A Critical Ethics of Care Perspective on Refugee Income Generation: Towards Sustainable Policy and Practice in Zimbabwe’s Tongogara Camp

ABSTRACT

This article critiques Zimbabwe's refugee policy and practice context, with a focus on the ideological underpinnings of aided income generation activities in Zimbabwe's Tongogara refugee camp. We apply the lenses of Joan Tronto's political, or democratic ethics of care, and Fiona Robinson's critical ethics of care, to conduct an ideology critique of the aid agencies' expressed goal of refugees' economic ‘self-reliance’. We demonstrate that their underlying assumptions about ‘dependency’ and ‘autonomy’, in conjunction with Zimbabwe's policy of refugee encampment, are at the heart of the income generation activities’ lack of sustainability. We argue further that all caring relationships are characterised by unequal power relations, and that this needs to be acknowledged in order to enable a shared commitment to equal participation, in a partnership towards agreed-upon development goals. Moreover, the ideologies of autonomy and self-reliance must be replaced with a policy commitment to fostering interdependence as the ontological condition under which income generating activities can evolve into sustainable livelihoods. We recommend that the critical ethics of care and the radical-democratic practices for which it calls, provide an apt framework within which to reconsider the policies governing refugee support and practices, so as to foster a caring context for human wellbeing.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethics of care
• refugee policy
• social development
• sustainable development
• poverty alleviation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Raymond Taruvinga is a Social Work Doctoral Student in the Department of Social Work and Criminology, University of Pretoria. His research interests are in refugee wellbeing and social development with a focus on sustainable income generation.

Dorothee Hölscher (PhD) is a Lecturer in the School of Human Services and Social Work, Griffith University, and a Research Associate with the Department of Social Work, University of Johannesburg. Her research interests are in anti-oppressive theory and applied ethics, with a focus on questions of social justice within the fields of social work education and practice with cross-border migrants.

Antoinette Lombard (PhD) is a Professor in Social Work in the Department of Social Work and Criminology, University of Pretoria. Her research interests are in developmental social work and social development, with a focus on socio-economic development, environmental justice and sustainable development in social work education and practice.