‘We Have to Think Out of the Box They Put Us in’: A Collective Narrative Study of Refugee and Asylum Seeker Subjectivities in South Africa

Forced displacement is often framed through dehumanising and pathologising narratives that portray refugees as passive victims or perceived threats, obscuring their agency and lived complexity. This qualitative research–intervention explores the everyday experiences of refugees and asylum seekers living in South Africa through a collective narrative approach grounded in the Tree of Life methodology. Conducted in collaboration with a community-based psychosocial NGO in Cape Town, the study involved 20 adult participants with refugee status or active asylum claims. Data were generated through collective narrative workshops and analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Findings identify six interrelated themes spanning traumatic and life storylines, including identity, family legacies, gender, structural and legal constraints, faith, and the reclamation of knowledge and professional identities. Together, these themes show how violence and legal precarity coexist with practices of meaning-making, dignity, resistance and collective care. In particular, findings highlight how participants actively challenge imposed categories of identity and marginalisation, reclaiming the value of their knowledge, skills, and lived experience and challenging the deficit-oriented representations of people with a history of forced migration.