Description
Berghahn Books The Early Morning Phonecall Somali Refugees Remittances 2010 Edition by Anna Lindley
As migration from poverty-stricken and conflict-affected countries continues to hit the headlines, this book focuses on an important counter-flow: the money that people send home. Despite considerable research on the impact of migration and remittances in countries of origin - increasingly viewed as a source of development capital - still little is known about refugees' remittances to conflict-affected countries because such funds are most often seen as a source of conflict finance. This book explores the dynamics, infrastructure, and far-reaching effects of remittances from the perspectives of people in the Somali regions and the diaspora. With conflict driving mass displacement, Somali society has become progressively transnational, its vigorous remittance economy reaching from the heart of the global North into wrecked cities, refugee camps, and remote rural areas. By 'following the money' the author opens a window on the everyday lives of people caught up in processes of conflict, migration, and development. The book demonstrates how, in the interstices of state disruption and globalisation, and in the shadow of violence and political uncertainty, life in the Somali regions goes on, subject to complex transnational forms of social, economic, and political innovation and change. Table of contents :- List of Illustrations and TablesAcknowledgementsAbbreviationsChapter 1. Migration, Conflict and Development: Situating Refugees' RemittancesMigration-Development LinkagesConflict and Local-Global ConnectionsThe Livelihoods of RefugeesApproachChapter 2. The Somali Context: People and Money on the MoveNomadism, Sedentarism, UrbanisationExtra-regional ConnectionsPostcolonial Republic: Refugee Arrivals, Labour Migrants and Political ExilesCivil War and DiasporisationFeedback: a Wartime Remittance EconomyXawilaad: Crisis as a Business OpportunityFrom 'Dirty Money' to 'Humanitarian Lifeline'?Beyond Collapse: Grasping Continuities and ChangeChapter 3. Migration and Remittances in a Precarious State: the View from HargeisaOppression, Insurgency and Crisis: Diaspora DimensionsFrom Translocal to Transnational FamiliesCoping in a Tough EconomyInvesting Diaspora CapitalFollowing the Money into the Wider CommunityThe Diaspora in Post-Conflict Politics and DevelopmentBeyond Complacency: Migration-Conflict-Development ContingenciesChapter 4. Traffic at a Global Crossroads: Eastleigh, NairobiFrom the Northern Frontier to New Horizons in NairobiRemittance Traffic, Mobility and Strategic HouseholdsGoing into BusinessA Global CrossroadsBeyond Categories: Making a Living, Circulation and ContainmentChapter 5. The North-South Divide in Everyday Life: Londoners Sending Money 'Home'Seeking AsylumSettling in a Global CityWho Pays the Biil?The Social Micro-dynamics of RemittancesEconomic Sacrifices and Strategies, Social Reaffirmation and TensionsBeyond Economics: the Violent Origins and Social Texture of RemittingChapter 6. Concluding ReflectionsGlossaryReferencesIndex