Secular and Religious Sanctuaries: Interfaces of Humanitarianism and Self-Government of Karen Refugee-Migrants in Thai-Burmese Border Spaces

Abstract

The paper looks at the entanglement of humanitarian organizations, secular and religious, with social support networks and the role of these networks for the survival, protection, and conflict avoidance of Karen villagers in devastated eastern Burma.¹ This critical perspective on a public space for Karen refugees, humanitarianism from below, or self-government can be fruitfully compared and juxtaposed with the recent work of James C. Scott in which he follows up an old interest in power, domination, and the arts of resisting the repressive state (1990, 2009).² In following up religious missionary and secular human rights humanitarian structures in the borderlands, I hope to cover structures of power that otherwise would remain largely invisible, operating as they do under the radar of the state. The chapter also argues against a too neat distinction between the secular and the religious, as both spaces are overlapping in humanitarian assistance from below.