The Global Refugee Story: Narrative as a Form of Immigration Control

• In Event: 4151 - International Migration Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 min): Table 1: Critical Refugee Studies I

Abstract

Scholars have studied how laws, policies, and practices uphold inequalities in refugee hosting among states. I argue, however, that refugee movement is further controlled by the use of narrative, through which knowledge production about refugees establishes what is, and therefore, what is possible. Narrative is especially consequential for refugees because of the role that international humanitarian agencies play in facilitating movement. I call this pervasive narrative the global refugee story. By delimiting a “refugee problem,” the global refugee story suggests a range of possible “solutions” and simultaneously makes some interventions inconceivable. To differentiate between representation and reality, I ask: Who is given the platform to speak about refugee experiences? And, how are these refugee stories curated and amplified? Data collection includes textual analysis of media, humanitarian, and government documents from 2009 to 2019 as well as ethnographic observations and 175 interviews with Syrian refugees, Jordanian citizens, and UN, NGO, and government officials. I describe how some refugee experiences are represented while others are intentionally concealed, creating a hierarchy among refugees. At a time when scholarship about refugees is burgeoning, the global refugee story has implications for academic knowledge production, especially regarding ethnical research and methodological choices such as case selection, sampling, and generalizability.

Author

• Rawan Arar, University of Washington