Mediating Discourses of Displacement in the Literacy Practices of Refugees and Humanitarian Actors in Jordan, Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey

Abstract

Much has been written about the prevalence and politicization of public discourses on migration. Less prevalent are analyses of the role of literacy mediators in making texts, and the discourses they invoke, accessible to displaced people. With this in mind, this paper takes a discourse-ethnographic approach to the analysis of discourses of displacement. Literacy mediation in humanitarian settings is explored as a means by which refugees and humanitarian actors negotiate the unequal power dynamics of humanitarian interactions. Findings suggest that the institutional complexities of humanitarian efforts are reduced when mediators translate discourses in their literacy practices.