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- Convenors:
-
Jochen Lingelbach
(University of Bayreuth)
David Ngendo-Tshimba (Uganda Martyrs University)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Perspectives on current crises
- Location:
- S57 (RW I)
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 2 October, -, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Berlin
Short Abstract:
East Africa has a long and variegated history of refugee hosting. The region stands at the forefront of developments in refugee policies, for better or worse. We welcome presentations looking into the past and present of refugee hosting in Eastern Africa and its relation to the Refugee Studies.
Long Abstract:
Since the beginning of the 20th century, East African countries have hosted significant numbers of refugees. Already during World War Two, refugees from fascist aggression in Ethiopia and Europe found there a haven. With the post-independence conflicts, Rwandans, Sudanese, Congolese and Burundians fled to neighbouring countries. Later Southern African Freedom fighters flocked to Tanzania. Today, ongoing conflicts in South Sudan, the Congo, Somalia and Ethiopia still force thousands to flee. Some of the world’s largest refugee camps are located in Kenya and Uganda. East Africa (including the Horn and the Great Lakes) is one of the most important refugee-hosting regions in the world.
East African governments have responded differently to refugees. Nyerere’s ‘open door’ policy in Tanzania ended in the 1990s. Kenya’s securitized encampment policy is still in place. Uganda (once also a refugee-sending country) now boasts a long tradition as ‘progressive’ refugee host. Undeniably, the region has been at the forefront of scholarship and policy developments in refugee hosting for decades. If we want to think about the future of refugee hosting and the development of refugee studies as a scholarly field, this region is a productive vantage point.
In this panel, we want to interrogate the history and present of refugee hosting in East Africa. What were the political, economic and social reasons for the different responses to refugee influxes? What traditions, institutions and infrastructures undergird the variegated reactions to people fleeing from conflict? What can we learn from the region’s history for the reconfiguring of Refugee Studies?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 2 October, 2024, -Brett Shadle (Virginia Tech)
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines how regional, international, and metropolitan politics shaped British policy toward refugees in colonial Kenya. Between 1910s and 1930s, different refuge-seekers were rejected, welcomed and allowed to become subjects, or given the choice of repatriation or indefinite internment.
Paper long abstract:
In this paper I trace the how ‘refugee’ was used by British officials in Kenya in the 1910s through the 1930s, and how policy was developed toward refuge-seekers. I consider a series of questions: how did colonial officials deal with those whom they identified as refugees? What were the implications of referring to individuals or groups as refugees, as opposed to immigrants, migrants, deserters, or fugitive belligerents? How did regional, international, and metropolitan politics shape how a ‘refugee’ would be treated? In an era and region where there was no applicable colonial or international law, how officials would identify and deal with refuge-seekers was never simple nor predictable.
I look at three examples to trace the development of refugee policy: Degodia pastoralists seeking refuge in the 1910s-1920s; Eritrean deserters from the Italian army in 1936; and Ethiopian refugees in 1936-7. In each case, officials harbored multiple opinions, from a willingness to admit all those in danger, to a desire to reject all refugees, to a willingness to admit only ‘real’ refugees, to a consideration of how refugees could be a political bargaining chip. What to do with refuge-seekers once they were on Kenyan soil was a matter of debate as well. Policies toward refuge-seekers ultimately emerged competing, often contradictory factors. Metropolitan pressure, international politics, colonial concerns, racism, an uneven awareness of international legal norms, and the actions of refuge-seekers themselves all contributed to the series of ad hoc and legal measures toward refugees.
Woldegebriel Dagne Admasu (Ghent University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper analyses the current developments and challenges of the Ethiopian legal framework on refugees’ right to work which have not yet been adequately investigated. It draws on legal analysis and empirical socio-legal research among refugees and stakeholders in Ethiopia.
Paper long abstract:
Ethiopia has a long history of hosting refugees who are fleeing chronic conflict or drought in neighboring countries. It has signed the UN and OAU refugee conventions, demonstrating its determination to participate in global efforts to protect refugees. To domesticate the country’s international commitments, a new refugee law was adopted in 2019, granting a wide-ranging set of additional rights to refugees compared to previous laws.
