Managing the Undesirables: Refugee Camps and Humanitarian Government

by Michel Agier, David Fernbach (Translator)

Official figures classify some fifty million of the world’s people as 'victims of forced displacement'. Refugees, asylum seekers, disaster victims, the internally displaced and the temporarily tolerated - categories of the excluded proliferate, but many more are left out of count. In the face of this tragedy, humanitarian action increasingly seems the only possible response. On the ground, however, the 'facilities' put in place are more reminiscent of the logic of totalitarianism. In a situation of permanent catastrophe and endless emergency, 'undesirables' are kept apart and out of sight, while the care dispensed is designed to control, filter and confine. How should we interpret the disturbing symbiosis between the hand that cares and the hand that strikes?

After seven years of study in the refugee camps, Michel Agier reveals their 'disquieting ambiguity' and stresses the imperative need to take into account forms of improvisation and challenge that are currently transforming the camps, sometimes making them into towns and heralding the emergence of political subjects.

A radical critique of the foundations, contexts, and political effects of humanitarian action.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, Africa

300 pages, Paperback

First published December 3, 2010

Reviews

[Boo (Harriet) Eaton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good overview of camp conditions and the issues with humanitarian aid, but this doesn’t add anything into the saturated field of humanitarian critique by proposing just issues and no solutions. Despite this, it’s a surprisingly accessible read for an academic book, but quite outdated with all the other literature that has been published in the last 12 years

[Kendra Cole]

So many complex arguments all packed into one book. I will definitely have to revisit this text if I want to fully understand what all is being explained.