Forced Migration Online: Blog

This is a post about the new Spanish language version of ‘Guatemalan forced migration: The politics of care in representing refugees’

La exhibición fotográfica “Migración Forzada de Guatemaltecos: Las políticas de caridad en la representación de refugiados” explora los mecanismos de representación usados para migrantes forzados, mostrando identidades apropiadas de refugiados para justificar la necesidad de apoyo humanitario. La exhibición responde a estos cuestionamientos a través de un trabajo documental con fotografías de migrantes forzados indígenas procedentes de Guatemala, viviendo en el asentamiento de La Gloria, anteriormente un campamento de refugiados, en el estado de Chiapas en México. El proyecto es una colaboración entre el fotógrafo, Manuel Gil, y Candidato a Doctor en Sociología, Óscar F. Gil-García.

Las fotos y descripciones están disponibles para ver en La Revista Migraciones Forzadas. Las fotos son acompañadas por una entrevista (podcast) en donde Óscar F. Gil-García es entrevistado sobre su trabajo en el proyecto.

• Fotos y descripciones
• Podcast (en ingles)

‘The State, Nation, Citizen: rethinking repatriation’ by Katy Long, the latest in the series of Refugee Studies Centre Working Papers, is now available online.

This paper offers a recontextualisation of the problems posed by the idea of repatriation within the structures of the liberal-democratic international community by providing a historical contextualisation for the political concepts underpinning repatriation. This demonstrates that the essential difficulty in understanding refugee repatriation as a “solution” to displacement is a result of the fundamental problems of attempting to reconcile a political philosophy of universal human rights with the principle of nation-state sovereignty. The paper then argues that post-1985 attempts to reconceptualise repatriation were fundamentally flawed not only because they were largely prompted by a narrowing of the political space for asylum and the need to find alternative practical solutions rather than any foundational approach, but because in reducing theory to practice, repatriation was depoliticised into “return”, reducing the likelihood of durable solutions based on citizenship and the remaking of state-citizen bonds which required an explicitly political context. Examining empirical evidence, in particular from the case of Guatemalan “organised and collective” return from January 1993, the paper makes clear that refugee groups are often highly-organised political communities, whose decision-making abilities have long-been recognised (particularly in studies of unassisted repatriation)8 but rarely encompassed within official pathways to return. It argues that as demonstrated in Guatemala, recognition of this more direct and politicised refugee engagement in displacement resolution offers an opportunity to strengthen both concepts of refugee dignity and the durability of return.

• State, Nation, Citizen: rethinking repatriation (PDF file 328 KB)
• Refugee Studies Centre Working Papers

The photographic exhibition Guatemalan forced migration: the politics of care in representing refugees explores the mechanisms of representation used for forced migrants that stage appropriate refugee identities to justify the need for humanitarian care. The exhibition explores these issues through photo-documentary work with indigenous Guatemalan forced migrants living in the former refugee camp of La Gloria in the state of Chiapas in Mexico. The project is a collaboration between photographer, Manuel Gil, and doctoral research student in Sociology, Oscar F. Gil-García.

The photos and descriptions are now available to view on Forced Migration Online. The photos are complemented with a podcast in which Oscar F. Gil-García is interviewed about his work on the project.

• Photos and descriptions
• Podcast

Between 21st April and 3 May 2008 the University of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre (RSC) held a photographic exhibition looking at the subject of Forced Migration in Guatemala, the venue was The Gallery at Oxford Town Hall. The photographer Manuel Gil worked in collaboration with Oscar Gil, a Visiting Study Fellow at the RSC and doctoral candidate at the University of California at Santa Barbara. To find out more, you can download and view a PDF file of the RSC’s 2008 Programme of Events.

• Photos and descriptions
• Podcast