CALL FOR PAPERS: Coping with Crisis: Refugees in Eastern African Camps and Cities
Call for Papers for Proposed Panel:
British International Studies Association (BISA) Annual Conference Edinburgh, Scotland
Conference Theme: Global Justice
Date: 15-17 June 2016
Eastern Africa has been a major site of large-scale forced displacement. The region has seen some of the most prolonged and momentous refugee flows in modern history, driven by conflict, natural disasters and political oppression in Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi and Eritrea. As a result of these recurrent crises, neighbouring countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, have historically borne the brunt of large-scale cross-border population movements. Today they are still struggling to come to terms with the socio-economic, logistical and political consequences. Ethiopia hosts the largest number of refugees in Africa, while the world’s three largest refugee camps (Dadaab, Dollo Ado and Kakuma) have become recognisable features in the region’s political landscape.
In recent debates on forced migration, especially in the midst of the so-called ‘refugee crisis’, attention has so far narrowly focused on people making their way to Europe. This is despite the fact that the vast majority of refugees is displaced regionally and continues to reside in the Global South. Since December 2013, over 600,000 South Sudanese have fled the country due to prolonged civil conflict. In April 2015, some 200,000 Burundians escaped from a smouldering political crisis ahead of the controversial presidential elections. Again, it is the same neighbouring states with tight government budgets and often-spatial constraints that are playing host to this huge influx of people.
The frequency and perceived insolubility of these intra-regional refugee movements call into question the utility of the traditional durable solutions (local integration, repatriation and resettlement). For increasing numbers of refugees, institutionally promoted solutions are unattainable. Consequently, refugees build lives, families and homes in permanent exile. These individual strategies of coping emerge despite notions of socio-economic dependency, insecurity and injustice. In Eastern Africa, the refugee communities skilfully navigate difficult social environments, resist political pressures and circumvent disenfranchising legal regimes in constant search for a better life. This panel seeks to explore these various unconventional and flexible ways in which refugees mitigate risks, institutional pressures and de facto cope with crisis in the cities and camps of Eastern Africa. Some of the themes we would like to discuss include the following:
* Problems and possibilities of local integration in the region
* Everyday life in exile and self-reliance strategies without durable solutions
* The implementation of global refugee policies in the region and their affects on the lives of refugees, e.g. UNHCR’s Urban Refugee Policy, Alternative to Camps Policy etc.
* Justice and Reconciliation for Refugees in Eastern Africa
* The involvement of different actors in the region, including donor and host states, local governments, city authorities, UNHCR, NGOs, CBOs etc.
* Refugee cooperation, innovation and use of technology
* Illegality and Extra-legality in cities and camps
* The strategies of particularly ‘at risk’ refugee groups (sexual and gender minorities etc.)
* Spaces and locations in displacement
To contribute a paper, please send an abstract (200 words max.), your affiliation, and contact details to the panel organisers by 17th November 2015: Neil James Wilson ( [log in to unmask] ) and Hanno Brankamp ( [log in to unmask] ). The authors of successful abstracts will be notified preceding abstract submission to BISA for consideration. More details about the conference can be found on BISA’s website: http://www.bisa.ac.uk/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Note: The material contained in this communication comes to you from the Forced Migration Discussion List which is moderated by the Refugee Studies Centre (RSC), Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the RSC or the University. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this message please retain this disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources.
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Posting guidelines: http://www.forcedmigration.org/research-resources/discussion/forced-migration-discussion-list-posting-guidelines
Subscribe/unsubscribe: http://tinyurl.com/fmlist-join-leave
List Archives: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/forced-migration.html
RSS: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?RSS&L=forced-migration
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/refugeestudies
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/refugeestudiescentre
|