Gaim Kibreab

Citizenship Rights and Repatriation of Refugees

This article examines the relationship between access to or lack of access to citizenship rights in countries of asylum and the propensity of refugees to return. It hypothesizes that in situations where refugees enjoy civil, social and economic citizenship rights in the context of favorable structural factors — relatively secure employment, self-employment, social services such as housing, schools, health care and social security – the importance of repatriation may diminish as a viable option. In North America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand, where refugees are able to enjoy rights of citizenship with definite prospects for becoming citizens (through naturalization) or denizens through acquisition of permanent status, and where favorable structural factors provide for the enjoyment of a decent standard of living, they tend to remain regardless of whether the conditions that prompted displacement are eliminated. The policy environments and the structural factors for refugees sheltering in Less Developed Countries (LDCs) are the antithesis of those refugees in Developed Countries (DCs). As a result, millions of refugees in the South have been ‘voting with their feet’ homewards to recoup citizenship rights which they lost in connection with displacement and which they have been unable to achieve in exile.

Eritrean and Ethiopian Urban Refugees in Khartoum: What the Eye Refuses to See

A decade and a half ago Chambers (1979) referred to African rural refugees as “What the Eye Does not See.” This was, inter alia , due to the remoteness of their inhabited areas and the urban bias which then characterized the responses of the international assistance regime. If rural refugees were, in the 1970s, “what the eye did not see,” today refugees in many of the African urban centers are what the eye “refuses to see.” One of the most dramatic and far-reaching impacts of war, drought and economic hardship in the 1980s in many sub-Saharan African countries has been the immense population shift from rural areas to the cities. This population shift is taking place in the absence of any structural transformation in the economies concerned. Structural transformation here refers to increases in labor productivity, a declining share of agriculture in total output, technological progress and industrialization. African host-governments see the situation in their urban centers being exacerbated by the presence of refugees who are said to compete with nationals for scarce employment opportunities and social services such as health, education, housing, water and transportation. In many African host countries where the public sector is the main employer, refugees are excluded from employment in this sector; in other countries such as Egypt and Djibouti, refugees are not allowed to take any paid employment (Wallace 1985). The policies of many African governments toward skilled urban refugees are succinctly described by Brydon and Gould (1984,4): [E]xperience has shown that skilled refugees face particular difficulties for employment and assimilation into the host society. Employment policies in most African countries have been vigorously nationalistic…and particularly for skilled workers.

Forced labour in Eritrea

Using fieldwork data collected in Eritrea, Rome, Milan and Stockholm, and supplemented by human rights organisation reports and discussions with key informants in four cities in the UK, this article examines the extent to which the Eritrean national service and its concomitant Warsai-Yikaalo Development Campaign qualify as forced or compulsory labour as defined by the relevant international conventions.

Displacement, host governments' policies, and constraints on the construction of sustainable livelihoods

This paper examines the structural and institutional factors that preclude the ‘‘risk prevention’’ and rehabilitation strategies of the best-known victims of displacement, refugees. Though restrictive refugee policies are increasingly becoming common worldwide (Frelick 2001, GoodwinGill 1999), drawing on the experiences of refugees in many developing countries, I argue that refugee status rarely leads to acquisition of nationality or denizenship, and rights and sources of livelihoods basic to warding off poverty are accessible only to nationals. Not belonging to a spatially bounded community or geo-political entity is the single most important factor preventing formulation and implementation of long-term development programmes that enable refugees to recoup the losses they incur in connection with displacement and to construct sustainable livelihoods in countries of asylum. Refugees are people who flee their homes against their will because they fear for their lives. When refugees flee, they incur immense losses in life-sustaining resources, including social support networks, neighbours, friends, relatives, cultivable and grazing lands, livestock, jobs, houses, and access to common property resources such as forest produce, surface water, wild fruits, roots, and wildlife. In most rural societies, there is a strong sense of close interdependence between individuals, or their descent group, and the land with which that group is traditionally associated. In some of these communities land is neither divisible nor alienable – it is held in perpetuity. In such societies, land is the centre-piece of cultural systems, and its meaning incorporates people, traditions, customs, values, beliefs, institutions, soil, vegetation, water, and animals. Land and/ or house possession in one’s place of origin is seen not only as a wealth-creating and livelihood-sustaining resource, but also as the basis of status and identity. In such societies, belonging to a particular place is necessary for being rooted and therefore for acquiring land.

When Refugees Come Home: The Relationship Between Stayees and Returnees in Post-Conflict Eritrea

The task of reintegrating uprooted populations, reconstructing war-torn socioeconomic structures and reconciling conflict-ridden societies has become one of the most critical issues in development (Boutros-Ghali 1992; Colletta et al 1996; Ogata 1994, 1995a, 1995b; United Nations (UN) 1994; United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 1992a, 1992b). For example, James Wolfensohn, World Bank president, stated at the 1995 annual meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund that “a priority of the Bank is to anticipate and be organized for post-conflict economic development programs” (Colletta et al 1996:1). Not only has the task of reintegrating returnees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and former combatants in conjunction with reconstructing of war-torn societies become a major international preoccupation, but this is also seen as a key element in enhancing national, regional and global security (see UNHCR 1992a, 1992b, 1996, 1995; Colletta et al 1996).

