To Be or Not to Be a Refugee: The International Politics of the Hong Kong Refugee Crisis, 1949–55
To Be or Not to Be a Refugee: The International Politics of the Hong Kong Refugee Crisis, 1949–55
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成为或不成为难民：香港难民危机的国际政治，1949-55
DOI：
10.1080/03086530802180924
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发表时间：
2008
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Glen Peterson
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Glen Peterson
自 1921 年国际联盟任命第一位国际难民专员以来，人们对欧洲难民政策的国际政治有了很多了解，但迄今为止，涉及亚洲难民困境的类似问题却很少受到关注。本文探讨了新成立的难民署将其职责扩展到其最初设想的欧洲范围之外的首次尝试之一。 20世纪50年代初，英国殖民地香港一度成为联合国和国际社会密切关注的焦点，问题是如何对待逃离中国共产主义革命来到该殖民地的数十万中国难民。难民的涌入（其中许多人一贫如洗）威胁到香港的基础设施，并促使人们紧急呼吁将他们移居国外。随后联合国难民署对香港“难民”法律地位的调查提供了在亚洲冷战背景下联合国难民署政治化的一个具有启发性的例子，并揭示了英美联盟内部在如何处理香港难民问题上出现的深刻分歧。该文件认为，鉴于参与各方的相互猜疑和不相容的议程，联合国难民署在香港的调查团注定要失败。
While a great deal is known about the international politics of refugee policy in Europe since the appointment of the first international commissioner for refugees by the League of Nations in 1921, relatively little attention has so far been paid to similar questions involving the plight of refugees in Asia. This article examines one of the first attempts by the newly established UNHCR to extend its mandate beyond the European context for which it was originally conceived. During the early 1950s the British colony of Hong Kong briefly became the focus of intense UN and international attention over the issue of how to treat the hundreds of thousands of Chinese refugees who fled China's communist revolution for the colony. The influx of refugees, many of whom were destitute, threatened to overwhelm Hong Kong's infrastructure and prompted urgent calls for their resettlement abroad. The ensuing UNHCR investigation into the legal status of the Hong Kong ‘refugees’ offers an instructive example of the politicisation of the UNHCR in the context of the unfolding Cold War in Asia and reveals the deep divisions that emerged within the Anglo-American alliance over how to deal with Hong Kong's refugee population. The paper argues that the UNHCR Survey Mission in Hong Kong was doomed to fail given the mutual suspicions and incompatible agendas of the various players involved.