kinds of survivors and fugitives from wars, refugee camps agglomerate tens of thousands of inhabitants for periods that generally last far beyond the duration of the emergency. In this article, we describe and analyse cam...

Community-Implemented Trauma Therapy for Former Child Soldiers in Northern Uganda

Abstract: The civil war in Northern Uganda, be-tweentherebelgroupLord’sResistanceArmy (LRA) and government forces,lasted more than 2 decades and has af-fectedvirtuallytheentireNorthernUgan-dan population. The dominant strategyoftheLRAwastheabductionofchildrenandtheirforcedrecruitmentashelpers,combatants, and sexual slaves.As a consequence of the conflict, ap-proximately1.8millionindividualshadbeen forced to resettle in camps for in-ternally displaced persons (IDP). Indi-vidualshavehesitantlyleftthesecampssince2008,afteragradualcalmingoftheconflict.