Review of “Iraqi Refugees in the United States: The Enduring Effects of the War on Terror”

Abstract

Scholars working in refugee studies have long been concerned to address what is called refugeeness. Conditions of existence in which persons deemed legally eligible for refugee status are subject to social, political, economic and cultural processes, and practices of reception which divest them of a historical and agentive identity. In the contemporary narrative of Western moral authority, refugees are diminished persons; objects to be rescued and re-invested with integrative interventions appropriate to the receiving state. Refugeeness is compounded by globally instituted distinctions, which authorize refugees only as involuntary movers, in contrast to voluntary migrants. The refugee/migrant distinction bolsters the notion that refuge confers legitimate victim status—objects of conflict or persecution—that is open to abuse by “voluntary migrant pariahs in disguise.” Refugees are therefore compelled to negotiate this victim-pariah duality in which their status as legitimate victims is implicitly called into question and must be continuously proved. Refugeeness presents a challenging research terrain for scholars in that the specificities of refugee experiences as historical actors should be validated without bolstering the victim-pariah construct, particularly in Western reception contexts.