Abstract
The fusion of humanitarianism and security is exposed in relation to the (un)making of the deserving refugee. It does so through an examination of the process of resettlement to the US. Security practices characteristic of the resettlement selection process position the refugee as guilty until proven innocent. This active mistrust is enacted by surveillance technologies which collect, monitor and assess biodata from which to produce a ‘threatening population’. In this process ‘risky refugees’ are constituted through an orientalist gaze based on an imagined amalgam of refugee/foreigner/Muslim with a perceived terrorist threat. We describe how the ‘less than human’ populations produced through resettlement processes are out of sight, so that we only see some of the consequences of deselection in the production of ‘illegal’ migration towards Europe.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Operation Mare Nostrum was a year-long naval and air operation led by the Italian government in October 2013 with a mandate to save lives at sea.
- 2.
In 2013 an asylum seeker may have had to wait until 2015 or 2016 for a first interview with the UNHCR. By 2016, some asylum seekers were being scheduled a first interview in 2020.
- 3.
As specified, the 2013 Law on Migration and International Protection has introduced various new subcategories of protection such as humanitarian protection or subsidiary protection.
- 4.
The application of the exclusion clauses in Article 1 F of the 1951 Convention (exclusion of persons who are undeserving of protection) has the effect of excluding from eligibility for refugee status an individual who is otherwise determined to be in need of refugee protection.
- 5.
Interview—UNHCR Case Worker, December 2014, Istanbul (Turkey).
- 6.
Interview—UNHCR Case Worker, December 2014, Istanbul (Turkey).
- 7.
Interview—UNHCR Case Worker, December 2014, Istanbul (Turkey).
- 8.
While it is very difficult to obtain access to precise figures of the numbers of refugees denied resettlement from Turkey on security grounds, interviews carried out with the UNHCR, the ICMC and NGO officials indicate that this practice is a growing trend since the beginning of the 2000s, affecting significant numbers of refugees.
- 9.
For details of resettlement practices in the EU, see Adele Garnier, Migration Management and Humanitarian Protection: The UNHCR’s ‘Resettlement Expansionism’ and Its Impact on Policy-making in the EU and Australia, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 40 (6) 2014, pp. 942–959.
- 10.
European Commission, Relocation and Resettlement: Member states need to build on encouraging results, press release, 8 February 2017 http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-218_en.htm
- 11.
UNHCR Global Resettlement Statistical Report 2013, 2012.
- 12.
Interview—Resettlement Officer, UNHCR, May 2014 (via Skype).
- 13.
UNHCR, Syrian Refugees in Turkey: Frequently Asked Questions, January 2015 http://www.unhcr.org.tr/uploads/root/frequently_asked_questions.pdf
- 14.
UNHCR, ‘Frequently Asked Questions—UNHCR asylum procedure in Turkey’ http://info.unhcr.org.tr/faq.php?lang=1 (accessed 15 December 2015).
- 15.
Anne C Richard, Statement submitted for the record to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, Washington DC, 7 January 2014 http://www.state.gov/j/prm/releases/remarks/2014/219388.htm (accessed 8 October 2015).
- 16.
US Department of State, Factsheet—Expedited Protection and Resettlement of Refugees, 24 October 2011, retrieved 13 April 2015 http://www.state.gov/j/prm/releases/factsheets/2011/181021.htm
- 17.
Interview—Programme Officer, ICMC, June 2012.
- 18.
Interview—Mohammed, Afghan, May 2013, Istanbul (Turkey).
- 19.
Interview—Ayan, Somali, June 2012, Istanbul (Turkey).
References
Agier, Michel. 2011. Managing the Undesirables: Refugee Camps and Humanitarian Government. English Editions ed. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Aradau, Claudia, and Rens Munster. 2007. Governing Terrorism Through Risk: Taking Precautions, (un)Knowing the Future. European Journal of International Relations 13 (1): 89–115.
Bauder, Harald. 2014. Why We Should Use the Term ‘Illegalised’ Refugee or Immigrant: A Commentary. International Journal of Refugee Law 26 (3): 327–332.
Beck, U. 2002. The Terrorist Threat. World Risk Society Revisited. Theory, Culture and Society 19 (4): 39–55.
