Independent refugee youth in waiting Social navigations while in transit in Indonesia

This dissertation is about the social navigations of independent refugee youth as they maneuver uncertainties while waiting in transit in Indonesia. I aim to answer the question of how independent refugee youth exercise active waiting while transiting in Indonesia. In this dissertation, the concept of social navigation is employed to explain how agents “seek to move within the social terrain and are moved by the social terrain”. This concept helps us to analyze the constant changes in young people’s agency, as well as to investigate the interface – which is always in flux – between individual agency and multi-layered social environments. To illustrate the diversity and complexity of young people’s social navigations within the many forms of waiting, I outline their daily movements as they navigate four main arenas: refugee status determination and humanitarian assistance; livelihood and economic opportunities; social networks; and global youth culture. I argue that while they are “stuck in transit” in Indonesia, young people also manage to keep exercising agency, not only by performing single linear maneuvers but also by engaging in multidirectional movements in multi-layered arenas and social environments. Furthermore, to advance the academic debate on the agency-vulnerability spectrum of many forms of social navigations, I also highlight a particular aspect of the social navigations of independent refugee youth, namely the “production of vulnerability”. In doing so, I answer the related question of why vulnerability is important for young people’s social navigations in transit.