Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò and Beba Cibralic write:

Global migration policy has started to move in a more humane direction in response to the invasion of Ukraine. While many states are welcoming displaced Ukrainians, this is a far cry from how those states typically treat refugees. Activists and scholars have lamented the lack of similar response to people displaced from south Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The uneven global response to migration on display sets a chilling precedent for the displacement that is likely to come with the climate crisis.

Race plays a defining role in how states think about their borders and who gets let in. In the 19th century, racial politics shaped the formation of international law – including how we understand concepts like sovereignty – and legitimized exclusionary policies whose impacts reverberate today. We can see the impact of race on the way in which refugee policy was developed. Drawing on research by T Alexander Aleinikoff, philosopher Serena Parekh explains that refugee flows were primarily east to west (rather than south to north) in the first half of the 20th century. During this period, resettlement was the standard way of helping refugees. When refugee flows from non-European countries increased (from the global south to global north), states changed their policy: instead of resettlement, voluntary repatriation was preferred.

What this meant in practice is that refugee camps became the standard way to “rescue” refugees while they waited to return home via voluntary repatriation. It soon became clear that refugee camps did not make voluntary repatriation easier or faster – only about 2% of refugees are voluntarily repatriated annually. But western states chose to keep the practice. Why? According to Aleinikoff, the goal was to “keep third-world refugee problems from inconveniencing the developed states”. Parekh notes that Aleinikoff is not alone here: other scholars, such as Guglielmo Verdirame and Barbara Harrell-Bond, have argued that donor states’ support for refugee camps is intended to protect the boundaries of “Fortress Europe” or “Fortress Australia”. [Continue reading…]