Embodied inhibition and hope in transit: a communibiological analysis of refugees in Indonesia

ASEAN countries function as temporary destinations for refugees from conflict-affected regions. Refugees residing in Indonesia as a transit country endure, interpret, and communicate trauma, religious and ethnic identities, and aspirations within everyday life. Grounded in the communibiological paradigm, particularly the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) and Behavioral Activation System (BAS), this study integrates neurobiological perspectives with ethnographic methods to analyze refugees’ communication patterns within prolonged liminality. Indonesia is conceptualized not merely as a geographic transit point but as a social space shaped by transnational migration, humanitarian governance, and global geopolitical forces. This research employs in-depth communication ethnography through interviews and participant observation among refugee communities in several Indonesian cities. Findings reveal that war-related trauma and restrictive legal status generate communicative inhibition, including heightened caution, limited self-disclosure, and vigilance, reflecting BIS activation under threat and uncertainty. At the same time, BAS activation emerges in expressions of hope, communal solidarity, engagement in education, and future-oriented aspirations, particularly regarding children and family. Here, communibiological scholarship in anthropology demonstrates that neurobiological responses are intertwined with social constructions and transnational experiences. The transit condition is thus understood as an affective and communicative space reconfiguring the relationship between body, emotion, and global structures in contemporary Asia.