Forced Migration of Colombians: A Relational Perspective

Abstract

This chapter examines the research process and the methodological and ethical challenges of a comparative study of the forced migration of Colombians in three national contexts: Colombia, Ecuador and Canada. During the years in which this research study was carried out (2005–2009), Colombia was the country with the second highest rate of internal displacement in the world and the primary source of persons from the region seeking refuge. The chapter discusses the insights and questions that emerge from examining the dynamics of fear in the displacement and integration processes of forced migrants and the various social and political locations used by internally displaced persons and refugees in their interactions with local societies and a host of local, national and international institutions. It discusses the challenges the research team encountered in the attempt to construct differentiated typologies of forced migration, which risked missing the complexities of the phenomenon and the continuities between different forms of migration. The chapter highlights the research potential of a relational comparative perspective that reconstructs fields of relations and variations between the experiences of internally displaced persons and persons living in refugee situations. Our analysis of the forced migration experiences of displaced persons and refugees in a number of sites revealed a host of factors that impact on forced migration and integration processes and the links between local, internal, regional and international migration movements.