Abstract
As states persist in conceiving of asylum as a privilege rather than an entitlement, vast numbers of people displaced by conflict, disaster, famine, and dire poverty continue to dwell over long periods of time in conditions of isolation and severe deprivation. In this chapter, we contribute to the argument that long-term displacement—the fact of it and its management in settings such as refugee camps—is a manifestation of and perpetuates global structural injustice. Along with others, we argue that the systems and processes established for addressing displacement and shelter: (1) profoundly undermine equal opportunity; (2) contribute to a loss of political community, identity, and agency among displaced people; and (3) obscure privilege from the privileged. We argue the ideal and practice of ethical place-making (EPM) has rich potential to respond to structural and global injustice in this context. EPM, understood here as a remedial responsibility, can mitigate the harms of encampment and segregation in urban enclaves. It can also serve as a catalyst in reforming the structures and processes that generate injustices and in forging ties of solidarity.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
The segregation literature discusses how segregation not only occurs in relation to the residence of the refugees, but on multiple scales such as leisure, workplace, or social media (Van Ham & Tammaru, 2016).
- 3.
We acknowledge the great efforts and individual successes of current art projects with refugees (See e.g. Espiritu & Duong, 2018).
References
Abid, R.Z., Manan, S.A., & Rahman, Z.A.A.A. (2017). ‘A Flood of Syrians Has Slowed to a Trickle’: The Use of Metaphors in the Representation of Syrian Refugees in the Online Media News Reports of Host and Non-host Countries. Discourse & Communication, 11(2), 121–140.
Abubakar, I., Aldridge, R.W., Devakumar, D., Orcutt, M., Burns, R., Barreto, M.L., et al. (2018). The UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration and Health: The Health of a World on the Move. The Lancet, 392(10164), 2606–2654.
Acarturk, C., Cetinkaya, M., Senay, I., Gulen, B., Aker, T., & Hinton, D. (2018). Prevalence and Predictors of Posttraumatic Stress and Depression Symptoms Among Syrian Refugees in a Refugee Camp. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 206(1), 40–45.
Agamben, G. (1998). Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Stanford University Press.
Agier, M. (2011). Managing the Undesirables: Refugee Camps and Humanitarian Government. Polity.
Alpak, G., Unal, A.T., Bulbul, F., Sagaltici, E., Bez, Y., Altindag, A., Dalkilic, A., & Savas, H.A. (2015). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Among Syrian Refugees in Turkey: A Cross-Sectional Study. International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 19(1), 45–50.
Amaro, H. (2014). The Action Is Upstream: Place-Based Approaches for Achieving Population Health and Health Equity. American Journal of Public Health, 104(6), 964.
Bakker, L., Cheung, S.Y., & Phillimore, J. (2016). The Asylum-Integration Paradox: Comparing Asylum Support Systems and Refugee Integration in the Netherlands and the UK. International Migration, 54(4), 118–132.
BAMF. (2018). Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge. Start der AnkER-Einrichtungen. Available at: https://www.bamf.de/SharedDocs/Meldungen/DE/2018/20180801-am-start-anker-einrichtungen.html
Barbelet, V., & Wake, C. (2017). The Lives and Livelihoods of Syrian Refugees in Turkey and Jordan. Humanitarian Policy Group.
Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Duke University Press.
Berry, W. (2012). It all Turns on Affection: The Jefferson Lecture and Other Essays. Counterpoint.
BMFSFJ. Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend und UNICEF. (2018). Mindeststandards zum Schutz von geflüchteten Menschen in Flüchtlingsunterkünften. (No longer available, new version published 2021).
Bourdieu, P. (1999). Préface. In S. Abdelmalek (Ed.), La Double Absence. Le Seuil.
Brown, D., & Mansfield, K. (2009). Listening to the Experiences of the Long-Term Displaced. Forced Migration Review, 33, 15–17.
Brun, C. (2010). Hospitality: Becoming IDPs and ‘Hosts’ in Protracted Displacement. Journal of Refugee Studies, 23(3), 337–355.
