Involuntary Migration in Somalia: the Politics of Resettlement

Abstract

The resettlement of nomads recently has become a renewed topic of interest within the literature on development. The general purpose of most schemes is to sedentarise nomadic peoples through farm or manufacturing co-operatives to be able systematically to provide them with the necessities of existence, including health services and education, and to reduce their vulnerability to the vagaries of their day-to-day search for green pastures and water. Nomadism has been defined as ‘the movement of the household during the annual round of productive activities’, while its polar opposite, sedentism, is ‘the immobile location of the household during the annual round of productive activities’.1