Transnational Nomads: How Somalis Cope with Refugee Life in the Dadaab Camps of Kenya

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Berghahn Books, May 1, 2006 - Social Science - 252 pages

There is a tendency to consider all refugees as 'vulnerable victims': an attitude reinforced by the stream of images depicting refugees living in abject conditions.

This groundbreaking study of Somalis in a Kenyan refugee camp reveals the inadequacy of such assumptions by describing the rich personal and social histories that refugees bring with them to the camps. The author focuses on the ways in which Somalis are able to adapt their 'nomadic' heritage in order to cope with camp life; a heritage that includes a high degree of mobility and strong social networks that reach beyond the confines of the camp as far as the U.S. and Europe.

 

Contents

Past Ways of Coping With Insecurity Amongst the Somali
37
Providing Security or Sustaining Dependency?
76
The Role of Taar and Xawilaad
123
Imagining or Realising Migration to the West
160
6 Historical and Transnational Approaches to Refugee Studies
201
Glossary
217
Bibliography
218
Index
231
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About the author (2006)

Cindy Horst holds a PhD in Anthropology and completed a foundation year at the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University. She carried out extensive fieldwork amongst Somalis in Kenyan refugee camps and towns between 1995 and 2001 and in Europe and also worked for a refugee-assisting NGO. Cindy is Senior Researcher at the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo.

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