Beyond Cessation: Everyday Borders and Protracted Refugeehood Among Liberian Exemption Holders in Ghana

Abstract

The paper utilises everyday bordering scholarship to examine why Liberian refugees in Ghana deliberately sought exemption from the cessation of refugee status in 2012 and how they navigate everyday borders in Ghana. The paper is based on primary qualitative data collected through in-depth interviews and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings show that participants’ decisions to remain as refugees were influenced by multiple and interconnected factors, including unresolved trauma, fear of insecurity in post-conflict Liberia, fear of spiritual harm, loss of social networks and livelihoods, and concern about their children’s education and future. Although Ghana was regarded as more peaceful than Liberia, exemption holders still experienced structural, socio-economic, cultural, and social forms of everyday bordering, alongside psychological bordering associated with memories of violence and perceptions of insecurity in Liberia. Participants also demonstrated agency in navigating these everyday bordering processes through informal livelihoods, social networks, and transnational ties, among other means. The study argues that remaining a refugee was a deliberate, protective response to different forms of insecurity and uncertainty. By highlighting the experiences of exemption holders, the article contributes to scholarship on borders, refugee governance, and protracted refugeehood in the Global South.