Humanitarianism as Performance

Why would high profile international organizations direct a refugee to stay in a camp to tolerate hunger and economic destitution, in order to justify increasing their financial support for that camp? The category ‘protracted refugee’ is a collectively generated identity which is difficult to evade, produced by the very same institutions that sustain its proliferation. As the result of different agencies performing, often at cross-purposes, in the arena of forced migration, the situation of Burundian refugees in Tanzania is rapidly worsening. The 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees fails to recognise the compounding of problems facing people who have been forcibly displaced and are legally required to remain encamped. Residents of Tanzania’s two existing camps, Nduta and Nyarugusu, provided information in 2023 and 2024, respectively. These individuals’ unquenchable search for gainful employment and their self-determination toward durable solutions warrant support and collaboration in locally determined policy.

1951 Refugee Convention · Burundian refugees · durable solutions · forced displacement · Humanitarianism · International organizations · Refugee camps · refugee employment · refugee identity · refugee self-determination · Tanzania · Migration and Exile Studies · Migration, Racism, and Human Rights · Migration, Refugees, and Integration