Skip to main content

ETHNOS_APP

Home • Search • Journals • List 0

The Concentration Camp as Site of Refuge

The Rise of the Refugee Camp and the Great War in the Middle East

Bibliographic Data

ID3207281
AuthorsMichelle Elizabeth Tusan (0000-0002-1925-9384, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, corresponding author), Michelle Tusan
Year2021
Volume93
Issue4
Pages824-860
Publication date2021-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Modern History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-2801 • E-ISSN: 1537-5358
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/716903
OpenAlexW4200131509
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited28

The refugee camp today has been naturalized as a product of failed international idealism and political expediency that serves as a timeless reminder of the plight of displaced peoples. This article explores the refugee camp’s origins as a product of a late Victorian imperial and military legacy and the contingencies of World War I. The use of the concentration camp as a tool to provide refuge and control displaced populations began during the war as a humanitarian measure. Part of a larger world of camps that interned civilians, prisoners of war, and refugees during World War I, the refugee camp in the Middle East existed at the crossroads of Allied military objectives and the Western-led humanitarian movement. In the wake of victory in the east, the army of occupation, aid workers, and local actors fashioned the concentration camp as a site of refuge as part of an emerging international order. American relief efforts led by Near East Relief and later the League of Nations have been well studied. Less understood is how and why Britain, due to the central role it played in combat operations and eventually in dividing up the Middle East with its French ally, guided and shaped norms and conditions for dealing with displaced peoples. Ultimately, the experience of total war shaped Allied war strategy regarding civilian populations during the humanitarian crisis that engulfed the east. It produced the refugee camp as an ostensibly temporary solution to what became for many a permanent problem of statelessness

Development economics · Economic history · Economics · Humanitarian aid · Middle East · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Refugee · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Victory · World War II · African history and culture studies · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · History · Law · North African History and Literature

  • Channelling Ottoman Armenian Refugees During the Hamidian Massacres

    Stéphanie Prévost•The Journal of Imperial &…•2023

  • Alien’ Colonial Law, Anglo–Chinese Power Relations, and the End of the Hong Kong Refugee Regime

    Open Access•Rosaria Franco•The Journal of Imperial &…•2026

  • Child Assistance and the Making of Modern Refugee Camps in Austria-Hungary during the First World War

    Open Access•Doina Anca Cretu•Central European History•2022

  • Violence against Prisoners of War in the First World War

    Open Access•Heather Jones•Violence Against Prisoners of War…•2011

  • The Baqubah Refugee Camp

    H H Austin•Baqubah Refugee Camp•2006

  • Barbed-Wire Imperialism

    Open Access•Aidan Forth•Barbed-Wire Imperialism•2019

  • Refugees in Inter-War Europe

    Claudena M Skran, Claudena Skran•Refugees in inter-war Europe•1995

  • Spies in Arabia

    Priya Satia•Spies in Arabia•2008

  • Colonial Genocide

    Open Access•Jurgen Zimmerer•Historiography of Genocide•2008

  • A City Living through Crisis

    Abigail Jacobson•British Journal of Middle Eastern…•2009

  • The Use of Camps in Colonial Warfare

    Sibylle Scheiper•The Journal of Imperial &…•2015

  • The Armenians of Aintab

    Ümit Kurt•Armenians of Aintab•2021

  • The Invention of the Concentration Camp

    Jonathan Hyslop•South African Historical Journal•2011

  • The Business of Relief Work

    Tusan Tusan•Victorian Studies•2009

  • It is quite impossible to receive them”

    Andrekos Varnava, Trevor Harris•The Journal of Modern History•2018

  • Marks Hard to Erase”

    Rebecca Jinks•The American Historical Review•2018

  • The League of Nations' Rescue of Armenian Genocide Survivors and the Making of Modern Humanitarianism, 1920–1927

    Keith David Watenpaugh•The American Historical Review•2010

  • The Colonial Development of Concentration Camps (1868–1902)

    Iain Robert Smith, Andreas Stucki•The Journal of Imperial &…•2011

  • Humanitarianism in Nineteenth-Century Context

    Open Access•Abigail Green•The Historical Journal•2014

  • Refugees and the Definition of Syria, 1920-1939

    Benjamin Thomas White•Past & Present•2017

Unique citing works3
Citations per year0,75
Citation span2022 - 2026 (5)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 3

Tools

Open DOI
Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae