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Volume 7, Issue 2, 2017, Pages 41-60

Moving onward? Secondary movers on the fringes of refugee mobility in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya (Article)

Tegenbos J. , Büscher K.
  • a Department of Conflict and Development Studies, Conflict Research Group, Ghent University, Belgium
  • b Department of Conflict and Development Studies, Conflict Research Group, Ghent University, Belgium

Abstract

Th is article examines the migration-asylum nexus in the microcosm of Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya by focusing on refugees and asylum seekers who move onward from a first refuge, in Central-East Africa. By drawing on qualitative ethnographic field research in Kakuma, the article outlines how such "secondary movements" cause many anxieties, as the distinction between refugees and migrants is blurred by motivations that are not exclusively protection related. Based on a Foucauldian analysis of power and discourse, we argue that this creates a contested social and semantic space wherein all actors struggle to uphold the rigid distinction. Additionally, by combining the strengths of migration studies' consideration for policy categories and mobility studies' holistic perspective toward migration, the article aims to further deepen academic interaction between two literature traditions in order to enhance our understanding of how mobility is "shaped" and "lived" by people in wartime situations. © Transfers.

Author Keywords

Mobilities Governmentality Mixed migration Kakuma refugee camp Migration-asylum nexus Kenya Secondary movement Africa

Index Keywords

[No Keywords available]

Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85022327755&doi=10.3167%2fTRANS.2017.070204&partnerID=40&md5=51c03e12272bb047277c890d829869a7

DOI: 10.3167/TRANS.2017.070204
ISSN: 20454813
Original Language: English