This paper analyses the current developments and challenges of the Ethiopian legal framework on the refugees’ right to work which have not yet been adequately investigated. It draws on legal analysis as well as empirical socio-legal research among refugees and key stakeholders in Ethiopia by employing the users’ perspective approach. Its innovative approach to analyzing refugee law from a private law perspective will be an added value to research on refugee law. The investigation demonstrates that Ethiopian refugee law is mainly in line with the international and regional refugee conventions; but that there are other domestic laws, for instance in the realm of private law, that contradict with the protection of the right to work intended by the refugee law framework. Moreover, there are gaps in the implementation of the laws on the ground. The paper recommends more coherence among the different laws of the country to protect refugees’ right to work, and points to the need of adopting a broader, more integrated approach – beyond the narrow focus on refugee law – to assess the legal and actual protection of refugees’ right to work.
Markus Rudolf Fekadu Adugna Tufa (Addis Ababa University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper analyses integration policies, geopolitics of hosting, and practices of home-making in protracted refugee situations on the everyday level in Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania from a descriptive bottom-up perspective.
Paper long abstract:
The paper argues that the full economic, political and social integration aspired by the international refugee regime remains largely different from the de facto national policies and also from the actual everyday practice. Instead of asking how the refugees adapt or alter the global refugee regime, the paper proposes to reverse the gaze and observe how the regime is translated into local integration policies on the one hand and into everyday home-making practices on the other hand. A bottom-up perspective reveals high levels of agency of refugees and displaced communities. But it also indicates that regional sociocultural contexts, national powerplays, and international politics remain decisive factors. The results point at various interdependent layers of de facto home-making and options for partial integration – and thereby a potential fourth durable solution. The research draws from long-term and multi-sited socio-anthropological field research conducted between 2015 and 2022.
Stevens Aguto Odongoh (Makerere University)
Paper short abstract:
The paper explores Uganda’s refugee liberalism where 'self-reliant’ settlements are created, and refugee integration is part of the country’s policy trajectory. The paper argues that there is need to see Uganda’s refugee policy in geopolitical terms.
Paper long abstract:
Much of Eastern Africa has a long history of violence especially by armed militias, rebel groups especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi Ethiopia and Somalia. While Uganda, has also had its own share of militia and rebel activities especially by the Lord’s Resistance Army (1986-2008), it has of recent seen some semblance of peace. Due the repeated attacks from militia groups, many communities have crossed borders into neighboring countries within the region.
Uganda is among the East African or even African countries with the highest number of exiles, both refugees and undocumented people. In 2006, Uganda adopted an open-door policy that grants refugees not only freedom of movement but also the right to work, establish a business and own property including land. This generosity has made Uganda look like a safe haven for refugees and earned it various international recognition including by the United Nations. The paper explores Uganda’s refugee liberalism where 'self-reliant’ settlements are created, and refugee integration is part of the country’s policy trajectory. The paper argues that there is need to see Uganda’s refugee policy in geopolitical terms. For example, how has Uganda sustained this generosity amidst socio-economic and political challenges locally, regionally but also internationally? Is Uganda playing the politics of generosity through assembling refugee suffering? And lastly, are there pressure points being created as far as hosting refugees is concerned?
MARYBETH CHROSTOWSKY (Georgia Gwinnett College)
Paper short abstract:
Uganda adopted a Self-reliance Strategy to address its growing refugee population. Little attention is given to refugee cultural maintenance. This paper explores the tension between South Sudanese refugees’ need to protect their cultural norms and the implementation of the Self-reliance Strategy.
Paper long abstract:
In 1999, Uganda adopted a Self-reliance Strategy (SRS) to address its growing and protracted refugee population. Self-reliance is defined by the UNHCR as a refugee’s social and economic ability to meet essential needs in a sustainable manner with dignity. Uganda encourages refugee self-reliance by allowing them to choose where they settle. A refugee may choose to live in an urban center where they enjoy the right to work and access to government social services. Alternatively, a refugee may live in a rural refugee settlement where each family is given a plot of land to live on and farm. Self-reliance ensures that refugees are treated in accordance with human rights principles, and addresses human development and self-esteem among refugees/returnees.
In harmony with Uganda’s SRS, most refugee aid programs in Uganda focus on livelihood strategies to achieve self-reliance. In line with Western concepts and values, the programs target individuals and promote income-generating activities that rely on market-based transactions Similarly, most of the scholarly research on Uganda’s Self-reliance approach focuses on livelihood strategies and welfare outcomes. Little attention has been given to understanding refugee cultural well-being, practice, and maintenance during asylum. Moreover, there is even less consideration of the potential for cultural values and livelihood strategies to increase refugee self-reliance during asylum.
