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Mobility in the African Great Lakes

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Two year project 2012–2014

Three countries: DR Congo, Kenya and Uganda

Funded by the MacArthur Foundation

Capturing everyday mobility drivers to better understand the complexity of human mobility dynamics in the Great Lakes region.

'Children abandoned to their own fate' in Lubumbashi, taken by PhotoVoice participant
'Children abandoned to their own fate' in Lubumbashi, taken by PhotoVoice participant

Project objectives

  • To identify migration patterns in the region and understand the extent to which they might be impacted by conflict; the extent to which they impact migration decision-making during displacement; and the extent to which pre-existing migration patterns are re-established as conflict subsides.
  • To document and analyse mobility associated with broader social processes: including seasonal and rural–urban migration; migration for education, marriage, or employment; and trade related mobility.
  • To develop a methodology and conceptual framework to analyse mobility patterns throughout the region – and potentially in other conflict settings.

This focus on everyday patterns of movement in this region contributes greatly to our understanding of how social, cultural and urbanisation dynamics intersect with individual agency and material constraints, which regulate access to mobility for aspirant migrants in today’s globalised world.

Make an enquiry about the Mobility in the African Great Lakes project

 

Research team

Selected publications

More information

Research design

Empirical research was undertaken in Bukavu or Lubumbashi (DR Congo), Kampala (Uganda), Eldoret (Kenya).

Funding

This project is supported by the MacArthur Foundation Global Migration and Human Mobility programme.

Related research themes

Migration has fundamental implications for development and social change in destination and origin countries. We analyse how migration affects social, cultural and economic change as well as patterns of inequality. We focus on understanding why migration has more positive outcomes in some contexts, while more negative outcomes in others.
Development, inequality and change
Development processes shape human mobility in fundamental and often counter-intuitive ways. We examine how internal and international migration is driven by wider social, economic, technological and political transformations. Our research challenges assumptions that development will reduce migration and the sedentary foundations of much research and policy.
Drivers and dynamics