Political Economy of Control: Urban Refugees and the Regulation of Space in Lusaka, Zambia

Rebecca Frischkorn

Economic Anthropology, 2015, vol. 2, issue 1, 205-223

Abstract: type="main" xml:id="sea212025-abs-0001"> Although Zambia is routinely praised by the international community for accepting the overwhelming majority of asylum seekers, it attempts to control refugee movement and residency by keeping the majority in refugee camps and settlements and limiting the number allowed in urban areas. However, many refugees continue to live in cities without the required urban residency permits and despite risks of arrest and exploitation. This article examines the efforts of the Zambian government to limit and control its urban refugee population in Lusaka, linking the structure of the global political economy to treatment of refugees. As the Ministry of Home Affairs implements its urban residency policy and registration systems and immigration officers often arbitrarily enforce it through raids on markets and neighborhoods, refugees negotiate the spaces of the city, discovering where to live and move; find work and housing; seek assistance and social services; and become detained, imprisoned, deported, or released. This article further considers not only how power is exercised in this context but also how and why systems of control fail to work effectively or efficiently.

Date: 2015
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