Overcoming Invisibility: The Meaning and Process of Returnee Reintegration

Since independence in 1962 until recently, Burundi experienced multiple waves of violence between Hutus and Tutsis, with the worst episodes occurring in 1972, 1988 and 1993. The civil war that plagued the country led to the displacement of over half a million individuals into neighboring countries. In 2000, politicians and rebel groups initiated negotiations and dialogue, which led to the end of conflict. With the cessation of violence and the country's newfound peace, Burundian refugees responded to the call by the Burundian government to return "home." This study explores the variation in the success of returnee reintegration into Burundi's economic, social and political landscape. In this study successful reintegration refers to the process that enables an individual to sustain his/her livelihood while fully participating in a given society without facing discrimination based on an individual's lived experience. This dissertation delineates the challenges that returnees faced as they embarked on the process of reintegration. It further analyzes the policies established by the government and its international partners to assist returnees, and explores the coping mechanisms adopted by returnees when government policies did not sufficiently meet their needs. This study finds that gender, age, exile experience, place of reintegration, and duration of residence after return were factors that significantly impacted reintegration. The study demonstrates the complexities of refugee return to country of origin, an idea that is considered the best option to address the refugee crisis by the international refugee regime. The study further questions the meaning of home and notions that home and belonging are attached to territory. Return is not always the end of a "refugee cycle" as is assumed by policymakers; in some instances it is a new form of displacement.