Throughout, the border served as a conduit through which materials and information were exchanged and demonstrations were planned and carried out. Refugee homeland activists engaged in a range of repertoires to try to call attention to their plight. Kakarbhitta and the surrounding area also hosted up to 50 refugee organizations engaged in homeland activism-that is, collective efforts to try to enact change in the home country, which in this case, was Bhutan. These elements combined to produce porous borders for the population. Nearly all these refugees crossed through Kakarbhitta upon their arrival in Nepal, relying on a combination of physical ease-a bridge that connected both sides of the Mechi river-and political ease-a government in Nepal that was sympathetic to the refugees. To the west are the refugee camps-five dismantled and two still operating-that, since the early 1990s, have hosted a refugee population from Bhutan, which, at its apex, was more than 110,000 strong. To the east is the Mechi Bridge, over which one walks, bikes, or drives to enter India. Kakarbhitta is a border town in eastern Nepal with a bustling, energetic vibe, a noisy, crowded bus station, and numerous tea shops and ATMs. These mechanisms rely on the physical, social, and symbolic aspects of borderlands. Third, porosity improves the likelihood of relative resources into which activist refugees can tap. Second, porosity enables bi-directional flows of information that aid the work of documentation. First, porosity’s path dependence lays the groundwork for critical connections with activist affiliates. I identify three mechanisms through which porosity aids not only refugee movement but also refugee mobilization. In this article, I draw on borderland theories and empirical evidence from homeland activism carried out by Bhutan’s refugees to elucidate the ways that porosity and opportunity intersect. Key to the undertaking of these activities was the border’s porosity, which, I argue, is an overlooked opportunity structure in homeland activism.

It served as a conduit through which materials and information were exchanged and demonstrations were planned and carried out. For more than a decade, the India–Nepal border played a central role as a site of resistance for Bhutan’s refugees.

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