ABSTRACT

The relevance of a chapter on refugees in a compendium on development may not be immediately obvious. The plight of refugees might be seen, at best, as irrelevant to the goals of international development agencies. Instead, specialized international institutions are concerned with refugees, notably the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). At worst, the production of refugees might be seen as the opposite of development, especially as development has come to be defined more in terms of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.