The Elephant Has Two Sets of TeethAlice NeikirkLabel: University of Alberta PressDescription: This ethnography follows Bhutanese refugees who fled Bhutan resided in camps in Nepal and finally settled in the vastly different culture of Australia. Along the way they learn the ways that humanitarian compassion is used to oppress contain and erode human rights. They also learn however that this charitable framework has small cracks that allow for action. The Bhutanese find ways to move between the contradictory expectations of refugee-ness as they strive to become citizens. Their experiences illustrate the complex strands of power that intertwine to limit the scope of people who “deserve compassion. Neikirk also describes how responses to refugee crises have shifted from facilitating the movement of people to enforcing their containment. Readers in refugee studies anthropology and development studies will be interested in this rich transnational study.
