A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos,
University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit
www.luminosoa.org to learn more.
In a world increasingly shaped by displacement and migration, refuge is
both a coveted right and an elusive promise for millions of people.
While refuge is conventionally understood as legal protection, it also
transcends narrow judicial definitions. In Lived Refuge, Vinh Nguyen
reconceptualizes refuge as an ongoing affective experience and lived
relation, rather than a fixed category whose legitimacy is derived from
the state.
Focusing on Southeast Asian diasporas that formed in the wake of the
Vietnam War, Nguyen examines three affective experiences--gratitude,
resentment, and resilience--to reveal the actively lived dimensions of
refuge. Through multifaceted analyses of literary and cultural
productions, Nguyen argues that the meaning of refuge emerges from how
displaced people negotiate the kinds of "safety" and "protection" that
are offered to (and withheld from) them. In doing so, he lays the
framework for an original and compelling understanding of contemporary
refugee subjectivity.