Reluctant to return?The primacy of social networks in the repatriation of Rwandan refugees in Uganda

Abstract

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) keeps watch over approximately 45.2 million people who have fled the world’s conflicts, 80 percent of whom arefound in developing countries (UNHCR 2012a; Zetter 2012; TheGuardian 2013). To address the refugees’ plight, UNHCR seeks ‘durable solutions’: primarily voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement in a third country, in that order (Harrell-Bond 1989; Mupedziswa 1993; Hansen et al 2008; Long 2008; Omata 2012; UNHCR 2013). Increasingly established as the most viable solution for refugees, repatriation has come to be designated by the international community of states and UNHCRas the ideal solution to the global refugee problem (Ullom 2001; Chimni 2004; Omata 2012; UNHCR 2012, UNHCR 2013). The primacy of repatriation is based on the assumption that it permits refugees to return home and become re-established in their own community (UNHCR 2012). However, there are some cases where refugees choose not to return home (Chimni 2004), due to strong social networks within their countries of asylum (UNHCR and IOM 2011), as is the case of the Rwandan refugees in this study.