Notions of Belonging for Working Rohingya Boys in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh

Abstract:Studies examining the lives of working refugee children are scarce, even as the number of refugee children rises globally. Much scholarly work has examined the political nature of the Rohingya refugee crisis, but studies with Rohingya children, especially outside of camp settings, are rare. This study is a point of entry into this unexplored topic, highlighting Rohingya boys' work experiences in the dry fish fields in Kutubdiapara, a village in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, and also their negotiation of belonging in such contexts. The article aims to provide insight into the following questions: What is the context of working Rohingya boys in the dry fish fields, and how do they negotiate belonging in the geographical spaces of rural Cox's Bazar, spaces that have been determined by official processes to be illegitimate and bereft of rights? The article is based on data derived from a larger ethnographic study on child labor and schooling at an urban and a rural site in Bangladesh. The ethnographic fieldwork, using semistructured interviews, conversations, and participant observation, took place between June 2017 and January 2018. The findings reveal that working Rohingya children experience belonging as dialogic encounters to make meaning of their lived experiences. The findings emphasize that Rohingya working children's perception of their work and schooling opportunities and their notions of belonging in illegitimate spaces are connected through ways that can facilitate autonomy, competence, and agency, through dialogic encounters of the self and the other. This research further grounds the scholarly community's understanding of an understudied group of children and provides insight for practitioners' implementation of successful programs for these children.