Buckley-Zistel, S., Krause, U., & Loeper, L. (2014). Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Against Women in Conflict-Related Refugee Camps: A Literature Overview. Peripherie, 34(133), 71–89.
Casey, E. (2009). Getting Back into Place: Toward a Renewed Understanding of the Place-World. Indiana University Press.
CDU. Christian Democratic Union of Germany. (2018). Ein neuer Aufbruch für Europa. Eine neue Dynamik für Deutschland. Ein neuer Zusammenhalt für unser Land. Koalitionsvertrag zwischen CDU, CSU und SPD. Available at: https://www.cdu.de/system/tdf/media/dokumente/koalitionsvertrag_2018.pdf?file=1.
Chung, R. (2016). A Theoretical Framework for a Comprehensive Approach to Medical Humanitarianism. Public Health Ethics, 5(1), 49–55.
Code, L. (2006). Ecological Thinking: The Politics of Epistemic Location. Oxford University Press.
Cohen, R. (2008). Listening to the Voices of the Displaced: Lessons Learnt. Brookings Bern Project on Internal Displacement.
Crawford, N., Cosgrave, J., Haysome, S., & Walicki, N. (2016). Protracted Displacement: Uncertain Paths to Self-Reliance in Exile. Humanitarian Policy Group.
Crea, T.M., Calvo, R., & Loughry, M. (2015). Refugee Health and Well-Being: Differences Between Urban and Camp-Based Environments in Sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Refugee Studies, 28(3), 319–330.
Cullen Dunn, E. (2015). The Failure of Refugee Camps. Boston Review. (28 September). Available at: http://bostonreview.net/editors-picks-world/elizabeth-dunn-failure-refugee-camps
Denov, M., & Akesson, B. (2013). Neither Here nor There: Place and Place-Making in the Lives of Separated Children. International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, 9(2), 56–70.
Eckenwiler, L.A. (2012). Long-Term Care, Globalization, and Justice. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Eckenwiler, L.A. (2016). Defining Ethical Place-Making for Place-Based Interventions. American Journal of Public Health, 106(11), 1944–1946.
Eckenwiler, L. (2018). Displacement and Solidarity: An Ethic of Place‐Making. Bioethics, 32(9), 562–568.
El Saket, S. (2016). Instant City. Urban/Rural. Affordable Housing Institute. Available at: http://affordablehousinginstitute.org/storage/pdf/Instant-City_Rural-Urban_Sama-El-Saket.pdf
Elmasry, F. (2018). Re-imaging Refugee Camps as Livable Cities. VOA. 22 March. Available at: https://www.voanews.com/science-health/re-imagining-refugee-camps-livable-cities
Espiritu, Y.L., & Duong, L. (2018). Feminist Epistemology: Reading Displacement in Vietnamese and Syrian Refugee Art. Signs, 43(3), 587–615.
Feldman, I. (2018). Life Lived in Relief: Humanitarian Predicaments and Palestinian Refugee Politics. University of California Press.
Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E., Loescher, G., Long, K., & Sigona, N. (2014). The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies. Oxford University Press.
Foucault, M. (1984). Of Other Spaces, Heterotopias. Architecture, Mouvement, Continuité, 5, 46–49. (trans.: Miskowiec). Available at: https://foucault.info/documents/heterotopia/foucault.heteroTopia.en/
Fullilove, M.T. (2013). Urban Alchemy: Restoring Joy in America’s Sorted Out Cities. New Village Press.
Goppel, A. (2012). Wahlrecht für Ausländer? In A. Cassee & A. Goppel (Eds.), Migration und Ethik (pp. 255–274). mentis Verlag.
Gottlieb, N., & Davidovitch, N. (2017). Migrant Health: Putting the Economic Argument into the Context of Deservingness Debates. European Journal of Public Health, 27(4), 591–592.
Guterres, A., & Spiegel, P. (2012). State of the World’s Refugees: Adapting Responses to Urban Environments. JAMA, 308(7), 673–674.
