A Hierarchy of Refugees
Fixing Vulnerability among Refugees from Mali in Burkina Faso
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 18988508 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nora Bardelli (0000-0002-4640-0742, University of Neuchâtel, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 135-159 |
| Publication date | 2022-10-17 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Public Anthropologist (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2589-1707 • E-ISSN: 2589-1715 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1163/25891715-bja10038 |
| OpenAlex | W4307286010 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 2 |
This article discusses the pragmatic dimension humanitarian classifications and discourses play in hierarchical and discriminatory practices taking place in the refugee regime. It does so by focusing on the notion of “vulnerability,” very much used in contemporary humanitarianism. The paper deconstructs the two main uses/understandings of this notion: its use as a humanitarian tool to categorize those most in need among the humanitarian beneficiaries – i.e. its use to categorize “people with specific needs;” and its “unofficial” use by humanitarian workers. In addition to being both limited and stereotyped, they are further in contradictions with each other; yet, they both ultimately reproduce hierarchies and inequalities among refugees from Mali. Eventually, performing the ideal, vulnerable refugee becomes impossible for urban refugees in Burkina Faso, and most other refugees too, thus making it harder for them to be perceived as legitimate refugees in the eyes of the humanitarian community
Categorization · Computer security · Displaced person · Epistemology · Hierarchy · Inequality · Political science · Refugee · Sociology · African Studies and Ethnography · Computer Science · Law · Migration, Identity, and Health · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |