A Post-Gold War Geography of Forced Migration in Kenyaand Somaliax

Jennifer HyndmanArizona State Uniuersity West

I)rawing on recent research in the Horn ofAfrica, emer€dng patterns of managing forced migration in the post-ColdMrar landscape are identified and ana\'2e6. 1,1,n,t" .amps continue to house refugees, tbe rneaning and value of'rcfugee'have changed drarnatically since the Cold War. Efforts to prevent people frorn crossing political borders to seek safety

are increasing, gir.ing rise to a new set ofsafe spaces. These nerv spaces are expressions ofa distinct geopolitical discourseand take the names 'lIN protected area', 'preventive zone', and 'safe haven'. Their sigpificance as a challenge tostate-centric geopolitics both within conflict zones and as refugee camps is explored in the Kenya-Somalia cnntext. KeyWords: refugees, migration, displacement, A.frica.

rf'this arricle \.\,as spawned by three forays intoI humanitarianism. In Kenya, I worked for a

non-governmental organization (NGO) inWalda refugee camp during a period when itspopulation rvas growing exponentially due tofighting in the Siclamo region of Ethiopia. InSornalia, I rvas emplol'ed by a United Nationsagency as a field officer in Bardera, a town in thesouthern part of the country not far from theKenya-Sornalia border. Finally, I returned toKenva as a researcher based primaril)'at threerefugee camps on the other side of this sameborder. I began mapping the organization ofhumanitarian aid, intervie*'ing its recipients andproviders, and questioning im practices. Each ofthese experiences moved me to query the prac-tices of those administerins humanitarian loca-tions and to theorize nrobiliry for people'out ofplace'-those uprootecl from dreir homes due tofighting, famine, and fear.

Mv experience in Somalia, combined 'n ith rnyreading of post-stmcturalist accounts in seo-politics, as'r.r'ell as feminist and postcolonial the-ory led me to believe that within humanitariancircles the assruned prirnacy of the nation-statev.as problematic. The relative fiction of the So-malian state became clear'. Except for its role as

a politicizecl venue for pan-Somali nationalismand as an interlocutor in agreenents on militaryalliance and aid to Somalia. it u'as a countrv

precariously set'n together. Not only was itsgovernance historically a regional composite ofa different scale (Stevenson 1993), but its bor-ders were edges design(at)ed by colonial powersin the nineteenth century.'I'hese political bor-ders *'ere defended by colonial authorities inKenya against the wishes and strrggles of So-malis both inside and outside Kenya, and con-tested by Somali people during the Ogaden \4/ar(Hyndman 1997). Borders are forged throug'hcartographies of struggle (Shapiro 1996), and so

are refugees whose identities are based on bor-der crossings.

States, borders, and refugees belong to a dis-course of conventional geopolitics. Refugees, inthe rnodem sense. are a creation ofinternationallaw during this cenruq/. While refugees have byno means disappeared, the incernacional refugeeregime shows signs of giving way to rnore 'com-plex humanitarian ernergencies'-distinctmodes of multilateral resDonse to human dis-placement. Conventional gcopolitics and ncorcalist internadonal relations have been carefull,vand convincingly countered by critical, post-structuralist, ferninist, and Iioucauldian com*mentators of international relations and noliticalgeography (Dotv 1996r O 'Ii:athail 1996b;Shapiro 1996; llurphy Erfani 1998). I'ly aim inthis paper is to add a geographical dirnension tothis work by grounding my analysis in the

.I would like o thalL those who frurded the research on which this uaoer is based: the Social Scicnce rnd Ilslrnities Rsearch Council ofCal-acla, the Intemational Developrnent Rescarch Ccntre. rnd tJrc gcnder urir oflbrk Ulircrsity\ Centre for Retugee Sndies. Cornrnents by NrdincSchuurmu rnd two anonvnrcus reviewers were hvaltuble.

Professional Geographer, 5l(l) 1999, pages 104-ll4 Q Copyight 1999 byt\ssociation ofAmerican Geographers.Initial submission, Dccenber 1997r tevised subnission,June 1998; final acceptalce,July l99fi.

Published by Blackuell Publishers, 350,Main Srect, il{aklen, }LA.02148, and 108 Cow'ley Rord, Oxford, OX4 IJI] lJK.

arguably'new' spaces and discourses emergingu'ithin humanitarian circles since the early1990s.

A Background Note

Research focusing on operations of the UnitedNations High Commissioner for Refugees(LINHCR) provides the basis for this paper.LTNHCR orchestrates responses to what aremost often called'hurnanitarian emergencies',crises of human displacernent t'ithin and acrosspolitical borders. T'he agenc,v'.s rnandate is toprovide protection and assistance to involuntarymigrants, and to seek permanent solutions totheir displacement. During 1994-1995, I con-ducted an ethnographv of LTNHCR at threesites and scales of its operations: Genera, Swit-zerland and Nairobi and Dadaab, Kenl'a. plontthe organization's headquarters in Geneva, di-rectives are disseminated ancl inforrnation andfield reports flou'. Based on experience u'orkingwit^h a non-governmental organization (NGO)in Kenya and IINHCR in Somalia, sites in Nai-robi and Dadaab, a small town near the Kenya-Somalia bordeq were selected for the smdy ofthis geographically-distributed LN agency. Thesites represent three distinct Ievels of authorityu.ithin a highly hierarchical organization. In thediscussion which follows, UNHCR operationsat several sites and scales provide backglound for:a finer analysis of 'safe spaces' in Somalia andKenya. Accordingly, recent decisions and ac-tions taken by tINHCR sen'e as a departurepoint.

