To Build a Home: the Material Cultures, Gender Relations
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TO BUILD A HOME: THE MATERIAL CULTURES, GENDER RELATIONS AND THE CULTIVATION OF MEANING BY KAREN REFUGEES FROM BURMA EI PHYU SMITH A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN GEOGRAPHY YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO July 2015 © Ei Phyu Smith, 2015 Abstract This dissertation seeks to trouble the concept of home being rooted in one place by further understanding how refugees create a sense of belonging across their sites of displacement and settlement. Their mobility and flows consist of punctuated starts and stops and often a history of violence. It is from this past experience that they make new meanings in a new place of residence. Since the late 1980s Karen refugees from Burma have been seeking refuge along the Thai-Burma border region. They flee persecution and gendered violence at the hands of the central Burmese armed forces to be protected legally by international regulations and materially by international aid organizations. Though Thailand is not a signatory member of the 1951 UN Convention Relating to Refugees that would recognize these individuals as Convention refugees, the Thai State does allow them to live in camps with limited freedoms and rights. It is within this context that Karen refugees make a home through their material cultures and relationship to food. These practices are influenced by their power negotiations with various stakeholders and by gender relations. I argue that by analyzing these embodied practices on a smaller scale, we can glean new meanings of home, including the resistance to existing structural regulations, nuances and richness of everyday life while being displaced. It is precisely through the mundane rhythms of living that we learn of how issues such as loss, citizenship, renewal and dissatisfaction all participate in creating a place, a home, that is not rooted to a singular location but rather constructed and deconstructed through life and space. ii Acknowledgements In Burmese society teachers are held in high-esteem. They are included in daily prayers and are revered for offering knowledge. Thank you to my supervisor Dr. Robin Roth for providing so much more than that. Your unwavering support and belief in me was the foundation that helped me through this process. Above all, you’ve always had my best interests at heart and I am so grateful. I am forever indebted to my committee members Dr. Elizabeth Lunstrum and Dr. Jennifer Hyndman for fostering my critical lens and for pushing me to not be complacent or take things at face value. Thank you for helping me grow as an individual and for giving me this politics, which I will take with me always. Thank you to my mentors along the way, Dr. Susan McGrath and Dr. Katherine McKittrick who took the time to help me find my voice. Thank you especially to Katherine who helped a lost undergraduate build her confidence. Thank you Yvonne for always having our backs. Thank you to all of the women and men who shared their lives with me. Your strengths of character are beyond inspiring. Thank you to the staff members at the “women’s organization” I volunteered for without whom iii this project would not have been possible. To my sisters there, to love is to tease, naw? Thank you to my parents for their love, all of their sacrifices and being so brave in the face of uncertainty and difficult times. Thank you to my extended family and friends for all that you give so unconditionally. But especially, this is for Andrew and Caleb for making life oh so sweet. iv Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………..ii Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………iii Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………………v List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………………viii List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………………ix Map………………………………………………………………………………………………xi Beginning………………………………………………………………………………………..xii Chapter One: Introduction………………………………………………………………………..1 Positioning………………………………………………………………………………..1 Purpose……………………………………………………………………………………2 Political context…………………………………………………………………………..4 Canada: Policy framework……………………………………………………………….6 Places of transition: Thailand and Canada……………………………………………….10 Key frames……………………………………………………………………………….18 Research questions……………………………………………………………………….22 Chapter Two: Mobilities and the Creation of Place……………………………………………..23 Humanistic geography and place………………………………………………………..25 Challenges to the stable home……………………………………………………………29 Feeling at home…………………………………………………………………………..40 The making of home……………………………………………………………………..44 Shelter, food, borders…………………………………………………………………….46 a) Shelter…………………………………………………………………………46 b) Food…………………………………………………………………………..48 c) Borders and boundaries……………………………………………………….52 