Threatened, the Refugee as the Referent Object

Abstract

Since its inception, humanitarian communication has consistently represented beneficiaries as referent objects of a threat, as threatened. Images of victims, whether in the traditional representation of a sea of humanity’ (Malkki 1996) or in the more recent aesthetic style of the individual portrait, have consistently constituted the large bulk of humanitarian NGOs’ visual production. This chapter focuses on the representation of Syrian refugees as ‘threatened’ to show how this depiction of refugees is just another form of securitization, whereby Syrians are depicted as infantilized and passive victims in need of external intervention. In order to do so, it is worthwhile digressing to understand how remarkable have been the structural changes that humanitarianism has undergone over the last quarter century and how new relief assistance’ modalities, while seeking to putting individuals and their rights center stage have also primarily represented them in terms of victimhood.