Geography Matters

M/ithin the discipline of geographv, a number ofscholars have published research pertaining torefugee displacement. Ncltsurprisingly, much ofthis body ofwork relates to refugees in the F{ornofAfrica rvhere forced migration has been wide-spread and significant in scale (Rogge 1985;I(uhlman 1990; Biack and Robinson 1993;Rogge 1993; Kuhlman 199.1; Bascom 1996).\4rithin the social sciences rnore generalll', in-creasing attention has been paid to issues ofdisplacenent and migration. ,\nalrrses of dis-placernent, diaspora, and identitv in the contextof people's movement across the globe havemultiplied, particularly v,ithin cultural srudies(Appadurai 1991; Basch et al. 1991; Bhabha

199{ Grewal and Kaplan 1994; Nixon 1994;Malkki 1995; Appadurai 1996; Kaplan 1996).While political geographers and others havecritically analyzed gcopolitics (O Tuathail1.996a,1996b; Shapiro 1996; Tesfahuney 1998)and exposed the contingenc)' of their repre-sentations, theoretical approaches that link dis-cursive ancl political analyses of displacement ingeography remain undeveloped. Critical ap-praisal of the pou'er reladons within and be1'ondthe boundaries of major organizations that man-age migration is also conspicuously absent. Bothanthropologiss and geographers have rnade thecall to 'study up', to analyze and theorize insti-tutions, organizations, and other power brokersthat govern human relations rather than to studythe governed themselves (Abu-Lughod 1991;Pred and Watts 1992). This approach has beenemployed in relation to the United NationsHigh Commissioner for Refugees GTNHCR).

\Arithin the discipline, existing analyses ofhu-man clisplacement tend to be couched rvithin a

regional geography. While such an approachprovides vital context, it risks neglecting linksbetween parricular places and the practices ofinternational hurnanitarian organizations, likeIJNHCR, which operate across world regions.Accordingly', my argument turns on the connec-tions betw.een forced migration in one iocationand the increasingly transnational relacions ofporver that shape the development and deploy-ment of safe spaces in other locations of massdisplacement. I ain to bridge some of the dis-tance bet*'een cultural and political theories ofdisplacernent and the corporeal condition ofhuman dispiacement. 1he refugee carnps ofKenya and the construction of a preventive zoncin Sornalia represent related but distinct geog-raphies of forced rnigration.

A Geography of Refugee Definitions

Refugees are perhaps the most olwious subjectsof geographical inquiry. Forced to move fromtheir homes to another country, they embody a

visceral human geography of dislocation. Theinvoluntary rnigration of bodies across space is,however, neidrer passive nor abstract. Interna-tional responses to hunan clisplacemenc in the1990s have becorne increasingly politicized andemphasi zr "managin g mi gration. " \4.tro countsas a refugee varies across world regions, but mostdefinitions depend on crossing an international

border. The 1951 Convention Relatine to theStatus of Refugees includes anyone *ho hassought asylurn

. . . as a result ofevents occuming before I January1951 and owing to well*founded fear of beingpersecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality,mernbership ofa particularsocial group or politicalopinion. excerpt from Note 27, Article1(A)(1) of the Conrendon.

In crossing a political border, refugees trade theentitlements of citizenship in their own countryfor safety on tenns decided by host governmentsand humanitarian agencies. Strategies to assistdisplaced people in refugee camps and safe ha-vens constitute a principal focus of this work.

International migration has increasinglv be-come a pressing subject for geographers, as peo-ple move across borders on an unprecedentedscale for economic, political, social, and culturalreasons. No geographical region is irnmune tothe consequences ofw?rs rvhich produce refu-gees; t]-reir ntunbers and conccntration consti-tute a barometer of instabiliry and conflict@inter 1993). Refugees are also an expressionofgeographical change and conflict over time.From its conception in 1951, the Conventionclearly demarcated spatial and historical limits.It was designed to apply to refugees in Earopedisplaced by events that occurred prior to 1 95 I .

In 1967, the geographically-circumscribed andtemporally restricted European definition ofrefugee, as outlined in the Convention, wasamended in a neu'protocol to include allworldregions and drose displaced ay'zr I 95 I . 'ltre defi-nition itself rernained the sarne, however, gen-erating a siplnificant gap betv.een theEurocentric designation of 'refugee' and thedrastically different conditions of post-colonialforced migration outside of Europe.

The Convention definition is a stratesic con.ceptual i zati on sh aped bi, L,urocen cric .Ln.".n,after World \4rar II (Hathaway 1991). Substan-tively, its emphasis on persecution-based oncivil and political status as grounds for refugeestatus-expresses dre particular ideological de-bates ofpost-\4l\rll European tensions, in par-ticr:lar the perceived threats of comrnunisrn andfascism in the *-ake of the Holocaust. In high-lighting civil and political rights, the Corn'en-tion has had the effect of minimizine theirnportance o[ social, econonric, and cJrulalrights, and displacement related more to con-

tests of colonial power and civil war than indi-vidual persecution. These features of the Con-vention-its original European geographicalfocus and ernphasis on civil and politicalrights-have generated an uneven geography ofrefugee asylum which today is the subject ofcontentious clebate and increasing political in-vestment.

In 1969, the Organization of African Uniry(OAID announced a nelv r€gional conventionwhich extended the definition of refugee, as

oudined in the Convention and amended bytheProtocol. The OAU Convention Governine theSpecific Aspects of Refugcc Problerns in Africanot only broadened but also reformulated thedefinition of refugee, so that "the term refugeeshall also apply to every person who, olring toexternal aggression, occupation, foreign domi-nation or events seriously disturbing public or-der . . ." seeks asylum across an internationalborder (Article 1.2, OAU Convention). Slowly,the definition of refugee changed to incorporatepolitical geographies other than those ofEurope, albeit at regional scales.

Cold War tensions framed the Conventiondefinition of refugee, in large part. Refugeesduring this period of communist-capitalist ri-valry became more geographicallywidespread as

each superpo*'er sponsored proxies in the pe-riphery to extend political influence and to con-trol strategic locations. Refugees embodiedsignificant political value during the Cold \4/aqas tie US and USSR each claimed them as

evidence ofits superiority. In the post-Cold \4/arIandscape of the 1990s, their value and meaninghave changed drarnatically. Today, the majorityof refugees emerge from regions other thanEurope. \4&ile hurnan legacies of Cold \4/arposturing remain, refugees in the 1990s aremore likel,v to flee cir4l wars than internationalones (Rogers and Copeland 1993). The location,meaning, and measrres employed to assist refu-gees have all been recast, and with this recon-figuration, nerv kinds of safe areas and anattendant discourse have emerged.

