Camp settlement and communal conflict in sub-Saharan Africa
| Author | Kerstin Fisk |
| Published date | 01 January 2019 |
| Date | 01 January 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0022343318814588 |
| Subject Matter | Research Articles |
Camp settlement and communal conflict
in sub-Saharan Africa
Kerstin Fisk
Department of Political Science, Loyola Marymount University
Abstract
Are areas that host encamped refugees more likely to experience communal conflict, and under what conditions?
Building on insights from the refugee studies literature suggesting that settling refugees in camps can intensify
intercommunal tension in host communities, this article investigates the effect of refugee encampment on the
occurrence of communal conflict at the subnational level in sub-Saharan Africa. It first tests for a general relationship
between the overall presence and population intensity of encamped refugees and communal conflict before assessing
whether this relationship is moderated by local-level characteristics, including interethnic linkages and political and
economic marginalization within the host region. The basic findings show that communal conflict occurs more
frequently in regions where refugees are camp-settled. Tests for interactive effects indicate that refugee camps have a
significant marginal effect on conflict only if they are located in areas with politically marginalized host groups.
Origin country/host region ethnic ties are shown to exert significant moderating effects. Moreover, results from an
extended set of analyses show that the form of refugee settlement matters, as the presence and population intensity of
self-settled refugees are related to decreases in the occurrence of communal conflict.
Keywords
communal conflict, inequality, political exclusion, refugees, refugee settlement, sub-Saharan Africa
Introduction
Researchers interested in the relationship between pop-
ulation movements and conflict have, in recent years,
focused their attention on how refugee populations
mightaffecttheonsetanddynamicsofcivilwar,or
armed conflict between formally organized rebel groups
and the state (Fisk, 2014a; Lischer, 2005; Salehyan &
Gleditsch, 2006; Shaver & Zhou, 2015). Yet several of
the theoretical explanations for the anticipated civil war/
refugees association also link logically to other, non-state
forms of violence that have yet to be investigated. The
central research question in this article is: are areas that
host encamped refugees more likely to experience com-
munal conflict, and under what conditions? Past studies
argue that refugee populations can increase the likeli-
hood of civil war when they ‘compete with locals over
scarce resources such as employment, housing, land, and
water, constituting an economic “threat”’ which ‘may
lead to a setting that invites violence against migrants
as well as more general dissatisfaction with political and
economic conditions’ (Salehyan & Gleditsch, 2006:
344). While mobilizing against the central government
is one way to respond to these grievances (and communal
conflict can transform into civil war (Brosche
´& Elfvers-
son, 2012)), the cost and risk thresholds for engaging in
other, non-state forms of conflict are comparatively
lower (Fjelde & von Uexkull, 2012; Hendrix & Saleh-
yan, 2012). This is the case for communal conflict in
particular, which involves ‘local encounters between
identity-based groups including ethnic, regional, reli-
gious or livelihood communities’ and tends to ‘emerge
over territorial disputes, local power disparities, resource
access and historical disagreements’ (Raleigh, 2014: 93).
As Brosche
´(2014: 14) notes, shared communal identity
may not only form along the lines of common ethnic or
Corresponding author:
kerstin.fisk@lmu.edu
Journal of Peace Research
2019, Vol. 56(1) 58–72
ªThe Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/0022343318814588
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