Talk:Refugee

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The "Issues" section of this article would benefit from the addition of a new subsection on refugee representation. While the more tangible issues currently addressed, such as medical problems and security threats, are also extremely important, the portrayal refugees by foreign governments, NGOs, humanitarian groups, and the media has a strong silencing effect on their narratives. Although public discussion on this issue is lacking, it is a problem observed by scholars to have had important ramifications in the lives of refugees. Therefore, I propose the addition of the following section under the “Issues” heading:

===Representation===

The category of “refugee” tends to have a universalizing effect on those classified as such. It draws upon the common humanity of a mass of people in order to inspire public empathy, but doing so can have the unintended consequence of silencing refugee stories and erasing the political and historical factors that led to their present state.^[1] Humanitarian groups and media outlets often rely on images of refugees that evoke emotional responses and are said to speak for themselves.^[2] The refugees in these images, however, are not asked to elaborate on their experiences, and thus, their narratives are all but erased. ^[3] From the perspective of the international community, “refugee” is a performative status equated with injury, ill health, and poverty. When people no longer display these traits, they are no longer seen as ideal refugees, even if they still fit the legal definition. For this reason, there is a need to improve current humanitarian efforts by acknowledging the “narrative authority, historical agency, and political memory” of refugees alongside their shared humanity.^[4] Dehistorizing and depoliticizing refugees can have dire consequences. Rwandan refugees in Tanzanian camps, for example, were pressured to return to their home country before they believed it was truly safe to do so. Despite the fact that refugees, drawing on their political history and experiences, claimed that Tutsi forces still posed a threat to them in Rwanda, their narrative was overshadowed by the U.N. assurances of safety. When the refugees did return home, reports of reprisals against them, land seizures, disappearances, and incarceration abounded, as they had feared.^[5] 2607:FB60:1011:2006:CC2:95AA:212F:D98E (talk) 19:17, 12 November 2019 (UTC)

 Not done: The page's protection level has changed since this request was placed. You should now be able to edit the page yourself. If you still seem to be unable to, please reopen the request with further details. DannyS712 (talk) 21:02, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

Article Link Hello, I am a student at Rice University, and I would like to add a link to this article on Refugee Children. In that article, I hope to add a section on after-school activities available specifically for refugee children. As a PAIR mentor for refugee children in Houston, I found that after class activities do have an effect on the children's social and academic lives. I would also like to edit the language difficulties section to detail the teacher’s role as well as the family’s role in that issue. Please check out my user page for some of my references. Atsang99 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 05:37, 18 February 2020 (UTC)

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 28 August 2024 and 20 December 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Clariceycha03 (article contribs). Peer reviewers: EMSJC.

— Assignment last updated by EMSJC (talk) 08:57, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

The section starting with, "UNRWA has an alternate definition of what is a refugee. An article in the foreign press describes this:"strikes me as odd. The article in question isn't cited, the subsequent section describing the inconsistency also does not cite any information, not even the contrasting declarations. The article itself is easily found, but it is not "foreign press," which does not refer to a singular publication, it is a response article from a counselor for Donald Trump published by "Foreign Policy." Moreover, the section blatantly quotes the article verbatim without attribution. 2600:4040:5538:F300:28AB:29CF:A1C6:256D (talk) 20:36, 11 February 2025 (UTC)