Toward a Politics of Care: Southeast Asian Refugee Organizing, Kinship, Care, and Reunion

Authors

James Huỳnh
Victoria Huỳnh
Mads Lê
Sheila Sy

Publication Date

5-1-2024

Journal

Health Promotion Practice

Abstract

From a critical refugee studies orientation, our article redefines care within the context of myriad forms of state violence impacting Southeast Asian post-war refugee communities. Research reveals how harm is compounded at every step of Southeast Asian refugee journeys: war, forced displacement, resettlement, family separation, inherited health conditions, and generational trauma. How do we reckon with refugee trauma without conceding to it as an unchangeable fact of our lives? What knowledge might we gain by attending to the everyday work of survival in refugee communities? To answer these questions, the authors conceptualize care through (a) abolitionist organizing, (b) queer kinship and affective labor, (c) historiographic caretaking, and (d) refugee reunion.

Keywords

care, Southeast Asian, critical refugee studies, kinship, reunion, organizing, interdependence, trauma

Comments

PMID: 36999641