The Politics of Refugees Identity: State Labeling and Formation of Identity among Afghan Refugees

Abstract

The research examines the politics of refugees’ identity, state labeling, the concept of othering, and the formation of identity among Afghan refugees. First, it marks the state labeling processes in making the refugees’ identities, it includes the techniques and reasons behind it as well as a critical way of examination. Then, it describes and argues the othering of refugees at the state and societal level and context, which is intersectional to both the state and society for making the refugees in the category of othering. Then it elaborates and focuses on cohesiveness and the formation of identity among the refugees themselves. That is seeing themselves in the whole process and the activities they perform for the formation of their identity and in their day-to-day social and cultural lives. the tools used in the data-collecting process were in-depth interviews, participant observation, and informal interviews with thirty respondents. The Afghan refugees are neither recognized as refugee status nor as Afghan but are in the middle of an Identity crisis. Afghan refugees neither see themselves in the context of the host state nor society but associate themselves with the country of their origin.