Research –
Book Project

The Displaced: Race, Refugees, and Ambivalence under Capitalism (Under Contract - Cornell University Press)

My book aims to answer a relatively straightforward question: how are refugees governed under capitalism in this heightened moment of global displacement? To answer this question, I take a dual case study approach by exploring three dimensions of refugee survival: shelter, work, and political belonging in Paris and Nairobi. In doing this, my book attempts to make sense of a global refugee regime which treats refugees as passive receipients of aid amidst widespread xenophobia and anti-migrant sentiment in the European Union and East Africa. As such, I aim to understand the interelated and overlapping features of refugee governance in seemingly disparate places. This book engages with theories of racial capitalism, social reproduction, and labour politics in relation to welfare retrenchement, right-wing populism, and everyday forms of exlcusion. 

---

Peer Reviewed Articles

Bhagat, A. (Accepted). “Queer Global Displacement: Social Reproduction, Refugee Survival and Organized Abandonment in Nairobi, Cape Town, and Paris”. Antipode

Bhagat, A., & Phillips, R. “The Techfare State: Debt, Discipline, and Accelerate Neoliberalism”. New Political Economy
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13563467.2022.2147494?src=

Bhagat, A.  “Governing Refugees in Raced Markets: Displacement and Disposability from Europe’s Frontier to the Streets of Paris”. Review of International Political Economy. 29 (3): 955-978.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09692290.2020.1844781

2021

Bhagat, A.  “Displacement in ‘Actually Existing’ Racial Neoliberalism: Refugee Governance in Paris”. Urban Geography. 42 (5): 635-653.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02723638.2019.1659689

Bhagat, A. “Experimental Financial Inclusion as Refugee Management: Shelter Insecurities at the Bottom of the Pyramid in Kenya”. International Journal of Housing Policy. 21 (4): 484-504.
^{https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19491247.2020.1818051}

Bhagat, A and Roderick, L. “Banking on Refugees: Spaces of Inclusion and Exclusion in the Fintech Era.” Environment and Planning A. DOI: 10.1177/0308518X20904070 (Contribution: 50 percent) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0308518X20904070

Bhagat, A. “Governing Refugee Disposability: Neoliberalism and Survival in Nairobi” New Political Economy: 25:3 pp. 439-452.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13563467.2019.1598963

Bhagat, A and Soederberg, S. “Placing Refugees in Authoritarian Neoliberalism: Reflections from Berlin and Paris.” South Atlantic Quarterly:  Jamie Peck and Nik Theodore (eds.):  Spring 118:2
(Contribution: 50 percent)
https://read.dukeupress.edu/south-atlantic-quarterly/article-abstract/118/2/421/138020/Placing-Refugees-in-Authoritarian-Neoliberalism

Bhagat, A.“Queer Necropolitics of Forced Displacement: Cyclical Violence in the African Context.” Sexualities: 23:3 pp. 351-375
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1363460718797258

Bhagat, A. “Forced (Queer) Migration and Everyday Violence: The Geographies of Life, Death, and Access in Cape Town.” Geoforum: 89 (February) pp. 155-163
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016718517302294

Bhagat, A., & Soederberg, S. (In press) “Chapter 14: The political economy of displacement governance: the case of refugees in the European Union”. In Bill Dunn (eds). A Research Agenda for Critical Political Economy. Edward Elgar: London

Bhagat, A, Sharma, S, and Tawakkol, L. (In press) “Governing the Displaced: Contradictory Constellations of Actors, Ideas, and Strategies.” In Mike Dolton, Pete Adey, Janet Bowsted Katherine Brickell, Vandana Desai, Alasdair Pinkerton and Aysha Siddiqi (eds.). Handbook of Displacement. Palgrave: London.
(Contribution: 33 percent)

Davids, D., Verway, L., Bhagat, A., and Onuoha, G. “Community Advice Offices: Taking Charge in Marginalized Communities” in Daniel Plaatjies, Charles Hongoro, Margaret Chitiga-Mabugu, Thenjiwe Meyiwa and Muxe Nkondo (eds). State of the Nation 2016 (Chapter 11). HSRC Press: Pretoria
(Contribution: 25 percent)

Bhagat, A. (Under Review). Chapter 13 - Political Economy of Development in Global Political Economy (7th edition) edited by Erin Hannah and John Ravenhill. Oxford University Press