 Click to Donate: visual images, constructing victims and imagining the female refugeeHeather Johnson Third World Quarterly, 2011, vol. 32, issue 6, 1015-1037 Abstract: This article investigates the role of visual representation through images in the international refugee regime, with a particular focus on the female refugee. I argue that visual representation illustrated by the photo archives of the unhcr in particular, but also in other institutional sources, plays a crucial role in shaping our imaginations and knowledges, and that its dynamics are important in understanding the politics of asylum. As the international refugee regime institutionalised by the unhcr has developed, the imagination of the refugee has undergone three concurrent shifts: racialisation, victimisation and feminisation. Each of these shifts has contributed to changing policies and practices in the regime, particularly the change in ‘preferred solution’ from integration to repatriation or, where possible, prevention. More importantly, these shifts have all operated within a discourse of depoliticisation of the refugee, denying the figure of the refugee the capacity for political agency. This depoliticisation works through the construction of the ‘female’ refugee, indicating important lessons for our understandings of the political agency of both women and non-citizens. Date: 2011 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:ctwqxx:v:32:y:2011:i:6:p:1015-1037 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2011.586235 Access Statistics for this article Third World Quarterly is currently edited by Shahid Qadir More articles in Third World Quarterly from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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