Heilinger, J.-C. (2020). Cosmopolitan Responsibility. De Gruyter.
Hess, S., Pott, A., Schamann, H., & Schiffauer, W. (2018). Welche Auswirkungen haben “Anker-Zentren”? Eine Kurzstudie für den Mediendienst Integration. Mediendienst Integration.
Hooks, B. (2009). Belonging: A Culture of Place. Routledge.
Human Rights Watch. (2017). Following the Money: Lack of Transparency in Donor Funding for Syrian Refugee Education. Available at: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/crdsyrianrefugees0917_web_2.pdf
Hutson, R.A., Shannon, H., & Long, T. (2016). Violence in the ‘Ayn al-Hilweh Palestinian Refugee Camp in Lebanon, 2007–2009’. International Social Work, 59(6), 861–874.
Hyndman, J. (2000). Managing Displacement: Refugees and the Politics of Humanitarianism. University of Minnesota Press.
International Organization for Migration. (2015). World Migration Report 2015-Migrants and Cities: New Partnerships to Manage Mobility. IOM.
International Organization for Migration, for the Global Shelter Cluster. (n.d.). Site Planning: Guidance to Reduce Gender-Based Violence. Third edition.
International Organization for Migration on behalf of the Global Shelter Cluster. (2019). Shelter Projects 2017–2018: Case Studies of Humanitarian Shelter and Settlement Responses. Available at: www.shelterprojects.org
Jabbar, S.A., & Zaza, H.I. (2014). Impact of Conflict in Syria on Syrian Children at the Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan. Early Child Development and Care, 184(9–10), 1507–1530.
Jacobsen, K. (2002). Can Refugees Benefit the State? Refugee Resources and African State-Building. Journal of Modern African Studies, 40(4), 577–596.
Jacobsen, K. (2006). Refugees and Asylum-Seekers in Urban areas: A Livelihoods Perspective. Journal of Refugee Studies, 19(3), 273–286.
Katz, B., Noring, L., & Garrelts, N. (2016). Cities and Refugees—the German Experience. Brookings Institution.
Koch, E. (2015). Protracted Displacement in Georgia: Structural Vulnerability and “Existing not Living”. Human Organization, 74(2), 135–143.
Lerch, P. & Arndt, M. (2016). Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Best Practice. Local Refugee Aid, Sustainable Local Integration Measures and Identity-Creating Borough Management. Available at: http://www.kas.de/wf/doc/kas_43128-544-1-30.pdf?160513115517
Lichter, D.T., Parisi, D., & an De Valk, H. (2016). Residential Segregation. In The Poverty and Inequality Report (pp. 65–75). The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality.
Long, K. (2011). Unlocking the Protracted Displacement of Refugees and IDPs. Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford University.
Long, K., & Wilkinson, R.G. (2006). Social Determinants of Health. Oxford University Press.
Marmot, M., & Wilkinson, R. (2006). Social Determinants of Health. 2nd Edition. Oxford University Press.
Martin, C. (2016). Designing Homes to Welcome Refugees. The Lancet, 388(10050), 1150.
Metcalf, V., Haysom, S., & Martin, E. (2012). Sanctuary in the City: Urban Displacement and Vulnerability in Kabul. Humanitarian Policy Group.
Narang, N. (2015). Assisting Uncertainty: How Humanitarian Aid Can Inadvertently Prolong Civil War. International Studies Quarterly, 59(1), 184–195.
Nayeri, D. (2017). The Ungrateful Refugee: We Have no Debt to Repay. The Guardian. (4 April).
Norredam, M., Mygind, A., & Krasnik, A. (2006). Access to Health Care for Asylum Seekers in the European Union—A Comparative Study of Country Policies. The European Journal of Public Health, 16(3), 285–289.
Oliver, K. (2017). Carceral Humanitarianism: Logics of Refugee Detention. University of Minnesota Press.
Parekh, S. (2016). Refugees and the Ethics of Forced Displacement. Routledge.
