Theorizing refuge as refusal: ethical world-making through Khuv Xim, Muaj Chaw, and Ua Ib Siab

This essay theorizes refuge as refusal by examining how Hmong refugees engage in ethical world-making through embodied attachment (khuv xim), presence-making (muaj chaw), and ethical negotiation (ua ib siab). Moving beyond thinking about refuge and the refugee experience as bound between assimilatio...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inCommunication and critical/cultural studies Vol. 22; no. 2; pp. 165 - 179
Main Author Xiong-Gum, Mai Nou
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Routledge 03.04.2025
Subjects
critical refugee studies
ethical world-making
Hmong epistemologies
Refuge
refuge as refusal
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:This essay theorizes refuge as refusal by examining how Hmong refugees engage in ethical world-making through embodied attachment (khuv xim), presence-making (muaj chaw), and ethical negotiation (ua ib siab). Moving beyond thinking about refuge and the refugee experience as bound between assimilation and complete erasure, I conceptualize refuge as a relational yet situated ongoing practice. Engaging the work of Hannah Arendt, Liisa Malkki, Yến Lê Espiritu, and Saba Mahmood, I argue that refusal is a form of agency that is enacted through refusing the terms of constraints. Through family stories of exile and life in the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp, I foreground how refuge a form of ethical world-making with and within the power relations that shape it.
ISSN:1479-1420
1479-4233
DOI:10.1080/14791420.2025.2503817