A Straightforward Journey? Discovering Belgium’s Refugee Policy through Its Central Government Archives (1945-1957) ... : Eine geradlinige Reise? Die Untersuchung der belgischen Flüchtlingspolitik auf Basis der Zentralregierungs-Archive (1945-1957) ...

When looking at the “management” of refugee crises or violence induced mobility in Western Europe since the 1930s, one cannot help but notice that Belgium offers an interesting case study. In the second half of the 1940s, it recruited over 22,000 displaced persons (DPs) from Germany to work as miners, and by early 1954, it had become the first country to delegate its national competence for recognizing refugees on its territory to the representative of an international body - the Belgian delegate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). This historical evolution is of cour... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Strubbe, Filip
Dokumenttyp: article-journal
Erscheinungsdatum: 2020
Verlag/Hrsg.: GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
Schlagwörter: Refugees / Displaced Person / Belgium / Aliens Police / Archive Production / UNHCR / 1945-1957
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-28966829
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://dx.doi.org/10.12759/hsr.45.2020.4.69-96

When looking at the “management” of refugee crises or violence induced mobility in Western Europe since the 1930s, one cannot help but notice that Belgium offers an interesting case study. In the second half of the 1940s, it recruited over 22,000 displaced persons (DPs) from Germany to work as miners, and by early 1954, it had become the first country to delegate its national competence for recognizing refugees on its territory to the representative of an international body - the Belgian delegate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). This historical evolution is of course only of interest in as much as it is reflected in the archives which, in the case of Belgium, are well preserved. This contribution uses the records of the Aliens Police and of various Belgian branches of international refugee organizations over the years 1945-1957. The aim is to analyze how their archive production bears the traces of the evolving refugee mobility and Belgium’s asylum regime. Interestingly, these ... : Historical Social Research Vol. 45, No. 4 (2020) ...