Entre a criminalização e a vitimização

Refugiados urbanos nas políticas do ACNUR

Abstract

According to recent estimates, most refugees in the world live today in urban areas. In 1997, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) presented its first official policy on the subject. Widely criticized for criminalizing the urban refuge, the agency was forced to revise its guidelines and to recognize the need for protection of this population in a new policy launched in 2009. Through the study of both policies, the article analyzes the process of institutional construction of the urban refugee. It is argued that, although distinct in their content, both (re) produce normative beliefs tied to the archetypal figure of the
genuine refugee — which places emphasis on vulnerability and victimization as markers of authenticity of the refugee condition. In 1997 politics, such traits are mobilized as a way of denying the legitimacy of those in the cities; and, in 2009, as a way to justify its inclusion in the humanitarian assistance space. From this reading, the article suggests the dialogue with other areas of knowledge as a way to produce policies that break with an essentialized view and pay attention to the multiple nuances that the urban gives to the refuge.