Borders, migration governance and people on the move

Description: In Cameroon, international migration is coupled with specific socio-cultural expectations regarding an increase of wealth and sharing of resources. However, it remains unclear how this community expectations influence the everyday experiences of Cameroonian migrants who return to their country. This project addresses three main goals, (1) by investigating the concrete community expectations towards returnees and (2° by mapping the governmental support structures that are available for returnees; (3) this research aims to reveal how community expectations and formal support structures influence the return experience. As such, the research project contributes to knowledge on how differences in post-return wellbeing emerge.
Promoter(s): Ilse Derluyn , Ine Lietaert
Researcher(s): Presca Esseh Wanki Kang
Department / Research group: Social Work and Social Pedagogy
Faculty: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences

Description: The study aims at examining the return and reintegration of Ethiopian forced returnees from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its impacts on the recipient households and communities in North Wollo, where a considerable number of returnees are living. It also explores the determinants of success of reintegration and returnees' strategies to cope the challenges and problems that they have faced in the course of the reintegration process. Survey, interviews, focus group discussions and life history methods will be employed to gather the necessary data. The survey data to be collected will be analized through descriptive statistics and multiple regressions. In doing so, the study intends to contribute to the literature on return and reintegration.
Promoter(s): Ilse Derluyn, Lietaert Ine
Researcher(s): Tizazu Ashenafi Tirfie
Department / Research group: Social Work and Social Pedagogy
Faculty: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences

Description: Drawing from history, anthropology, sociology, psychoanalysis, political science and heritage studies, and focussing on the lived experience of those attempting to build or rebuild communities in conflict affected places of central Africa, this research contributes to a better understanding of how conflict-affected societies constitute or re-constitute themselves. It examines three overlapping categories of returnees: refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and ex-combatants in the borderland regions of Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Sudan and Uganda. The research explores returnees relationships with each other, with the ‘stayee’ populations and their engagement with national governments, external organisations and actors. It wants to understand how standardised liberal peacebuilding approaches to return are relevant to people on the ground who negotiate conflict realities and their legacies on a daily basis.
Promoter(s): Koen Vlassenroot
Researcher(s): Koen Vlassenroot
Department / Research group: Conflict and Development Studies
Faculty: Faculty of Political and Social Sciences