Occupied Refuge: Humanitarian Colonization and the Camp in Kenya

Author/Contributor(s):	Brankamp, Hanno
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Date:	02/17/2026
Binding:	Paperback
Condition:	NEW

In Occupied Refuge, Hanno Brankamp challenges the view of refugee camps as a indispensable safe havens. Drawing on fieldwork in Kenya's Kakuma camp, he shows that humanitarian missions often function as militarized occupations that treat camp inhabitants as colonized subjects. Brankamp argues that by co-managing these camps with international aid organizations, the Kenyan state becomes a willing accomplice in planetary humanitarian containment that seeks to pacify its own peripheral territories, securitize unwanted migrants, and impose national rule.