Refugee sousveillance: observation and co-optation in The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives

Abstract

  Narratives are a matter of life and death for refugee subjects in the US. They are managed through a juridico-political process called Refugee Status Determination (RSD). Under the surveillant gaze of RSD, refugee subjects are forced to narrativize their lives using the language of persecution in exchange for state protection. This article contributes to critical refugee studies (CRS) scholarship which challenges the dehumanizing impacts of RSD’s surveillant gaze. Extending Vinh Nguyen’s concept of refugeetude, I develop a framework for refugee sousveillance. I define refugee sousveillance as the co-optation of refugee narratives such that they consciously defy the juridico-political surveillance of RSD towards a creative, open, coalitional future with other refugee subjects and marginalized groups. Refugee sousveillance applies bell hooks’ oppositional gaze (1992) and Browne’s (2015)  dark sousveillance to refugeetude. Identifying a noteworthy collection of essays written by a coalition of elite refugee writers, I provide examples of refugee sousveillance as both process and product.