Keywords in refugee and migration studies tell us of the broader dynamics of social, economic, political, and legal marginalisation of groups of populations and maintenance of the conditions of these ever-continuing marginalities. Spatial-territorial marginalisation with consequences for human life tells us further of the grey and at times black areas of the global time. The situation has produced words that have significance as contested meanings. They indicate a network of significations, and the invisible, but real social relations of power, exploitation, and precarious mode of life. Some words are keys to this larger understanding because their birth carries stories of contests. These words carry such stories of lives beyond words. Words can be only gestures towards those lives and that is why words become keys to that larger world. Indeed, experiences tell us of words as powerful gestures. Yet, it is important to remember, as much as the hidden realities produce words, words too, in turn, produce new contests. Scholars have shown how these keywords are subjects of this double play of reality and the active life of words.