The refugee ‘problem’

Abstract

Unaccepted where they are, unable to return whence they came. Leon Gordenker The ‘problem’ of refugees in a world of states is important in the real world, consequential for our understanding of a current issue that significantly affects lives. Refugees are individuals fleeing their homes due to conditions that exceed those considered ‘normal’, and policies formulated in their regard and attitudes towards them will in some cases mean the difference between life and death. The evolving international legal regime that surrounds the refugee highlights the continued importance of the issue to the international community. And the study of refugee issues is essential to our understanding of the significant impact the ‘problem’ now has on aspects of international and national politics, policy-making processes, human rights and development. This book examines the concept of the refugee and demonstrates how she is an inevitable if unintended consequence of the international states system. It begins from the hypothesis that there is a fundamental and mutually constitutive link between the refugee concept and international society and then seeks to unravel their relationship. Analysing the articulation mechanisms employed in regard to the refugee over three periods, the book looks at how such mechanisms impinge on national and international politics, the idea of refugee protection and the discourse itself that surrounds the refugee and ‘refugee studies’, and argues that this conceptual and historical elaboration has important implications for our understanding of responses to the refugee.