Refugee camps and asylum centres

Description: This research project examines to which extent conflict dynamics and refugee policy structures (including camp-like settings, refugee rights, refugee policies) have an impact on broader mobility patterns and dynamics in the war-torn Central-East African region. The aim is to understand mobility as an essential part of social life-making processes and to explore the political, regional and historical dimensions of these wartime mobilities. Given a context wherein refugee camp-settings have become extremely important in regional (mobility) dynamics, this research takes the refugee camp as the spatial and analytical starting point from which to study these dynamics. This approach provides a fresh perspective and deeper understanding of conflict mobility in a region commonly known as one of the most protracted situations of displacement in the world and to which the international community has so far failed to find appropriate answers.
Promoter(s): Koen Vlassenroot
Researcher(s): Jolien Tegenbos
Department / Research group: Conflict and Development Studies
Faculty: Faculty of Political and Social Sciences

Description: This project consist of a qualitative longitudinal study, in which 30 South Sudanese youngsters living in the Adjumani refugee camp (northern Uganda) are followed over a period of 2 years. Qualitative interviews in combination with visual approaches (photography, video, drawings) are used to understand how youngsters experience and deal with uncertainty in everyday life and in future. These engagements with the youngsters are completed with interviews with policy actors and aid workers, and extensive observations of daily life in the refugee setting. This project aims to gain a better understanding of youngster’s everyday experiences of uncertainty, and how these experiences relate to the social and political context of the refugee camp. In gaining insight in what a camp is and what kind of lives and experiences can unfold within it, this study aims to develop a critical reflection on camps and, ultimately, on the ways in which we are dealing with migration and refugees today.
Promoter(s): Wouter Vanderplasschen, Ilse Derluyn, Sofie Vindevogel
Researcher(s): Julie Schiltz
Department / Research group: Department of Special Needs Education
Faculty: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences