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Paper short abstract:

This paper examines 3 IDP communities in Hargeisa, Somaliland. It considers IDPs' experiences and challenges faced by urban authorities. Lack of access to land and a means of integrating has people living on the margins of the city, lacking protection and in a state of forced immobility.

Paper long abstract:

Somaliland's capital city Hargeisa hosts thousands of people displaced by drought, conflict, and destitution. The poorest of the poor live on the peripheries of the city in areas completely cut off from urban amenities and services. Most are former pastoralists who came into the city in the hopes of finding a step out of poverty. Instead, they have become even more destitute, and are effectively immobilised by lack of economic opportunity. This paper provides the first analysis of research being carried out in Hargeisa, Somaliland among three settlements of displaced persons which considers the causes of displacement, the experience of resettling in the city, and challenges faced by urban authorities in responding to urban displacement in this post-conflict, fragile context. We argue that lack of secure access to land and a means of integrating into the urban community has left people living on the margins of the urban landscape, lacking protection and in a perpetual state of forced immobility.