Forced migration and transformation of refugees
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Date
2015-04-17
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Publisher
University of Ghana
Abstract
There has been much talk about the transformational experience of
refugee hosting communities, but relatively little about the impact of
these societies on the forced migrants. Using the case of Liberian
refugees in Ghana, this paper examines the transformational experience
of refugees during the forced migration experience. The paper
specifically examines how the structures of forced migration interact
with the refugee's agency to transform both the resources of the
refugees and the structures of forced migration. The research argues that the resource transformational experience of refugees is a result of
the complex interplay between the structures of forced migration and
the refugee's agency. Drawing on social constructivism's mutual
constitution of structure and agents, the study highlights the various
structures that refugees encounter as having different influences on
different agents (refugees). It also provides a context within which to
understand and examine how refugees as agents operate within
structures of constraint and opportunity, which more or less likely
leads to resource gains and losses
Description
School of social sciences colloquium
Keywords
refugees, migration, communities, constructivism