Explore the vast range of titles available.

International treaties, conventions, and organizations to protect refugees were established in the aftermath of World War II to protect people escaping targeted persecution by their own governments. However, the nature of cross-border displacement has transformed dramatically since then. Such threats as environmental change, food insecurity, and generalized violence force massive numbers of people to flee states that are unable or unwilling to ensure their basic rights, as do conditions in failed and fragile states that make possible human rights deprivations. Because these reasons do not meet the legal understanding of persecution, the victims of these circumstances are not usually recognized as \"refugees,\" preventing current institutions from ensuring their protection. In this book, Alexander Betts develops the concept of \"survival migration\" to highlight the crisis in which these people find themselves. Examining flight from three of the most fragile states in Africa-Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Somalia-Betts explains variation in institutional responses across the neighboring host states. There is massive inconsistency. Some survival migrants are offered asylum as refugees; others are rounded up, detained, and deported, often in brutal conditions. The inadequacies of the current refugee regime are a disaster for human rights and gravely threaten international security. InSurvival Migration, Betts outlines these failings, illustrates the enormous human suffering that results, and argues strongly for an expansion of protected categories.

Are areas that host encamped refugees more likely to experience communal conflict, and under what conditions? Building on insights from the refugee studies literature suggesting that settling refugees in camps can intensify intercommunal tension in host communities, this article investigates the effect of refugee encampment on the occurrence of communal conflict at the subnational level in sub-Saharan Africa. It first tests for a general relationship between the overall presence and population intensity of encamped refugees and communal conflict before assessing whether this relationship is moderated by local-level characteristics, including interethnic linkages and political and economic marginalization within the host region. The basic findings show that communal conflict occurs more frequently in regions where refugees are camp-settled. Tests for interactive effects indicate that refugee camps have a significant marginal effect on conflict only if they are located in areas with politically marginalized host groups. Origin country/host region ethnic ties are shown to exert significant moderating effects. Moreover, results from an extended set of analyses show that the form of refugee settlement matters, as the presence and population intensity of self-settled refugees are related to decreases in the occurrence of communal conflict.

Satellite-based broad-scale (i.e., global and continental) human settlement data are essential for diverse applications spanning climate hazard mitigation, sustainable development monitoring, spatial epidemiology and demographic modeling. Many human settlement products report exceptional detection accuracies above 85%, but there is a substantial blind spot in that product validation typically focuses on large urban areas and excludes rural, small-scale settlements that are home to 3.4 billion people around the world. In this study, we make use of a data-rich sample of 30 refugee settlements in Uganda to assess the small-scale settlement detection by four human settlement products, namely, Geo-Referenced Infrastructure and Demographic Data for Development settlement extent data (GRID3-SE), Global Human Settlements Built-Up Sentinel-2 (GHS-BUILT-S2), High Resolution Settlement Layer (HRSL) and World Settlement Footprint (WSF). We measured each product’s areal coverage within refugee settlement boundaries, assessed detection of 317,416 building footprints and examined spatial agreement among products. For settlements established before 2016, products had low median probability of detection and F1-score of 0.26 and 0.24, respectively, a high median false alarm rate of 0.59 and tended to only agree in regions with the highest building density. Individually, GRID3-SE offered more than five-fold the coverage of other products, GHS-BUILT-S2 underestimated the building footprint area by a median 50% and HRSL slightly underestimated the footprint area by a median 7%, while WSF entirely overlooked 8 of the 30 study refugee settlements. The variable rates of coverage and detection partly result from GRID3-SE and HRSL being based on much higher resolution imagery, compared to GHS-BUILT-S2 and WSF. Earlier established settlements were generally better detected than recently established settlements, showing that the timing of satellite image acquisition with respect to refugee settlement establishment also influenced detection results. Nonetheless, settlements established in the 1960s and 1980s were inconsistently detected by settlement products. These findings show that human settlement products have far to go in capturing small-scale refugee settlements and would benefit from incorporating refugee settlements in training and validating human settlement detection approaches.

