Wie wird Flucht durch Zahlen produziert und konstruiert? Jüngst ist der Beitrag „The Powerful (Vagueness of) Numbers?“ erschienen, in der sich Ulrike Krause mit Wissensproduktion in UNHCRs Global Trends Berichten und insbesondere der Quantifizierung von Unterbringungsformen von Geflüchteten beschäftigt. Der Artikel ist in der Zeitschrift Migration and Society Open Access erschienen.

How is displacement produced and constructed through numbers? Recently, the article „The Powerful (Vagueness of) Numbers?“was published, in which Ulrike Krause explores (non)knowledge production in UNHCR’s Global Trends Reports and especially the quantification of accommodation forms. The article appeared in the journal Migration and Society open access.

Abstract: The Global Trends Reports represent UNHCR’s key tool to share information about annual developments in relation to displacement, primarily through numbers. Among the many subjects covered, they often also address different forms of accommodation. But how do such quantifications produce (non)knowledge and link with the humanitarian landscape? This article explores accommodation categories, quantifications, and local categorizations as presented in the Global Trends Reports published from about 2003 to 2020. While the numbers appear to display precise knowledge on refugees’ whereabouts, gaps prevail in the reports: accommodation categories remain undefined, calculations are partly unclear, and local recategorizations occur suddenly without explanation. This article argues that these issues produce nonknowledge, and that the reports’ continuous attention to accommodation data simulates refugees’ controllability and governability.

Krause, Ulrike (2022), ‚The Powerful (Vagueness of) Numbers? (Non)Knowledge Production about Refugee Accommodation Quantifications in UNHCR’s Global Trends Reports‘, Migration and Society, 5 (1), 141–151, Link.