After Involuntary Migration: The Political Economy of Refugee Encampments

Some 35 million involuntarily displaced people live in refugee camps in over 90 countries; many have done so for decades and live among generations of their families. The camps now constitute towns and villages of their own, with ad hoc social and political systems and complicated relationships with the governments that house them. In After Involuntary Migration Milica Bookman provides the first comprehensive analysis of the political economies of refugee camps. Drawing on research from in-depth studies of over thirty such settlements, the book illustrates the economic interaction between the camps and their neighboring host communities. Bookman examines the forms of legitimate and illegitimate discrimination that restricts the camps' participation in their host economies and explores the different ways democratic, market-oriented countries and those with command economies approach the camps on their fringes. With emphasis on the social politics of the encampments, After Involuntary Migration gives direction to the policymaker and insight to the social scientist.