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Challenge without transformation: refugees, aid and trade in western Tanzania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2004

Loren B. Landau
Loren B. Landau
Affiliation:
Forced Migration Studies Programme, University of the Witwatersrand.
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Abstract

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Through a comparison of two rural Tanzanian districts, this paper traces the effects of a humanitarian influx – the arrival of refugees and international relief – on the economic practices of the host population in one western Tanzanian district (Kasulu). It argues that, despite popular and Government claims to the contrary, there is little evidence that the influx has effected a transformation of citizens' economic lives. While changes in exchange and resource use patterns have occurred in the five years since the influx began, they are not fundamental and many are better attributed to shifts in macro-economic policy than to the refugees, the presence of the relief agencies or the distribution of humanitarian aid. The fact that the influx has not induced a shift towards increased market activity and capitalist modes of production not only challenges government and popular pronouncements, but also reaffirms the resilience of localised modes of production against external market pressures.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , March 2004 , pp. 31 - 59
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

Footnotes

I would like to thank Anna Schmidt, David Leonard, Scott Borger and three anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of this article.