Challenges and Opportunities of Urban Refugee Livelihoods: The Case of Addis Ababa
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Date
2019-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
In Ethiopia, specifically in Addis Ababa, there are many Eritrean and Somali Urban
refugees. They put Addis Ababa in the top first priority area to live because Addis Ababa is
the capital city of Ethiopia and is the centre for national as well as international
organizations. Urban refugees have different kinds of livelihood challenges and opportunities
and this research examines it.
In order to achieve the objectives of the research, descriptive type of research which is led by
qualitative approach was employed. In-depth interview, key informant interview, focus group
discussion and document review were the central data collection techniques. In this study,
Gofa Mebrat Hail for Eritrean refugees and Bole Michael for Somali refugees in Addis
Ababa were selected based on their numerical upper hand as well as the prolonged
settlement of the refugees in the respective areas. In-depth interview was made with Eritrean
and Somali urban refugees, key informant interview with officials from ARRA, NRC, DICAC
and Woreda officials from the hosting community. Purposive sampling technique was
employed to select the research participants.
The finding of the study shows that there are several socio-cultural and economic challenges
urban refuges have been facing: High cost of living, problem of cultural adaptability like
language barriers, refugees low self-esteem, psychological instability and mobility, economic
crises, conflict, security challenges, violence, theft and robbery are the main challenges
associated with livelihood strategies.
This research also indicates that there are opportunities available on the ground to be used
for sustainable development and self-reliance: availability of supportive policy frameworks
and cultural Similarity between the hosting community and urban refugees. Moreover, this
research revealed that urban refugees have both negative and positive impacts for the
hosting community. The positive impacts include strengthen socio-economic and political
relationship with neighbouring country, strengthened people-to-people relationship, transfer
knowledge and skills, increase work habits, contribute for labour market, and inject foreign
currency to the market. The negative impacts burdened on the hosting community are
aggravated the price of rental house, increase unemployment rate, injects deviant behaviour
such as addiction, conflict and violence. This research has come to conclude that urban
refugeeās livelihood strategy is vulnerable for risk and shock as the result of less sustainable
nature of their means of income.
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Keywords
refugees, urban refugees, livelihood, Somali Refugees, Eritrean Refugee