Chapter Three: The body and the field—Access, trust, identity…………………………………56 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………56 a) Objectivity/Subjectivity………………………………………………………..57 b) Reflexivity……………………………………………………………………..59 c) Positionality…………………………………………………………………..60 The “field”……………………………………………………………………………….61 Objectivity/Subjectivity: Access…………………………………………………………68 Reflexivity: Interaction…………………………………………………………………..75 Positionality: Sense of self……………………………………………………………….81 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….85 Positioning……………………………………………………………………………….86 v Chapter Four: Flows—The journey across multiple borders and the construction of home…….89 Positioning……………………………………………………………………………….89 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………90 Objective…………………………………………………………………………………93 Historical demarcation…………………………………………………………………..94 The crossing……………………………………………………………………………..96 Testing limits……………………………………………………………………………100 Power in confinement…………………………………………………………………..106 Other boundaries………………………………………………………………………..115 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………..125 Chapter Five: Shelter from—The material and affective creation of home……………………130 Positioning……………………………………………………………………………..130 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….130 Objective………………………………………………………………………………..133 Material meanings………………………………………………………………………134 Survival material………………………………………………………………..135 Politics of survival……………………………………………………………..137 Surviving elsewhere…………………………………………………………….148 Affective meanings……………………………………………………………………..154 Punctuated stops………………………………………………………………..154 To go away……………………………………………………………………..157 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………..165 Chapter Six: The taste of home—The material, social and symbolic roles of food in creating home………………………………………………………………………………..171 Positioning……………………………………………………………………………..171 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….171 Objective……………………………………………………………………………….173 Material: Food distribution and access…………………………………………………174 Social: Food as a way to create ‘home’………………………………………………..187 Symbolic: Food related to women and the management of refugees………………….192 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………..200 Chapter Seven: Conclusions……………………………………………………………………207 Positioning……………………………………………………………………………..207 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….208 Objective……………………………………………………………………………….209 Gender and transnationalism……………………………………………………………210 Gender and violence……………………………………………………………………212 Gender roles……………………………………………………………………………216 Assertions………………………………………………………………………………220 vi Approach………………………………………………………………………………220 Empirical support………………………………………………………………………221 Theoretical implications………………………………………………………………..223 Policy implications……………………………………………………………………..224 Shortcomings: Next time……………………………………………………………….226 Onwards………………………………………………………………………………..227 Literature Cited…………………………………………………………………………………235 vii List of Tables Table 3.1. Non-governmental organizations and key informant interviews conducted in Thailand from 2010-2011…………………………………………………….64 Table 3.2. The gender, age and number of individuals who participated in focus groups and semi- structured interviews in Thailand from 2010-2011 (n=50)…………………………………65 Table 3.3. The gender, age and number of individuals who participated in semi-structured interviews in Canada in 2011 (n=13)…………………………………………………………………..…66 Table 6.1. Food items in the ration package that is distributed by the Thai-Burma Border Consortium in 2010-2011 (TBBC)…………………………………..180 viii List of Figures 4.1. A neighbourhood of houses in Section B at Mae La Camp…………………………….127 4.2. Houses constructed of wood, bamboo and leaves near the highway in Mae La camp…128 4.3. Just as you pass the first check-point on the road into Mae La camp…………………..129 5.1. A house at Mae La camp fashioned of wood and bamboo for the main structure and leaves for the roof in Section A……………………………………………………………..169 5.2. A home with a small business on the main floor in Section B at Mae La camp……….170 6.1. A variety of vegetables are available at the market such as gourd, long beans, cucumbers and herbs………………………………………………………………………..204 6.2. Some families raise livestock on their assigned area of land…………………………..205 6.3. A store selling snacks, beverages and vegetables………………………………………206 7.1. Preparing to weave……………………………………………………………………..230 7.2. The tools involved with weaving………………………………………………………231 7.3. The result is an intricate and beautiful design………………………………………….232 ix 7.4. The artists take great pride in the practice and product………………………………..233 7.5. My second mother and my second home………………………………………………234 x FF IIII CC SS SS Field Information and Coordination Support Section Division of Operational Services Myanmar Thailand border