{"id":2680,"date":"2024-11-25T23:19:42","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T23:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/anthropology-of-aid\/?page_id=2680"},"modified":"2024-11-25T23:25:27","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T23:25:27","slug":"2024-5-roll-for-resettlement-the-game-of-chance","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/anthropology-of-aid\/the-issues\/refugees-and-asylum-seekers\/2024-5-roll-for-resettlement-the-game-of-chance\/","title":{"rendered":"(2024-5) Roll for Resettlement: The Game of Chance"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Sumayyah Arfan, Maia Gage, William Taylor, Inca Nash, Cara Becker, Jasmin Elvery, and Amy Grace Sewell<\/p>\n

War and famine in East Africa and the Horn of Africa have made 23.6 million people refugees, displacing portions of the Rwandan, Ethiopian, Congolese, and Somali populations. There have been six million deaths in the DRC since 1998 and over 1.5 million deaths in Somalia since 1991. This has driven DRC citizens to migrate to the Nyarugusu United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) camp in Tanzania (opened in 1996), while Somalis have travelled to the Dadaab UNHCR-supported camp in Kenya (opened in 1992) (Thomson, 2012; Ikanda, 2018; Genocide Watch, 2022; CPA, 2024; UNCR, 2024).<\/p>\n

We wanted to spotlight different refugee experiences from these different places. We also chose the game of Ludo to show the difficulty of seeking asylum as a refugee since the goal is the same for both: get all your people to the final destination. We decided to change the original design of the board slightly so that the end point the players try to reach is called “resettlement” as opposed to “home” as this shows how asylum seekers may not consider their new settlement to be home just yet, if ever. A card system was added where if a player\u2019s piece lands on a black box, they must pick up a card and perform the action written on it, whether helpful or detrimental; this represents the heavy bureaucracy refugees face when seeking to resettle and shows the risk and chance involved. The elephant in the middle of the board is meant to embody the spirit of the process, reminding players how large and daunting it seems, but how slowly it moves. Overall, Ludo was chosen because it is difficult, as is the life and resettlement of a refugee.<\/p>\n

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The players in this game take on the role of a refugee. Readings from the class indicated that, from the perspective of many refugees, the UNHCR\u2019s system for processing Congolese\/Somali resettlement applications seems inconsistent, making it unclear and dependent on factors out of a refugee\u2019s control. This leads refugees to describe their resettlement journey (from leaving the camps to arriving in the third country) as a game of luck rather than a fair process. What makes the UNHCR\u2019s system seem particularly unjust is its basis in unequal power relations between powerful aid workers and vulnerable refugees. For example, the UNHCR proceeds with just one percent of applications and delays\/dismisses (Thomson, 2012, p. 189; Ikanda, 2018, p. 580). Moreover, the process seems to deliberately try to catch out refugees, with agency workers assuming that refugees would lie in their applications (Thomson, 2012, p. 193). The criteria for resettlement also adopts a particular western definition of refugees, as those who flee their countries due to individual persecution rather than widespread violence (Thomson, 2012). Consequently, the requirement to produce particular evidence-based documents and cases fails to fully consider cultural differences, the social construction of violence and the unseen vulnerabilities of the refugees such as due to war and poverty. The system, therefore, appears as a bureaucratic, non-transparent, chaotic entity of disconnected parts that the refugees perceive as a game of chance (Thomson, 2012; Ikanda, 2018).<\/p>\n

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The game generates \u2018doubting experts and deceptive refugees\u2019, designed to make the players live in uncertainty and occasionally forces them back to the start of the process. The more they roll the dice (live in camps), the more they may potentially suffer (return to the starting point\/home) and develop symptoms of this suffering (as a result of not reaching their new home). However, playing the game and taking chances may also heighten their chances of resettling (reaching the final stage of the game) and being successful in their journey. The game\u2019s instructions delay the resettlement procedure and make the whole process akin to a slow-moving, unwieldy and unpredictable elephant (Thomson, 2012, p. 193).<\/p>\n

Somali players must deal with factors out of their control that either support or harm their cases. Factors that might help them win the game include their cases being managed by Mzungu (white workers), handed to the UNHCR manager or removed from the black box. However, the players are more likely to lose the game when Tanzanian protection officer manage their cases and they lack access to electricity and printers (Thomson, 2012, 198).<\/p>\n

The refugee resettlement process in Ikanda\u2019s (2018) ethnography highlights the importance of socially constructed narratives of vulnerability. Refugees adapt their lives and stories to align with the expectations of humanitarian agencies and resettlement programs in order to increase their case\u2019s chance of being considered and granted. This involves selectively highlighting their suffering and dependence on aid. The refugees need to appear \u2018genuine\u2019 because the humanitarian agencies rely on bureaucratic measures to assess vulnerability. Whilst the refugees are not aware of the exact metrics and so they seem arbitrary to them, they attempt to craft their claims to the expected profiles, such as emphasising familial loss, persecution, or health issues (Ikanda, 2018). If their narratives fit within the predefined categories of vulnerability, their case becomes more likely to be considered seriously. However, it is not definite, and cases can be dropped randomly without any proper reason.<\/p>\n

This precarious uncertainty is what we wanted to highlight through our game. To do this, we placed multiple \u2018black boxes\u2019 (Thomson, 2012) across the board. Each black box comes with a coinciding event that could occur in the resettlement process, for example, \u2018your resettlement application is denied\u2019 and therefore you must start again (the game and the refugee process). We hope the game incurs uneasiness in the player, the same uneasiness a refugee might feel throughout the resettlement process.<\/p>\n

Roll for Resettlement: The Game of Chance is a game designed to highlight the challenges refugees face when applying for third-country resettlement. Refugees take chances, such as presenting themselves as having certain vulnerabilities, that may aid their application process or hinder it. This game demonstrates the unpredictability and uncertainty of being a refugee, and how the process of resettlement is long, difficult, and largely dictated by chance.<\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

Centre for Preventive Action CPA (2024). Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Available at: https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/global-conflict-tracker<\/a> (Accessed: 17 November 2024).<\/p>\n

Genocide Watch. (2022). Somalia Genocide and Famine Warning Genocide Watch. Available at: https:\/\/www.genocidewatch.com\/<\/a> (Accessed: 18 November 2024).<\/p>\n

Ikanda, F.N. (2018). Animating \u2018refugeeness\u2019 through vulnerabilities: worthiness of long-term exile in resettlement claims among Somali refugees in Kenya. Africa<\/em>, 88(3), pp.579\u2013596.<\/p>\n

Thomson, M.J. (2012). Black Boxes of Bureaucracy: Transparency and Opacity in the Resettlement Process of Congolese Refugees. Political and legal anthropology review<\/em>, 35(2), pp.186\u2013205.<\/p>\n

United Nations Refugee Agency UNHCR. (2024). East and Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes. Available at: https:\/\/reporting.unhcr.org\/<\/a> (Accessed: 17 November 2024).<\/p>\n

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Related<\/h1>\n\n

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Written by Nobusuke Akaike, Charlotte Antilogus, Bethany Croucher, Natalie, Kaza, Tilly Neville, Samson Page, and Madeleine Raggett.<\/p>\n

Aims<\/h1>\n

By the end of the lesson, students will understand:<\/p>\n