Carceral Humanitarianism

Logics of Refugee Detention

2017
•
Author:

Kelly Oliver

Manifold Edition


Considering the uneasy alliance between humanitarian aid, human rights, and military operations

Coopted by military operations, humanitarianism has never been neutral. Rather than welcoming refugees, host countries assess the relative risks of taking them in versus turning them away, using a risk-benefit analysis that often reduces refugees to collateral damage in proxy wars fought in the war on terrorism. Carceral Humanitarianism testifies that humanitarian aid and human rights discourse are always political and partisan.

"Kelly Oliver’s concise book brings a necessary and provocative philosophical appraisal of humanitarianism, focused on the treatment of refugees and the realities of migrant detention centers in the context of the ‘war on terror’. I highly recommend this concise text for critical geographers of borders and migration as well as for all kinds of activist endeavors advocating for freedom of movement and anti-war positions." —Antipode

 

Coopted by military operations, humanitarianism has never been neutral. Rather than welcoming refugees, host countries assess the relative risks of taking them in versus turning them away, using a risk-benefit analysis that often reduces refugees to collateral damage in proxy wars fought in the war on terrorism. Carceral Humanitarianism testifies that humanitarian aid and human rights discourse are always political and partisan.



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Kelly Oliver is W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University.

Kelly Oliver’s concise book brings a necessary and provocative philosophical appraisal of humanitarianism, focused on the treatment of refugees and the realities of migrant detention centers in the context of the ‘war on terror’. I highly recommend this concise text for critical geographers of borders and migration as well as for all kinds of activist endeavors advocating for freedom of movement and anti-war positions.

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Antipode

Carceral Humanitarianism: The Logics of Refugee Detention, offers a clear analysis and emphatic critique of contemporary humanitarianism’s imbrication with practices of refugee detention.

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Human Studies