The cases of Kenlu and Somalia are instruc-tive. Preventive zones in Somalia represent onekind of safe area widrin a country still at war.Refugee carnps in Kenya are an expression of themore conventional treatment of clisplacement.Together, chey conprise a geo-political contin-uurn of humanitarian response in a post-Cold\4/ar landscape. The zones and canps are concrete

spaces embedded in a strategic and geographicaldiscourse of rights and 'preventive protection'(LINHCR 1995). By analyzing the conditions ofdisplacement for Somalis in Kenya and Somalia,as well as the meanings attached to these distinctspaces, irnplications for similar cartographies ofpower in ofier areas affected by forced migra-tion are developed.

New Spaces, New Strategies'|he end of the Cold \4rar raised hopes of fewerconflicts and greater peace on a global scale.T'hese hopes have, for the rnost part, beendashed by the rise of ethnic nationalism, civilconflict, and secessionist clairns. Since the endof the Cold War, there has been a resp tiakza-tion of responses to crises of human displace-ment. The rnajor players in the intemationalrefirgee regime, namelv donor governments ofthe North, are shifting their emphasis liom 'theright to leave'one's counuy'in the face of perse-cution or violence to the 'the right to remain'(LTIriHCR 1995). Displaced people are encour-aged to stay within t-heir countries of origin byproviding assistance to them there, rather t-han

having them seek protection through asylumacross an international border. Because of theinherent risks associated rvith this strategy,Hathau'ay (1994) has called the right to remain,the "right to be toast." Some policy analysts saythe concept violates the right to leave one'scount4,; sgflined in the IIN Declaration of Hu-man Rights. Mass killings in the so-called 'safehaven' of Srebrenica in Julv 1995 demonsrratethe extent to u'hich this strategy can go seriouslyalvrv'.

This shift in discourse lrom 'the right to leave'and 'the right to seek asylum' to 'the right torernain'gives rise to distinctive safe areas. Moretraditional safe spaces, narnely refugee cirmps,are also relevant to this post-Cold \4/ar shift.\,\&ile camps are intended as a temporary solu-cion for refugees seeking safetv and basic rnate-rial assistance, they are becorning increasinglypermallent. International funding to assist dis-placecl people in both kinds of safe spaces-protectecl areas and canps-is relatively plenti-ftil, especiallv if they can be helped 'at horne' ornearby.. 'Preventive protecdon' designates a newset of safe spaces and nanageilrent practices forforcibly displaced people. It is part ofa declared"paradigm shift" in refugee policy ra'hich oc-

curred in the early i990s (Frelick 1993). Theinternational humanitarian intervention inNorthern Iraq to assist displaced Kurds insidethe country in 1991 is said to mark this turningpoint. 'Safe havens' for Iraqi Kurds, 'zones oftranquillity" for returning Afghan refugees,'open relief centers' for would-be Sri Lankanrefugees, and'safe corridors' toMuslim enclavesin Bosnia are all examples of this current uendand expressions of a distinct post-Cold \4/ardiscourse.

Preventive protection is evident in the'geopolicing' of migration (Tesfahuney 1998).Mcasurcs to control border crossings into nrostindustrialized countries in North Anerica andEuropc includc airline carrier sancdons, in-creased demand for identity docrrments, fingerprinting of refugees, fortificadon of bordersu'ith fences and increased personnel, video sur-veillance and nronitoring, new visa requirementsfor nationals of so-called 'Third World' coun-tries, an.d rel'ised-more exclusive-notions ofcitizenship. Tesfahuney notes tiat tlese mea-sures have dre effect of racializing and criminal-izing the migrant question.

Recent history in Somalia provides a tellingexample of 'preventive protection' and its geo-graphical implicadons. In Southern Sornalia, ad-jacent to the Kenyan border, UNHCR createda 'preventive zone' along the Kenyan border. Itspurpose g'as to slou. the flow of potential refu-gees into Kenya and to encourage Somali refu-gees in I(eny'an camps to return horne. The useof this circurnscribed safe space within a conflictarea is part of an emerging geography of dis-placement disctssed later in the paper.

U N HCR : One OrganizationG eog ra p h i ca I ly-D i stri b utedThe UNHCR operates today on a scale unirnas-inable at its conception. It is responsible formore refugees today than any other period sinceWorld \4/ar II (Holborn 1975; UNHCR 1993).The Office of L\T}{CR has a mandate ro assisrand protect refugees and to arrange permanentsolutions to their displacement. This mandatehas evolved over time and space: once iimited toassisting refugees in Eur:ope displaced b.v theevents of \dl ry, UNHCR nou'r,r'orks r+'orld-u4de to assist not only refugees but other dis-placed groups. In the post-Cold lVar period, dreorganization has rnoved from operating exclu-sively in safe countries of asylum to operating

in war zones. Where it once cooperated with de-velopment agencies, it nor.r' collaborates lvith peace

keepers in places like Northern Iraq, Bosnia-Hercegovina, and Sornalia. In the first four dec-ades of its operations, the lJnited Nationslaunched 13 peacekeeping missions; between1988 and 1995 it authorized tv'enry-five(LINHCR 1995).

There is an increasing reliance by individualstates on multilateral agencies, such as

UNHCR, to deal w'ith humanitarian crises(Hyndrnan 1996). LTNHCR has moved frominterpreting legal obligations and encouraginghumanitarian response on the part of memberstates to managing crises of displacement on theground.

Twentyyears ago, the Office ofthe United NationsI{igh Commissioner for Refugees consisted ofsome lawyers in Geneva revising and amending theinternational conventions concerning refu gees.Norv it is a global rapid-reaction force capable ofputting fifty thousancl tents into an airfield any-where within twenty-four hours, or feeding a mil-Iion refugees in Zaire. . . . The United Nations has

become dre Westb mercy mission to the flotsam offailed states left behind by the ebb tide ofempire.

