UCLA

This project examines the Southeast Asian refugees, specifically Cambodian refugees, as they relate to both the imperial and carceral state. In examining both “oral hxstory” interviews from organizers within the Southeast Asian Freedom Network (SEAFN) and my own autoethnographic accounts of organizing, I argue that as a result of emerging neoliberal discourses Southeast Asian are deemed biopolitical formulated to be “Deportable-Refugees”. This thesis, thus, attempts to examine the conditions of Deportable-Refugees in order to explain the current neoliberal order and the hauntings of racial, colonial, and gendered discourses. This project draws from critical refugee studies, Southeast Asian/American Studies, Black Feminism, and queer theory in order to explain the emergence of the imperial carceral state.