Navigating the Global Refugee Regime: Law, Myth, Story

This article engages in a cultural study of refugee law “from below,” that is, from the perspective of refugees. Bringing to bear insights from critical refugee studies, I argue that today’s global refugee regime is a gatekeeping apparatus that protects Global North wealth and borders, though this function is masked by humanitarian narratives. UNHCR articles and Mohsin Hamid’s novel Exit West, while contrasting examples, both demonstrate the fraught primacy of story in refugee law and politics. Refugee discourses proceed through navigational storytelling, as authors encounter, name, reframe, dodge, and challenge prevailing myths that paint the regime as care.