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‘Mobile transmigrants’ or ‘unsettled returnees’? myth of return and permanent resettlement among Senegalese migrants
Based on ethnographic research conducted among Senegalese migrants in the home country and in Italy, this paper demonstrates the existence, the logics, and functioning of a transmigrant movement made of people who are regular ‘comers and goers’ between Africa and…
Humanitarian tropes in the Casamance: presumptions about gender-based violence in conflict and displacement contexts
The chapter examines changes and social consolidations of traditional gender roles and relations in the Casamance against the backdrop of the ongoing conflict. It contrasts humanitarian assessments that assume a general weakening of the position of women in such contexts…
Errance and Elsewheres among Africans Waiting to Restart Their Journeys in Dakar, Senegal
This article analyzes the experience of Africans stranded in Dakar, Senegal, halfway through their intended journeys out of the continent.
Displacement in Casamance, Senegal: lessons (hopefully) learned, 2000–2019
The paper reflects on fieldwork conducted since 2000 with displaced communities in Lower and Middle Casamance, Senegal, amid West Africa’s arguably longest running civil conflict. While this is a small conflict in a geographically confined space, Casamance presents a microcosm…
Displacement at seascapes: Senegalese fishermen in between state power and foreign fleets
Through semi-structured interviews with Senegalese fishermen, this article examines their displacement following the depletion of fishing stocks in Senegalese waters owing to the activities of European and Asian industrial fleets over the last two decades.
Conserving Nature, Transforming Authority: Eviction and Development at the Margins of the State The Niokolo-Koba National Park, Senegal
This dissertation examines two distinct but interrelated processes of displacement experienced by the evictees of the Niokolo-Koba National Park, based on fieldwork (2004-2005) in the Tambacounda region of South-Eastern Senegal.
Research paper
Hiding in plain sight: IDP’s protection strategies after closing Juba’s protection of civilian sites
When civil war broke out in South Sudan in 2013, people from the Nuer minority ethnic group became targeted by government forces and sought protection in United Nations peace-keeping bases which expanded and became known as Protection of Civilian sites…
Policy document
South Sudan Spontaneous Refugee Returnees December 2021
This overview from UNHCR and the South Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) presents details about the state of South Sudanese refugees in the region, and specifically, about their patterns of returnees in late 2021.
Research paper
Motherhood and Social Repair after War and Displacement in Northern Uganda
This article considers the relationship between processes of return after mass displacement, and social repair. We look to the everyday as a space of negotiation and renegotiation of social relationships that make life meaningful. The article considers these propositions in…
Research paper
Developing strategies to address barriers for tuberculosis case finding and retention in care among refugees in slums in Kampala, Uganda: a qualitative study using the COM-B model
Globally, displaced populations face an increased burden of tuberculosis (TB). Uganda is currently hosting unprecedented big numbers of refugees from the East African region. This study aimed at exploring the barriers to and facilitators for TB case finding and retention…
Research paper
Access to HIV/AIDS or TB care among refugees in Kampala, Uganda: exploring the enablers and barriers during the COVID-19 pandemic
The rapid spread of COVID-19 overwhelmed existing health care systems, finding it challenging to provide essential health services besides the COVID-19 response interventions. Refugees are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic because of the barriers they face to access health…
Research paper
A trans-scalar approach to peacebuilding and transitional justice: Insights from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Drawing on qualitative data from more than a year of research in the DRC, I argue that while a trans-scalar approach was taken to end violence, it was not applied to transitional justice initiatives. The result was a negative, rather…
Research paper
Mixed-methods findings from the Ngutulu Kagwero (agents of change) participatory comic pilot study on post-rape clinical care and sexual violence prevention with refugee youth in a humanitarian setting in Uganda
There is a dearth of evidence-based post-rape clinical care interventions tailored for refugee adolescents and youth in low-income humanitarian settings. Comics, a low-cost, low-literacy and youth-friendly method, integrate visual images with text to spark emotion and share health-promoting information.
Research paper
Why local concepts matter: Using cultural expressions of distress to explore the construct validity of research instruments to measure mental health problems among Congolese women in Nyarugusu refugee camp
This mixed-methods study presents an innovative additional method for assessing the local “cultural fit” of globally used tools for measuring mental health in cross-cultural research.
Research paper
Pragmatic Mobilities and Uncertain Lives: Agency and the Everyday Mobility of South Sudanese Refugees in Uganda
This article investigates the pragmatic, everyday journeys of South Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda’s Palabek Refugee Settlement through a mobilities-focused analytical lens. Despite the repatriation of vast numbers of refugees, little is known about the diversity of refugees’ later movements.…
Research paper
The Asylum-Migration Nexus: Can Motivations Shape The Concept Of Coercion? The Sudanese Transit Case
This piece discusses forced migration from a multidisciplinary approach.
Research paper
Protection and well-being of adolescent refugees in the context of a humanitarian crisis: Perceptions from South Sudanese refugees in Uganda
Improved understanding of refugees’ perceptions of provision of humanitarian support is important to improve design and delivery of humanitarian assistance. Refugee adolescents face a range of adversities, while the phase of displacement likely influences risk factors for adolescent refugees. However,…
Research paper
Engaging refugee women and girls as experts: co-creating evidence on sexual exploitation and abuse in humanitarian crises using creative, participatory methods
This paper explores how creative and participatory practices can address the barriers, such as illiteracy (including computer illiteracy) and lack of training, often cited as limiting researchers’ ability to share power with affected communities, and allow for greater co-production of…
Research paper
Is translocality a hidden solution to overcome protracted displacement in the DR Congo?
Policy makers and practitioners usually focus on three durable solutions for IDPs to overcome protracted displacement; return, resettlement and local integration. Based on empirical realities, this paper asks to what extent translocality can be seen as another solution. Drawing on…
Research paper
‘When the World Turns Upside Down, Live Like a Bat!’ Idioms of Suffering, Coping, and Resilience among Elderly Female Zande Refugees in Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement, Uganda (2019-20)
This paper draws on ethnographic research with South Sudanese Zande refugees in Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement, Uganda, to show a different and often overlooked perspective; that of elderly refugee women. Having lived through decades of war and displacement, these women have…
Research paper
Sexual violence against men in conflict and post-conflict settings: A qualitative research methodology
This article describes the research design and the strategies employed in qualitative research with South Sudanese male refugee survivors of sexual violence who have resettled in two communities in Uganda since the onset of the 2013 South Sudan conflict.
Research paper
Relational Factors and HIV Testing Practices: Qualitative Insights from Urban Refugee Youth in Kampala, Uganda
This paper explores perspectives, experiences, and preferences for social support in HIV testing among refugee youth aged 16–24 in Kampala, Uganda.
Research paper
Water insecurity and sexual and gender-based violence among refugee youth: qualitative insights from a humanitarian setting in Uganda
This paper argues that youth and communities should be meaningfully engaged in developing contextually relevant, gender transformative services to mitigate SGBV risks and advance health and rights.
Research paper
Repatriation of South Sudanese refugees from the West Nile districts, Uganda. What do we learn from the process?
The paper highlights the fundamental steps followed during a well-planned, structured, and effective repatriation of South Sudanese refugees from Uganda. Understanding repatriation requires an appreciation of how it is implemented to support offering an effective, durable, and lasting solution to…
Research paper
Participating in Development? Refugee protection, politics and developmental approaches to refugee management in Uganda
This article examines an attempt by the government of Uganda and UNHCR to implement a developmental ‘Self Reliance Strategy’ in response to the needs of 188 ,000 long-term Sudanese refugees and their hosts in Uganda, and analyses some of the conceptual,…
Research paper
Dispersal, division and diversification: durable solutions and Sudanese refugees in Uganda
Questions over durable solutions in the social, political and security terrain of southern Sudan and northern Uganda invite recognition that simple delineations between “home” and “exile” are inadequate to understanding displacement and refugee status. Contrary to existing policies assuming an…
Research paper
Between a camp and a hard place: rights, livelihood and experiences of the local settlement system for long-term refugees in Uganda
Drawing on qualitative research with refugees in and outside formal settlements, this article challenges characterisations of Uganda’s UNHCR-supported refugee settlement system as un-problematically successful. It shows that by denying refugees freedom of movement, the settlement system undermines their socio-economic and…
Background report
« Ils sont rentrés chez eux »: the political dimensions of displacement and ‘spontaneous return’ in Faradje, northeast DRC
This paper aims to contribute to the emerging debate on the political dimensions of return by focusing on the sudden ‘spontaneous’ return of 11,6001 Congolese refugees who were forced back from exile in South Sudan to their home areas in…
Research paper
More than mere survival: violence, humanitarian governance, and practical material politics in a Kenyan refugee camp
This paper frames the political import of refugees’ material practices in Kakuma Refugee Camp through critical reflection on Eyal Weizman’s notion of the humanitarian present. To begin, I explore how the production of the refugee camp as a space of…
Research paper
Resistant Resilience: Agency and Resilience Among Refugees Resisting Humanitarian Corruption in Uganda
Resilience is a dominant humanitarian-development theme. Nonetheless, some humanitarian-development programmes have demonstrably negative impacts which encourage vulnerable people to actively resist these programmes. Based on 12 months ethnographic fieldwork in a Ugandan refugee settlement during 2017–18, this paper argues refugee residents…
Report
Mobile Livelihoods: Borderland dynamics between Uganda and South Sudan
This report from the Rift Valley Institute explores the dynamics of transnational movement and networks of kin of South Sudanese and South Sudanese refugees in Uganda.
Research paper
Invisible Labour: The Political Economy of Reintegration in South Sudan
This article considers the 2005–12 Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) programme in South Sudan. Current DDR practice centres on ex-combatants’ reintegration through encouraging entrepreneurship and self-employment and thereby their willingness to take risks and responsibility. However, South Sudan’s DDR programme…
Working paper
Going home? A systematic review of the literature on displacement, return and cycles of violence
Starting from the complex reality of return, this paper recognizes that cycles of violence, displacement and return are intimately related and often inherently part of one another. This paper offers a critical overview and discussion of scholarly and policy-oriented literature…
Research paper
Fettered Self-determination: South Sudan’s Narrowed Path to Secession
The interpretation of self-determination as a vote for secession shaped the state that South Sudan has become since the 2011 referendum. Self-determination, this paper argues, is a democratic political process in which citizens determine their preferred form of statehood and…
Communicative Health Promotion for Refugee Children in Uganda
Uganda’s refugee policy framework seeks to cover health care needs of refugees within a dynamic social context. Focusing on the ecosystem of urban refugees, the authors examine refugee health care expectations, support networks, and how health communication traditions and perspectives…
Research paper
Violence, abuse and exploitation among trafficked women and girls: a mixed-methods study in Nigeria and Uganda
Africa is the global region where modern-slavery is most prevalent, especially among women and girls. Despite the severe health consequences of human trafficking, evidence on the risks and experiences of trafficked adolescents and young women is scarce for the region.…
