Entangled Humanitarianism: The Shifting Ethical Landscape of Refugee Resettlement in Missoula, Montana

Abstract

Longstanding commitments to humanitarianism are being questioned, undone, and reshaped on a national level and in local communities in the U.S. As an ideal and practice, humanitarianism is premised upon ensuring the wellbeing of those in need; yet, humanitarian actions and commitments are constrained by national security interests, economic costs, and racialized hierarchies of deservingness. This dissertation interrogates humanitarianism as an altruistic “good” by examining the U.S. refugee resettlement program, and situating longstanding commitments to refugee resettlement within the framework of racializing and essentializing immigration policies, projects of governance and control, and narratives of belonging and citizenship. To do so, I draw on the refugee resettlement program in Missoula, Montana – one of the youngest resettlement communities in the country – as a case study. In examining how resettlement operates and is experienced in Missoula, I demonstrate not only the local manifestations of a national program in a resettlement destination, but also the ways in which national narratives and policies and local factors and forces, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and an ongoing housing crisis, play out and (re)shape refugee resettlement. This dissertation draws on twelve months of qualitative, ethnographic fieldwork in Missoula, Montana and the analysis is informed by semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and participant observation. The analysis and subsequent chapters that comprise this dissertation are grounded in feminist political geography, critical refugee studies, and critical humanitarianism. Overall, this dissertation contributes to our understandings of the governance structures, boundaries, and forms of care that define and constrain refugee resettlement, and inform how refugees, service providers, volunteers, and other community members experience and reimagine the resettlement program.