Spatial Confinement and the Architecture of Control: Analyzing Refugee Camps as Instruments of Border Management and Racialized Urban Exclusion
The following text is a writing sample from my graduate thesis on the architectures of migration. I analyze how camps, shelters, and bordering technologies operate as instruments of βremote control,β rooted in Necropolitics that regulate Black refugees' visibility, access, and movement. Using spatial analysis, policy forensics, and interviews, the thesis connects design decisions to lived consequences in and around sites such as Dadaab and Kakuma. The excerpt illustrates my approach: theory-grounded, empirically sourced, and oriented toward planning ethics and policy. Citations have been retained where helpful; sensitive details are de-identified when necessary.
Stack: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Google Earth, Microsoft Excel
Methodology/ Data & Approach:
Mixed-methods design combining spatial analysis and qualitative inquiry; Global Migration Portal datasets augmented by desk research and a targeted literature review; semi-structured original and curated secondary interviews (public recordings/transcripts); text and data mining of reports/news to derive events, policies, and timelines; satellite-imagery interpretation with manual digitization in Google Earth; cross-source triangulation and de-identification to ensure validity and ethics.
Current East African Migrants Starting Points and First Stops before arriving in Kakuma and Dadaab Refugee camps.