‘Race,’ Ethnicity, and Forced Displacement

Racial discrimination conditions the reception of displaced people within and beyond national borders and remains a critical component in contemporary refugee laws and policies. Freier et al. take a much-needed cross-regional look at the social and legal reception of forcibly displaced people as related to the sociocultural constructs of ‘race’ and ethnicity. They highlight the literature’s geographical bias, which impedes a broader historic, global, and thus theoretical understanding of the relationship between racism, citizenship, and displacement. Processes of racial discrimination and ethnic violence play out differently across the Global South, given countries’ respective histories. Based on their in-depth discussion, Freier et al. highlight avenues for further research on race, ethnicity, and forced displacement in postcolonial settings.