- Michael Ign fieff (1995:7)

Since 1990, LTNHCR'S role has changed dra-rnatically. In 1990, the agency had a budget of$544 rniliion and a staff of 2,400. By 1996, thebudget had grown to about $1.3 billion and thestaff to 5,000 (Frelick 1997). Recent changeswithin IINHCR are expressions of transforma-tions on a broader scale, as the post-Cold Warorder is fashioned. The LTNHCR itself says tlatthe organization "has been transformed from a

refugee organization into a more broadly-basedhumanitarian agency " (UNHCR I 995, 48). Theagency's focus has broadened to meet the exi-gencies of cun'ent political crises, yet the bases

for such change are not clearly defined:

The s'orltl's most po'w'erftil states and the UnitedNations itself have been placed in a considerabledilemma by the rash of internal conflicts and hu-rnanitarian emergencies since the demise of thebipolar state system. While the old mles of thegame have evider-rtli' cl-ranged, the internationalcommunity has found it extrenely difficult to ar-ticulate a coherent set of prirrciples and practiceswhich are geared to conternporary circumstances(LTNHCR 1995, 115).

LTNHCR's operations in dre Horn of Africarepresent a particular case of this shifting geo-

political culrure emerging after the Cold W'ar.They signal the increasing significance of rnul-tilateral channels of humanitarian intervention.

Permanent solufions to refugee displacementare, I contend, decreasing now that the Cold\A/ar is over. LTI{HCR espouses t}rree such 'du-rable solutions' to refugee displacement. Volun-tary repatriation to one's country of origin is thepreferred option and lhe mostsensible recourse,if it is available. If not, LINHCR prornulgatesiocal integration into t}.e counny and corrlnu-nity of asylum. Finalll', a select number of refu-plees-less than one percent of the total-maybe resettled abroad. Failing these pennanentsolutions, many refugees end up in technicaliyternporary camps governed by IINHCR. In-creasingly, camps are becoming longer term re-sDonses to unresolved conditions of hurnandisplacenent. In the case of Somali refugees inKenya, voluntary repatriadon is out ofthe ques-tion for many, as fighting continues in parts ofSomalia. Local integration is precluded by theKenvan government which doesn't want refu-gees lir4ng in the country to compete with Ken-yans for the few jobs available. Finally,opporrunities for resetdement abroad representthe sole hope for many refugees in Kenla vdo*'ait years for the unlikely event that the 'lottery'will r-ule in their favor.

Popular support for refugee resettlement, i.e.immi gration, is at a historic lorlr In Niorth Amer-ica, changes in public policy have led to a declinein opportunities for Convention refugees to im-migrate . Refugee reseftlement numbers in boththe LrS and Canada have fallen precipitously inrecent \,'ears, signaling increased reluctance tohost refueees in North A.rnerica on a permanentbasis (see Tbble 1). As resettlement targets de-cline, the allotrnent of places for African refu-gees is already disproportionately 5p3ll. Afticanrefugees comprise J6o/" of the rvorld refugeepopulation, yet in 1995-1996, the US allottedjust 6.3% of its resettlement openings to Africanrefugees.

Screening actjvities for refugee resettlementin Africa attest to a remarkable geographicalconcentratiorr. [n the US case, most screerringactivities for Sub-Saharan Africa are based inNairobi u4rere the ImrniEration and Naturaliza-tion Service (NS) has lts only office in thatregion. 'fhis concentration of resetdement sel'-vices is somewhat surprising, given that refugeesare required co remain in the nrral camps. Only

78,0002300

USACanada

Table 1 Annual Resettlement Ceilings forG ove rn m e nt-S p o n s o re d R ef u q e e s

1992193 1993/94 1994/95 1995/96 1996/97

142,000 121,000 110,000 90,00013.000 11,000 2300 7300

Sources: U.S. Depaftment of State, Depaftment of Justice, &Department of Health & Human Services. "Report to theCongress on Proposed Befugee Admissions for Fiscal Year19961 Jufy 1995. Prepublication copy; "Report to the Con-gress on Proposed Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 1995iSeptember 1994; most recent numbers are taken from theState Depattment web site at http://ww.state.gov/vnwvglobaVprmEYgTrefugees. html. Canadian totals are an-nounced every November 1 st; they come from Citizenshipand lmmigration Canada and were confirmed for tho putposeof this table by the lmmigrant Services Society of B.C.

the US government contracts people to go tothe camps to conduct preliminar-y intervietvswith refugees. Not surprisingh/, more rhan100,000 refugees in Kenl'2 are estimated to livein urban areas widrout permission.

Situating Displacement: The Case ofSomalia and Kenya

Africa hosts more displaced persons than anyother continental region. At the end of 1995,UNHCR counted 27.4 million refusees andother'pcrsons of concern'. il'Tolc than l-1 rnillionof these lived in Africa alone. Kenl'a is in dreunenviable geographical position of sharingborders v'ith no fewer than five other nations,all of t'hich-with perhaps the exception ofTanzania-have generated suffi cient internalconflict to produce asylum seekers in Kenya. Itshould be noted, however, that refugees in thisregion are not specific to the posr,Cold \4/arperiod (Hyndman 1997). Some of the majorrefugee florvs in the post-i945 era were inducedby superpor.r'er rivalries, cornbined with "pastand present economic and geopolirical orders ofcolonialisrn, global inequaliry and M.restern he-gemony" (Tesfahuney 1998, -500).'lhe Ogadenwar of the 1970s in rvhich Somalia laur.rched anoffensive against Ethiopia for the Ogaden re-gion provides a good exarnple. Regional geo-politics'ivere imbricated in Colcl \4rar tensions,as superpoli'ers backed opposite sides during theconflict-one v.hich generated hundreds ofthousands ofrefugees. A rnore geographically*circumscribed example of reftigees in Kenyasterns frorn the ethnic cleansing policies of IdaAmin in Ugancla cluringthe 1970s. Considerableer.idence has shor.i'rr that nrigratory nrovernelrts

often arise fi'om the existence of orior linksbeween sending and receiving countries basedon relations of colonization, political influence,trade and investment, or cultural ties (Casdesand Miller 1993; Sassen 1996).

