Réfugiés urbains à Nairobi = Urban refugees in Nairobi

The integration of foreign communities into the African urban centres takes on a unique dimension where it concerns refugees who have been forced to move into these towns as a result of civil wars or natural disasters. In Nairobi, the asylum seekers are mostly illegal as they do not yet have official refugee status. Unlike the other migrants, they experience many difficulties in maintaining ties with their rural homes of origin and besides, many have often come from an urban background. Their being cut off, compounded by the impossibility of their return does not necessarily guarantee a firm settlement in the city either. Their precarious and illegal status prevents these urban refugees from truly settling down in the city. The different ways the Rwandese, the Sudanese, the Ethiopians, the Ugandans or the Somalis used to come to Nairobi does not definitely allow for a generalization of the scenario ; but it certainly has a bearing on the classical analyses of rural migration and urbanization in Africa. (Résumé d'auteur