“It was the photograph of the little boy”: reflections on the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme in the UK
“It was the photograph of the little boy”: reflections on the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme in the UK
This article examines the “Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme” (SVPRP) as a specific British response to the “European refugee crisis”. Based on an analysis of media reporting (2014–17) and empirical evidence from agencies and volunteers tasked with implementing the programme, this essay reveals the ethical and political ambiguities at its heart. By focusing on the notion of “vulnerability” I argue that the humanitarian configuration of a refugee worthy of care is implicated in two significant practices: exceptionalising a small group of Syrians as legitimate targets for compassion and constructing compassion itself as a rationed resource in a climate of anti-immigrant hostility, austerity and Brexit.
2680-2699
Armbruster, Heidi
44560127-8f08-4969-8b47-e19f21f23c37
2019
Armbruster, Heidi
44560127-8f08-4969-8b47-e19f21f23c37
Armbruster, Heidi
(2019)
“It was the photograph of the little boy”: reflections on the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme in the UK.
Ethnic and Racial Studies, 42 (15), .
(doi:10.1080/01419870.2018.1554226).
Abstract
This article examines the “Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme” (SVPRP) as a specific British response to the “European refugee crisis”. Based on an analysis of media reporting (2014–17) and empirical evidence from agencies and volunteers tasked with implementing the programme, this essay reveals the ethical and political ambiguities at its heart. By focusing on the notion of “vulnerability” I argue that the humanitarian configuration of a refugee worthy of care is implicated in two significant practices: exceptionalising a small group of Syrians as legitimate targets for compassion and constructing compassion itself as a rationed resource in a climate of anti-immigrant hostility, austerity and Brexit.
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Accepted/In Press date: 19 November 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 18 December 2018
Published date: 2019
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Local EPrints ID: 426951
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/426951
ISSN: 0141-9870
PURE UUID: f348fc6c-7880-48bd-aeb6-22a28e9aebd2
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Date deposited: 19 Dec 2018 17:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 07:26
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