During the peak of human displacement afrerthe Cold \4/ar in 1992, horveveq therewere some420,000 refugees in Kenyan refugee camps (Im-rnigration and Refugee Service of America1996). The vast majority of these s'ere fromSomalia. Sornalian President Siad Barre wasousted from porver in January 1991. By 1992,civil conflict had become widespread and hadinduced farnine in several oarts of the countrv.Imagcs of malnourished Somalians appcared ontelevisions'n'orldwide, winning public swnpathyand government donations to fund humanitar-ian effors in both Somalia and Kenya. A seriesof refugee camps and temporary border siteswere established in Kenya to accommodare So-malians as they crossed the border in desperatephysical condition. Mortality rates soared intlese ill-prepared makeshift camps u11til \,r'arerquality, sanitation conditions, and food suppliescould be stabilized. Deaths were counted by thenumber of shrouds-simple pieces of whitecloth distributed on demand-and by thenumber of bodies discernible in graveyards 1o-

cated at the perimeter of the camps. Working inone of the Kenyan refugee camps ar tlar dme, Iwitnessed the costs and corporeality ofilisplace-ment on a human scale.

The 'encampment' of refugees raises an inter-esting question: u'hy $'ere these refugees re-quired to live in camps, rather t-han in the citieswhere they might be able to find lrork, as manybefore them hadi Part of the ans.q'er lies in rhenumber of refugees the Goverrunent in Kenyar,gas coping wich, and much of the explanationlies in the source country of the majority ofrefugees (see Hy-ndman and Nylund 1998). OfSomali refugees adrnitted to Kenya after 1991,all'vrere glanted temporary and spatially circum-scribed asylum in camps as prima facie refugees,an issue to u'hich I will return later in the paper.The geopolitics of refugee containment in dreabsence of the' preventir,'e protection' option (inSomalia) u.ere certainly clear in the governmentdecis.ion to locate rcfugees in camps.

By the end o{ 1996, Kenya hosted roughiy185,000 refugees, of v-hich 150,000 u'erefronr Sornalia.t The L-INHCR *.as the agencyresponsible for coordinating responses ro chis

wave of forced migration on both sides of theKenya-Somalia border. In camps and bordersites, non-governmental organizations O{GO$were hired as'implementing partners' to defiverhealth services, distribute food, and pror.'ide am-ple water for the refugce population. On theother side ofthe border, efforts to slow the flowof refugees into Kenya fiom Somalia ancl torepatriate Somali refugees began, also under theauspices of UNHCR.

Preventive Protectio n : Th e Cross-BorderOperation

The Cross-Border Operation rvas launched inSouthern Sr:malia late in 1992. Four IINHCR'ouqrosts' were established at various locationsroughly one hundred miles frorn the Kenya-Somalia border, as part of the Cross-BorderC)peration.'I'he distance belveen the borderand the outposts situatecl inlancl along theJubaRiver circumscribed a 'preventive zone'. In1993, I worked in Bardera, Sornalia on theCross-Border Operation for UNHCR. This re-lief effort consisted of community-based pro-jects to rehabilitate a \.!?r-torn area and ofrefugee repatriation activities to bring So-malians in Kenyan camps home. TINHCR'sCross-Border Operation was a distinct expres-sion of the post-Cold \4/ar geo-political land-scape. At the request of the UNSecretary-General, L]NI{CR initiated theCross-Border Ooeration inside Somalia in orderto stem the flow of refugees fi'om somalia toKenya and to endce those refug'ees already inKenya to come horne. Perhaps the most vividtestimony of prevention was the passing of IINSecuriw Council Resolution 794 u'hich author-ized a Unified 'Iask Force (LTMIAD of thou-sands of peacekeeping troops to enter Somaliaso that reliefsupplies could be safely delivered.'Operation Restore Flope', as the mission wascalled, rvas the first peacekeeping operation dratintervened in a sovereign member state whenthat state did not pr.r"r-rr a miiitary threat to itsneighbors (I'Iakintla 1993). This move chal-lenged the sacrosan.ct sovereiglty of states byentering a counny in the absence of an externalthreat. Somalian society 'was portrayed as ananarchy irnploding on itself, and humanitarianneecl was considered grave enough to warfalrtmultilateral inten'ention (Shohat and Stam1994). United Nations membership is com-prised of states, holi,e'i,er', and this conrravention

of state sovereigng'-not unlike the Ulti-ledeffort to assist Kurds in Northern Iraa in the fallof I 99 I

-introduces a distinct tension in inter-

national geopolitics. State autonorny and re-spect is expccted by governlnent signatories tothe LrN, but not at other states' expense. TtreSomalia intervention demonsrates that statesovereignry is now qualified in a u'ay'that itwasnotbefore 1991.

