Future-making as a refugee in Turkey: containment, resettlement, and multiple futures

Abstract This article examines the dynamics of temporality and containment in the case of conditional refugees in Turkey awaiting resettlement to a third country. Currently, Turkey hosts approximately 300,000 conditional refugees and international protection applicants who are required to reside in provinces (“satellite cities”) designated by the immigration authority. Policies such as registration requirements, travel permits, and weekly reporting obligations prevent refugees from leaving these Turkish provinces, turning them into containment spaces where refugees spend extended periods of time awaiting resettlement. By analyzing the effects of such restrictive spatial and temporal limitations, the article explores the diverse futures and imaginations that emerge under conditions of such containment. Drawing on the anthropological concept of future-making, the article contends that refugees subvert, challenge, and counter-time the temporal (b)orders imposed by the resettlement scheme. Refugees continue to imagine and act upon multiple futures, depending on their specific circumstances. An analysis of the discrepancy between the anticipated future of resettlement and the stagnant present of containment provides a productive opportunity to examine the multiple experiences and imaginings of time, rhythm, and the future.