The UNHCR in the UK: Guardian of Refugee Protection?

Persistent URL of this record https://hdl.handle.net/1887/65067

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International Relations (MA)

Lennep, Tove van (2018)

The UNHCR in the UK: Guardian of Refugee Protection?

Master thesis | International Relations (MA)

As the first of its kind, this paper evaluates the UNHCR's construction of refugees in its annual campaigns between 2011 and 2016. First establishing the complex nature of anti-refugee sentiment in the United Kingdom using Integrated Threat Theory and the trinity of policy, politics and media, the paper identifies the instances in which UNHCR has offset, overlooked or encouraged public hostility and protectionism. It is concluded that UNHCR’s campaigns before 2014 did not internalise local social and historical hierarchies and anti-refugee discourse. It was only with the ‘I Belong’ campaign of 2014 that UNHCR fulfilled its role as the global guardian of refugee protection norms, addressing UK anti-refugee sentiment directly and effectively.

UNHCR

anti-refugee sentiment

United Kingdom

Integrated Threat Theory

anti-refugee discourse

discourse analysis

UNHCR campaigns

refugee protection norms

stereotypes

postcolonialism