Global Leadership Training Programme in Africa 20142017
Activity Report of Field Research
The effects of freedom of movement and residence to economic activities of refugees andformer refugees: The experience of Angolan refugees and former refugees in Zambia
Sho Tanaka1

1

Osaka University, Osaka School of Public Policy, Comparative Public Policy, Master’s Course 2nd year
Host University: Copperbelt University (Zambia), Period: 4.Aug – 9.Sep, 20171

I.

Summary

English Summary Background
This report was written based on the fieldwork conducted from 4th, August to 30th, September in 2017.
The effect of citizenship on economic activities of refugee is a controversial issue because the self-settle
refugee has been integrated economically without citizenship. On the other hand, there are few empiricalarguments which are citizenship is effective on the economic activities of refugee. Additionally, eventhough refugees lost freedom of movement and residence in the refugee settlement or refugee camp, thereis the stern actuality which is lack of research about a relation between livelihood and freedom of
movement and residence.
Problem and Solution
The international society and county of asylum don't have accurate and detail information about thoserefugees want assistance, security, and guarantee. Moreover, they don't have any idea and information
about the importance of freedom of movement and residence.
Why this research focuses on the change between getting freedom of movement and residence is tounderstand the effect of citizenship on economic activities of refugee. Especially, refugees who have nofreedom of movement and the resident should be compared with the refugees who have freedom of
movement and resident.
Research objective
The purpose of this research is to survey about the change of refugee’s livelihood between before andafter getting freedom of movement and residence. This research gives us the impact and mechanism of
the relation between livelihood and freedom of movement and residence.
Research method
The research target is Meheba refugee settlement in Zambia because local integration programme which
gives the resident permit to refugees is an ongoing process and it is easier to observe the change between
before and after getting a resident permit. The Methodology is literature survey and field research. The
field research is qualitative research as interview research which is conducted on 97 households ofrefugees at Meheba refugee settlement in Zambia for about two months under the Global Leadership
Training Programme of United Nations University.
Research result
As a result of research, there is a change of economic activities of 16 refugees. The factor is freedom of
movement and/or residence guaranteed by residence permit or expectation to them. Jobs, income, andactivities changed after getting a resident permit. The mechanism of change is free from the fear andrestriction of movement.

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研究の背景難民の生計活動と市民権の関係性は議論的である。国際社会の保護や援助がないまま地域社会に統合している自主的定着難民のように、市民権がなくても経済的統合を果たしている難民が存在しているからである。一方で、市民権が生計活動に影響を与えることを証明する研究の蓄積は少なく、実証的なものは限られている。さらに、難民キャンプや難民定住地といった隔離政策によって、アフリカにおける難民の多くは難民定住地や難民キャンプで移動や居住の自由を制限される事例が多いが、移動や居住の制限と生計活動の関連性について論じる研究は少ない。
問題点及び解決手法
難民の生計活動を保障するための議論において、難民状態において失われる移動や居住の自由の重要性が軽視される傾向がある。例えばザンビア共和国（以下、ザンビア）では、国連難民高等弁務官事務所（Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees。以下、UNHCR）の難民キャンプによる隔離政策が基本的政策として採られており、難民条約に批准しているザンビアは難民の移動の自由に関する条項に留保し、国内の難民（管理）法でも難民の移動や居住の自由を保障していない。そのような状態にあるにも関わらず、市民社会や国際社会から難民の移動や居住の自由を求める行動はとられていな
い。難民の移動や居住の自由が難民の生活にとってどのような意味があるのか、十分な研究が為されていないことが一つの背景としてあると考えられる。
よって、難民の移動や居住の自由が生計活動をどのように変化させるのかを調査し、理解を深めていく必要性がある。特に、移動や居住の自由がある状態とない状態を比較する中で、生計活動の違いを観察していく必要性があると考えられる。
研究目的
本調査の目的は、移動の自由及び居住の自由を持っていなかった難民が、それらの自由を獲得した後に生計活動をどのように変化させるのかを調べることにある。それらの調査結果から、移動の自由や居住の自由が持つ、生計活動へのインパクトとメカニズムを理解するためである。
研究手法
調査対象として、ザンビア共和国のメヘバ難民定住地を選定した。難民に移動の自由と居住の自由を供与する居住許可書を提供するプロジェクトが、現在進行中であるため、その前後の変化を観察しやすいからである。研究手法として、文献調査と現地調査を実施する。現地調査として、GLTP プログラムのもと、メヘバ難民定住地を中心にザンビアに約 2 ヶ月間滞在し、質的調査として、難民 97 世帯への個別インタビューを実施した。
研究結果
調査結果として、16 名に経済活動の変化が現れた。その要因となっているのが、居住許可書によって得られた移動の自由と居住の自由、またはそれらに対する期待感である。変化の内容として、職業の変化、収入の変化、活動の変化が現れていた。変化のメカニズムとして、恐怖からの解放、移動の制限からの解放が存在すると分析する。
よって、市民権という諸権利に包含されている移動の自由、居住の自由は、恐怖や移動の制限からの解放をもたらし、結果として難民の職業、収入、活動といった経済活動の変化をもたらすことが確認された。これらは、難民の生計活動にとって市民権が有効であることの証左となる。

