Knowledge Production in Displacement and Forced Migration

Abstract Forced migration in the twenty-first century has contributed to a proliferation of scholarship on refugees and displaced peoples. Historical accounts have uncovered various international, national, regional and local regimes established to assist and manage refugee populations. Such studies often point to the twentieth century, especially the periods after the First and Second World Wars, as pivotal moments in the construction of refugees as a politico-legal category. This special issue of the Journal of Migration History draws upon histories of knowledge focussing on the voices of refugees and displaced peoples. It presents them as producers of knowledge. What ties these studies together is that displacement created an impetus for the production and dissemination of knowledge, and that these disparate forms of knowledge production were inextricably woven into efforts by refugees and displaced peoples to navigate their displacement(s) and adapt to new environments.