Refugees, Identity, and the Limits to Inclusion: Revisiting Landlord-Stranger Reciprocity Relations in Contemporary Liberia. (September 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bedert, Maarten
• Is Part Of: African studies review. Volume 63:Number 3(2020)
• Page Start: 640
• Page End: 659
• Publication Date: 2020-09
• Subjects: Liberia, -- integration, -- refugees, -- identity, -- reciprocity; African philology -- Periodicals; Africa -- Periodicals; 960.05
• DOI: 10.1017/asr.2020.51
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-0206

Abstract

Abstract: Refugees in sub-Saharan Africa residing among host communities experience the need to articulate belonging in order to generate a greater sense of security. Based on the individual life stories of Ivorian refugees in Northeastern Liberia in 2011, Bedert finds that local patterns of integration between landlords and strangers are foregone by the bureaucratic identity of refugees as imposed by the international community. In addition, local integration is not self-evident, as it entails a degree of reciprocity and mutual recognition. In the eyes of landlords, strangers are evaluated based on what they can bring to the table.