This book is about the convergence of two problems: the ongoing realities of conflict and forced migration in Africas Great Lakes region, and the crisis of citizenship and belonging. By bringing them together, the intention is to see how, combined, they can help point the way towards possible solutions. Based on 1,115 interviews conducted over 6 years in the region, the book points to ways in which refugees challenge the parameters of citizenship and belonging as they carve out spaces for inclusion in the localities in which they live. Yet with a policy environment that often leads to marginalisation, the book highlights the need for policies that pull people into the centre rather than polarise and exclude; and that draw on, rather than negate, the creativity that refugees demonstrate in their quest to forge spaces of belonging.
Acknowledgements.- Map.- Introduction.- I. Overview of the field research and methodology.- II. Overview of the book.- 1. Conflict and displacement, citizenship and belonging: a framework for discussion.- I. Citizenship - belonging to a polity?.- II. (De)constructions of citizenship: a rights perspective.- III. Multiple forms of belonging.- IV. The politics of ethnicity.- V. Belonging and territory: the politics of autochthony.- VI. Forced migration and its linkages with notions of inclusion and exclusion.- 2. Living through exile: (not) belonging to a state.- I. National exclusion in exile.- Becoming Tanzanian?.- II. Reclaiming national belonging through return to Burundi?.- III. National exclusion through unresolved legacies of violence.- IV. National identity: an anecdote to violence.- V. Belonging to an un-functioning state?.- VI Conclusion.- 3. Living through exile: belonging to a state.- I. Staying in Tanzania: needing to belong locally.- II. Burundi: Restoring Social Contracts?.- III. Belonging in Eastl3!