Claiming rights in exile

Women's insurgent citizenship practices in the Thai-Myanmar borderlands

Bibliographic Data

ID4525571
AuthorsElisabeth Olivius (0000-0002-2400-9144, Umeå University)
Year2019
Volume23
Issue8
Pages761-779
Publication date2019-11-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCitizenship Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1362-1025 • E-ISSN: 1469-3593
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13621025.2019.1664408
OpenAlexW2973104975
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited36

This paper examines insurgent citizenship practices employed by activists in the exiled Burmese women’s movement from the 1990s and onwards. Consisting of political exiles, refugees and ethnic insurgents, this movement has successfully used the transnational, transitory space of the borderlands to constitute its participants as political subjects with legitimate claims to rights, citizenship and leadership. Drawing on interviews, this analysis interrogates women’s activism through the lens of insurgent citizenship practices. Thus, how have Burmese women’s activists claimed rights and lived citizenship in exile? Three main strategies are examined: firstly, women activists have positioned themselves as political actors and authorities through involvement in governance and humanitarian aid delivery in refugee camps. Secondly, they have claimed rights and political subjectivity through engagement with international norms, networks and arenas. Thirdly, they have claimed citizenship and political influence in oppositional nation-making projects through engaging with and negotiating ethno-nationalist armed struggles. The analysis highlights the multifaceted nature of women’s insurgent citizenship practices, showing how they navigate multiple marginalized subject positions, direct their rights claims towards multiple governing authorities, and enact multiple political communities

Burmese · Citizenship · Ethnic group · Human rights · Nationalism · Political science · Political subjectivity · Politics · Refugee · Sociology · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Gender Studies · Law

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