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Paper short abstract

How did a refugee economy emerged in Kakuma camp in Kenya, a country that had one of the most economically restrictive policies? My paper argues that markets emerged through refugees’ everyday politics, which can be understood as their resistance within the context of economic repression.

Paper long abstract

For much of its existence, refugees in Kakuma camp were not permitted to own property, set-up businesses or take up employment. And yet, after over 30 years since it was established in 1992, the camp is now the site of sizeable market economy providing essential goods and services as well as livelihoods to refugees and host community members alike. How did this happen? Mainstream thinkers claim that informal markets emerge when refugees with an entrepreneurial drive reconfigured their institutional context. Meanwhile, critical scholars argue that capitalism’s “spatial fix” means refugees in camps become an exploitable surplus population from whose labour a “destitution economy” runs. My paper, which looks at two sub-cases – vegetable farmers and digital workers – proposes a constructive view: markets emerged through refugees’ everyday politics, which can be understood as their resistance within the context of economic repression. Thus, neither merely an informal economy nor “capitalist frontier,” it’s possible to understand Kakuma’s refugee economy as a resistance economy.