Youth Interrupted: The Consequences of Urban Displacement for Young Men and Women in Afghanistan

Abstract

In conflict-affected countries there is a trend of rapid urbanisation driven by internal migration and displacement. These countries are also increasingly young. Despite constituting a demographic majority in urban conflict and displacement-affected situations, youth are often invisible. Afghanistan fits this dynamic well with two-thirds of the population below the age of 25 and one in four living in cities in so-called ‘informal settlements’ on the fringes of cities, a vast majority with displacement backgrounds. Furthermore, Afghan youth have had very little agency in conceiving their future and that of their country. They are viewed as either vulnerable or risk factors for conflict, with action limited to ‘exit’ or ‘violence’. This article gives urban displaced Afghan youth a voice by telling their story of being caught between the desire for agency and the real and perceived obstacles that prevent this from happening.

Keywords:

• Afghanistan
• forced migration
• internal displacement
• urban poverty
• vulnerability
• youth
• youth agency
• voice
• resilience

Notes

1 Informal settlements are areas that are generally unplanned with large proportions of irregular squatter settlements. Construction of dwellings is spontaneous and built on public land (World Bank & UNHCR 2011, 12). They lie at the fringes of larger cities, growing outward with the new arrivals of rural–urban migrants and IDPs, creating unregulated and erratic urban sprawl, often paralleling slum neighbourhoods.

2 Underemployment is defined as employment that is not sufficient to meet livelihood needs. Often it is irregular, ad hoc, or seasonal labour.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susanne Schmeidl

SUSANNE SCHMEIDL is Lecturer in Development Studies at the University of New South Wales, Australia. She has worked for 20 years as a scholar-practitioner with a variety of organisations at the intersection of peace, security, and development, and has been involved in Afghanistan since 2000. Her publications focus on conflict early warning, forced migration, and participatory peacebuilding.

Srinjoy Bose

SRINJOY BOSE was recently awarded a PhD in Politics and International Relations from the Australian National University. His doctoral dissertation examined the role of legitimacy in Afghanistan’s statebuilding enterprise, and was supported by a Prime Minister’s Australia-Asia Endeavour Award.