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This paper examines the resettlement of refugees from Burma/Myanmar to the United
States, by focusing on the refugee experience. The ethnographic description of the
resettlement process reveals how refugees, by establishing a transnational “Myanmar”
community in the United States, manifested a nationalism that was hitherto believed to be
impossible.
Building a nation-state in Burma/Myanmar has been a controversial issue since the
nation’s independence from the British in 1948. Callahan argues that the process of state
building in Burma has focused on warfare and violence by the state. After independence,
the national army or Tatmadaw regarded citizens as potential enemies, and conducted
various anti-insurgency campaigns. Her argument richly elucidates the state-building
process in Burma/Myanmar. However, though the Nation and the State are inseparable, her
arguments exclude the nation-building process. This paper explores one aspect of
belonging to the nation of “Myanmar.”
While state building is one of the most important tasks for a country following ethnic
conflict, it is often analyzed only within the context of resistance movements, such as
“Burmanization” by the government or resistance movements against it. Hence, the possibilities for actual nation building have not yet been explored. The experiences of
refugees outside the country offer a new and useful perspective for such a discussion.
Refugees may no longer legally belong to their country of origin, yet their existence
expresses the core essence of the nation they come from.
The case study dealt with in this paper focuses on Karenni refugees from the Kayah
State, which is the smallest state in Burma. In the Kayah State, the Karenni National
Progressive Party (KNPP) has been resisting the Burmese ruling military junta for more
than 60 years, seeking either autonomy or independence from the state. The KNPP
strategically have used the word “Karenni” as an umbrella term that includes all ethnic
groups in Kayah State, in order to resist the Burma-centric state. The ex-chairman of the
KNPP, namely Khu Hte Bu Pe, invented a “Karenni” script for the sake of the core spirit of
his nation. Two refugee camps in Thailand were centers of KNPP politics in order to
construct the “Karenni”, and “Karenni” has been an anti-state term, with its use being
prohibited inside Burma by the junta. The category of “Karenni” or “Karenni” identity was
constructed as a refugee concept in Thailand. This paper discusses the further transnational
spread of “Karenni” through the resettlement of refugees to a third country, while also
considering the meaning of Burma and Myanmar for those resettled refugees...
