In and beyond the camp: The rise of resilience in refugee governance

Authors

  • Marcia Oliver Wilfrid Laurier University
  • Philip Boyle University of Waterloo

Keywords:

Resilience, refugee governance, neoliberalism, UNHCR, Resiliencia, gobernanza de refugiados, neoliberalismo, ACNUR

Abstract

This paper analyzes recent changes in the policies and practices through which displaced populations are governed by humanitarian and state actors. In particular, we examine how the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is increasingly operationalizing its protection mandate by linking the more longstanding logic of self-reliance with the newer idea of resilience, itself composed of both micro (individual) and macro (societal and particularly urban) strands. Using Uganda as a site of analysis, we suggest that the linking of the more entrenched concept of self-reliance with resilience is another step forward in the entwining of UNHCR’s traditional humanitarian mandate with the developmental goals promoted by other global aid organizations. Resilience emerges in this context as a policy ideal that brings together disparate strands of operational aspirations into one multifaceted objective to govern refugees both within and beyond the camp/settlement structure.

El artículo analiza los cambios recientes en políticas y prácticas según las cuales poblaciones desplazadas quedan bajo el gobierno de actores humanitarios y estatales. Concretamente, examinamos cómo la Agencia de la ONU para los Refugiados (ACNUR) está llevando a la práctica su mandato de protección al vincular la lógica tradicional de la autosuficiencia con la idea más nueva de resiliencia, compuesta por ejes micro (individuo) y macro (sociedad y, especialmente, lo urbano). Utilizando el caso de Uganda, damos a entender que el vínculo del concepto más arraigado de autosuficiencia con el de resiliencia es un paso adelante en la combinación del mandato humanitario de ACNUR con los objetivos de desarrollo promovidos por otras organizaciones de ayuda globales. La resiliencia surge, en este contexto, como un ideal político que congrega varias corrientes de aspiraciones operativas en un único objetivo polifacético de gobernar a los refugiados tanto dentro como más allá de la estructura del campo o asentamiento.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1050

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Published

03-01-2019

How to Cite

Oliver, M. and Boyle, P. (2019) “In and beyond the camp: The rise of resilience in refugee governance”, Oñati Socio-Legal Series, 10(6), pp. 1107–1132. Available at: https://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/1049 (Accessed: 29 May 2023).

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 6 (2020): Governing the Political: Law and the Politics of Resistance

Section

Thematic Articles

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