Refugee Protection Meets Migration Management: UNHCR as a Global Police of Populations
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Refugee Protection Meets Migration Management : UNHCR as a Global Police of Populations. / Scheel, Stephan; Ratfisch, Philipp.
In: Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 40, No. 6, 03.06.2014, p. 924-941.Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Refugee Protection Meets Migration Management
T2 - UNHCR as a Global Police of Populations
AU - Scheel, Stephan
AU - Ratfisch, Philipp
PY - 2014/6/3
Y1 - 2014/6/3
N2 - This article investigates the complex relationship between the practices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the field of refugee protection and the more recent political rationality of 'migration management' by drawing from governmentality studies. It is argued that the dissemination of UNHCR's own refugee protection discourse creates certain 'figures of migration' allowing for justifying the build-up and perfection of border controls, which in turn enable any attempt to 'manage' migration in the first place. Conversely, the problematisation of population movements as 'mixed migration flows' allows UNHCR to enlarge its field of activitiy despite its narrow mandate by actively participating in the promotion, planning and implementation of migration management systems. Based on ethnographic research in Turkey and Morocco, this article demonstrates, furthermore, that UNHCR's refugee protection discourse and the emerging migration management paradigm are both based on a methodological nationalism, share an authoritarian potential and yield de-politicising effects. What UNHCR's recent embracing of the migration management paradigm together with its active involvement in respective practices then brings to the fore is that UNHCR is part of a global police of populations.
AB - This article investigates the complex relationship between the practices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the field of refugee protection and the more recent political rationality of 'migration management' by drawing from governmentality studies. It is argued that the dissemination of UNHCR's own refugee protection discourse creates certain 'figures of migration' allowing for justifying the build-up and perfection of border controls, which in turn enable any attempt to 'manage' migration in the first place. Conversely, the problematisation of population movements as 'mixed migration flows' allows UNHCR to enlarge its field of activitiy despite its narrow mandate by actively participating in the promotion, planning and implementation of migration management systems. Based on ethnographic research in Turkey and Morocco, this article demonstrates, furthermore, that UNHCR's refugee protection discourse and the emerging migration management paradigm are both based on a methodological nationalism, share an authoritarian potential and yield de-politicising effects. What UNHCR's recent embracing of the migration management paradigm together with its active involvement in respective practices then brings to the fore is that UNHCR is part of a global police of populations.
KW - Migration Policy
KW - Morocco
KW - Refugees and Asylum
KW - Turkey
KW - UNHCR
KW - Sociology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84894244962&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/8a732c1b-9042-31a1-932d-db57c70367ab/
U2 - 10.1080/1369183X.2013.855074
DO - 10.1080/1369183X.2013.855074
M3 - Journal articles
AN - SCOPUS:84894244962
VL - 40
SP - 924
EP - 941
JO - Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
JF - Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
SN - 1369-183X
IS - 6
ER -