Exiled and Undocumented: When Cultural Toolkits Come in Handy

Research among urban self-settled refugees from the Great Lakes region in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, documents the tenacious resistance of this growing group of African refugees against official policies requiring them to depend on humanitarian assistance. While dealing with the permanent risk of being arrested by the immigration authorities, these men and women make ends meet by relying on supportive social network members and engaging in informal employment based on individual arrangements with Tanzanian residents. These livelihoods strategies are largely inspired by the socio-cultural and politico-historical backgrounds of the undocumented refugees. At the same time, lobbying efforts at the international level should render more flexible existing refugee policies by allowing urban refugees to be economically self-sufficient in a dignified manner.Invited lecture to the African Studies Program, Creighton University, Omaha NE (USA)status: publishe