Paper short abstract:

With the global proliferation of borders controls, resettlement has become an increasingly rare option for onward mobility beyond containment spaces. In this paper, we explore how the unequal distribution and access to mobility is creating new configurations of mimicry in the post-colonial period.

Paper long abstract:

In Kakuma Refugee Camp, the UNHCR is responsible for the processing of resettlement claims to third countries. For many refugees, resettlement can be described as the ideal outcome from the prolonged displacement, but the likelihood of receiving resettlement is extremely rare due to increasing rise of anti-immigration rhetoric from states in the global north. To be eligible for resettlement, refugees must undergo rigorous interviewing, cross-checking, and medical examinations. Successful applicants for resettlement, often emphasize their vulnerability and qualities as a “good” global citizen. Such performances, we argue, are a form of mimicry, where refugees perform subservience to UNHCR through appropriating the UN’s narratives. However, refugees are not powerless to this process, and many are conscious of these performances, often playing into them to access resettlement. Based on Millar’s twelve months of ethnographic research and Majok’s personal experiences of living in Kakuma and being resettled to Canada, we explore how resettlement in Kakuma creates a neo-colonial relationship between refugees and the governing agencies. Taking inspiration from postcolonial theory regarding mimicry (Bhabha 1994), we intend to critically address the process of resettlement, by demonstrating how the UNHCR attempts subjugates refugees through the process of resettlement. We argue that the UNHCR attempts to contain refugees in camps with the promise of resettlement, effectively tethering their future-aspirations to the camp. However, refugees have capacity to navigate beyond this binary neo-colonial relationship, finding alternative routes to mobility beyond the control of the UNHCR.