Abstract
The discourse on migration and refugee studies continues to be framed around two main principles: sovereignty and identity. In contemporary politics, however, the refugee subject is defined and managed from a universal framework where the language of rights elevates the potency of liberalism as both a discourse and an instrument of domination. This article examines refugeehood from a framework that transcends the sovereignty/identity dichotomy. It offers a more nuanced contextual approach through which this mass socio-political phenomenon can be better understood. To validate the article's new methodology, it sets out to examine the Palestinian refugee question, the oldest unresolved refugee problem in the history of the modern Middle East. The article makes visible the performative role of question framing by giving particular attention to historical transfigurations in the conceptualization of the people's right to self-determination. As a discourse-based analysis, the article demonstrates how current discursive formations produce colonial knowledge that can facilitate the development of new social and political tools of population control. The article concludes by showing how conceptual transfiguration of the right to self-determination incited the orientalist scholarship on the Palestinian refugee question in the interest of legitimizing and normalizing Israel as a Western colonial establishment.
Highlights
Refugeehood marks a new development in social and political struggle in human history
Positioning the universal right to self-determination at the forefront, it points out contextual ambiguities and contradictions in the way the Palestinian refugee has been defined and managed
Assuming that the universal discourse on refugee rights is but a new mechanism for states’ control, following Fanon’s logic, it is possible to argue that even if the United Nations and international refugee law succeeded in compelling Israel to grant the Palestinian refugees their right to self-determination, chances are that what the Palestinian refugees will have succeeded in attaining is but a “false” version of the right—one that has already been emptied of its essence
Summary
Refugeehood marks a new development in social and political struggle in human history.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
