In and beyond the camp
The rise of resilience in refugee governance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1050Keywords:
Resilience, refugee governance, neoliberalism, UNHCRAbstract
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.
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