Using findings from a research project conducted in northern Uganda among Dinka refugees from South Sudan, this proposed paper will explore the tension between South Sudanese refugees’ need to protect their cultural norms and the implementation of the Self-reliance Strategy.
Joseph GAHAMA (East African University Rwanda)
Paper short abstract:
Contemporary political violence in the post-colonial states of Great Lakes Africa has produced many refugees who have become a source of instability in the region. This paper proposes to revisit the management of this issue in Rwanda, Burundi and DRC both nationally and internationally.
Paper long abstract:
As early as 1959, Rwanda produced the first refugees on the African continent. In the 1960s, the rebellions and secessions in eastern Congo led to the exile of many populations who sought asylum in neighboring countries. It was the same for Burundi from 1972.
To begin with, this paper shows the scale of the refugee issue that has gradually become the cause and consequences of contemporary violence in Great Lakes Africa.
We will then see how the countries concerned have tried to resolve the problems with the support of the international community through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and cooperation assistance.
We will finally note that despite the establishment of regional mechanisms for conflict prevention and management by the East African community (EAC) or the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), refugees are always a threat of instability, which should be given special attention.
Ana Guardião (University of Florence University of Coimbra)
Paper short abstract:
During the Kenyan decolonisation war (1951-1963), thousands of Kikuyu fled to neighbouring Tanganyika to escape violence and persecution. This paper analyses Kikuyu’s escape and the measures taken by the British administration to enforce population management and control within both territories.
Paper long abstract:
During the Kenyan decolonisation war (1951-1963), thousands of Kikuyu fled to neighbouring Tanganyika (a British protectorate under UN trusteeship) to escape violence and persecution. This paper analyses Kikuyu’s escape and the measures taken by the British administration to enforce population management and control within both territories. It discusses perceptions of spaces constitutive of the refugee experience and their consequences for refugee protection. It does so by considering multiple actors and levels of analysis and taking into account refugee motivations to cross intra-imperial borders, local and imperial authorities’ (coercive) responses to these movements, and humanitarian approaches and limitations to refugee protection and assistance, namely within the UN system and the Red Cross Movement. Whilst this case is underexplored in the literature, it enables an analysis of late-imperial repertoires pertaining to modalities of population management. It provides a relevant departing point to better understand colonial legacies in post-colonial responses to refugee crises. What defined space of refuge for different actors where fictitious formal borders shaped different spaces? How was the movement of populations handled for colonial developmental and securitisation purposes? How was refugee status managed and defined in this case, and with which consequences? In discussing these questions, the paper seeks to contribute to an informed debate on the ways in which disputed spaces (concrete and imagined) and governance (colonial, post-colonial and humanitarian) shaped refugeedom (in varied ways) during the second half of the 20th century.
Peter Kipng'eno Kirui (University of Eldoret)
Paper short abstract:
While the international refugee regime envisages repatriation, local integration and resettlement as preferred refugee solutions, the if and how the actual implementation of these solutions is mostly determined by the history and politics of host state in regard to the refugees in question.
Paper long abstract:
While in theory the international refugee regime provides for repatriation, resettlement and local integration as solutions to the refugee problem, in practice the implementation of these solutions are heavily influenced by the politics in the host state regarding the refugees in question. In Kenya, securitization of the Somali nation and the historically tense relationship between Kenya and Somalia has rendered local integration of Somali refugees untenable. Consequently, the Government of Kenya (GoK) has often maintained that Somali refugees in Dadaab camp should repatriate to Somalia, with no option of local integration. To justify its position, GoK maintains that Somalia is now safe for return and that conditions in Somalia have improved. Critics, however, point out that Somalia is still too fragile for mass returns⸺ because Al Shabaab militants are still capable of launching devastating attacks on civilians and security agents in Somalia ⸺ and that weak state capacity may not manage the challenges of mass returnees. This, they argue, could further threaten peacebuilding processes in Somalia and risk intensifying resource-related conflicts like access to and ownership of land. This project aims to explore how the politics in host Kenya have influenced the manner in which refugee solutions of repatriation, resettlement and local integration have been applied to Somali refugees in Kenya. It intends to shift the conversation from exclusively looking at the three refugee solutions of repatriation, local integration and resettlement to that of the politics around refugee solutions, and how it ultimately influences the actual implementation of refugee solutions.
