Liberation in Transit: An Unending Longing for Home

The dominant narrative within migration studies often focuses on the linear journey toward a final destination, often overlooking the liminal existence of transit migrants—those who are stuck in an unfamiliar place with nowhere to go and no possibility of returning home. Drawing from Homi Bhabha’s concept of sly civility and James Scott’s notion of hidden transcripts, I argue that transit migrants are not passive victims but agents of resistance. This paper explores how transit migrants negotiate power and enact resistance within a liminal temporality. Their existence, and their split identity, offer a vivid challenge to the system that renders them invisible. Aware of their powerlessness, their resistance often takes subtle forms. These indirect acts of resistance become vehicles of critique used by the powerless while allowing them to remain anonymous.