Hidden Losers? The Impact of Rural Refugees and Refugee Programs on Poorer Hosts

Abstract

Refugee relief organizations and refugee studies have refugees as their first concern and focus. Adverse impacts of refugees on hosts are relatively neglected. When impacts are considered, they are seen in terms of host country governments, economies and services rather than people or different groups among host populations. In rural refugee-affected areas, the better-off and more visible hosts usually gain from the presence of refugees and from refugee programs. In contrast, the poorer among the hosts can be hidden losers. This is more so now than in the past, especially where land is scarce and labor relatively abundant. The poorer hosts 2 can lose from competition for food, work, wages, services and common property resources. Vulnerable hosts also lack refugees’ option of sending their weaker dependents to camps and settlements. Development programs in refugee-affected areas and refugee studies will do a disservice if they neglect adverse effects of refugees on vulnerable hosts. These effects further strengthen the case for development to benefit the whole population in refugee-affected areas. 2 Here and elsewhere ‘the poorer hosts’ means ‘the poorer people among the host population'. ‘Once I accompanied one of our Ministers to the Eastern Region, and we all drove out of town to look at a new wave of refugees arriving from Eritrea. Before reaching the camp, the Minister — who was not familiar with the region — saw a cluster of shelters made of mats and under their shade were a number of families with children who were very thin and almost in rags. The Minister turned to the Governor of the Region and asked him whether these were refugees, and the Governor promptly replied, ‘No, Your Excellency, these are the hosts'. (The Sudanese Ambassador to Britain, from the transcript of the Proceedings of the International Symposium ‘Assistance to Refugees: Alternative Viewpoints', Oxford, March 1984).