Forced migration research, policy and practice have deployed problematic ways of looking at displaced populations. Refugees have been viewed as ‘problems’ for host countries and interventions have focused on ‘durable solutions’, i.e. voluntary repatriation back to their home country, resettlement in another country or integration into the host society (see Harrell-Bond 1987). Oustees are often perceived as the unfortunate victims of development projects that are necessary for a country’s prosperity or for the greater common good. IDPs are often referred to as invisible victims of internal social and political upheavals, voiceless and problematic. These traditional approaches treat the uprooted, at best, as recipients of charity and welfare, or at worst, as victims or problems. While there have been some pro-rights policies and programmes in recent years, traditionally the approaches that have tried to accord agency to refugees and oustees, as they make the most of their adverse conditions and mobilize around their rights, have been few and far between. Largely, the policy and conceptual frameworks that have focused on their problems have been very top-down, resulting in social engineering.
URL : http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/doifinder/view/10.1057/9780230583009