5 - Final Destinations and Policy Implications

Summary

This book aims to determine how compelling Myanmar's narratives are in justifying human rights violations. We argue that the media had a significant role in circulating narratives about the Rohingya crisis, which is the main reason for the deteriorating status of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine state. In turn, this hurts the ability of the Rohingya people to attract international support. In today's political climate, the immediate nature of humanitarian crises tends to eclipse a more in-depth interest in the complexities of a conflict's historical roots.

From the in-depth discussion in the preceding chapters, it is clear that the Rohingya people have been portrayed as one of the world's most persecuted minorities, while local Islamic history and the emergence of Muslim nationalism on the margins of Muslim Bengal (East Pakistan/Bangladesh) and Buddhist Burma (Myanmar) has only recently begun to inform international understanding of the regional conflict. Therefore, our argument revolves around the fact that historical research is necessary both to understand the nature of the conflict and to safeguard against the possibility of alternate historical perspectives. It is also relevant to the continuing debate over collective images of non-Western victims who are ‘voiceless’ and hence lack political agency.

This book helps to improve understanding of the causes and drivers of identity-based politics in Myanmar's Rohingya population. Based on a mixed-method approach that includes a survey, key informant interviews, and numerous short case studies of persecution, the main goal of the book is to better understand the complex challenges of managing large-scale refugee exodus in Bangladesh and how to best resolve them in the long run. By using stories from around the world regarding the Rohingyas, their refugee status, and the resulting crisis, this book aims to create discourse at the local, regional, and global levels. Humanitarian agencies have been chastised for failing to listen to refugees, particularly Rohingya women, who are sometimes unable to leave their makeshift houses.

Thus, this chapter summarizes the findings and overarching conclusions presented in the book's other chapters. The remaining sections of the conclusion draw together some of the main points and themes that emerged from the book.