This paper critically examines the recent deportation of resettled Bhutanese refugees in the United States (U.S.) through theoretical lenses of Mbembe’s necropolitics, Foucault’s biopolitics, Agamben’s sovereign power, and Arendt’s right to have rights. It argues that U.S. immigration and deportation policies, particularly those enacted in March 2025, function as instruments of state power that criminalize, marginalize, and render refugees socially and politically disposable, producing social death, statelessness, and profound psychological trauma. Focusing on resettled Bhutanese Americans – originally expelled from Bhutan in the 1990s and later resettled in the United States, this article demonstrates how legal frameworks can mask structural violence and human rights violations. The deportation of legally resettled Bhutanese refugees rendered them stateless once more as they were forcibly rerouted to Bhutan and then escorted to India and eventually to refugee camps in Nepal. This experience of Bhutanese refugees exposes the ethical failures of contemporary immigration regimes. The authors call for immigration policies grounded in human rights, dignity, and social justice, especially for displaced and vulnerable populations whose belonging remains conditional and precarious.
Reference
Chamlagai, K. L., Khatiwada, K., Karki, K. K., Sudarshan P. (2026). Deportation after resettlement: The conditional belonging of Bhutanese Americans in the United States. Transformative Social Work Journal. https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/tsw/article/view/82007