Late in l992,Kenyan President Moi had an-nounced that refugees would be sent back toSomalia irnmediately. Without President Moi'ssupport, TINHCR could not operate on rhesame scale u'ithin Kenya, and so sustained effortsto fund an alternative'preventive' path ensued.Thus, the preventive zone had a humanitarianpurpose, but was shaped, in large part, by politi-cal exigenqr Prevention, as a humanitarianmeasure, also has financial implications andtherefore political significance. As Cold Wartensions dissipate, governments in rnany indus-trialized countries have moved to curb socialspending of all kinds (Hayes 1994). Under theumbreila of New Right politics or the rubric ofneo-liberalism and its prescriptive fiscal re-staint, individual states are reconsidering theform and function of their welfare states. Refu-gees are seen to lean heavily on social spending,so the irnpetus to accept refugees for resettle-ment in these countries is low. There is amoleevidence that states are keen to avoid their legalobligations to refugees u'here multilateral agen-cies like UNHCR can step in and assist on an arlhoc basis. Funding for UNHCR's humanitarianaccir.ities, for example, have exceeded US$l bil-lion since 1992 (LINHCR 1993). Inanother*'ay,prevention is tactical: if hurnan displacernentan'ossborderc can be prevented then so too canfuture obligation to v'ould-be refugees. This isa clrrical vieu', but nclt an unwarranted one. Theestablishrnent of'safe corridors' in the case oftsosnia provides one example: "!Ve must alsofunnel hurnanitarian assistance to hundreds ofthousands more rr,'ho are besieged inside Bosnia,so rhat they do not becone the next lrave ofrefugees. It 'r,r.ill require the opening of safecon'idors to accornplish this goal" (Lr.S. Secre-tary of State, Las'rence Eagleburger, August 26,1992, cited in Frelick 1993,9). Prevention canprevail over concerns for refugee protection.

B,r'June I 993, some 3 0,000 Somalian reftigeeshad retumed home frorn I(enya, but the vastmajority remained in the camps (JNHCR 1993).

Conlrontation between l]N and Aideed fbrcesin Mogadishu damaged the IIN reputation ofneutrality and hastened the peacekeepers' de-parture. B)' the end of .iltlarch 1995, almost allpeacekeepers had left Somalia, u'ith more than150,000 Somali refugees still in Kenyan camps.\Ahile UNHCR designated and mapped thepreventive zone as a safe space, the majority ofSomali refugees in Kenya stayed put. ,As in Sre*brenica. there rvas a crucial difference betrveenthe intentional rnapping of the UN intent andthe rnovement ofpeople on the ground based ondifferent perceptions of safeq'.

Managing the Camps: A Geographyaf Containment

Localized strategies of refugee camp manage-ment are an expression of the shifting geo-political terrain on an internationai scale. -I'he

Kenl'21 Governrnent has not granted Conven-tion refugee status since 1991. It insists that allprima facic refugees live in camps, not in cicies ortowns. Prima fucre status means that refugees arenot allowed ro leave the camps nor can they seekemployrnent, though many of them do so inunofficial ways. Basic health, shelteq and nutri-tional needs are met by LINHCR and otherinternational relief agencies through what isoften called 'care and maintenance' operations(UNHCR 1994). Just as safe havens and UN-designated zones are predicatecl on a discourseof'preventive protection' and 'dre right to re-lnain', so too are refi-rgee carnp operationssteeped in the therapeutic language of'care andrnaintenance.'

Prhna Jacie starus is a group designatinn thathas been ascribed to Somalian. Sudanese. andEtJriopian refugees in Kenya rvhen they cross theborder to escape danger recognized byUNHCR in their home countries. Llnlike thes).stematic, indir,'idual determination of Con-vention status v'hich affords a much broaderrange of rights and rnobiliry endtlements, it isalso an ad hoc status. The ad Doc application ofprirna facie refugee status v'hen deemed neces-sary nlay souncl fickle and functionalist, but thisis precisely point. Grantingrcfwgees prinzn Jncierath.er than Convention staats is a de factct segre-gation measure, u'hether intended as such ornot.

In Ken1a, all prima facie refugees must residein camps, drerefnre the refugee 'problem' iscontained in remote border locations, literall-v

and figuratively on the 'edges of the nation.'From November 1994to February 1995, I con-ducted research in three of these camps-Ifo,Dagahaley, and Hagadera-near the town ofDadaab in Northeast Kenya (see Fig. l). \4&enI first stayed in Dadaab in 1992, it u'as nothingmore than a dusty village with fewer than fiveteleplrones. Bv 1995, it hosted nev' pennanentbuildings constructed byIINHCR, hada boom-ing economy due to humaniarian-based jobsand inputs, and rvas coping with exponentialpopulation growth. Sustained efforts to repatri-ate Somalian refugees or remove them fromcarnps located near the Kenyan coast to theDadaab camps were on-going at that time be-cause the Govemment insisted that all coastalrefugee camps be closed.

These temporary cities embody sophisticatednet$'orks of unofficial trade, movement, andlivelihood (Hyndman 1995). Daily flights andbuses from Nairobi move goods and peoplethrough this emerging Dadaab hub on an un-precedented scale. Lnformal econornies havearisen in which refugees lrork'under the table'for locals and for the Kenyan police who guardthe camps. Such relations of ernplol'rnent arehighly gendered and unequal, as refugee wornenand girls are most often the ones to work as

maids and prosrinrtes for Kenyan men. A neweconornv of trade in documentation has grownup around the food distribution system andrefu-gees restricted mobiliqv in tie camps. Rationcards are bought and sold; Kenyan identity cardsare forged and traded, so that refugees maytravel more freely The contemporary history ofethnic discrimination against Somalis by theKenyzn Government and other culrnral groups,holrever, also informs the politics of refugeemobility in this region (Flyndman 1997).

.llany refugees have spent more than fiveyears in the Kenl'211 gxmps, completely depencl-ent on international aid. This unusual configu-ration oflocal reliance on global goodv'ill is notsustainable, nor does it abide by existing humanrights instr-urnents. While tie Kenyan Govern-ment stipulates dre location of carnps and refu-gce restriction to them, it is TINHCR thatdesignates prima facie status. TINHCR recog-nizes that the "old rules of the garne have evi-dend,v changed", but the use of prima focie sl:aruson such a significant scale and for sustainedperiods underscores how difficultitis "to articu-Iate a coherent set of principles and practices

InkeVictoria

prcventlvg

I

Indian Ocean

-;\*J).... {rV \_.,_-:Tanzania

tangelosdd)

credit: Nadine Schuuman

LegendA Refugee Camps

I Capital Cities

Railways

InternationalBorders

ProvincialBorders

Water

Figure 1: Refugee camps in Kenya

not to scale

which are geared to contemporary circum-stances" (UNHCR 1995, 115). Rather, in theabsence of principles against lvhich to measuresuch practice, a tacit strategy of spatial segrega-tion has been inplemented. Because of the lim-ited protection and assistance prima facie staatsaffords, it is an officially 'temporary' measuretlrat is informally becoming entrenched as an ad&or solution.

