Tania Kaiser

Between a camp and a hard place: rights, livelihood and experiences of the local settlement system for long-term refugees in Uganda

Drawing on qualitative research with refugees in and outside formal settlements, this article challenges characterisations of Uganda’s UNHCR-supported refugee settlement system as un-problematically successful. It shows that by denying refugees freedom of movement, the settlement system undermines their socioeconomic and other rights. Refugees who remain outside the formal system of refugee registration and settlement are deprived of the refugee status to which they are entitled under international law. The article questions the conventional opposition between refugees living in and out of refugee settlements in the Ugandan context, revealing a more complex and interconnected dynamic than is often assumed. It suggests that those refugees with some external support may be able to escape the confines of remote rural settlements, where refugee agricultural livelihoods are seriously compromised by distance from markets, unfavourable climatic conditions, exhausted soil and inadequate inputs. It argues that refugee livelihoods face more rather than fewer challenges as exile becomes protracted, and concludes that the government and UNHCR’s Self Reliance Strategy (SRS) has not yet managed to overcome the contradiction inherent in denying people freedom of movement, without supporting them effectively to meet their needs in the places to which they are restricted.

Participating in Development? Refugee protection, politics and developmental approaches to refugee management in Uganda

This article examines an attempt by the government of Uganda and unhcr to implement a developmental ‘Self Reliance Strategy’ in response to the needs of 188 000 long-term Sudanese refugees and their hosts in Uganda, and analyses some of the conceptual, political and practical issues arising from it. It contends that conditions of extreme insecurity in the north of the country, and the fact that refugees in Uganda do not enjoy freedom of movement, undermine from the outset prospects for a successfully integrative and developmental approach to refugee assistance. It argues that the rights and well-being of refugees in Uganda are subordinated to the governments wider political objectives in relation to Ugandas internal conflict, and with respect to its relations with the international donor community. It concludes that, while developmental approaches promise a number of advantages in protracted refugee situations, ways must be found of ensuring that the protection needs, as well as the socioeconomic needs, of refugees are assured.

Songs, Discos and Dancing in Kiryandongo, Uganda

Anthropological study of musical and dance forms in the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement allows us to understand some of the ways that material and aesthetic categories are employed to express and negotiate identity, social transformation and political upheaval in ways that are active dynamic and contribute to the creation of new social relations and norms. Song lyrics are found to deal with a range of issues of concern to the group, including the Sudanese conflict that led to displacement and insecurity in northern Uganda. Dancing is discussed in relation to a visual and behavioural aesthetic that provides insights into the changing roles and social relations of women in particular. Following on from this, the final section of the paper on discos suggests that these social events have become a contested domain, in which inter-generational conflict and concerns about inter-ethnic relations within the settlement are played out. The paper concludes that music and dance have been used by the residents of Kiryandongo to negotiate competing and overlapping identities. As such, they provide a forum in which both a specifically Acholi identity, as well as a more inclusive Sudanese identity, can be asserted and explored.

Dispersal, division and diversification: durable solutions and Sudanese refugees in Uganda

Abstract Questions over durable solutions in the social, political and security terrain of southern Sudan and northern Uganda invite recognition that simple delineations between “home” and “exile” are inadequate for an understanding of displacement and refugee status. Contrary to existing policies that assume an unproblematic repatriation of Sudanese refugees from their protracted exile in Uganda to a “post conflict” Sudan, the emerging reality is that multiple strategies of survival, self-protection and development are being employed. This paper explores the variety and ingenuity with which refugees address challenges to livelihoods, identities and security with a portfolio of responses which render the notion of a straightforward cross-border movement “home” largely notional. Drawing on long-term research in a number of Sudanese refugee settlements in northern Uganda since the mid-1990s, this article emphasizes the need to recognize that durable solutions should not be constructed as single and fixed in contexts where individuals and groups may continue to migrate so as to meet their familys collective needs. It also invites recognition of the extent and ways in which re-crossing international borders has particular meaning for refugees given their specific legal status, as well as the additional relevance and significance of physical, social and symbolic boundaries in such a context.

Risk and Social Transformation: Gender and forced migration

As conflict has transformed in the decades since the end of the cold war, civilian populations have borne the brunt of chronic, protracted and unpredictable conflict dynamics. Forced migration is one of the most visible and disruptive consequences of armed conflict for civilian populations, regardless of gender. This chapter sets out to document the existence of a mutually constitutive relationship, whereby gender identities and relations both affect the context and experience of forced migration, and are affected by it. It first indicates some of the ways that people are constituted as refugees, and shows that experiences may differ widely depending on context and positionality. Specifically, it discusses how gender identity and subjectivities interact with the legal and practical exigencies of becoming a refugee or IDP, before introducing the illustrative case of the South Sudanese refugee population in Uganda. The chapter explores the implications of subjectivities for men and women in relation to the opportunities and risks afforded by forced migration through the lens of three main analytical areas: labour, social change and violence.