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II.

Research Activity

1.

Introduction

The purpose of this report is researching about the facts of the impact of freedom of movement andresidence to refugee’s economic activities based on the research question which is “How is freedom of
movement and residence affect to economic activities of refugee”.
In the refugee studies, there are some researches which focus on explanatory variables for refugee’s
livelihood. However, there are only a few researches which focus on the freedom of movement andresident as explanatory variables. Additionally, the case studies of self-reliance refugee’s livelihood in
Africa tend to evaluate the freedom of movement and a resident is not an important factor for refugee’s
livelihood. But the result of this report argues the importance of freedom of movement and resident andthis argument is an academic implication of this report.
The livelihood of people after they have become “refugee” is very important for them not only to live
but also to recover their daily life and mental health. 2Furthermore, many refugees live as “refugee” formore than twenty-five years and some human rights are restricted during they are “refugee”. Moreover,
the refugee problem is predicted to continue to exist and increase because the reason of “refugee” is not
only a man-made disaster such as conflict but also a disaster.3 The understanding about the impact of
freedom of movement and residence, thus, is a practical implication of this report.

2.

Study Area

The research was conducted at the Meheba refugee settlement in Zambia. The Meheba refugeesettlement is a settlement near the Solwezi where is the capital of North-Western province and opened in
1971.4 The area of Meheba refugee settlement is 720 square kilometer and it takes about 2 hours by car
between Meheba refugee settlement and Solwezi.
As shown in figure 1, Meheba refugee settlement is divided into 8 blocks which are from A to H. Former
Angolan or Rwandan refugees and some of them live in resettlement locations where is block F, G or H.
Refugees and Former Angolan or Rwandan refugees who have not taken the resettlement area or do notwant to live5 at the resettlement area live in block A, B, C, D or E. Government institution6 andinternational institution7 are crowded at block D.

Karen, Jacobsen. 2014. Livelihoods and forced migration. Oxford University Press: The Oxford Handbook of Refugee andForced Migration Studies. p.99.
3 UNHCR. 2012. THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S REFUGEES In Search of Solidarity. UNHCR.
The number of environmental refugees is estimated to be between 25 million and 1 billion.
4 Bakwell, O. 2000. Repatriation and Self-settle Refugees in Zambia: Bringing Solutions to the Wrong Problems. Journal of
Refugee Studies 13(4). pp.356-373.
5 The reasons are lack of opportunity of Education, dirty water, limited number of market and distance between the house andhouse.
6 For example, Refugee Office and Ministry of Community Development and Social Services.
7 For example, AAR, UNHCR and some NGOs.
2

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Figure 1 : Map of Meheba refugee settlement

There are some educational institutions such as primary schools and secondary schools and clinics in
Meheba refugee settlement under the management by Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministryof Community Development & Social Welfare and others.

5Figure 2 : The map of cities in Zambia related to economic activities of refugees living in Meheba refugee settlement

The total population of Meheba refugee settlement is 19,067 people including 9,877 refugees and 10,354
former refugees from Angola and Rwanda at the end of July 2017. The detail of the population is shownin Table 1.
Table 1 : The detail of population of Meheba refugee settlement (31 July, 2017)
Nationality
BrundiDRC
Namibia
Rwandarefugee Somalia
Sudan
UgandaZinbabwe
total
former Angola
refugee Rwanda
total

