Mobile Refugee: Rohingya Refugees’ Practices of Imaginary Citizenship in Klang Valley, Malaysia

Abstract

In this age of border securitization, mobility has largely been discussed as a privilege accorded to citizens. The assumption is that refugees or undocumented persons are usually denied such mobility. The management and surveillance of refugees through documentation processes by both the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the host country further obstruct their freedom. However, in Malaysia, urban and mobile Rohingya refugees disrupt the linkage between citizenship and mobilities. In fact, being conferred refugee status in Malaysia has made Rohingyas relatively more mobile than they had been previously in Myanmar or Bangladesh’s refugee camps. Drawing from fieldwork in Klang Valley from 2017 to 2019, I propose the concept of “mobile refugee” to rethink mobility and citizenship. I argue that Rohingya refugees practice “imaginary citizenship” as a form of political participation to claim their rights with the aid of the UN refugee card. This article highlights the need to reinterpret mobility by situating it in the dynamics of citizenship practices of refugees and their engagement with documents as they seek to imagine and invent their future aspirations of becoming political subjects.