Displacement and Emplacement: Ecology of the refugee journey

Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for refugees, ones said that “the twenty-first century will be characterized by the mass movement of people being pushed and pulled within and beyond their borders by conflict, calamity, or opportunity” (Guterres 2008:99). Such a movement of people - displacement shapes and is being shaped by social and political changes in the world today (Castles 2003). Displacement as a process is a common feature in the life of a refugee, and refers both to physical movement and a sense of being socially or culturally “out of place”; a process that moves people away from their roots/home/place – their original position. Displacement invokes a sense of place attachment, rather than detachment. In this presentation I will examine the ecology of displacement and emplacement in the life of a refugee by examining the process of displacement, its link with emplacement and place attachment and resettlement. I argue that popular discourse on displacement is unidirectional and misleading, and that it circumvents an opportunity for meaningful dialogue and better understanding by undermining the critical experience of refugees that has shaped their attitudes to survival and life, and informed their practices in life and offer an alternative view by presenting displacement as a complex, multidimensional and multidirectional.