Rice, Slippers, Bananas and Caneball: Children's Narratives of Internal Displacement and Forced Migration from Burma

In: Global studies of childhood: GSC, Band 1, Heft 2, S. 104-119

Abstract

This article provides an account of internal displacement and forced migration from the viewpoint of children living in a refugee camp in Thailand. Using photographs they created and narratives they related, the children represented concepts of structural violence, poverty, food security, school, peer relationships and play and articulated how these were woven into their lived experience. The study reveals how the children constantly make sense of everyday life in a refugee camp with reference to the lives they led in Burma. This draws our attention to the way in which the emotional and cognitive connections they make structure their experience and adds to an understanding of children's perspectives of displacement that goes beyond quantitative indicators.