Refugees

The concept of a refugee is an inherently geographical one, a barometer of political instability and the embodiment of forced migration. In current usage, the term has two main meanings; one is colloquial and often political, while the other is legal. In the wake of the humanitarian disaster that emerged after Hurricane Katrina hit the southern coast of the United States in August 2005, the media called those Americans huddled on the rooftops of their homes awaiting help and people who had sought shelter in the local sports stadium “refugees.” Many refused the term, saying that they did not want to be racialized as poor, African, or other. Yet others defended the term as appropriate, saying that the Bush administration was neither able nor willing to assist and protect its own citizens in this time of need. In both cases, the term was politicized for specific reasons, yet in legal terms, the survivors of Hurricane Katrina were not legal refugees but rather internally displaced persons. Likewise, references are made to “environmental refugees” affected by global warming or natural disasters.

The legal meaning of refugee is more straightforward; it is rooted in the Westphalian state system in which citizens, or nationals, belong to sovereign states that provide protection to them. Refugees are seen, then, as a kind of aberration to these norms of statehood. The Protestant [Page 2378]Huguenots who fled France under the rule of Louis XIV in 1685 are thought to be the first modern refugees. The French king revoked protection for the Huguenots to worship their religion without persecution from the state, which led to their displacement.

According to international law, specifically the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is any person who

One of the major tenets of refugee law, then, is the principle of nonrefoulement—that is, a refugee will not be returned to her or his country by force (refoulement).

Refugees fall under the rubric of international human rights law as well as refugee law, though as Hannah Arendt noted after World War II, the actual protection afforded by such rights was and remains questionable. In 1966, two legally binding human rights instruments were created to protect civil and political rights, on the one hand, and economic, social, and cultural rights, on the other. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights most closely expresses the emphasis of the Convention. It ensures respect for democratic principles and nondiscrimination. The Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights includes provisions that are more applicable to developing countries than to the highly industrialized ones, such as the right to food, shelter, and basic medical and educational services.

...