Revisiting Oral History in Archive

Abstract

I propose a study of how transnational human rights networks and their ideas responded to refugee affairs and developed the concept of human rights in the twentieth century by exploring not only associated organizations but also other intellectual groups, including lawyers, scholars, writers, students, and grassroots activists, all of whom took various political stances. Such groups mobilized public awareness of transnational human rights issues mediated by a diverse range of social movements on a global level in the 1960s and 1970s. Of note, the 1975 Vietnamese refugee crisis and subsequent relief participation and mobilization made human rights discourse more salient. The United Kingdom accepted refugees from Hong Kong, and the United States admitted approximately 125,000 South Asians. The mobilization through human rights groups, voluntary relief programs, and churches, mostly in evangelical communities, had a strong impact not only on refugee resettlement programs but also on broad social discourse. The 1975 refugee programs reflected human rights principles in a new form of internationalism. Both progressive and conservative political agendas focused on human rights in view of changing global circumstances, specifically the application of human rights to refugees. Within this context, both ideologies encouraged increased admissions of Asian refugees, believing this would represent their perspectives on international relations. It worked directly with refugees, established domestic and transnational advocacy networks, led international and national debates about migration, and pressed for policy changes to respond to the refugee crises within the context of developing human rights and reshaping humanitarianism.