Zambian Refugee Policy : Security, Repatriation and Local Integration

Why has Zambia, in contrast to most of its neighbours in Southern Africa, not experienced war since independence? This study is an attempt to shed light on the relationship between Zambia’s peaceful history, in a region plagued by conflict and refugee-flows, and the country’s generous refugee policy. The Zambian refugee policy is examined in this study, using a multidimensional security perspective as a theoretical tool, developed by Barry Buzan in the book People, States and Fear. The study focuses on Angolan refugees and describes two processes in the refugee policy, on one hand a process of local integration of refugees (the Zambian Initiative), on the other, a process of helping the refugees return to their country of origin (the repatriation project). With the help of interviews with officials from the government of Zambia, UN-agencies, NGO´s and the University, and with interviews at a grassroots level, some important conclusions have been made about the Zambian refugee policy. The demobilisation of refugees, the location of the camps, preventing the refugees from being politically active, the availability of land and the ethnical structure in the country are all essential factors that have contributed to the fact that the refugee issue has not yet become a source of conflict. In sum we see the Zambian refugee policy as a mostly constructive one with the Zambian Initiative as an admirable project that beneficially could be transmitted to other countries.