LIMBO · Liminal legality and the construction of belonging in the context of refugee bodies

The LIMBO project investigates how refugees construct belonging in host countries despite legal exclusion and rights deprivation. While dominant scholarship emphasizes state-centric politics of belonging, this research demonstrates that belonging operates as ‘a dynamic practice’ independent of formal legal recognition. Through innovative multi-sited ethnographic methodology across India and Bangladesh, LIMBO will analysis how Rohingya refugees in South Asia navigate exclusion through, what I conceptualize, 'selective invisibility' (SI) and 'strategic visibility' (SV) - practices that balance security imperatives with rights articulation. The project's theoretical innovation lies in reconceptualizing belonging from static legal designation to dynamic social practice, revealing the agency and creativity of marginalized communities in constructing alternative membership forms. LIMBO advances critical migration studies by bridging legal anthropology, refugee studies, and citizenship theory, while providing evidence-based insights for integration policies. The interdisciplinary approach combines ethnographic immersion, legal analysis, and comparative policy studies to produce transformative knowledge about belonging, legality, and human agency in displacement contexts. Expected outcomes include a theoretical framework applicable across displacement contexts globally, two peer-reviewed publications, at least five policy recommendations, and two workshops. This project addresses urgent questions about refugee integration, legal pluralism, and the future of citizenship in an era of mass displacement, contributing to both academic knowledge and practical policy solutions.