Pavanello, S., Elhawary, S., & Pantuliano, S. (2010). Hidden and Exposed: Urban Refugees in Nairobi, Kenya. Humanitarian Policy Group Working Group.
Pieper, T. (2008). The Camp as Structure of the German Refugee Policy. Doctoral Dissertation, Freie Berlin: Universität Berlin.
Project for Public Spaces. (2016). What Is Place-Making? PPS.
Raghuram, P., Madge, C., & Noxolo, P. (2009). Rethinking Responsibility and Care for a Postcolonial World. Geoforum, 40(1), 5–13.
Redfield, P. (2013). Life in Crisis: The Ethical Journey of Doctors Without Borders. University of California Press.
Refugee Law Project. (2005). “We Are All Stranded Here Together”: The Local Settlement Systems, Freedom of Movement, and Livelihood Opportunities in Arua and Moyo Districts. Refugee Law Project Working Paper 14. Kampala, Uganda: Refugee Law Project.
Rubenstein, J. (2007). Distribution and Emergency. Journal of Political Philosophy, 15, 296–320.
Samarasinghe, K., Fridlund, B., & Arvidsson, B. (2006). Primary Health Care Nurses’ Conceptions of Involuntarily Migrated Families’ Health. International Nursing Review, 53(4), 301–307.
Sampson, R., & Gifford, S.M. (2010). Place-Making, Settlement, and Well-Being: The Therapeutic Landscapes of Recently Arrived Refugee Youth. Health and Place, 16, 116–131.
Schiff, J.L. (2018). Welcoming Refugees: Mindful Citizenship and the Political Responsibility of Hospitality. Signs, 43(3), 737–762.
Schrecker, T. (2008). De-naturalizing Scarcity: A Strategy of Inquiry for Public Health Ethics. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 88(8), 600–605.
Seamon, D. (2013). Lived Bodies, Place, and Phenomenology: Implications for Human Rights and Environmental Justice. Journal of Human Rights and the Environment, 4(2), 143–166.
Seeley, N. (2013). The Last Refugee Camp. Could the World’s Go-To Strategy of Warehousing the Displaced Finally Be Changing? Foreign Policy. October 30. Available at: http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/10/30/the-last-refugee-camp/
Silerberg, S. (2013). Places in the Making: How Place Making Builds Places and Communities. MIT.
Silove, D., Austin, P., & Steel, Z. (2007). No Refuge from Terror: The Impact of Detention on the Mental Health of Trauma-Affected Refugees Seeking Asylum in Australia. Transcultural Psychiatry, 44(3), 359–393.
Soguk, N. (1999). States and Strangers: Refugees and Displacements of Statecraft. University of Minnesota Press.
Spiegel, P.B. (2017). The Humanitarian System Is Not Just Broke, But Broken: Recommendations for Future Humanitarian Action. The Lancet. 7 June. Available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673617312783
Tufan, A.E., Alkin, M.G., & Bosgelmez, S. (2013). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Among Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Istanbul May Be Predicted by Torture and Loss Due to Violence. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 67(3), 219–224.
UN. (1998). United Nations Economic and Social Council. Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. Available at: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G98/104/93/PDF/G9810493.pdf?OpenElement
United Nations. (2015). Sustainable Development Goals. The 17 Goals. Available at: https://sdgs.un.org/goals
UN. (2019). United Nations General Assembly. Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. Available at: https://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/73/195
UN Habitat. (2008). New Urban Agenda. Available at: https://habitat3.org/the-new-urban-agenda/
UNHCR. (1951). Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. Available at: http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10
UNHCR. (2008). Protracted Refugee Situations: A Discussion Paper Prepared for the High Commissioner’s Dialogue on Protection Challenges. UNHCR/DPC/2008/Doc. 2, 20 November.
UNHCR. (2012). A Guidance Note on Health Insurance Schemes for Refugees and Other Persons of Concern to UNHCR. UNHCR.