0-4

female(age)male(age)
5-11
12-17 18-59 60total
0-4
5-11
12-17 18-59 60total
91
147
84
257
7
586
78
121
88
520
5
812
598
834
654
1577
57
3720
607
910
761
1818
106
4202
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
17
38
27
72
10
164
17
36
31
75
5
164
7
13
7
29
0
56
4
22
5
103
1
135
0
6
1
0
0
7
2
3
2
5
0
12
0
2
2
3
0
7
2
0
0
2
2
6
0
0
1
1
0
2
1
1
0
1
0
3
713
1040
776
1939
74
4542
711
1093
887
2524
120
5335
484
871
518
1562
173
3608
432
880
544
1339
244
3439
88
402
348
627
47
1512
108
382
304
908
93
1795
572
1273
866
2189
220
5120
540
1262
848
2247
337
5234

total
1398
7922
1
328
191
19
13
5
9877
7047
3307
10354

After arriving at Meheba refugee settlement, Refugees apply for refugee status at the transit where is theplace for the refugee to stay and wait for recognition refugee status for some days, weeks or months. After
refugee examination and assignment of residence, refugee live in where they are assigned and they don't
have the right to live in outside of Meheba refugee settlement. If they want to go outside of Meheba
6refugee settlement, they need to get the gate-pass. The gate-pass is the system for going to outside of
Meheba refugee settlement and the people who want to go to outside need to apply to refugee officer incharge and get the gate-pass permission from him. The refugees who go out the outside of Meheba
refugee settlement is arrested if they don't have the gate-pass when immigration officer catch them inoutside of Meheba refugee settlement.8
From 2014, the project named as Strategic Framework has been designed to advance durable solutions
for former refugees still in this country who live in this country and seek to locally integrate. In the
beginning, the target to integrate were some 10,000 former Angolan refugees as well as possibly
approximately 4,000 former Rwandan refugees; nevertheless, the total numbers of persons are increasing.
They have promoted the legal status and socio-economic empowerment.
According to the public document “STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK FOR THE LOCAL INTEGRATIONOF FORMER REFUGEES IN ZAMBIA”, the strategy aims to three pillars as below.
(a) This strategy facilitates a legal integration of eligible former refugees through the issuance of longterm residence permits (and derivative citizenship for some, mainly children) and the issuance of thecountry of origin identity documents and passports.
(b) This strategy ensures that former refugees and their Zambian hosts settling in two designatedsettlement areas have access to land and basic services (consistent with national standards) that will
enable them to be self-sustaining.
(c) This strategy advocates for additional, targeted community-based assistance to refugee-affected areas.
Even though the people have already applied the integration process, some people have not had
residence permit yet because of the progress of this strategy behind the schedule.

3.

Methodology(1) Overview

The empirical material and information were collected by fieldwork from 4th August 2017 to 30th
September 2017. The fieldwork was divided into three location: Meheba refugee settlement, Sowezi, andLusaka where is capital.
A total of 97 interviews for refugees were conducted with a translator who is a teacher of thecommunity school in block H. He can speak not only English and Spanish but also some local languages.
The interviews predominantly relied on the use of a qualitative method of semi-structured interviews anddocument gathering. Prior to every interview, I introduced myself, the nature of my work and the purposeof my research. The questionnaire mostly includes questions about facts of livelihood activities and life
stories from birth to date. I interviewed not only 97 refugees but also staff of Ministry of Home Affairs
Refugee Office, Ministry of Home Affairs Immigration Office, Ministry of Community Development &Social Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, & Food Security, Ministry of Energy & Water
Development, Office of the Vice President, UNHCR, UNDP, NGOs and donor countries.
In the local integration programme, there are two targets: Angolan refugees and Rwandan refugees.
However, this research focused on only Angolan refugees because the process for Rwandan refugees has
not progressed with distrust to the Rwanda government from Rwandan refugees.
Interviews are conducted with those who have not had residence permit as well as those who havealready had residence permit to understand the dynamics of change of refugee’s livelihood. I conducted
the interviews at the not only developed areas such as block A, B, and D but also developing area such as
block C, E, F, G and H to understand the whole image. Interviewees were picked up based on the

8 According to refugee officer in interview, from five to ten refugees are arrested by immigration officer per month and therefugees, families of refugee or immigration officer tell him about what happened and what they should do.
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residence permit applicant list. When the list was not sufficient,9 I collected information about former
refugees from neighboring resident or researched former refugees from the network of the interpreter or
local friends.
(2) DetailI write more detail of field research by each place.
I stayed at Lusaka from 4th August 2017 to 9th August 2017 and from 22th September to 30th September. I
conducted interview to;- JICA, a person in charge of refugees and Agriculture- JICA, an advisor for Vice President Office- JICA, a person in charge of Health programme- UNDP, a person in charge of local integration programme- UNDP, a person in charge of Health programme- Vice President Office, a vice representative
I stayed at Solwezi and Meheba from 11th August to 21th September 2017 and I conducted interview to;- Association for Aid and Relief (AAR), a president of Meheba office and staffs.
- UNHCR, a person in charge of Meheba refugee camp
- Statistical Office, a person in charge- Immigration Office (Home Affairs), a person in charge- Magistrate Court (Judiciary), a person in charge- Refugee Officer (Home Affairs), a person in charge- more than 100 refugees.10

4.

