Paper short abstract:

The categorization system of policy makers does not reflect the situation of many migrants. Taking the case of a Sudanese family who left their home in Khartoum to settle in Juba but ended up in different places, I will show that categories of being a labor migrant, returnee or refugee are fluid.

Paper long abstract:

It is often argued that research on forced migration is limited because it is framed by the categorization system of policy makers and international organization. This does not only make some people invisible, as their situation does not match the official categorization system but also constraints the understanding of migration research. Taking the case of the (South) Sudanese, who left the Northern part of Sudan after the peace agreement in 2005, I will show that the categories of being a returnee, IDP or refugee are fluid. Moreover, conventional categorization of migration research in international versus internal migration or forced versus voluntary migration are twisted upside down as South Sudanese lost their citizenship and became foreigners in their home country. The paper is based on a multisided ethnography and will use the case of a family who left their home in Khartoum to settle in Juba, South Sudan but ended up in different places establishing a translocal family life. The paper will explore shifting patterns of mobility and look how they relate to new forms of belonging, which transcend common categories and discourses.