Just as the snategic value of refugees has de-creased, so too has the desire to assist and adoptrefugees. The use of prima facie refirgee statusu'ill likely increase in the absence oflocal inte-gration and resettlement opporrunities for mostrefugees. As ad hoc measures to manage andcontain refugees in camps become nd hoc solr-tions, evidence suggests that efforts to prevenrthe costs and legal obligations of aq'lum byemploying safe spaces 'at horne'u'ill continue as

the preferred geography of forced migration.

Conclusions

Preventive protecdon and safe havens are nor.'elexpressions of rnanaging human displacement ina post-Cold \4/ar order. Camps remain a nroreconventional space for protecting prima facierefugees, but their temporary and ad hoc stasssin the current geo-political context is question-able. Increasingly', preventive zones and UN-protected areas require soldiers to keep thepeace and protect potential refugees in conflictzones. For those u'ho manage to flee across a

horder, as in thc case o[ Kenya, the designadonof primu Jacie stanrs signals placement in remoteborder camps. A palpable tension between hu-manitarian need and the political interests ofstates is evident.

Another tension has emerged between thesovereign state and th.e state under siepqe, inwhich cir.'ilians have been disolaced. Since 1991 .international multilatcral intcrvenrions intocountries at .vvar have become cornmonolace.Prcvcnting asylum across bordcrs and, at thcsarne time, protectilrg internallv displaced peo-ple in safe areas has been a n:ajor irnperus forUN missions to Iraq, Bosnia-I{ercegovina,Rwanda, and Sornalia. The geopolitical land-scape of the post-Cold \.!'ar order has provenrnarkedly different from that which came before.Sovereignty is no longer sacrosanct; a new, ifunstable, geography of for:ced migr:ation hasemerEed. I

NoterTo be fair, the Goverrunent of Kenl'a has generatedconsiderable intemal displacernent in contrast to thehospitaligv it has shou'n iefligees. Kenyans, manv ofthem of Kilmy'u ethnici4-. harc been forced to movedue to political and etbnic r.'iolence dating back to199t-1992 v.hen 300,000 people vere displaced and1,500 rvere killed in \4restern Kenyz. At the end of1996, an estimated 100,000 people had been forcedto leave their hones but remained ll'ithin the counw,while some 8,000 more were refirgees in neighboringEthiopia Qmmigration and Refugee Sen'ices ofAmerica 1997).

Literature Gited

Abu-Lughod, L1la. 1991. ll&iting against culture. InRecnpnningAnthropokg, ed. R.G. Fox, 137-162.Sante Fe, NM: School for Arnerican Research.

Appadurai, Arjun. I 991. Global ethnoscapes. InRecap-turingAnthrcpolog, ed. R.G. Fox, 191-211. SanteFe, N,\1: School for A.rnerican Research.

1996 Sovereignqy without territorialirv:Notes for a posmational geography.. lnGeog'aphy ofIdentiry, ed.P.Ya,eger, 40-58. Ann Arbor: IJniversitvof Michigan.

Ilasch, Linda, Nina Glick Schiller, and Cristina Szan-ton Blanc. 1994 Nations Unboand:'li"a.nytation.al Pro-jem, Postcolonial Predicammts, and Deten'itorializedNation-States. Langhorne, PA: Gordon and Breach.

Bascom,Johnathan. 199 6. Long.jo um ey in place : Refirgee

women. and social tranfutnations in axile. Pa1>er pre-sented to the American Association of Geoera-phers' annualconfercnce, April 10, Charlotte, NC.

Bhabha, Homi. 1994. Tlte Locatim of-Culture.Lon-dorr./Nev' York: Routled{re.

Black, Richard, and Vaugiran Robinson, eds. 1993.Geogrophy and Reftgea: Pattert+ and Processes ofCha nge. Londonf'Nev' York Belhaven Press.

Castles, Stephen, and llarkJ. l4iller. I 993. The Age offoIigration: Intematitmal Populution l4oztmrcnts in the!4od.em Workl. New lbrk: Guilford Press.

Doq', Roxanne Lr,rrn. 1996. Iuryerial Encotnter.s: ThePolitics of Repruentation in Notth-South Relntiwts.tr4inneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press.

l-relick, Bill. 1993- Preventing reftgee flo\a's: Prorec-tiorr or peril. \n World ReJngee Suney, 1993.\\ash-ington, DC: LTS Committee for Refugees.

1 997. Assistance withour protection: Feed thehungry', clothe dre naked, and u'atch them die. InWorld Refugee 9urcry, 1997.lVashington DC: Irn-rnigration and Reftigee Service ofAnrerica.

Grev'al, Inclerpal, and Caren Kaplan. 1994. Introcluc-tion: Tlansnation:rl feminist practices and questionsof postmoderniw. lt Scattercd Hagemonies: Pott-modemity and'fi'an m atiotzd l'-ezr.htist Practices, e,J, I.

Grerval and C. Kaplan, l-33. Minneapolis:.tr4inne-sota Llniversity Press.

I-Iarrell-tsond, B tbara. L986. ItnposhtgAid: EmergenryAssistnnce to Re_fi.t gul Or{ord/Nerv York/Nairobi:Oxford Un ir.ersiw Press.

Hathaway, Jarncs C. 1991 . 'Ihe Staws of Refugee Laa.&{arkham,/Vancoul'er: Butterworths.

-.

1991. hm'odnction t0 the llru of refu.gee stan*.Lecture presented at Centre for Refugee Studies,York University, Toronto,June 23.

Hayes, Michael.1994. Tbe New Right in Britafu.Lon-don/Borrlder: Pluto Press.

Holbonr. Louise. 1975. Refugees: A Problem of OarTime: 'lhe LVork of UNHCIR 19t1-22. Metuchen,NJ: Scarecrow Press.

lfr,ndmirn, Jennifer. I995. Supra-citizen & sub-citi-zen: Snbjects at the border. Tesseru lB:78-89.