Research Findings

Table 2 : The summary of resultchange or non-change and reasonchangenonchangechange of occupation
change of income
lack of capital
discriminationin preparation
unacquired residence permit
lack of education
health problem
old agelack of motivation
otherstotal

numberofpeople
6
10
37
6
7
10
1
5
2
12
1
97

The livelihood of 16 former refugees or refugees have been already changed; occupation of 6 people waschanged, income of 10 people was changed. The livelihood of 81 former refugees or refugees have not
9 There are some wrong information on the list and the list didn't cover all information because the officer who gave me the list

were still working on making list. He said to me “This list is not completed”. On the list, there are information such as name andaddress.
10 I couldn't use the data of some of interviewee because of lack of information I collected.
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been changed and there are several reasons such as lack of capital (37 people), discrimination (10 people),in preparation (7 people), unacquired residence permit (10 people), lack of education (1 people), healthproblem (5 people), old age (2 people), lack of motivation (12 people), others (1 people).

5.

Discussion

According to the result of research, freedom of movement and residence by residence permit have aneffect on the livelihood of refugee. The effects are observed from the change of occupation and income.
A refugee told me why he changed the occupation of him is “freedom of movement”.11 He started a renthouse business after applying the integration process. Another refugee told me the reason is “freedom ofresidence”12 because if he doesn't have it, he has scared of deportation.
However, if the refugees want to change their business, some of them have difficulty based on somereasons such as lack of capital, discrimination, education, health problem and old age. One of the Refugee
Officer told me the change of refugee’s livelihood has increased little by little because many people were
under the poor.13

6.

Conclusion

In the 2030 Agenda which consists of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 associatedtargets, Paragraph 4 pledges “that no one will be left behind and that Goals and targets will be met for all
nations and peoples and all segments of society.” Paragraph 23 states that “Those whose needs arereflected in the Agenda include all children, youth, persons with disabilities (of whom more than 80% livein poverty), people living with HIV/AIDS, older persons, indigenous peoples, refugees and internallydisplaced persons and migrants. We resolve to take further effective measures and actions, in conformity
with international law, to remove obstacles and constraints, strengthen support and meet the special needsof people living in areas affected by complex humanitarian emergencies and in areas affected byterrorism.”
Refugees in Zambia are living in a separated area under the Refugee Control Law and facing a restrictedsituation with the limitation of movement and residence. This filed research concluded and argued
freedom of movement and residence support and meet the special needs of refugees in Zambia. Theinternational society and the Zambian Government should consider about a solution to guarantee thefreedom of movement and residence of refugees because it is one factor for them to get a better livelihoodand human rights.
However, there are some difficulties in getting a better livelihood in some case because of some reasonsthat we discussed. The international society should understand what are difficulties and their priorities byfurther researches and should take solutions for solving the problems.
This field research contributed to my master thesis which analyzes Zambian refugee policy andinternational public policy about refugee.
Acknowledgement
I’d like to express my special thanks of gratitude to Mr. Sichone who is professor at Copperbelt University
and supported me as well as Mr. Hawkins who is professor at Osaka University. I also appreciated many
support by Ms. Kie Maegawa who is JICA staff, Mr. Naoe and Ms. Goto who work at NGO, Mr. Musonda•

11 The interview was had with a refugee who is male and 50s at Meheba refugee settlement on 29th August, 2017.
12 The interview was had with a refugee who is male and 40s at Meheba refugee settlement on 4th September, 2017.
13 The interview was had with a personnel of Refugee Officer in the Ministry of Home Affair at Meheba refugee settlement on

18th August, 20179

and Mr. Mulale who are Ministry of Home Affairs staff at Meheba refugee settlement, and other persons
concerned. I show my gratitude to Mr. Antonio who helped me very well as interpreter. At last, many thanks
should be given to Dr. Saito, Dr. Imai and persons who helped us at United Nations University Institute for
the Advanced Study of Sustainability.
•

