Creating refugeescapes: Afghan refugee women’s strategies of surviving and thriving in Delhi

Abstract

In this article, I offer the concept of ‘refugeespace’ as a way of understanding Afghan refugee women’s homemaking practices in Delhi, India. Such practices unfold in various spaces–the domestic space/apartment, the refugee neighborhood, and the larger megacity–Delhi. I map ‘refugeescape’ through the social networks that Afghan refugee women create with one another, livelihood and leisure activities, and everyday socio-economic negotiations that knit the spaces of the domestic home, neighborhood, and city together. Tracing the spaces that constitute Afghan refugee women’s lives in Delhi in relation to each other, the constraints they impose, and the possibilities they offer point to how these spaces are a critical aspect of refugee women’s strategies of surviving and thriving as refugees in Delhi.