Prolonged Exile in Relative Isolation
Long-term Consequences of Contrasting Refugee Policies in Tanzania

By Mans Fellesson
April 2003
Uppsala University
ISBN: 91-554-5507-7
275 pages, Illustrated, 6 1/2" x 9 1/2"
$58.00 Paper Original


The question at issue in this doctoral dissertation has been stimulated by the past decade's shifts in the field of refugee-hosting. An important element of these changes is the consideration of repatriation as the only durable solution. In many African refugee-receiving states this shift has meant the abandonment of integrative policies in favor of temporary, repatriation-oriented solutions. This development has, however, revealed itself to be at odds with the exile situations in Africa, which tend to be prolonged affairs. Persistent political unrest in many African states means that a large number of refugees are consigned to a long stay in the country of exile. This work examines the problem of long-term exile as it relates to the application of two hosting policies in Tanzania representing contrasting political views on the problem of refugees. The research takes a standpoint in the current refugee political climate of changed displacement patterns and growing restrictionism. In the light of the tendency of more extended refugee situations the study argues that current application of hosting policies in Tanzania does not contain a tuning to the consequences of a prolonged hosting undertaking, but calls for more dynamic and long-term prospectives. Mans Fellesson conducts research at the Department of Sociology at Uppsala University, but works at present at the Swedish International Development Agency, Sida. His research interests include forced migration issues on the African Continent.

Sociology; African Studies
Studia Sociologica Upsaliensia No. 49

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