My research has been driven by a deep interest in understanding the paradoxes of refugee governance and refugees’ lived experiences in navigating them. I approach the category of ‘refugee’ not simply as an administrative label, but as a mirror that reflects the internal and international organising of nation-states. Through my research I investigate how policies and practices that care for and govern refugees offer insights to the political and moral orderings of the societies that host them. Combining ethnography and critical discourse studies, I draw connections between people’s experiences with displacement to broader questions of belonging, mobility, and humanitarian reason.