Refugeehood and the Postconflict Subject

About this book

"Being a "refugee" is not simply the act of flight or a matter of being defined as such by a set of determination procedures. It is an ontological condition, structured by the politics of law, affect and territory. Refugeehood and the Post-Conflict Subject is an exploration of the variable facets of refugeehood, their interconnections, and their intended and unintended consequences. Based on more than a decade of research on the island of Cyprus, author Olga Demetriou examines how different groups of "refugees" coexist, and how this co-existence invites re-interpretations of the law and its politics. The long-standing political conflict in Cyprus has produced not just the paradigmatic, legally recognized "refugee" but also other groups of displaced persons not so categorized. The people and circumstances encountered reveal the tensions and contestations within which the refugee regime is mired, within and beyond the 1951 Refugee Convention; Demetriou argues that any re-interpretation that will take account of these tensions will also need to recognize that these minor losses are not incidental to refugeehood but an intrinsic part of the wider issues at play"--