Rethinking the Most Virtuous Aspects of Humanitarianism: Appropriation of "the Vulnerable Refugees" Plot Regarding Syrian Refugees in Turkey

In contemporary policy studies on refugees, the concept “vulnerable refugees” is treated as self-evident and reduced to women, children and disabled, categorically. Any intervention regarding them is presented as inherently positive. The concept has escaped from the usual razor-sharp academic investigation as well. Before all else, any interest in ‘the most vulnerable of the vulnerable’ helps re-call the most virtuous aspects of heavily-criticized humanitarianism. This academic immunity of the “vulnerability” notion, as I argue, indicates how existing policy-categories on refugees haunt our perceptions. My paper focuses on a particular case of the Syrian refugees in Turkey, grounding on my fieldwork in various refugee hosting provinces in 2014-2017 in Turkey. It examines how the “vulnerable refugee” categories are constructed, enacted, and appropriated in the “humanitarian space” by the state institutions, international, national and local NGOs and Syrians’ organizations. I claim that, first, these various actors borrow the “vulnerable refugees” notion from the contemporary global humanitarian imperative; yet, their localized narratives on “vulnerable Syrian refugees” are inspired by and serves to the contradictory political projects (e.g. both securitization and humanitarianism; Islamicism and secularism) and opposite processes (e.g. politicizing and depoliticizing; professionalism and voluntarism). At the end, as particular Syrian “women, children and disabled” are designated as categorically “vulnerable,” the rest of the refugees are excluded from intervention mechanisms. Furthermore, the designated “vulnerable” refugees get exposed to contradictory processes and thereby, they become more vulnerable in the broader society.