Coping with the Refugee Wait: The Role of Consumption, Normalcy, and Dignity in Refugee Lives at Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya
Coping with the Refugee Wait: The Role of Consumption, Normalcy, and Dignity in Refugee Lives at Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya
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应对难民等待：消费、常态和尊严在肯尼亚卡库马难民营难民生活中的作用
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发表时间：
2014
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通讯作者：
Rahul Oka
中科院分区：
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作者：
Rahul Oka
长期以来，关于救济的讨论一直将难民营经济以及由此产生的黑市和商业消费视为不利于救济进程和难民。“奢侈品和舒适品”的消费被认为是昂贵的、琐碎的、不合理的和非必要的。然而，尽管消费产生了负面影响，而且成本高昂，难民仍作出艰苦努力，参与这些商业经济。我分析了肯尼亚卡库马难民营的难民商业消费，认为尽管存在问题，但消费是重要的，合理的，甚至是必不可少的。利用2008年至2011年间收集的民族志数据，我认为这种消费除了填补救济缺口的能力之外还具有切实的好处。它提供了一个论坛，使难民能够感到"正常"，获得"尊严"，并应付难民生活的漫长等待和静止的短暂。通过消费实现正常生活和尊严甚至可以在难民定居点危险和动荡的条件下实现结构稳定，并减轻救济引起的痛苦的长期影响。鉴于这些好处，我强调，决策者和救济工作者必须进一步研究难民商业和消费的复杂性。
The relief discourse has long treated refugee camp economies and the resulting black markets and commercial consumption as detrimental for the relief process and the refugees. The consumption of “luxuries and comforts” is regarded as costly, trivial, unreasonable, and nonessential. However, despite the negative effects and the high costs of consumption, refugees make strenuous efforts to participate in these commercial economies. I analyze refugee commercial consumption at Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya, to argue that, despite its problems, the consumption is important, reasonable, and even essential. Using ethnographic data collected between 2008 and 2011, I suggest that this consumption has tangible benefits beyond the ability to fill relief gaps. It provides a forum whereby refugees can feel “normal” and gain “dignity,” and cope with the long wait and the static transience of refugee life. Attaining normalcy and dignity through consumption may even enable structural stability amid the dangerous and volatile conditions of refugee settlements as well as mitigate the long-term effects of relief-induced agonism. Given these benefits, I stress the importance of further research into the complexities of refugee commerce and consumption for policy makers and relief workers.