Solving Refugees' Problems or Solving the Problem of Refugees?

North/South Relations and the Politics of Repatriation

Abstract

In the following paper I argue that in our contemporary global political climate - which is characterized by gross power differentials between the global North and South - the "international humanitarian regime" conceptualizes refugees as a "problem" to be "solved". It is through this conceptualization that repatriation has become the preferred "durable solution" to refugees' plight. Rather than solving refugees' problems, however, I contend that repatriation today serves to solve the problem of refugees. As such, I argue that repatriation is not only far from a durable solution, but far from a solution at all. I suggest that if we wish to truly help refugees find durable solutions to their problems we must first interrogate the unequal global power dynamics that produce refugee situations.