Physical immobility and virtual mobility: Mediating everyday life from a Karen refugee camp in Thailand

Abstract

This article reflects on how offline and online everyday life coexists for encamped, young Karen living in protracted displacement. As part of the special issue ‘Cultures of (im)mobile entanglements’, edited by Earvin Cabalquinto and Koen Leurs, I centre the voices of young Karen living in Mae La refugee camp in Thailand and unpack how personal and social relationships are built and maintained physically in the camp, as well as in digitally mediated spaces. I focus on the tensions of (im)mobility and how life and presence were mediated before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. I emphasise the influence of culture, society, and infrastructure on my participants’ living trajectories and find how social media expands their lived reality far beyond the confinement of the camp.

Cultures of (im)mobile entanglements

“…In the sixth article, Charlotte Hill (2023) charts the everyday lived, digital and cultural practices of young Karen living in Mae Lae refugee camp in Thailand. Prior to the pandemic, Hill conducted ethnographic research in the camp, allowing her to capture the robust cultural activities in the market, shops, schools, and religious institutions.…”