Navigating a Hostile Terrain: Refugees and Human Rights in Southeast Asia Pei Palmgren* People’s Empowerment Foundation Abstract Countries in Southeast Asia serve as origins, transit routes, and destinations for an increasing num- ber of refugees, asylum seekers, and other people displaced by conflict and persecution. In this article, I consider existing academic literature on refugees and forced migration and situate current trends and processes related to refugees in Southeast Asia within such work. I begin by surveying sociology material on refugees and forced migration processes in general, also drawing from related fields of human geography and interdisciplinary refugee studies. I then review current mixed migration trends and corresponding state responses in the context of globalization and contempo- rary conflict in Southeast Asia, placing refugee movements within this setting. Finally, using exam- ples from the region, I consider two rough areas of inquiry in need of further sociological exploration – (i) purposive transnational refugee actions and processes and (ii) the dynamic social spaces created and developed out of refugee migration. Human rights implications of these issues are considered throughout, and suggestions to reconsider human rights protection beyond nation- state-focused models are given. At the time of writing, immediately after Burma held its first national elections in 20 years, tens of thousands of Karen civilians poured into Mae Sot, Thailand on foot, escaping a new outbreak of clashes between Burmese troops and a faction of the Demo- cratic Karen Buddhist Army just across the western Thai border. This incident is the latest of several in recent years that have highlighted the fact that, while the mass exodus of Vietnamese and Cambodian civilians in the aftermath of the Vietnam War ceased dec- ades ago, Southeast Asia is still marked by varied and unresolved refugee 1 crises. Though with continued refugee migration throughout the region, along with growing attention of related human rights abuses highlighted by international media and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), there has been limited investigation into current refugee movements in Southeast Asia from the field of sociology, reflecting a relative dearth of sociological inquiry into refugee and forced migration processes, and their human rights implications, in general. This article considers existing academic literature on refugees and forced migration and situates contemporary refugee movements occurring within the context of globalization in Southeast Asia within such work. I begin by surveying sociology material on refugees and forced migration processes in general, also drawing from related fields of human geography and interdisciplinary refugee studies. Following Stephen Castles’ call to study forced migration as a social process occurring within broader contexts of social transfor- mation, I then review current mixed migration trends and corresponding state responses in Southeast Asia, placing refugee movements within this setting. Finally, using examples from the region, I consider two rough areas of inquiry in need of further sociological Sociology Compass 5/5 (2011): 323–335, 10.1111/j.1751-9020.2011.00367.x ª 2011 The Author Sociology Compass ª 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd