Citizenship and displacement: naturalisation of Burundian refugees in Tanzania (2010-2017)
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Date
25/11/2019Author
Kuch, Amelia Magdalena
Metadata
Abstract
Between 2010-2017, 150,000 of Burundian refugees, whose families fled to Tanzania in the
1970s, received citizenship in Tanzania. This thesis explores how the experience of
naturalisation shaped Burundian refugees’ views of citizenship, and considers how this can
help develop understanding of citizenship more broadly, especially in a displacement context.
My research traces the implementation and aftermath of naturalisation in Ulyankulu settlement
and the city of Dar es Salaam between 2014 and 2017, focusing on and foregrounding former
refugees’ experiences and narratives of citizenship and displacement. The methods employed
in this study were ethnographic in nature and included repeated visits to the research sites,
living with the community members, learning Kiswahili, and conducting over 160 interviews.
Unlike the existing studies of naturalisation which focus solely on the settlements, this thesis
adopts a multi-sited approach, which incorporates insights from both rural and urban settings,
drawing parallels and contrasting the various experiences and perspectives.
The thesis builds on the existing literature on citizenship, displacement and their nexus (Arendt
1973; Malkki 1995; Kibreab 1999; Warner 1999; Kelly 2006; Long, 2013a; Bakewell 2011;
Brun 2015; Grabska 2015; Hammar 2014, 2018), contributing new empirical and conceptual
insights on the complexity of evolving citizenship for those who are long-term displacees.
Drawing on former refugees’ experiences and narratives, the thesis puts forward a new concept
of ‘probational citizenship’ which aims to capture the temporality, uncertainty, and ongoing
struggles for recognition in displacement. Former refugees living with ‘probational
citizenship’ experience a paradoxical interplay of both safety and uncertainty about their
status, which dominates their lives and shapes their actions post-naturalisation. To shed light
on these processes, the thesis brings together a combination of key aspects of citizenship in a
context of displacement and settlement, not often addressed at the same time, namely political
representation, land rights, mobility, and materiality of citizenship.