Abdoulaye DIALLO (RADDHO)
Paper short abstract:
Dans les années 60, la décolonisation de l'Afrique a produit la première des nombreuses crises de réfugiés de ce continent. Dans les pays africains est de premier accueil, si les proximités linguistiques et culturelles jouent parfois en faveur d’une assez bonne disposition des populations
Paper long abstract:
Dans les années 60, la décolonisation de l'Afrique a produit la première des nombreuses crises de réfugiés de ce continent. Dans les pays africains de premier accueil, si les proximités linguistiques et culturelles jouent parfois en faveur d’une assez bonne disposition des populations locales à l’égard des populations réfugiées, il ne s’agit là que d’exceptions qui confirment la règle générale. Comme ailleurs, l’hospitalité a ses limites et du point de vue des pays d’accueil, l’afflux des réfugiés fait plus souvent craindre le pire en termes d’insécurité, d’exportation du conflit au-delà des frontières, et de dégradation de l’environnement
Les ONG apportent des compétences et une expertise particulières, ainsi qu’une connaissance locale qui sont essentielles pour l’apport d’une réponse efficace. Dans certaines situations, des considérations de sécurité rendent la présence des acteurs internationaux difficile, voire impossible, ce qui ajoute à l’importance qu’il y a à disposer de partenariats locaux solides. Pour cette raison, le HCR a accordé une priorité croissante à la fourniture d’un appui à ses ONG partenaires locales. En 2007, l’Organisation a mis en place une équipe spéciale à laquelle participent une soixantaine d’ONG nationales de toute l’Afrique afin de faciliter leur interaction avec le HCR sur tout un éventail de questions, dont les besoins de formation. Le HCR offre une formation diversifiée dans le cadre d’une initiative globale visant à renforcer la capacité des ONG partenaires nationales en matière d’intervention d’urgence et de partenariat durable.
Emmanuel Viga (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)
Paper short abstract:
To understand Uganda’s approach towards South Sudanese refugees, factors such as, cycles of conflict induced migration, economic interests, geopolitics, and global refugee regimes should be examined. In this paper, I examine three epochs: 1950 - 1989; 1989 - 2005; and from 2011 up to date.
Paper long abstract:
Uganda has been a host to South Sudanese refugees since 1950’s and currently South Sudanese refugees make up the biggest percentage of refugees in the country. Whereas geographical proximity seems to be the most logical reason and explanation for the large number of South Sudanese refugees in Uganda, this paper argues to the contrary. This paper proposes that Uganda’s approaches towards South Sudanese refugees should be examined through the lens of tribal configurations at border posts between Uganda and South Sudan, cycles of conflict induced migration between the two countries, economic interests, geopolitics within the Great Lakes region and Horn of Africa, and global refugee regimes. The paper historizes the interplay of these factors within three distinctive epochs: the years between 1950 and 1989 (Sudan’s civil wars); the years between 1989 and 2005 (South Sudan’s struggle for self-determination); and the years from 2011 up to date (South Sudan's nation building). The paper concludes by arguing that Uganda’s approaches towards South Sudanese refugees reflect global refugee regimes, are a product of domestic economic and political interests, and they are reflective of the geopolitics within the Great Lakes region and Horn of Africa.
Leiyo Singo (University of Bayreuth)
Paper short abstract:
Tanzania's refugees policy has shifted from ‘exceptional hospitality’ of the pre-1990s to recent refugee fatigue. Based in part on interviews this paper examines factors and drivers of this shift that have had a negative impact on the ability and willingness of the Tanzanian state to host refugees.
Paper long abstract:
In the three post-independence decades Tanzania was praised for ‘exceptional hospitality’ to populations displaced from neighboring countries. In fact, beyond just hosting refugees, Tanzania’s founding president, Julius Nyerere had sought to avoid the stigma and alienation often associated with the label refugees (wakimbizi) by using the term “wageni wakaazi” (resident guests). However, the post-Nyerere era has been characterized by receding receptivity towards refugees. Successive governments’ policy has exhibited so-called refugee fatigue. Based in part on interviews with former Burundian refugees, and Tanzanian government officials, this paper examines Tanzania’s shift to a more restrictive policy by highlighting factors and drivers that have had a negative impact on the ability and willingness of the Tanzanian state to host refugees. This paper is based on findings from 55 semi-structured interviews and nine focus groups conducted with former Burundian refugees and government officials in the city of Dar es Salaam, the towns of Mpanda and Kaliua, and in the refugee settlements of Katumba and Ulyankulu over three months in 2016.