Coping with the Refugee Wait: The Role of Consumption, Normalcy, and Dignity in Refugee Lives at Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe relief discourse has long treated refugee camp economies and the resulting black markets and commercial consumption as detrimental for the relief process and the refugees. The consumption of “luxuries and comforts” is regarded as costly, trivial, unreasonable, and nonessential. However, despite the negative effects and the high costs of consumption, refugees make strenuous efforts to participate in these commercial economies. I analyze refugee commercial consumption at Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya, to argue that, despite its problems, the consumption is important, reasonable, and even essential. Using ethnographic data collected between 2008 and 2011, I suggest that this consumption has tangible benefits beyond the ability to fill relief gaps. It provides a forum whereby refugees can feel “normal” and gain “dignity,” and cope with the long wait and the static transience of refugee life. Attaining normalcy and dignity through consumption may even enable structural stability amid the dangerous and volatile conditions of refugee settlements as well as mitigate the long‐term effects of relief‐induced agonism. Given these benefits, I stress the importance of further research into the complexities of refugee commerce and consumption for policy makers and relief workers.