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For the past four decades refugee movements have dominated the international migration
arena in Africa. However, theorizing migration has mainly concentrated on international
labor migration. The new transnational migration theory for example, assumes porous
borders and assumes that all migrants are capable of accessing resources in the places to
which they migrate. I argue, on the contrary, that in the era of structural adjustment
programs in Africa, migrants such as refugees are associated with immobility instead of
transnational movements. As a result of restriction on their mobility, these migrants have
adopted different forms of survival strategies such as repatriation, returnees, and
recyclers. Through a historical account and a case study of Burundian refugees in camps
in western Tanzania, I provide narratives of the refugees both on the causes of their
movements, and also on the changes and challenges in their participation in different
forms of survival strategies. I argue that the dynamics in the causes of movements of the
refugees in camps and the new patterns of movement challenge our understanding of the
category “refugee” in Africa and call for new ways of theorizing and studying about as
well as caring for the refugees. The paper provides both theoretical and methodological
contributions to studies on refugees in Africa. |
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