(In)visible Displacement in the Horn of Africa: concepts, consequences, experiences

Gemechu Abeshu, Ph.D., is a racialized refugee researcher currently working as a research fellow at York University, Canada. His research interests include forced displacements, racialized refugees’ integration, and emerging non-state forms of political power.  He is a research affiliate at the Centre for Refugee Studies (York University) and Tshepo Institute for African Studies at WLU. He is researching the experiences of racialized refugees in Canada. He is also the lead researcher on “The Impact of Social Isolation on Refugee Children and Youth: their Resilience and Coping Mechanisms” funded by the Child and Youth Refugee Research Coalition (CYRRC). He is also a co-chair of the Racisms and Refugee Subcommittee at the Centre of Refugee Studies, at York University.

Saida M. Abdi, PhD, LICSW, is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota. She is a trained clinician and an expert in refugee trauma and resilience. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Work from Boston University. Dr. Abdi has worked for more than 20 years with refugee and immigrant youth and families. Her area of focus is building individual, family, and community resilience and improving mental health access and engagement among trauma-impacted refugee children and families. Dr. Abdi is a leader in the adaptation and implementation of Trauma Systems Therapy for Refugees (TST-R). Dr. Abdi is the clinical lead for multiple projects in North America and East Africa that support psychological healing for conflict impacted youth. Dr. Abdi is the co-author of a recently published book, Mental Health Practice with Immigrant and Refugee Youth: A Socioecological Framework (American Psychological Association, 2020).

Lemessa Abdisa graduated from Addis Ababa University with a B.A. in Geography and Environmental Studies in 2000 and MSc in Population Studies in 2009 from Addis Ababa University. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Geography and Environmental Studies at Addis Ababa University. Lemessa teaches at Madda Walabu University as a lecturer. She was the Dean of the College of Social science from 2012 to 2014.

Mohamed Duale is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Education, York University. Mohamed’s interdisciplinary doctoral research examines the lived experiences and future aspirations of Somali refugee youth in the Dadaab refugee camps of north-eastern Kenya. He has served as a research coordinator, course director and teaching assistant with the Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) Project which provides access to university education for refugees and local Kenyans living in or near the Dadaab encampments.

Roba Bulga Jilo is a shepherd and Ph.D. student at Fletcher School, Tufts University. He is a food activist, community organizer, and member of the Indigenous Peoples Movement worldwide. His research focuses on the intersections of land policy and Climate change in areas occupied by shepherd communities in Ethiopia. He is also the founder of a social enterprise (Nomad Dairy) designed to address the challenges of land issues and climate change’s impact by targeting youth through innovative social enterprise. Roba is also working on a documentary film called Milk Drop, which aims to narrate how camel’s milk might be one of the last remaining sustainable dairies during this time of climate crisis and beyond. Prior to Fletcher School, Roba worked in the nonprofit sector in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and Mozambique. Some of the projects he has led have changed thousands of farmers’ lives, especially coffee farmers and beekeepers.

Dinku Korsa received his MSc in Population Studies from Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia) and MSW/RSW from Wilfrid Laurier University (Canada). He has over fifteen years of experience working as a Youth and Adolescents Regional programs coordinator with UNICEF-UNFPA, as an Area Project Manager at Save the Children International, and as Area Program Manager at World Vision Ethiopia.

Martha Kuwee Kumsa is an Oromo born and raised in Ethiopia. She arrived in Canada as a stateless refugee, escaping Ethiopian political violence after ten years of imprisonment and torture because of her work as a journalist. Amnesty International and PEN International campaigned for her release and facilitated her resettlement in Canada and acquisition of Canadian citizenship.

In Canada, she earned her BA in sociology and honors in social work from York University, and her Masters and PhD in social work from the University of Toronto. She taught at Ryerson and University of Toronto as an instructor. She worked as a tenured professor at the Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University, where she continues as a Professor Emerita after retirement. 

Refugee studies is a key area of her broad research interests and scholarly publications. Central to this area of her scholarship are the processes of refugee making and issues of identity and belonging, home and homeland, and race and racialization. Social justice sits at the heart of her critical analysis, cutting across all areas of her research. 

Ine Lietaert holds a PhD in Social Work, studying the return and reintegration processes of assisted return migrants. She works as an Assistant Professor in International Social Work at the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy of Ghent University, combined with a position as Assistant Professor in Migration Governance and Regional Integration Studies at the United Nations University- CRIS, where she coordinates the Migration and Social research cluster.

Her research primarily focuses on the impact of international/regional and national policies on social work and social support practices, with particular focus on the governance of ‘mobile’ groups in vulnerable situations, such as asylum seekers, return migrants and (internally) displaced persons. She also focusses on the impact of mobility and different types of borders and policies on their lives, including their feeling of belonging, their copying strategies and their access to services, investigated through a socio-spatial research approach.

Dereje Regasa is a PhD Fellow at Ghent University studying urban internal displacement in Ethiopia. He holds MA in sociology from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. He is also affiliated to Jimma University where he has taught development sociology for the last ten years. He is also a research fellow at United Nations University- CRIS. His research mainly focuses internal displacement with particular interest in understanding the construct of internally displaced persons (IDPs) across different context. He studies the diversity of in IDPs in terms of causes, impacts and solutions. Currently, he is studying urban IDPs who fled ethnic based violence and resettled under government schemes with particular emphasis on the resettlement process, socio-spatial contexts, adaptation and livelihoods.