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Abstract

Documented individuals who do not live in conflict zones can usually access and use their records to migrate, begin new careers, enroll their children in educational institutions, and gain access to healthcare through mostly routine record-related procedures. However, these standard processes become impossible obstacles for refugees when they lose access to their personal records as part of their forced displacement. Though ever-present for refugees, these documentary burdens are compounded in times of societal crises and political upheaval—times when documentation is most critical. If archivists and archival scholars are to address these issues, it is important to understand the scope of existing scholarship on the archival aspects of refugee issues from both archival scholars and researchers outside archival studies. Such insight can highlight core aspects of refugee documentary burdens, areas for further research, and ways in which archivists and archival scholars might better serve refugees in their communities. This scoping review study investigates how research published over the last two decades addresses the issues faced by refugees in relation to their documentary burdens.

Using an iterative analysis approach, the research team found three overarching themes in the literature regarding the documentary burdens of refugees: Records & Policy, Erasure & Preservation of Memory, and Personal (Digital) Archives in Displacement. The results show that the documentary burdens of refugees are both exasperated by and mitigated through archival practices. Critically, this study’s findings show that harm is enacted upon refugees whose testimonies are trusted less than the records (mis)representing them. The authors point to archivy’s culpability in creating perceptions of textual records as infallible objective evidence, arguing that archivists and archival scholars should bear the responsibility of archival solidarity and advocacy with refugees and other vulnerable people who have been harmed by documentary burdens

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