The Dilemma of Ghana-Based Liberian Refugees and the Challenges of Repatriation and Integration

In the aftermath of the Liberian civil war and the signing of the final peace agreement among the warring factions, the international community and host countries of Liberian refugees in the West African sub-region disproportionately pursued the policy of refugee repatriation to Liberia at the expense of other options such as integration and resettlement as a solution for the refugee problem. Using the Liberian refugees in the Buduburam refugee camp in Ghana as a qualitative case study, this research argues that the policy of repatriation has largely failed. The research arrives at this conclusion via the use of focus-group interviews of a cross-section of remaining Liberian refugees in the Buduburam camp. The research discovered that while the refugees are discontent with their current circumstances in Ghana, they are hesitant to return home due to unfavourable homeland conditions. The combination of both unfavourable host and homeland conditions constitutes ‘intervening obstacles’ that mitigate against repatriation and thus put the Ghana-based Liberian refugees in a dilemma. The research recommends the option of integration as a viable option that should be legislated and institutionalized to attract the necessary buy-in from the remaining refugees.

Rethinking multicultural jurisdictions

This article is about the rights of disempowered individuals within autonomous cultural groups. For more than a decade, multiculturalism theorists have been struggling to find a suitable balance between the policies they advocate and the need to protect the vulnerable members of the groups they seek to empower. One of the most convincing and innovative solutions to emerge has been Ayelet Sachar’s model of transformative accommodations (TA). Yet, the main argument presented in this article (based on an ethnographic study) is that this model is unfeasible due to the rule of conservation of power. This claim is illustrated by two case studies: the case of the Beit Ya’acov Primary School for Girls in Emmanuel in the Israeli Occupied Territories and the case of the Buduburam refugee camp in Ghana. The article concludes by suggesting that multiculturalists have yet to produce a satisfying response to what seems to be the principal challenge to the policy they advocate.

Local integration of Liberian refugees in Ghana

In sub-Saharan Africa, protracted refugee situations have become common within the last three decades. Although voluntary repatriation is mostly recommended as the more lasting solution to refugee problems, some refugees think otherwise. This paper explores the views of Liberian refugees on local integration in Ghana. Using an in-depth interview guide, a total of 25 Liberian refugees were interviewed through the snowball sampling procedure at the Buduburam refugee camp. Guided by both the theory of national identity and an adapted framework on domains of local integration, the results show that the refugees are prepared for local integration. Most of them are already engaged in informal sector businesses as their sources of livelihood; almost all of them have established some social networks which facilitate interactions between them and the indigenes; and moreover they have been granted residence and work permits as well as registered for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) as part of the integration package. It can be concluded that the Liberian refugees who opted for local integration are positively disposed for local integration in Ghana. There is the need for government to adopt the most appropriate local approach to facilitate the full intergration of the Liberian refugees into the country.

You-Will-Kill-Me-Beans: Taste and the Politics of Necessity in Humanitarian Aid

Despite their nuanced palates and cooking skills, as guests at the humanitarian table, Liberians living at the Buduburam refugee camp in Ghana were expected and assumed to adapt to the “tastes of necessity.” In the refugee camp, the sensory experiences and pleasures of the taste of liberty—or “luxury”—existed, if at all, as an indicator that one was no longer in need of aid. In this article, I consider how innovations in cooking and taste shape humanitarian politics and argue that Liberian refugees subverted the biopolitics of necessity through biographies of taste. Through their sensuous encounters and critical responses to the taste of necessity, humanitarian subjects are able to produce biographies of food aid and a public accounting of the historic and contemporary conditions of humanitarianism. By prioritizing the taste of refugee food, camp residents have challenged the reason of humanitarian reason by expanding the sensibility of food aid and repositioning recipients as essential figures in humanitarian aid.