TY - JOUR
AU - Rajaram, Prem Kumar
AB - This article argues that humanitarian agencies represent refugees in terms of helplessness and loss. It is suggested that this representation consigns refugees to their bodies, to a mute and faceless physical mass. Refugees are denied the right to present narratives that are of consequence institutionally and politically. Narration of refugee experiences becomes the prerogative of Western ‘experts’: refugee lives become a site where Western ways of knowing are reproduced. The central focus of this article is a detailed examination of a project by Oxfam GB called ‘Listening to the Displaced’. It is suggested that Oxfam fails to consider that its interests as a humanitarian/development agency lead to the filtering of a particular sort of voice of the displaced. ‘Listening to the Displaced’ does not succeed in providing refugees with a means to speak for themselves, but rather results in a de‐politicized and de‐historicized image of refugees.
TI - Humanitarianism and Representations of the Refugee
JF - Journal of Refugee Studies
DO - 10.1093/jrs/15.3.247
DA - 2002-09-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/humanitarianism-and-representations-of-the-refugee-4fsaM531r4
SP - 247
EP - 264
VL - 15
IS - 3
DP - DeepDyve
ER -