Trading Places to Care? Humanitarians and Migrants in World Politics

Abstract

This dissertation explores the place and significance of care in international relations through a critical comparison of migrant and humanitarian caregivers. I argue this wide lens on care provides unique insights into the meaning of care in world politics. While the expansion of international humanitarianism seems to indicate a revolution in global ethics, and progress in world politics, the persistence of poorly appreciated, poorly remunerated care in international migration and its exclusion from humanitarian norms and institutions suggest that interpretation is too optimistic. Instead of establishing the universal value of care, the institutionalization of humanitarianism has excluded a whole class of caregivers and ruled out the possibility of recognizing the contributions of the societies that send them. In the dissertation I elaborate an analysis of the history, politics, and ethics of this divergence among international caregivers.