Bound within Borders or Free as a Bird? Karen Life in Refugee Camps on the Thai–Burma Borderlands

Jessica Nancy Bird

Journal of Borderlands Studies, 2021, vol. 36, issue 4, 675-693

Abstract: Some residents of Thai–Burma border refugee camps regard themselves as caged birds—as prisoners of war—with little or no freedoms. External imaginations of camp residents as bound within borders are also common. This paper provides another perspective. It argues that residents subvert camp limitations; it describes how they stretch life beyond borders. Despite their armed monitoring, camp borders are contested by outwardly connecting, using tactics of transnationalism and translocalism; in essence, cross-border mobility. Such tactics provide freedom in an otherwise incarcerated camp-life and empower people in an otherwise powerless world. They enable individual actors to change their socio-political narrative. Naturally, severely isolated and restricted camps have low morale and residents have little hope. Given the relative permanence of Thai–Burma border camps (now in their fourth decade of existence), and an annual downward trend in their international aid, I recommend policy that ensures consistently clear channels of connection to life beyond camps’ borders. This paper contributes to the borderlands debate by adding camp borders as another framework for investigation; it reflects on geopolitical contexts and shifting political landscapes impacting on cross-border mobility; and underscores the agency and self-determination of the Karen people from Burma.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/08865655.2019.1700387 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rjbsxx:v:36:y:2021:i:4:p:675-693

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rjbs20

DOI: 10.1080/08865655.2019.1700387

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Borderlands Studies is currently edited by Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly, Henk van Houtum and Martin van der Velde

More articles in Journal of Borderlands Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().