Theorizing the refugee -

Abstract

Building on a Foucauldian theoretical framework, this study explores the politically and historically contingent emergence of the refugee category and examines the framework and practices through which the category is governed. The main questions the paper tackles are: how did the refugee category emerge and come to be considered as natural and necessary? What circumstances led to its institutionalization? And how do the foundations of the category factor into the governance of its bearers? The paper is divided into three principal sections. The first two I attempt to contextualize the refugee category – to uncover the political and historical dynamics that led to its emergence and entrenchment. I propose that the category is deeply embedded in modernity: it is intrinsically tied to the nation-state and the notion of citizenship; and it is the product of a process of regimentation and institutionalization that rose out of a set of circumstances specific to the twentieth century. After contextualizing the category, I describe some of the (broad) rationalities and (narrow) technologies deployed for the purpose of governing the refugee.