-.

1996. International responses to human dis-placemenr: Neo-liberalism and post-Cold \thrgeopolitics. ReJirye 1 5, 3 : 4-9.

i997. Border crossings. Antipode 29, 2:149-76.

Hlmdman, Jennifer, and Bo \,lltor Nylund. 1998.UNHCR and The Status of Prima Facie RefuseeSt:trus i n Kenva. I n t etz o ti a n n I J o una I of R cJu gee Lazr10:1 forthcornins.

Ignatieff, Michael. 1995. Alone v'ith t-he Secretary-Gcncrrri, 't'he Ncu'Yorker Augtst 14: 3l-9.

Immigration and Refugee Service of Arneica. 1996.ILbrld Relugee &nvey, 1996. Washington, DC: USCommittee f<rr Refugees.

-,

1997 . LVorld Refugee Sarury, 1997. US Com-nittee for Refugees.

Kaplan, Caren. 1996. Questionr of 7i'uvel: PostrnodentDisutnrset of D i splacem.en.t. Durham, NC: Duke Uni-versiq.'Press.

Kulrfman, 'Ihomas. 1990. Burtlen ot' boom? Et.itetnrefu.gees in the Su.dan. London: Zed Books.

-.

1994..4sJhnn or Aid? Tlte Ftanonric Integ-ationof .Ethiopian und Eritrasn Refugeu in the SutJun.

Adershor: .{vcbury. Publicarions.Makindr, Samnel .1,L 1993. Seeking Peuce From Cbaos:

Hum.nnitarian Interaention in Sornslia. Botl-der/Lcrndon: L,i'nne Rienner Publishers.

Malkki, Liisa H. 1992. National Geographic: 'lherooting of peoples and the territorialization of na-tional idendn' among schol:rrs and refugees. Czrl-ttn"al Anthropolog 7, 1 :2M3.

I 99,5. l{sfngg95 nnd exile: From "refugee stud-ies" tcr the national order of thinqs. ,4nntal Rlaiewof An Lhropolugy, 2{ : -ls5-52 3.

Murphy Eri'ani, .lulie. 1998. Globalizing Tenochti-tl6n? Feniinist geopolirjcs: -Llexico Citv as border-land. In Bordn' Space, ed. Kathy Staudt. Bouider,C0: I-r.rrne Riemer Pubiishers, forthcoming.

Nixon, Rob. 1994. Reftigees and h<lmecornings: IlcssieHead:rrrd the end of exile. ln'Iimellets"Ihles: Nnr-?'atiaes 0J'Hlm,e and Displacement, ed. G. Robertsonet al., 11€28. Ner.v YorVlondou: Routleclse.

O Tirathail, Gear6id. 1 996a. An anti-geo-political eye:Maggie O'Kanc in Bosnia, lS92-91. Gende4 Plarcand Culture 3,2: 17 l-85 .

199 6b. Criti cal G eo -politics. L4tnneapolis: Uni-versiw of Mimresota Press.

Pred, Alan, and Michael \Aratrc. 1992. ReworkingMod-emity. Nev, Brunsrvick, NJ: Rutgers Universig,.Press.

Rogers, Rosemaryi and Emily Copeland. 1"993. FortedMig'ation: PoliE Isnes in the Post-Cold Whr WorLl.Boston, A{A: Tirfis tlniversir}.

Rogge, John. 1985. Tbo Many. Ibo Long Sudan's'Iit;mry-Year R{ugu Dilemma. Totouz, NJ: Row-man and Allanheld.

-.

1993 The Challenges of changing dimensionsamong the Sourh's refugees: Illustradons from So-rnalia. In.tenrational Jounnl of Refugu Lau 5, l:t2-30.

Sassen, Saskia. 1996. Loing cottn'ol? Soaerzignry in mtage of globalizntioz. NervYork: Columbia Universiq'Press.

Shapiro, MichaelJ. 199(t. Violent Carngraphies: Map-ping Cuhuru of l4/ar. Minneapolis: University ofMinnesota Press.

Sholrat, Ella, amd Robert Strm. 1994. UnthinhingEr roccn fi i sm : fu [ n lt iu ln n'a I i sm. n n d t h e Me d i a. N e iYorVlondon: RoudedEe.

Stevenson,Jonathan. I993-. Hope restored in Somalia?Foreign Poliry 9l: 138-54.

lbsfahuney, Mekonnen. 1998. Mobility, racism, andgeopolitics. Political Geog'apbJ 17 , 5: 499-515.

United Nations I-Iigh Comnissioner for Refugees

fl.TNT{CR). 1993 - The State of tlte World's Refugees:The Challenge of Proteaion. 'Ibronto: Penguin.

-.

1994. Countn, operations plan-Kenya, Nai-robi, October.

-.1995.Tbe

Swteoftl:e WorldlRfugeu: In Searchof Solations. Oxford./trie*. York: Oxford UniversiqPress.

U.S. Department of State, l)epartrnent ofJustice, andl)epartment of Health and Human Services. 1994.Report to the C)ongyess on pr-oposed refugee adrnis-sions for fiscal year 1995, Septernber.

-.

1995. Report to the Congress on proposedrefugee admissions fc.rr fiscal year 1996, Jull'. Pre-publication copy

\Vinter, Roger. 1993.ll'l-re1'ear in revie*.. I4/orLl RfugeeSurvey, 199 j.Washingpon, DC: US Comrnittee forReilgees.

JIINNIIER HYNDMAN is i\ssistant Prof-essor ofGeography at Arizona State lJniversit_v, lVestCampus, P.O. Box 37100, Phoenix, AZ'85069-7100. Ifer resealch interests include reftrsee reset-dernent and immigratiorr poliw, ferninisl tlreoriesof rnigrarion antl.di.splacernent, as lvell as gen<leredvi<llence in confl.icr zones tnd refugee camps.