Constructing Americans’ Responsibility to Give: Shifting Debates about Foreign and Humanitarian Aid to Child Refugees, 1945–1989

Abstract

In order to garner public support for refugee assistance programs during the Cold War, American policymakers and relief organizations highlighted child refugees as war victims and future global partners. However, understandings about children’s dependency came into tension with refugees’ status as temporary aid recipients and non-citizens, prompting policymakers and taxpayers to set limits for relief, resettlement, and welfare programs. Using two case studies—Jewish child refugees after World War II and Southeast Asian refugee children and families after the Vietnam War—this dissertation argues that these shifts in American attitudes toward refugee assistance redefined, and were shaped by, U.S. foreign and domestic welfare policies.