Burundian refugees’ journey towards citizenship: pragmatics of belonging in Ulyankulu settlement, Tanzania

ABSTRACT

How do refugees develop a sense of belonging and de facto citizenship throughout long-term exile? This question, now relevant for global policy as ever, is at the heart of this journal article. This article analysesBurundian refugees’ everyday practices and narratives of belonging and claiming of rights while waiting for de jure citizenship in a rural settlement in empirical terms.

It starts by providing a theoretical framework that introduces the concept of ‘pragmatics of belonging’, then it traces different phases of governance in the settlement’s history and continues by showing how the practices of belonging have been in tension with policies of care and control of the settlement. This research is based on qualitative field research in Ulyankulu Settlement in Tabora region and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 2012, when the refugees were still waiting for citizenship in a period of uncertainty.

KEYWORDS:

• Citizenship
• refugees
• forced migration

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) under the annual PhD studentship scheme and by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) under the yearly scholarship for PhD students, with academic supervision by ProfessorClaire Mercer and Dr Murray Low (Associate Professor) at the LSE.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Janna L. Miletzki

Dr. Janna L. Miletzki obtained her PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in Human Geography in 2015. Since then, she has worked in various social research positions in academia and in the public sector in the UK, such as at the LSE, at the Equality and Human Rights Commission and currently at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.