“Wiping the Refugee Dust from My Feet”: Advantages and Burdens of Refugee Status and the Refugee Label
| Date | 01 February 2016 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12111 |
| Author | Bernadette Ludwig |
| Published date | 01 February 2016 |
“Wiping the Refugee Dust from My Feet”:
Advantages and Burdens of Refugee Status
and the Refugee Label
Bernadette Ludwig*
ABSTRACT
There are two dominant contrasting images of refugees in scholarship and popular discourse:
refugees as powerless victims or beneficiaries of generous welfare packages. While it is true that
an individual who enters the United States with legal refugee status has –at least at first glance –
many advantages over those arriving as immigrants. Unlike immigrants, refugees are entitled to
numerous government benefits, thus putting her or him in a privileged position compared to
those who lack the official status of refugee. On the other hand refugees’depiction as being need
of services and protection can also perpetuate an image of them as victims without agency. This
ethnographic study of Liberian refugees in Staten Island, New York shows how refugees them-
selves and their co-ethnics who are in the US under a variety of other legal statues regard the
term “refugee”. This paper establishes the advantages that are associated with the legal refugee
status and the burdens with the informal label “refugee”. This analysis will clarify how the legal
refugee status can be beneficial and the informal label refugee, burdensome not just for Liberian,
but for refugees in general and as such have significant policy implications.
INTRODUCTION
In 1992 when Mr Boykahi,
1
a 70-year old Liberian man, arrived in Staten Island, New York with
an immigrant visa, he was not able to bring his family, who were scattered throughout Liberia and
neighbouring countries because of the war. Once in the US and employed, he began to look for
ways to bring his relatives to New York. Some of his family members were registered refugees
2
with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Buduburam,
a refugee camp in Ghana.
While his family was in the refugee camp, Mr. Boykahi learnt from refugee aid workers about
the resettlement programme for Liberian refugees, and subsequently registered to sponsor his rela-
tives as refugees to the US. As part of the resettlement process, his family members in Ghana were
interviewed by US immigration authorities and had to prove, both that they were bona fide refugees
and Mr. Boykahi’s kin. After “passing”(sic) the interview, some of Mr. Boykahi’s family members
left Buduburam and returned to Liberia because the fighting had subsided in some areas. However,
once their time came to board a plane to the US the family members migrated again to Buduburam,
since eligibility for resettlement in the US was contingent upon their living in the refugee camp
and having no viable option of safe return to Liberia. When Boykahi’s relatives arrived in the
US they qualified for assistance through the US Resettlement Program. While they availed
* The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, New York.
doi: 10.1111/imig.12111
©2013 The Author
International Migration ©2013 IOM
International Migration Vol. 54 (1) 2016
ISSN 0020-7985Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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