Betts, Alexander, and Gil Loescher, eds. 2011. Refugees in International Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bigo, Didier. 2008. Globalised (In)Security: The Field of the Ban-Optican. In Terror, Insecurity and Liberty. Illiberal Practices of Liberal Regimes After 9/11, ed. Didier Bigo and Anastassia Tsoukala, 10–48. Abingdon: Routledge.
———. 2010. Delivering Liberty and Security? The Reframing of Freedom when Associated with Security. In Europe’s 21st Century Challenge. Delivering Liberty, ed. Didier Bigo, Sergio Carrera, Elspeth Guild, and R.B.J. Walker, 263–288. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing.
———. 2014. The (In)securitisation Practices of Three Universes of EU Border Control: Military/Navy—Border Gaurds/Police—Database Analysts. Security Dialogue 45 (3): 209–225.
Bigo, Didier, Julier Jeandesboz, Franceso Ragazzi, and Philippe Bonditti. 2011. Borders and Security: The Different Logics of Surveillance in Europe. In The Others in Europe, ed. S. Bonjour, A. Rea, and D. Jacobs, 1–30. Brussels: Editions de l’Université de Bruxelles.
Chimni, B.S. 2004. From Resettlement to Involuntary Repatriation: Towards a Critical History of Durable Solutions to Refugee Problems. Refugee Survey Quarterly 23 (3): 55–73.
Cuttita, Paolo. 2014. Humanitarianism and Migration in the Mediterranean Borderscape: The Italian-North African Border Between Sea Patrols and Integration Measures. In Borderscaping: Imaginations and Practices of Border Making, ed. Chiara Brambila, Jussi Laine, James W. Scott, and Gianluca Bocchi, 131–140. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing.
De Genova, Nicholas. 2013. Spectacles of Migrant ‘Illegality’: The Scene of Exclusion, the Obscene of Inclusion. Ethnic and Racial Studies 36: 1180–1198.
Garnier, Adele. 2014. Migration Management and Humanitarian Protection: The UNHCR’s ‘Resettlement Expansionism’ and its Impact on Policy-Making in the EU and Australia. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 40 (6): 942–959.
Geiger, Martin, and Antoine Pécoud, eds. 2010. The Politics of International Migration Management, 1–20. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
———. 2003. Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the College de France 1975–1976. London: Penguin Group.
Loescher, R.G., A. Betts, and J. Milner. 2008. The UNHCR: The Politics and Practice of Refugee Protection in the Twenty-First Century. Oxon: Routledge.
Loescher, Gil, and John A. Scanlan. 1986. Calculated Kindness: Refugees and America’s Half-Open Door, 1945 to the Present. London: Collin Macmillan Publishers.
Mezzadra, Sandro, and Brett Nielson. 2013. Border as Method or the Multiplication of Labour. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Nyers, Peter. 2006. Rethinking Refugees: Beyond States of Emergency. Oxon: Routledge.
Pallister-Wilkins, Polly. 2015. The Humanitarian Politics of European Border Policing: Frontex and the Border Police in Evrol. International Political Sociology 9 (1): 53–69.
Parker, Noel, and Nick Vaughan-Williams, eds. 2014. Critical Border Studies: Broadening and Depending the ‘Lines in the Sand’ Agenda. Oxon: Routledge.
Salter, Mark. 2008. Imagining Numbers: Risk, Quantification and the Aviation Industry. Security Dialogue 39 (2–3): 243–266.
———. 2012. Theory of the /: The Suture and Critical Border Studies. Geopolitics 17 (4): 734–755.
Ticktin, Miriam. 2006. Where Ethics and Politics Meet: The Violence of Humanitarianism in France. American Ethnologist 33 (1): 33–49.
Walters, William. 2002. Mapping Schengenland: Denaturalizing the Border. Environment and Planning 20: 561–580.
Walters, Walters. 2011. Foucault and Frontiers: Notes on the Birth of the Humanitarian Border. In Governmentality: Current Issues and Future Challenges, ed. Ulrich Brockling, Susan Krasmann, and Thomas Lemke, 138–164. New York: Routledge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fine, S. (2018). Refugee (Un)becoming. In: Borders and Mobility in Turkey. Mobility & Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70120-2_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70120-2_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70119-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70120-2
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)