‘Based on empirical case studies from across sub-Saharan Africa, the contributions in this volume look to provide fresh insights into the unexpected changes, complex agency and persistent dynamism entailed in displacement processes.’ Africa at LSE ‘This book provocatively asks “what does displacement produce?” Juxtaposing the experiences of different actors, drawing on rich ethnographic material, this important new volume strikes a careful balance between highlighting the agency of those often cast as victims and drawing attention to the emergence of vested interests that may perpetuate displacement.’ Oliver Bakewell, University of Oxford ‘Displacement economies are the drivers of the world’s economies! The contributors’ innovative and creative analysis of displacement through the lens of “agency”, relationality and its transformative power is a welcome addition to theories of displacement, which have previously focused on victimhood. This book provides the basis for an alternative reading of the economics and politics of Africa and beyond.’ Mirjam de Bruijn, Leiden University ‘This superb new book brings together a range of deeply experienced contributors to offer new ways of seeing and thinking about “displacement economies”. At the heart of this ambitious, useful book is the insistence that those living in displaced economies are not just living out the effects but engaged in activities that show how displacement is not only disruptive, but productive.’ Christopher Cramer, SOAS, University of London ‘Displacement Economies in Africa offers a fresh analytic perspective on the multiple dislocations brought about by war and crisis in Africa. By theorizing a “relational” rather than “operational” approach, the volume diverges from the conventional perspectives of forced migration studies. With up-to-date examples drawn from across the continent, this collection should be essential reading for students of development, migration and conflict in Africa.’ JoAnn McGregor, Sussex University ‘In a new era of displacement of people from multiple rural and urban sites in Africa, this extremely timely, important and well-crafted collection of detailed field studies takes up both the intended and unexpected material and symbolic effects produced by displacement. Crucial reading!’ Jane I. Guyer, Johns Hopkins University.

Background Cholera is a life-threatening disease caused by ingesting food or water contaminated with V. cholerae . Armed conflicts disrupt healthcare infrastructure, limit access to clean water, and exacerbate population displacement, leading to increased vulnerability to cholera outbreaks. This scoping review aims to assess cholera control strategies in conflict settings in Africa and the Middle East, with the goal of identifying effective and feasible interventions. Methods We followed PRISMA guidelines and conducted a comprehensive search of peer-reviewed literature in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Cochrane in November 2024. We included all study types on public health interventions for cholera management in Africa and the Middle East during conflict that were published from 1st January 2009 to 15 November 2024. Result Twenty-five studies were included in this review; the data were synthesized narratively following PRISMA guidance. The review identified various cholera control interventions implemented in conflict settings, categorized into four main themes: vaccination, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions, case management and clinical interventions, and multicomponent strategies. Oral cholera vaccine (OCV) campaigns significantly reduced cholera incidence (up to 80%), especially when achieving high coverage rates (70–90%). Vaccination campaigns were effective, but they faced logistical challenges, including vaccine shortages and limitations in the cold chain. WASH interventions, including water purification and hygiene promotion, were effective in lowering microbial contamination and improving health outcomes. WASH interventions were often disrupted by conflict-related damage to infrastructure. Case management approaches, such as oral rehydration therapy and antibiotic use, played a crucial role in reducing mortality, but they required improved accessibility and antibiotic stewardship. Multicomponent interventions integrating vaccination, WASH, and case management demonstrated the highest impact on cholera control. Conclusion Cholera control in conflict settings demands a phased and evidence-based approach backed by flexible funding and prospective operational research. Prioritization should be given to immediate high-impact measures, short-term completion of two-dose vaccination and case area targeted interventions (CATIs), and long-term resilient WASH and vaccine reserves.

This article examines the formation of transnational religious networks amid forced migration, displacement, and resettlement. It concerns the effects of these networks on postcolonial African states and the histories they entail within and across the Global North and South. Its central case study is a little-examined resettlement project that returned a group of refugees, trained as physicians while in exile, to South Sudan after Sudan’s second civil war (1983–2005). This encompassed complex relations among refugees, diasporic populations, churches, faith-based NGOs, and public and private actors, linking post-Cold War faith-based politics to the Cuban internationalist educational project of the late 1970s. I argue that, in addition to highlighting critical processes of repatriation and post-conflict reconstruction, this project demonstrates how religious identities and practices take shape in relation to mechanisms of international political order, reworking experiences of displacement and enabling new forms of political agency. International Relations (IR) conventionally neglects these aspects of religion and international politics, focusing instead on ethno-religious contestation or, more recently, the normatively desirable outcomes of religious-political activities. However, greater attention to the transformative interconnections between religion and global governance and the histories they entail is critical for understanding linkages between transnational religious networks, peacebuilding in postcolonial states, and the global mediation of political dislocation.

