Ingvill Bjørnstad Åberg

Place, Identity, Power and Agency: Refugees on the Thai-burmese Border: "When You Cannot Do Anything, That's the Greatest Problem in Life" Ingvill Bjørnstad Åberg

This work explores identity formation among refugees from the ethnic group of Karen from Burma, in camps along the Thai-Burmese border, with a specific focus on youth and women. Using a combined theoretical framework of nationalism, power, structure, agency and gender, this work aims at pointing to complex relations between a militarized and masculine understanding of power; forceful social transformations related to life in refugee camps; and changing gender relations in a refugee situation; at the intersection of which we find the subjectivity formation of Karen refugees. The role of powerful organizations in the area is discussed, as well as aspects of marginalization, powerlessness and hopelessness on the one hand, and agency, hope and meaning-making on the other. The overall argument is that Karen representations of themselves, their homeland and their own situation and prospects seem to be characterized by ambiguity.