ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION



The Relief versus Development Dichotomy:

C.I.R.E.F.C.A. and Issues of Refugee Policy

in Costa Rica



Dissertation Director: Dr. Joanna Regulska



This research contributes to contemporary refugee literature concerning the factors that determine host country refugee policy.  Examining the case of Costa Rica within a world systems theoretical framework, I investigate the role played by the international refugee assistance network in shaping asylum state policies in the developing countries currently receiving the vast majority of the world's refugees. I do so within the context of the relief versus development debate encompassing assistance efforts in long-term refugee migration situations.



The overextended refugee assistance network allocates resources for relief and maintenance, considered short-term responses.  In response, asylum states provide refugee camps and maintenance programs, often for many years.  A more costly durable solution - the local integration of refugees and their incorporation into national development plans - is seldom undertaken.



The Costa Rican case study illustrates that conditions of economic dependency impel developing host societies to take measures to avoid exacerbating the burden imposed by refugee migrations.  Accordingly, they implement refugee programs for which the donor community is willing to pay.  An extensive review of government and United Nations documents and numerous interviews with officials of agencies participating in the nation's refugee programs demonstrated this reality.  A clear pattern emerged indicating the state's reliance upon external assistance to fund refugee assistance efforts that, from 1979 through 1989, were characterized by a relief and maintenance orientation.



A United Nations-sponsored International Conference on Central American Refugees (CIREFCA) shifted this orientation toward a development approach in regional refugee programs, beginning in 1989.  CIREFCA initiated the reorientation but the process it stimulated also achieved greater unity of purpose among isthmian governments.   This enabled them to challenge the donor core states, at least in refugee affairs, to provide funding for programs yielding greater long-term benefits to their target populations.



The findings of this research provide an argument for the earlier reorientation to a development strategy in enduring refugee situations.  They also support the use of regional approaches to the problems of uprooted peoples.