This essay asks what current scholarly and political treatments of the refugee illuminate about our political moment. Taking as its starting point Ilana Feldman’s historical ethnography of Palestinian refugee camps and the possibilities for political action afforded by purportedly a-or anti-political institutions such as the humanitarian apparatus, the essay mobilizes her conclusions to consider the recent history of the refugee crisis in Europe. It argues that humanitarianism offers a valuable optic through which to understand present politics at two levels. The turn to humanitarianism and to the refugee as a political imaginary has marked ways of talking about and responding to the profound crisis of a political horizon on the left. But there have also been turns within humanitarianism—and, indeed, multiple humanitarianisms. Changes within the material apparatuses of humanitarianism and their routinization beyond the “exceptional” conditions of disaster and displacement have exemplified the broader social transformations producing that crisis of emancipatory politics. At once ideationally and materially, the story of humanitarianisms in recent decades is a tale of the conditions under which politics came to feel so difficult. The essay ends with a tentative suggestion that the generalization of the humanitarian apparatus and outlook offers a terrain—albeit messy and compromised—from which a collective politics might proceed.

中文翻译：

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难民的原因

这篇文章询问当前对难民的学术和政治处理如何阐明我们的政治时刻。本文以伊拉娜·费尔德曼对巴勒斯坦难民营的历史民族志和据称是非政治机构（如人道主义机构）所提供的政治行动的可能性为出发点，动员她的结论来考虑近期的难民危机历史。欧洲。它认为人道主义提供了一个有价值的视角，通过它可以从两个层面理解当前的政治。转向人道主义和难民作为一种政治想象，标志着左翼政治视野的深刻危机的讨论和应对方式。但人道主义内部也出现了转变——实际上，是多种人道主义。人道主义物质机构内部的变化及其在灾难和流离失所等“特殊”条件之外的常规化，体现了产生解放政治危机的更广泛的社会变革。近几十年来的人道主义故事在观念上和物质上都是关于政治变得如此困难的条件的故事。这篇文章最后提出了一个初步的建议，即人道主义机构和前景的概括提供了一个可能进行集体政治的领域——尽管混乱和妥协。近几十年来的人道主义故事在观念上和物质上都是关于政治变得如此困难的条件的故事。这篇文章最后提出了一个初步的建议，即人道主义机构和前景的概括提供了一个可能进行集体政治的领域——尽管混乱和妥协。近几十年来的人道主义故事在观念上和物质上都是关于政治变得如此困难的条件的故事。这篇文章最后提出了一个初步的建议，即人道主义机构和前景的概括提供了一个可能进行集体政治的领域——尽管混乱和妥协。