Locking away potential: What host countries lose when they keep refugees in camps

Refugees in Uganda are instructed to stay in the rural agricultural settlements set up for them by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Ugandan authorities. Yet a substantial number of refugees are urbanites with entrepreneurial skills and technical qualifications. An estimated 15 000 refugees live in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, but are unable to fully use their skills for the benefit of their families or the Ugandan economy.

Research from the University of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre investigates the lives of self-settled refugees in Kampala. It shows that refugees can contribute to the economic development of host countries and the fight against chronic poverty. The author argues that whilst the policy of placing refugees in camps – maintaining control by treating them as dependent, passive victims – is administratively convenient for UNHCR and host governments, it is also a violation of human rights.

Thousands of refugees – escapees from wars in Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia – live in Ugandan towns and cities without UNHCR assistance. Many Ugandans regard them with hostility, stereotyping refugees as economic parasites or collaborators with countries and factions which are the enemies of Uganda. Many employers freely exploit their refugee workers.

Most of the urban refugees are either single men or single mothers with children. The majority of them have come to Kampala directly from their country of origin without having entered a refugee camp. Others may have spent considerable time in refugee camps. Both groups are drawn to Kampala by:

• opportunities to trade and use their skills to offer services to better-off city residents
• the presence of hospitals and private medical services
• accommodation, schooling and vocational training
• Internet access to maintain contacts with relatives, transfer money and explore business opportunities
• recreational and intellectual activities
• opportunities for concealment from both the Ugandan authorities and from intelligence agents from their countries of origin who are known to monitor those who officially register their presence.

Most urban refugees are educated urbanites – seventy per cent of those interviewed had either finished or been attending secondary education prior to flight and thirty per cent had a college or university qualification. Many are academics, researchers, engineers, teachers and musicians. The failure of Ugandan law to give refugees legal entitlement to work creates confusion which prevents would-be employers from using their skills.

Women are particularly successful at integrating into the local economy and sustaining their own livelihoods. Many are resourceful and entrepreneurial – selling charcoal, home-made clothes, dressing hair and growing vegetables. Those few who have received microcredit have generally managed to repay loans or have gone on to run successful enterprises. Most, however, are frustrated by lack of credit and are also held back by lack of fluency in English – the main language of commerce in Uganda.

The author suggests that African governments and the international community need to:

• stop considering refugees as a homogeneous bunch of peasants
• take into account the different needs of different refugees
• provide assistance soon after refugees arrive in urban environments to enable them to successfully adjust and realise their earning potential
• do more to build refugees’ managerial, vocational and entrepreneurial skills
• offer English language training
• provide assistance to vulnerable single mothers: if allowed to remain in a state of destitution they will be perceived as a burden by the local population.

Trapping refugees in remote settlements is neither in the interests of the displaced nor the countries offering asylum. Encouraging urban self-settlement could turn a hosting burden into an economic opportunity.

 

Source(s):
‘Forced migrants as an under-utilized asset: refugee skills, livelihoods, and achievements in Kampala, Uganda’ by Michela Macchiavello, New Issues in Refugee Research no 95, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, October 2003 Full document.

Funded by: Nuffield Foundation

id21 Research Highlight: 16 February 2004

Further Information:
Michela Macchiavello
Former Research Associate
Refugee Studies Centre
Queen Elizabeth House
University of Oxford
21 St Giles
Oxford OX1 3LA
UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1865 270722
Fax: +44 (0) 1865 270721
Contact the contributor: rsc@qeh.ox.ac.uk

Contact the contributor: michelamacchiavello@yahoo.co.uk

University of Oxford, UK

Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
CP 2500, 1211 Geneva 2
Switzerland

Tel: +41 22 739 8111
Contact the contributor: hqep00@unhcr.ch

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Other related links:
'Is the UNHCR doing its job? Combining refugee relief with local development in Africa'

'The consequences of refugee flows and managing the aftermath'

'South Africa's refugees skilled, but battle to find jobs, says UNHCR' - Releif Web

'Refugee Protection in Regions of Origin: Potential and Challenges' - Migration Information Source

'Refugees and local hosts: A livelihoods approach to local integration and repatriation'