Jan 2008 – Dec 2012
This project examines why some returning refugees come to destabilize the peace process in their home country upon return, whereas others do not. The potential for violent mobilization amongst refugees was firmly placed on the agenda through the concept ‘refugee warriors’.
Forced migration provides fertile ground for violent collective action. This may seem obvious today, but when the term ‘refugee warriors’ was launched in the latter half of the 1980s, it was highly controversial. The term was coined by Astri Suhrke, and introduced through the collaborative work by Aristide Zolberg, Astri Suhrke and Sergio Aguayo, in particular in the book Escape from Violence: Conflict and the Refugee Crisis in the Developing World (Cambridge University Press, 1989). The term brought attention to an important, yet so far neglected, aspect of displacement.
Despite the fact that a proportion of the returnees are (current or former) fighters, the two are dealt with as separate categories of people – in the academic literature as well as by policymakers and practitioners. Furthermore, the return of refugees - all assumed to be ‘civilians’ - is seen to signify a successful peace process. The possible negative impact of refugee return on the post-conflict situation is often discussed as a question of ‘absorptive capacity’. More dramatically, however, rapid return may threaten the viability of peace if returning refugees are actual fighters or are mobilized as fighters upon return. If so, the returnees themselves may represent a security threat, and hence undermine a peace process.
The project aims at mapping the mechanisms by which returning refugees engage in violence in their country of origin. We look at a subset of returnees – those from refugee populations where military mobilization has been prevalent – and explore the mechanisms by which they come to engage militarily, or not, upon return. Five types of factors are dominant in explaining returnee mobilization:
Each of these has both local and transnational aspects. The nature of the peace, for example, is about the commitment of domestic groups, the stance of transnational non-state actors, and the buy-in from neighboring states.
The project has been funded by a grant (2008-2011) from the Research Council of Norway, with additional funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2012–). The project has an ambitious publication plan, and will culminate in a book that conveys the results of five case studies (Afghanistan, Cambodia, Darfur/Sudan, Liberia and Rwanda) as well as an overarching analytical framework and the generic conclusions. Findings will also be conveyed in a series of four policy briefs, aimed at a broader audience of policy-makers and practitioners in refugee management, peacemaking and peacebuilding.
As the numbers of Syrian refugees in Turkey may soon top the 100,000 mark, there are clear indications that the humanitarian, peaceful and civilian character of asylum is threatened.
In ‘Social Networks and Migration in Wartime Afghanistan’, Senior Researcher and PRIO Director, Kristian Berg Harpviken puts forward a theoretical framework for understanding the role of social networks in situations of war, disaster and forced migration. Inspired by social network theory, developed in fields such as economic and organizational sociology, Harpviken systematically applies and advances these theories with reference to forced migration. He draws on extensive fieldwork in the Herat area of Afghanistan to analyze wartime migration and he discusses how social networks help people cope, what kind of network is most effective in various contexts and what social networks provide.
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Kristian Berg Harpviken was invited by the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) at Georgetown University to spend five weeks from late September to early November as a guest researcher. The main focus during this period was on revising the manuscript for the forthcoming book – Social Networks and Wartime Migration in Afghanistan – which is on contract with Palgrave Macmillan and should be out in 2009. Harpviken also worked with Sarah Kenyon Lischer (Wake Forest University) on the theoretical framework for a new project that aims at explaining under what conditions refugees returning from militarized exile contexts continue to engage in organized violence upon coming home.
PRIO Policy Brief
PRIO Policy Brief
PRIO Policy Brief
Book Chapter in Transnational Dynamics of Civil War
Book Chapter in The Oxford Companion to American Politics
Book Chapter in The Oxford Companion to Comparative Politics
PRIO Policy Brief
Popular Article in ISN Security Watch
Popular Article in Dagsavisen
Popular Article in The Africa Report
Popular Article in Dagbladet
Popular Article in Huffington Post
Journal Article in Conflict, Security & Development
Popular Article in Huffington Post
Journal Article in The World Today
Conference Paper
Journal Article in Sudan Studies Association Bulletin
Journal Article in The World Today
Book Chapter in Beyond the Wild Tribes: Understanding Modern Afghanistan and its Diaspora
Conference Paper
Monograph
Conference Paper
Book Review
Conference Paper
Report - External Series
Conference Paper