![Sample our Social Sciences journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110822/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Social-Sciences.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Inhabitants of refugee camps are commonly perceived as vulnerable people in hostile places with limited political and economic agency. However, camp settings can also provide the ground for a lively informal economy. This article describes the emergence of entrepreneurial and income generating activities in the Sahrawi refugee camps. It analyses how local and international policies towards income generating activities have changed in the past four decades, contributing to a better understanding of the reality of refugee entrepreneurship.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. This article is based on ethnographic fieldwork that I conducted for my doctoral thesis between 2007 and 2011 in the Sahrawi refugee camps (Algeria). The research findings were published in German in Tavakoli (Citation2015). This article takes up aspects and text sections from this publication and develops them further. Additional observations were made during short visits to the camps in 2018. I would like to thank the reviewers for careful reading and valuable advice.
2. Viaje solidario or turismo solidario is a frequently used term in Spanish, when referring to visitors to the Sahrawi refugee camps. The terms ‘solidarity tourism’ and ‘justice tourism’ have also been used for instance, by the Alternative Tourism Group of Palestine. (Isaac et al., Citation2016).
3. Retrieved 21 May 2019, from http://www.un.org/en/decolonization/nonselfgovterritories.shtml.
4. The SADR is a full member of the African Union and is currently recognized by 48 states (Retrieved May 27 2019 from http://www.usc.es/es/institutos/ceso/RASD_Reconocimientos.html).
5. Retrieved 21 May 2019, from http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/34/a34res37.pdf.
6. On political liberalization, see Zunes and Mundy (Citation2010, pp. 119–120).
7. Sahrawi refugees can travel to Tindouf and Mauritania, but need an Algerian permit if they want to travel to other regions within Algeria (Human Rights Watch, Citation2014).
8. Since the turn of the century, roads were built, water supply has been improved, the use of solar energy spread, adobe houses were built, and a telephone and partly a Wi-Fi net were established (Herz, Citation2013). Nonetheless, the provision of drinkable water for example, is still below minimum humanitarian standards (UNHCR, Citation2016b, p. 4).
9. On the importance of Sahrawi refugees` affiliation to administrative organizations for their participation in elections see Wilson (Citation2016, p. 196).
10. When only first names are mentioned, they are pseudonyms.
11. See, e.g., the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan 2017–2018 (https://www.unhcr.org), the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants 2016 (https://www.un.org), or the Employment and Decent Work for Peace and Resilience Recommendation 2017 (www.ilo.org).
12. Retrieved 28 May 2019 from www.made51.org.
13. In the Sahrawi Refugee camps, the UNHCR and Oxfam are engaged in community empowerment by applying a sustainable livelihood strategy, which includes support for business creation and provides business development trainings (Oxfam, Citation2018; UNHCR, Citation2016a).
14. Reports were published in German at www.spiegel.de; www.daserste.de; www.dw.com.
15. Retrieved 21 May 2019 from http://www.cric.it/intercultura-e-diritti/69-zagharit-recupero-della-cultura-saharawi-e-rafforzamento-delle-attivita-economiche-tradizionali.html.
16. Retrieved 21 May 2019 from https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/school-of-ceramic-in-the-saharawi-refugee-camps#/.
17. The Sahrawi refugees case states rather an exception with excellent research conducted in the fields of poetry, music and cultural heritage during the last decade (Deubel, Citation2011; Gimenez Amoroso, Citation2012; Ruano Posada & Solana Moreno, Citation2015).
18. The UNHCR is thereby partnering with social enterprises like Indego Africa or Afrika Tiss and major companies like IKEA (UNHCR, Citation2016c).
19. From the beginning, the Sahrawi leadership stressed the importance of the cultural sector. Apart from the craft committee, local and regional music, dance and theatre groups, cultural festivals, and poetry contests were organized by the refugee population. Its importance is still emphasized; however, employees of the Sahrawi Ministry of Culture in exile stress the need for funds and incentives to continue activities in the cultural sector.
20. The Sahrawi refugee camps are named after cities in Western Sahara. This camp used to share the name of the women’s school, ‘27 February’ around which it emerged.
21. Different carpet designs made in North Africa (Tavakoli, Citation2015, p. 289).
22. In the 1960s and 1970s, some changes started to occur in the handicraft field, when industrial goods increasingly replaced hand-made products while tourism slowly started to emerge in what was referred to as Spanish Sahara (Tavakoli, Citation2015, p. 241).
23. The Sahrawi leadership in exile accuses Morocco of a ‘cultural genocide’ of the Sahrawi population that remained in Western Sahara, thereby politicizing the preservation of Sahrawi cultural heritage within the refugee society (Tavakoli, Citation2015, pp. 235–238).
24. Spanish for painting.
25. Retrieved 21 May 2019 from http://www.cric.it/intercultura-e-diritti/69-zagharit-recupero-della-cultura-saharawi-e-rafforzamento-delle-attivita-economiche-tradizionali.html.
26. After I finished my fieldwork in 2011, the building was again severely damaged by floods in 2015 and is now completely unused.
27. For information on the ceramic school see https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/school-of-ceramic-in-the-saharawi-refugee-camps#/and https://www.facebook.com/pg/escueladeceramicasaharaui/, retrieved 21 May 2019.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Judit Tavakoli
Judit Tavakoli is an academic staff member at the department of social and cultural anthropology of Goethe University Frankfurt. Her research focusses on migratory processes, identity, nationalism and material culture. She carried out extensive research on the Western Sahara conflict and the situation of the Sahrawi refugees.