FMO Thematic Guide: Camps versus settlements Author: Anna Schmidt 1 Scope of the question 1.2 User’s guide 1.3 Terminology and conceptual issues 1.3.1 Defining camps and settlements Parameters for camps and settlements 1.3.2 Key introductory texts 2 Camp and settlement issues 2.1 Historical overview 2.2 Rights and legal standards 2.3 Security 2.4 Health 2.5 Social aspects 2.5.1 Dependency and coping mechanisms 2.5.2 Refugee women 2.5.3 Economic impact and development 2.6 Environment 3 Settlements 3.1 Planned settlements 3.2 Self- or spontaneous settlements 4 Non-electronic resources and bibliography 1 Scope of the question The differences between camp and settlement approaches to refugee assistance are behind what Kibreab once called the ‘most sustained single controversy in African Refugee Studies’ (Kibreab 1991) which surrounds the comparative advantages of self-settlement to organized settlement and refugee camps. It is a debate with very real implications. Although these numbers should be treated with caution, according to UNHCR (2002 est.) there are currently some 5.8 million refugees hosted in camps and centres around the world. This includes over 50 per cent of all UNHCR-assisted refugees in Africa (a total of 2,169,558 people), and 35 per cent of refugees in Asia. Clearly, camps and, albeit to a much lesser degree, planned rural settlements, constitute the main method of refugee assistance in the developing world, with the notable exception of Latin America. Indeed, refugee camps easily qualify as the most conspicuous element of refugee assistance. They shape most Western images of the refugee phenomenon in developing countries – reflected for instance in the fact that awareness-raising campaigns by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) involve a travelling exhibition reproducing a refugee camp. It is notable though that even though camps are often seen as a third-world phenomenon, increasing use of detention centres in the West seems to reintroduce ‘camp-based’ answers to refugee issues here too.
FMO Thematic Guide: Camps versus settlements
Jul 10, 2023
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