Paper short abstract:

In protracted refugee settings, recollections of the past are differentiated by age, gender and other forms of difference. This paper explores how aspiration and action were linked for one refugee group, showing the importance of local realities to narratives of forced migration and future goals.

Paper long abstract:

Displacement inevitably creates uncertainty. When exile becomes protracted, the question of how best to understand and manage uncertainty and strategize for the present and future, is compounded. Forced migrants' individual and collective interpretations, expectations and aspirations change over time, and experiences vary considerably within and between 'communities' or groups. At stake is every aspect of peoples' lives including personal and collective social and other identities, livelihood and subsistence activities, and leadership and authority structures. It is likely that some contest over the meaning of forced migration experiences and their implications for group members will be observable.

Based on ethnographic research with conflict generated Sudanese Acholi refugee populations in Uganda over more than a decade, this paper explores the way in which dramatic changes in personal circumstances led to a number of dilemmas relating to the management of social transformation for members of this refugee group. It argues that while displacement brought change and uncertainty to all, for different individuals this was experienced negatively in terms of losses of various kinds, or positively in terms of new opportunities, aspirations and activities. Competing interpretations of the visible changes in behaviour and social process within this refugee group are found to connect to distinct aspirations and goals. Analysis of differentiated communities or groups is therefore a pre-requisite in order to achieve insights into the ways in which the social changes often associated with forced migration also connect to other contextual and explanatory factors.