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John Cairns Photography
‘Borders, Mobility, and Livelihoods’ is a mixed-methods research project examining refugees’ cross-border movements between countries of asylum and origin across three East African border regions: South Sudan-Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo-Uganda, and Burundi-Rwanda. As humanitarian funding declines globally, the project demonstrates how empirical research conducted with local partners and refugee communities can inform policy and strengthen protection.
In the absence of reliable data, UN organisations and national governments typically assume that refugees’ cross-border movements represent a step towards voluntary repatriation, resulting in limited support for those who move. This project challenges these assumptions through a nuanced examination of refugees’ movements across three borderland regions in East Africa, drawing on qualitative and quantitative data to understand the frequency and drivers of such mobility.
Contrary to the ‘happy homecoming’ narrative, the research shows that cross-border movements are rarely hopeful repatriation, but rather a dangerous coping strategy forced by extreme poverty, shrinking humanitarian aid, and a lack of livelihood opportunities in exile. In Uganda, for example, many South Sudanese refugees, especially parents, were compelled to return to their homeland to seek casual labour while their children remained in exile. These family splitting strategies have severely damaged the emotional wellbeing of both parents and children.
The project has significantly changed how cross-border refugee mobility is understood and made differences in real-world decisions in East and Central Africa through engagements with government actors, international aid agencies, development actors, and intergovernmental regional bodies. Crucially, refugee communities were involved throughout the research process. Their participation ensured that findings reflected lived realities and increased local ownership of the research.