The refrigerator will stay: Sahrawi youth and the tensions of future immobility

Link to view the recorded seminar here: Randi Irwin Seminar 

Password: 8zSy.!h1

ABSTRACT

This seminar examines the centrality of credit and capital in the context of the Sahrawi struggle for the decolonization of Western Sahara. From exile in self-managed refugee camps in Algeria, Sahrawi refugees and the Sahrawi state seek to build transferrable skills that further their preparation for sovereignty in anticipation of a return home. The Sahrawi state-in-exile participates in future-based markets in natural resource extraction to build evidence of the state’s trustworthiness as an economic partner through the development of legal, political, and economic practices that are seen as necessary for sovereignty. For other Sahrawi refugees, however, notions that credit may serve as a pathway for liberated, sovereign futures abuts their experiences of credit as entrenching immobility within the refugee camps. For youth in particular, the focus on preparing and building their skills through university degrees and work…