References

Karen, Jacobsen. 2014. Livelihoods and forced migration. Oxford University Press: The Oxford Handbookof Refugee and Forced Migration Studies. p.99.UNHCR. 2012. THE STATE OF THE WORLD’SREFUGEES In Search of Solidarity. UNHCR.
Bakwell, O. 2000. Repatriation and Self-settle Refugees in Zambia: Bringing Solutions to the Wrong
Problems. Journal of Refugee Studies 13(4). pp.356-373.
Lucy, Hovil and Zachary A. Lomo. 2015. Forced Displacement and the Crisis of Citizenship in Africa's
Great Lakes Region: Rethinking Refugee Protection and Durable Solutions. Refuge, 31(2). pp.39–50.
Amelia, Kuch. 2016. Naturalization of Burundian Refugees in Tanzania_The Debates on Local Integrationand the Meaning of Citizenship Revisited. Journal of Refugee Studies. Oxford University Press. pp.120.

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III.

Reflection to the GLTP in AfricaoYour motivation to participate in the GLTP

Africa is far away continent from Japan and the connection between Africa and Japan is sometimes poor.
However, in the era of globalization, African people know Japan very well. For example, my Interpreter
who is refugee asked me “why Japan doesn't receive refugee very well?”. As you know, Japan isnotorious for strict to refugee because this country accepts refugee only less than 30 people per year eventhough there are around 10,000 applications, but I was so surprised about why he knows it. He continued
and said that he can understand the fact because other developed countries such as the USA and somecountries of EU have many programmes to accept refugee as a citizen, but Japan doesn't have it.
In the globalization era we live, we should feel and have a responsibility about a global issue such as
what is shown in SDGs. To understand Africa through research and to make a strong network between
Africa and Japan is very important for Japan to have a responsibility. I think GLTP contribute to Japanthrough giving very good opportunity and research environment to students studying about Africa.
oField experiences

Field experience in Africa was exciting and rewarding. Sometimes I enjoyed the African life withfriendly African and interesting their culture, but sometimes I suffered the differences of culture and apoor infrastructure.
The most difficult situation in this field experience was an issue on the VISA. I’d heard from somepeople who have been to Zambia about VISA and they told me there is no additional cost to stay for 2
months if I have a VISA from the Zambian embassy in Japan. But I had to pay the additional cost because
conducting a research requires an employment VISA and it costs about 50 thousand yen. To check the fact
and what I should do, I went to some Immigration Offices and contacted the Japanese embassy and some
Zambian institutions. I lost about one week for this and I understood that unexpected things always
happen in the field.
I appreciate your understanding that I share about experiences specialized in the refugee settlement.
Most of the refugees in the Meheba refugee settlement were very kind and had good smiles like picture 1.

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Picture 1

But they have restricted occupation options because they don't have freedom of movement andresidence. The most common occupation among their available options a farmer like picture 2.

Picture 2

12They can build houses by themselves and blicks layer is also one of the options among the available
occupations like picture 3.

Picture 3

While there are some more options for their occupations, we should understand the fact that they live
within a limited circumstance. I share the picture 4 and 5 which show a clinic in the Meheba refugeesettlement with only few medicine and poor facilities.

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Picture 4

Picture 5

There is also some area such as Block H with poor water access and dirty water.

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Picture 6

Additionally, electricity is also very limited. We should understand how they live with a poor quality oflife and consider how international society can protect their human rights.
oChallenges

The challenge of this field research is to disclose the relationship between livelihood and citizenship.
Additionally, the information on Africa about refugee is restricted. Because there are many of livelihoodand citizenship, question items and questionnaire.
This field research was my first experience in Africa. It was very excited and changes my next step on
future career path from job-seeking at international organizations to taking a doctor course. A picture is
worth a thousand words.
o

How to make use of this experience to your future career development

Hannah Arendt argued the rights of refugee based on the field of Political Philosophy in 1951. After that,
we have about 70 years, there is no fundamental change in international public policy despite her strong
argument. Refugees have lost some of his/her human rights after they became “refugee”. When I had afield research in Zambia under this programme, refugees told me their dissatisfactions and discontents
because they felt many discriminations which are from not only local populations but also some officers
of departments, government, and international institutions. Because some of their voices have not beenbrought out yet, I should research about a subjective domain of refugees and reflect their voice to theinternational public policy and municipal law. The experience of this field research under the GLTP andgoing to Africa will help my research in the future because I will continue conducting field research andqualitative survey as a PhD student in Africa.

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oEncouragement to other students

GLTP is a good program because of not only research expense but also research assistance. I am surethat the foreign researcher in Africa faces some problems such as VISA, the difference of culture andextra. The staffs of GLTP can support us how we should overcome them based on the knowledge ofGLTP.

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