State of Mistrust: Resettlement Failures, Human Rights, and the Displacee-State Interface in Medellín

• In Event: 128 - Section on Human Rights Paper Session. Human Rights and the post-2015 Millennium Development Goals Agenda (co-sponsored with Section on Sociology of Development)

Abstract

In this paper I use the case of conflict-induced displacement and reconstruction of rural persons in Medellín, Colombia to examine the failure of the Colombian state to successfully respond to the resettlement of the displaced. Drawing from an ethnography of internally displaced persons who have resettled in Medellín, I argue that in order to understand how and why resettlement fails we must take into account both the paradox of the state—as both perpetrator and savior--and perceptions of the national state as untrustworthy and corrupt. Further, I argue that the basic standards of human security are not being upheld by the Colombian state due to a lack of durable solutions to resettlement, further exacerbating the crisis of forced migration, which results in further violations of human rights. I use the the concept of interface to examine the interactions between state actors and the displaced during resettlement, examining how these encounters--or interface--affect integration. I use the testimonies of people who have been displaced to examine how the state is implementing programs that are aimed at aiding internally displaced persons, shedding light on how state subjects respond to state intervention. An examination of reconstruction post-displacement is key for understanding the processes of internal and forced migration because it urges us to take an simultaneous look at the role of the state and displacees during key moments that shape the displaced's life chances and opportunities for future inclusion, or exclusion, in their new home.

Author

• Claudia Maria Lopez, University of California-Santa Cruz