Non-technical summaryEnvironmental threats to shelter, livelihoods, and food security are often considered push factors for intra-African human migration. Research in this field is often fragmented into a myriad of case studies on specific subregions or events, thus preventing a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon. This paper examines environmental drivers reported in the literature as push factors for human displacement across 32 sub-Saharan African countries between 1990 and 2021. Extensive consultation of past studies and reports with analytical methods shows that environmental migration is complex and influenced by multiple direct and indirect factors. Non-environmental drivers compound the effects of environmental change.Technical summaryIntra-African environmental migration is a bleak reality. Warming trends, aridification, and the intensification of extreme climate events, combined with underlying non-environmental drivers, may set millions of people on the move. Despite previous studies and meta-analyses on environmental migration within sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), conclusive empirical evidence of the relationship between environmental change and migration is still missing. Here we draw on 87 case studies published in the scholarly literature (from fields ranging from the environmental sciences to development economics and migration research) or documented by research databases, reports, and international disaster datasets to develop a meta-analysis investigating the relationship between environmental changes and migration across SSA. A combination of quantitative, Qualitative Comparative Analyses (QCA), and statistical correlation methods are used to analyze the metadata and investigate the complex web of environmental drivers of environmental migration in SSA while highlighting subregional differences in the predominant environmental forcing. We develop a new conceptual framework for investigating the cascading flow of interdependences among environmental change drivers of human displacement while reconstructing the main migration patterns across SSA. We also present new insights into the way non-environmental factors are exposing communities in SSA to high vulnerability and reduced resilience to environmental change.Social media summaryHuman displacement in sub-Saharan Africa is often associated with the effects of climate change and environmental degradation.

Exiled populations, who increasingly refer to themselves as diaspora communities, hold a strong stake in the fate of their countries of origin. In a world becoming ever more interconnected, they engage in 'long-distance politics' towards, send financial remittances to and support social development in their homelands. Transnational diaspora networks have thus become global forces shaping the relationship between countries, regions and continents. This important intervention, written by scholars working at the cutting edge of diaspora and conflict, challenges the conventional wisdom that diaspora are all too often warmongers, their time abroad causing them to become more militant in their engagement with local affairs. Rather, they can and should be a force for good in bringing peace to their home countries. Featuring in-depth case studies from the Horn of Africa, including Somalia and Ethiopia, this volume presents an essential rethinking of a key issue in African politics and development.

The right to housing is an indispensable human right enshrined in some domestic and international legal instruments. Some jurisdictions' constitutions explicitly confer the right to housing as a legal entitlement on all persons.1 Also, the right to housing is recognised as a fundamental right in international instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 19482 and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) of 1966. 3 Underlying the right to housing is the idea that shelter and housing must be guaranteed, especially for those individuals in vulnerable groups of society. 4 However, as the United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCR) has noted, “too often violations of the right to housing occur with impunity. This is partly because, at the domestic level, housing is rarely treated as a human right, leaving individuals with little legal recourse to address such violations”.5 In addition to the recurring breach of the right to housing in many jurisdictions, housing and shelter in contemporary times have been largely commodified. 6 The commodification of housing is increasingly impeding accessibility, affordability and the general practical realisation of the right in many countries, especially African countries.7 The antidote, which many believe is key to ensuring adequate housing, is implementing this human right through appropriate government policy and programmes, including national housing strategies that actualise the legal entitlements enshrined in the ICESCR and other international instruments. 8 Essentially, giving effect to the right to housing requires a carefully mapped-out policy framework through which the very tenets of the right (affordability and accessibility) can be achieved.Notwithstanding that in some countries, the right to housing is a clear constitutional duty imposed on the government, practically realising the right to housing requires governments in Africa to have the financial wherewithal to establish a policy or regulatory framework that meets the herculean task of providing affordable, adequate and accessible housing to the marginalised and persons in vulnerable groups. 9 Aside from the financial strength a country a government must possess to actualise the right to housing, the efficacy of the right to housing seems to be hinged on the governmental and political commitment. 10 The situation is dire in countries where the right to housing is not positively expressed as a constitutional right or aspiration that ought to be achieved by governments. This is because, without an explicit constitutional mandate or provision, the practical realisation of the right to housing is hinged on political expediency or preference and the availability of funds. A typical case is the Fourth Republican Constitution of the Republic of Ghana of 1992 (hereafter the “1992 Constitution of Ghana”).The 1992 Constitution ushered Ghana into its Fourth Republic and has been a bedrock of enhancing the respect for fundamental rights and freedom, the rule of law and democracy. 11 Through the 1992 Constitution, the respect for the fundamental rights and freedoms has been entrenched. 12 The 1992 Constitution mandates that all persons (natural and artificial persons), government institutions, and the arms of government put in place mechanisms that give effect to the realisation of the fundamental human rights and freedoms of all persons in Ghana.13 The 1992 Constitution contains a host of fundamental rights and freedoms, such as the right to personal liberty, the right to human dignity, prohibition against discrimination, among others. It also contains several social, cultural, and economic rights, which the Constitution describes as embodying the aspirational goals of successive governments in Ghana. 14 Although there is an express constitutional commitment to uphold various rights and freedoms of all Ghanaians, the right to housing has been one of the rights often relegated to the background and not fully emphasised in statutes and case law.