Dear listers,
A few weeks ago I had posted a request for information regarding the
history of refugee camps. At the time many of you wrote to me saying
you'd be interested in what I found. So I am circulating the feedback
and information I received from the list. Attached (below) is a document
compiling all the suggestions I received. I have also included a few
references from my end.
A big thank you to everyone who responded to my request.
Sincerely,
Mansha
--
Mansha Mirza, PhD Disability Studies
IHS Postdoctoral Fellow
Feinberg School of Medicine
Northwestern University
Phone: 312-503-6536
------------------
I'm not sure if this helps at all, but I'm working right now on a
dissertation about refugees in the balkans in 1875-1878. One thing I've
found is that at least with regard to Austria-Hungary, there were no
camps. Refugees were instead boarded with families in villages across
the region. you see the word "internierung" or internment, but this
refers to the moving of refugees away from the border, a practice that
seems to derive from the international laws of asylum.
I've often thought one way to get at this would be through military
history--armies have camped forever, so here you'd get the technology of
organization, supply, sanitation etc. But even here, the camp seems to
come late in some respects. In the Franco Prussion war 1870-1871 POWs
were also typically boarded with locals. By world war one this has
changed and camps were normal.
Historians are increasingly looking outside of europe for test cases of
technologies later imported into europe; the internment camp, for
example may have been developed during imperial wars in africa. off the
top of my head, check out _Absolute Destruction_ by Isabell Hull; the
book is about german military culture, but has a fair bit on germans in
Africa.
I am no expert, but look at the concepts of quarantines in Early Modern
Europe. I also remember that the Global Detention Project in Geneva is a
good resource, you can contact Michael Flynn there for more information.
They once did an even that spoke about the issue of space and refugee camps.
The work of: Agamben, Gaim Kibreab, and Alice Sczepanikova with
reference to the politics and ethics of camps
I'm writing to you as a former UNHCR staff member with bits and pieces
of information about the history of refugees and camps. You may know
that these were first set up after WWII when the early precursors of
UNHCR realized that to 'do' protection, you needed to assist people, so
the first camps were set up in Eastern Europe.
Ivor Jackson is an expert on this (former Deputy Head of the Protection
Division in HCR, now retired). I am sure you could contact him through
google or contacting HCR through their website. He would really be THE
ultimate source for the information you are looking for.
Article contribution – Warehousing Refugees – by Merrill Smith. You
might also want to follow up with the sources it cites, especially
Barbara Harrell-Bond's research on camps as manifestations of early
1960s "modernization" development theory, abandoned by the World Bank
but continued by UNHCR (i.e., the oddly Stalinist idea nevertheless
embraced by Western elites that primitive peoples must have their lives
uprooted and reordered in regimented ways in order for them to advance).
My best bet is for you to see the work of Michel Agier, notably his most
recent book, as well as the work of Anna Schmidt and Lisa Malkii.
Richard Black, “Putting refugees in camps,” Forced Migration Review,
Refugee Studies Centre, No. 2, August 1998 (Black 1998), p. 6.
Gaim Kibreab, “Local Settlements in Africa: A Misconceived Option?” JRS,
Vol. 2, No. 4, 1989 (Kibreab 1989), pp. 473-74.
Barbara Harrell-Bond, “Are refugee camps good for children?” UNHCR NIRR,
Working Paper No. 29, August 2000 (Harrell-Bond 2000), p. 5.
Agier (2005). On the margins of the world.
--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Note: The material contained in this communication comes to you from the
Forced Migration Discussion List which is moderated by Forced Migration
Online, Refugee Studies Centre (RSC), Oxford Department of International
Development, University of Oxford. It does not necessarily reflect the
views of the RSC or the University. If you re-print, copy, archive or
re-post this message please retain this disclaimer. Quotations or
extracts should include attribution to the original sources.
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Posting guidelines: http://www.forcedmigration.org/discussion/guidelines
Subscribe/unsubscribe: http://tinyurl.com/fmlist-join-leave
List Archives: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/forced-migration.html
RSS: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?RSS&L=forced-migration
Twitter: http://twitter.com/forcedmigration
|