“I am both a refugee and an East African citizen, but I decide which one I am, depending on where I am”: Category-traversing among refugees in Mwiki Estate, Nairobi.
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Nairobi, this article argues that East African refugees strategically navigate contradictory national and regional policies by fluidly traversing multiple legal and social categories—such as citizen, refugee, and trader—to secure mobility rights within the East African Community.
Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer
In the complex world of migration, governments often try to sort people into neat boxes. A person is either a refugee, fleeing danger and needing protection, or a migrant, moving for work or opportunity. These labels are not just names; they are keys that unlock or lock doors. A refugee might be allowed to stay in a specific camp but forbidden from traveling to a city, while a citizen of a regional bloc might travel freely across borders without a visa. For a long time, researchers and policymakers have treated these categories as fixed, assuming that once a person is labeled, they stay that way. However, the reality of life on the move is rarely so simple. People often find themselves in situations where the rules contradict each other, or where one label offers safety while another offers freedom. Understanding how people navigate these conflicting systems is crucial because it reveals how human beings adapt to survive and thrive when the laws around them are unclear or changing.
This is the story of a group of people living in Mwiki Estate, a low-income neighborhood in Nairobi, Kenya, who have learned to move between these boxes. The research, conducted by anthropologist Felicity Atieno Okoth, focuses on Congolese and Burundian migrants, many of whom hold refugee status in Kenya but are also citizens of the East African Community (EAC). The EAC is a regional group that allows its citizens to travel freely across member countries without visas. Kenya, however, has strict rules for refugees, often confining them to camps and requiring special permits to leave. This creates a confusing landscape where a person can be legally a refugee in one context and a free-traveling citizen in another. Okoth spent fifteen months living among these families, listening to their stories and watching how they managed their daily lives, their jobs, and their families.
The central discovery of this work is that these individuals do not simply accept the single label the government assigns them. Instead, they actively choose which identity to wear, depending on where they are and what they need to do. Okoth calls this process "category traversing." It is a strategic way of moving through a bureaucratic system that tries to keep people in one place. For example, a man named Mwamba, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, held a national passport that allowed him to travel freely across East Africa as a citizen. Yet, he kept his family in a refugee camp to maintain their eligibility for resettlement to a third country. Mwamba would travel to Nairobi to visit them, using his passport to bypass the strict movement permits required of camp residents, while his family remained in the camp to keep their refugee benefits. He was both a refugee and a citizen, switching between the two roles to secure the best possible future for his family.
This ability to switch identities is not available to everyone in the same way. The research shows that it depends heavily on a person's resources, such as money, education, language skills, and social connections. Mwamba could do this because he had savings, spoke multiple languages, and had a network of friends who could help him navigate the system. Another man, Laurent, a teacher from Burundi, worked in Nairobi while his wife and children stayed in a refugee camp. He used his refugee status to ensure his family received free healthcare and food aid, while his own job as a teacher and his Burundian passport allowed him to move freely to support them. In contrast, a woman named Maisha, who lacked the same language skills and financial resources, felt too unsafe to travel between the camp and the city. She stayed put, trapped by the very system that offered her family protection. The study makes it clear that while the system is rigid, the people living within it find ways to bend it, but only if they have the tools to do so.
The paper also highlights how these choices are shaped by the uncertainty of the future. The political landscape in Kenya and the wider region is volatile. Governments threaten to close camps, and international funding can disappear overnight. Because of this, people like Mwamba and another man named Felix do not just plan for today; they plan for a future that might not exist. Felix, who had been detained and sent to a camp, eventually returned to his home country in the Congo to try his luck there, while leaving his wife and children in Kenya to keep their refugee status. He was constantly assessing the risks, ready to move again if the situation changed. This constant state of planning and re-planning is not a sign of confusion, but a rational response to a world where the rules can change without warning.
The research challenges the idea that refugees are passive victims waiting for help. Instead, it shows them as active agents who make calculated decisions to navigate a contradictory system. They use the tools available to them, whether it is a national passport, a refugee ID card, or a family member's job, to create a life that is more secure than the law intends. The study suggests that the tension between national laws that restrict movement and regional agreements that encourage it creates a space where people can maneuver. However, this maneuvering is not a magic trick that solves all problems. It is a difficult, exhausting effort that requires capital and risk. For those without these resources, the categories remain fixed, and their mobility remains limited.
Ultimately, the paper argues that we need to stop seeing refugees and migrants as static categories. People are fluid, and their identities change based on where they are and what they need. By understanding how people like Mwamba, Felix, and Laurent move between being a refugee, a citizen, a worker, and a trader, we gain a clearer picture of how migration actually works in East Africa. It is a story of people finding ways to live in the gaps between laws, using every advantage they can find to protect their families and build a future, even when the path ahead is uncertain. The research does not claim that this system is fair or that everyone can succeed in it. Rather, it documents the ingenuity required to survive within a system that often tries to keep people in one place, showing that human resilience often finds a way to move forward, one step at a time.
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