ABSTRACT
Forced displacement is an age-old phenomenon, and yet it is not until the early years of the twentieth century that a distinct ‘refugee problem’ is recognised, and that coordinated, international efforts are made to address it. The question this chapter seeks to answer is: Why is this the case? Why does forced migration become a problem in need of a solution only in the early years of the twentieth century? Moving beyond the nationalisation of the state, the chapter argues, through an exegesis and application of Michel Foucault’s Collège de France lectures, that refugees did not represent any drastic disruptions, either for host societies or for the international community in general, prior to the twentieth century, because, in important ways, neither these host societies nor the international system yet existed in such a way as to be disrupted by the emergence and presence of such persons. While people have always moved between communities and sought refuge from violence, it was only with the development of the political rationality underpinning and enabling the rise of the modern state and inter-state system that it was possible for the ‘refugee problem’ to emerge as a distinct problem in need of sustained attention.
