Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

This chapter analyzes the transformations in policies and the figure of the refugee in South America, focusing on the relationship between protection and the control of mobility. It examines the changes in the political treatment of refugees on a regional scale, highlighting three key moments that enable us to problematize how protection and control have been mutually constituted as part of the regional migration and border regime. This inquiry reveals the production and political use of definitions, categories, and practices related to the control of displacement categorized as forced, as well as how the rationalities and scope of international protection policies have been reconfigured. An examination of different historical moments allows us to identify the trajectory of the protection-control relationship, associated with various intervention categories that have been redefined to legitimize the adoption of different governmental control instruments within the framework of protection policies.