When a humanitarian crisis is “over,” what happens to the people who are relocated or left behind? This paper investigates how the interactions between refugees and humanitarian bureaucrats at multiple stages of forced migration create (and undermine) different transnational social ties for refugees. Findings from this research will contribute to discussions of the social world of refugees and transnational communities more broadly. It will also contribute a sociological analysis of international refugee protection with implications for policies governing refugee camps and resettlement. The research seeks to promote more effective and fair exit strategies for humanitarian aid organizations at the end of refugee crises that recognize the lived experiences of refugees and the complex social relations that emerge between refugees, humanitarian bureaucrats, and hosts during crisis.
In 2014 the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees removed Nepal’s Bhutanese refugee situation off of the high priority risk list effectively announcing the coming end of an era. Drawing off 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork this paper analyzes the effects of the Bhutanese refugee crisis on both the local host community in Nepal and the refugees themselves. The UNHCR has been in Nepal facilitating aid to the Bhutanese camps for over 20 years and the Bhutanese resettlement effort is nearly unprecedented with over 100,000 individuals now residing in a third country. Now that resettlement is decreasing and thousands of refugees have expressed their desire to remain in Nepal questions arise over the exit strategy of NGOs and INGOs that have brokered their encampment for so long. This research explores how refugees are navigating the end of this refugee cycle and asks questions about the borders (geographic, political, and emotional) that they will cross to get there.