Stuck in transit: asylum-seeking habitus and onward migration aspirations of Sri Lankan Tamil asylum-seekers in Bangkok

Abstract

Asylum-seekers nowadays undertake multiple journeys before reaching a country of resettlement. In Southeast Asia, several countries are playing important roles as transit locations. This paper focuses on Thailand, which serves as a major transit point for Sri Lankan Tamil asylum-seekers who hope to move to resettlement countries through irregular channels. Drawing on in-depth interviews and ethnographic observations from 2018 to 2019, this paper examines the Sri Lankan Tamil asylum-seekers' migration experiences in Bangkok, and how they plan their onward migration and utilise connection networks. Moving beyond traditional pull-push approach that standardises reasons to flee, this research uses asylum-seeking habitus as a conceptual lens to explore the interactive process between structure (economic and cultural) and asylumseekers, and individual/communal interpretations of such structural environment that trigger onward migration aspirations of asylumseekers in a transit country. In Bangkok, because lived experiences do not meet personal and/or familial expectations, insecurity prevails following news from others in their networks, which then triggers onward migratory disposition among Sri Lankan Tamil asylum-seekers. Asylum-seeking habitus as a conceptual lens provides a useful approach in assisting us in understanding asylumseekers' vision of autonomy by investigating their changing perceptions of security at different stages of the journey.

When Bare Life is Bearable: The Life Projects of Rohingya and Hazara Refugees Living in Malaysia

“…The Rohingya and the Hazara, this article's focus, have been living in Malaysia for decades (Azis 2014;Nungsari, Flanders and Chuah 2020). As they face varied levels of persecution, violence, war, and/or conflict that forced them to flee their home countries (Fortify Rights 2015;Jayasuriya and Sunam 2016), they have been part of an international resettlement effort, but to little avail (Nungsari, Flanders and Chuah 2020;Shum 2021). While there were an estimated 35,000 Rohingyas in Malaysia in 2013 (Kassim 2015), that number jumped to around 103,300 at the end of December 2021, representing over half the registered refugees and asylum-seekers in Malaysia (UNHCR 2022).…”

“…Within migration studies, refugees' life projects remain under-researched, and little is known about the conditions that facilitate their life projects in the Global South, especially Southeast Asia. Most countries in this region are not parties to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, and their immigration laws do not differentiate between refugees and undocumented migrants (Hussain 2017;Wahab 2018;Shum 2021), leaving refugees with no legal rights and eventually resulting in "bare life" for them. Following Agamben (1998), refugees' bare life indicates that they are not only denied legal rights by the host state but also subject to various forms of violence and state laws.…”

“…According to Missbach and Phillips (2020, 19), transit states refer to countries through which migrants, including refugees and asylum-seekers, "try to pass on their way to another destination country." Scholars and policy-makers have regarded many Southeast Asian countries, including Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia, as transit countries (Hussain 2017;Missbach and Hoffstaedter 2020;Shum 2021).…”

La era del atrapamiento migratorio: la migración africana hacia la frontera norte de México

“…El aumento en los tiempos y lugares de espera que deben enfrentar las personas migrantes, ha dado lugar a asentamientos temporales no elegidos y a modificaciones en las rutas inicialmente consideradas (Wyss, 2019;Zenteno-Torres y Salazar, 2021;Shum, 2022). Esta situación ha dado lugar una abundante literatura que desde enfoques diversos ha propuesto numerosas categorías para su análisis, sin que parezca haber hasta el momento un verdadero consenso.…”

“…Por otra parte, el alargamiento en los tiempos de espera ha significado que algunas de las categorías analíticas habituales, como la de "migración en tránsito", resulten insuficientes para entender las dinámicas actuales, por lo que una parte significativa del debate se relaciona con la revisión crítica de las categorías clásicas (Collyer, 2010;Chetail y Braeunlich, 2013;Hess, 2012;Wyss, 2019;Shum, 2022;Arriola, 2021;Gil-Everaert, 2021).…”