Anomalous states : governing refugees in international relations

Abstract

This thesis is a discursive and institutional history of refugees in the twentieth century. It explores the relations of power that form and transform the condition of possibility for representations of refugees and interventions made in the name of the ‘refugee problem’. The focus is on the relationship between the government of refugee, the states-system, and the cultural specificities of Western modernity. The thesis contains three propositions. Firstly, the issue of refugees is an effect of the division of the world’s territory and population into sovereign states. This is the s tru c tu ra l condition of refugees. The problem of refugees - the problem that requires intervention or government - is tha t they are outside the state-citizen regulatory norm. The international refugee regime seeks to reestablish this order of states and citizens. Secondly, characterizations of refugees are historically linked to the imaginaries and explanations of international (dis)order. This is the h isto rica l significance of refugees. Representations of refugees mirror the concerns and contradictions tha t arise from particular images of world (dis)order. From this perspective, the practices of the refugee regime are attempts at recovering a historically specific articulation of ‘normality’. Thirdly, Weste rn concerns have dominated the refugee agenda and we cannot ignore the configuration of power in international relations, or the effects of these relationships for the government of refugees. This is the cultu ral meaning of refugees. To support these claims, I examine 3 historical periods in the government of population displacement: post 1919, post 1951, and post 1989. Each period is distinguished by significant shifts in the international political environment and perceptions of international order. Show more