Extralegal Practices of Afghan Refugees in Iran: Exploring Feminist Transnationalism and Immigration Theories

A growing trend in population movement is transnationalism in which immigrants move between communities in host and home countries. Most research on transnationalists has focused on affluent immigrants engaging in global economy from the above and in the North. Transnational feminist narrative of agency allows that both licit and illegal activities practiced by marginalized communities of the South make a significant contribution to the global economy from below. A case study of Afghan refugee families in Iran revealed that their movement into Iran, another less developed country, resembles the immigration and integration of ethnic workers into advanced industrial countries. Their narratives uncovered a pattern of transnationalism crossing townships in Iran, refugee camps in Pakistan, and communities in Afghanistan. Transnational feminist’s interrogation of global capitalism delivers analytical flexibility to investigate multi-dimensional aspects of border crossing. It alerts us to many ways that globalism exploits; and verity of ways that people of the South maneuver and subvert its forces to claim identity and agency