Becoming Refugee in Cairo: The Political in Performativity

Abstract This article sets out to analyze experiences related to refugeeness, or “becoming refugee.” It does so not as a technology of governmentality, but rather as the condition of possibility to political agency based on the capacities of asylum seekers to become attentive toward the figure of the refugee, to raise awareness of shared grievances and injustices and, ultimately, to mobilize individually and collectively. The study is based on an analysis of interviews carried out with asylum seekers in January 2015 in Cairo, a city that hosts one of the biggest UNHCR operations in North Africa and the Middle East. Approaching refugee subjectivities through the lens of performativity, we suggest that becoming refugee is one significant instance where people employ their mundane political agencies, both challenging and reproducing the complex socio-political and socio-material relations that constitute the refugee regime. We conclude that a focus on the subjective dynamism involved in performing refugeeness may be helpful in understanding political mobilization in demanding and oppressive situations in Cairo and beyond.