Die Disziplinierung des Flüchtlings. Flüchtlingserhebung, Kolonialstatistik und europäische Siedlungspolitik in den Zwischenkriegsjahren

This article takes a critical look at the historical connection between refugee management and European colonial rule in the interwar years by focusing on the Hope Simpson survey, the world’s first international statistical study of refugees. A canonical statistical document of 20th-century refugee history, the Hope Simpson survey has traditionally been interpreted by historians as a purely descriptive rather than an epistemological source. By placing this survey and its eponymous director John Hope Simpson in their historical context, the article underscores the generative function of statistics in the creation of new scientific and administrative categories as well as the indebtedness of the resulting international resettlement program to British late-imperial rule.