Mapping The Natrratives Of Discrimination On Quota Based System For Kashmiri Refugees Of 1989

Abstract

This study examines the lived experiences and narratives of post-1989 Kashmiri refugees in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) in relation to the state's quota-based integration policies. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews with 32 refugee families, the research maps the contradictions between state-led affirmative action and the everyday discrimination faced by refugees. While quota policies were introduced to facilitate socio-economic inclusion through reserved educational and employment opportunities, their uneven implementation has fostered new forms of marginalization—both within refugee communities and between refugees and local populations. The paper demonstrates how refugees are both integrated and marginalized, both acknowledged and at the same time politically uprooted, as a result of the theoretical approaches on refugee studies and the critical state theory. These results lead to the redesign of the policy of quotas where they do not belong to the bureaucratic realm of counting but equity-based solutions driven by recognition, dignity, and participatory change.