Ready and Willing...but still Waiting: Eritrean Refugees in Sudan and the Dilemmas of Return

Ready and Willing...but still Waiting: Eritrean Refugees in Sudan and the Dilemmas of Return

The national service/Warsai-Yikealo Development Campaign and forced migration in post-independence Eritrea

When the Eritrean war of independence (1961–1991) that forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee in search of international protection came to a victorious end in May 1991, the general expectation was that this would decisively eliminate the factors that prompt people to flee in search of international protection. Paradoxically, the achievement of independence has failed to stem the flow. Since 2002, hundreds of thousands of young men and women have been fleeing the country to seek asylum first in Sudan and Ethiopia and subsequently in the rest of the world. The data on which the study is based is gathered using snowball sampling, focus group interviews and key informants in Sudan, Ethiopia, the UK, Switzerland, Norway, South Africa, Kenya and Sweden, and supplemented by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other secondary sources. Although it is acknowledged that forced migration is the result of inextricably entwined multiple factors, the question addressed in the article is the extent to which the large-scale displacement that has been taking place in the post-independence period is the consequence of the detrimental effects of the universal, compulsory and indefinite national service (NS) and its concomitant, the Warsai-Yikealo Development Campaign (WYDC) on the agelglot (servers) and their families. It is argued that the most important drivers of forced migration in post-independence Eritrea have been the harmful effects of the universal and the indefinite NS and the WYDC on the livelihoods and well being of servers and their families.

Rethinking Household Headship among Eritrean Refugees and Returnees

One of the most common generalizations concerning refugee populations is that they are dominated by female heads of households and children. It is claimed that men are either killed in the wars that prompt displacement or are left behind to fight. This assumption has continued to determine the policies of relief and development agencies, as well as governments in countries of asylum and return. On the basis of empirical data from UNHCR and household data from Eritrea, this article questions the validity of such a dominant assumption. The article also problematizes the concept of household headship by showing that it is a cultural construction whose meaning varies from one cultural context to another. There is, thus, no definition of headship that can apply cross-culturally. It also argues that since female heads of households (FHHs) are not socially and economically homogeneous, household headship is not an appropriate method of identifying the poorest of the poor for targeting or provision of emergency relief or for productive inputs in development programmes.

Institutional barriers to successful innovations : perceptions of rural farmers and key stakeholders in southwest Nigeria

Diffusion studies in sub-Saharan Africa have typically focused on the impact of traditional adoption factors on uptake of technological innovations. This study draws on semi-structured interviews of rural farmers and in-depth interviews of stakeholders in southwest Nigeria to examine the impact of institutional factors on the success of technological innovations. The findings indicate that government policies, markets, financial institutions, infrastructure and other institutional conditions play significant role on the success of technological innovations. A successful innovation package should integrate institutional reforms with promotion of innovative inputs, and vibrant farmers’ cooperatives can be at the heart of such agrarian reform.

Sexual Violence in the Eritrean National Service

Abstract: Claims of sexual violence against female conscripts by military commanders abound in the Eritrean National Service (ENS), but hitherto there has been no attempt to subject these claims to rigorous empirical scrutiny. This article is a partial attempt to fill the gap. Based on data collected through snowball sampling from 190 former conscripts in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, South Africa, Kenya, and Sweden who fled from the ENS, supplemented by data from systematically selected key informants who were interviewed in depth, it examines the extent to which female conscripts serving in the ENS were subjected to sexual violence and harassment by their commanders, including at the Sawa military training camp. The extensive data, based on the perceptions and experiences of respondents who served on average about six years, suggest that sexual abuse is rampant throughout the ENS, particularly among female conscripts who are assigned to work at the camp subsequent to the six months of military training. Résumé: Les allégations de violence sexuelle contre les femmes conscrits par les commandants militaires abondent au service national érythréen (ENS). Jusqu’ici, il n’y a eu aucune tentative de soumettre ces plaintes à un examen empirique rigoureux. Cet article est une tentative partielle pour combler ces lacunes. Selon les données recueillies par le biais d’échantillonnage de boule de neige de 190 anciens conscrits dans le Royaume Uni, la Suisse, la Norvège, l’Afrique du Sud, au Kenya et en Suède, qui avaient fui l’ENS, et complétés par des données systématiquement sélectionnées de répondants clés qui ont été interrogés de façon approfondie, cet article examine dans quelle mesure les femmes conscrits servant dans l’ENS ont été victime de harcèlement et de violences sexuelles par leurs commandants, y compris dans le camp d’entraînement militaire de Sawa. Les nombreuses données, basées sur les perceptions et les expériences des répondants qui ont servi en moyenne environ six ans, suggèrent que l’abus sexuel est répandu sur l’ensemble du ENS. L’exposition à la violence sexuelle semble être la plus grande parmi les conscrits féminins qui sont assignés au camp de Sawa à la suite des six mois de formation militaire.