UNHCR. (2018a). High Commissioner’s Dialogue on Protection Challenges 2018: Protections and Solutions in Urban Settings. Background Paper. Available at: https://www.unhcr.org/5c0fd0954.pdf
UNHCR. (2018b). The Master Plan Approach to Settlement Planning: Guiding Principles. UNHCR. Available at: https://www.sheltercluster.org/global/documents/master-plan-approach-settlement-planning-guiding-principles
UNHCR. (2019). Figures at a Glance. Statistical Yearbooks. Available at: https://www.unhcr.org/uk/figures-at-a-glance.html
UNHCR, Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Program. (2009). Conclusion on Protracted Refugee Situations no. 109 (LIX). Available at: http://www.unhcr.org/en-us/excom/exconc/4b332bca9/conclusion-protracted-refugee-situations.html
United States Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (2019). Detainee Death Report. Available at: https://www.ice.gov/death-detainee-report
UNOCHA. (2019). Global Humanitarian Review 2019. Available at: https://www.unocha.org/sites/unocha/files/GHO2019.pdf
Valentine, G., Sporton, D., & Nielsen Bang, K. (2009). Identities and Belonging: A Study of Somali Refugee and Asylum-Seekers Living in the UK and Denmark. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 27(2), 234–250.
Van Ham, M., & Tammaru, T. (2016). New Perspectives on Ethnic Segregation Over Time and Space: A Domains Approach. Urban Geography, 37(7), 953–962.
Venkatapuram, S. (2011). Health Justice: An Argument from the Capabilities Approach. Polity.
Verdirame, G. & Pobjoy, J.M. (March 1, 2013). In S. Juss (Ed.), The End of Refugee Camps? The Ashgate Research Companion to Migration Law, Theory and Policy. University of Cambridge. Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 29/2013. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2297741
WFP. World Food Programme. (2015). WFP Forced to Make Deeper Cuts in Food Assistance for Syrian Refugees Due to Lack of Funding (1 July). Available at: https://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/wfp-forced-make-deeper-cuts-food-assistance-syrian-refugees-due-lack-funding
WHO. World Health Organization. (2019). Promoting the Health of Refugees and Migrants. Draft Global Action Plan, 2019–2023. [cited Oct 2 2019] Available at: https://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA72/A72_25-en.pdf.
Wild, V. (2013). Asylum Seekers and Public Health Ethics. In D. Strech, I. Hirschberg, & G. Marckmann (Eds.), Ethics in Public Health and Health Policy. Concepts, Methods, Case Studies (pp. 193–208). Springer.
Wild, V. (2015). Universal Access to Health Care for Migrants: Applying Cosmopolitanism to the Domestic Realm. Public Health Ethics, 8(2), 162–172.
Wild, V., Jaff, D., Shah, S., & Frick, M. (2017). Tuberculosis, Human Rights and Ethics Considerations Along the Route of a Highly Vulnerable Migrant from Sub-Saharan Africa to Europe. International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, 21(10), 1075–1085.
Wood, R.M., & Sullivan, C. (2015). Doing Harm by Doing Good? The Negative Externalities of Humanitarian Aid Provision During Civil Conflict. The Journal of Politics, 77(3), 736–748.
Young, I.M. (2000). Inclusion and Democracy. Oxford University Press.
Young, I.M. (2011). Responsibility for Justice. Oxford University Press.
Zetter, R. (2014). Reframing Displacement Crises as Development Opportunities. Prepared for the Global Initiative on Solutions, Copenhagen Roundtable.
Acknowledgment
This chapter has previously been published in Journal of Social Philosophy 52 (June 2021): 234-250, https://doi.org/10.1111/josp.12387. It is reprinted here with friendly permission from Wiley, the journal publisher.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Eckenwiler, L., Wild, V. (2022). Refugees and Others Enduring Displacement: Structural Injustice, Health, and Ethical Place-Making. In: Razum, O., Dawson, A., Eckenwiler, L., Wild, V. (eds) Refugee Camps in Europe and Australia. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12877-6_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12877-6_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-12876-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-12877-6
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)