Analysis of refugees' economic practices and social meanings in Uganda

Abstract

This article explores economic strategies which refugees employ in restrictive environments in host countries in the Global South and focuses on the social meanings of these practices. As a result, it is not humanitarian refugee protection and assistance at the core, but instead refugees' own practices. Our analysis is based on qualitative empirical research with a multi-method approach in Uganda and an agency perspective following Emirbayer and Mische. The article demonstrates that although humanitarian measures aim to support refugees as economic actors, the resources refugees mobilize themselves are key for the people. Social networks are crucial for individuals to adopt economic practices as well as for other refugees to assume social and economic roles. Hence, we argue that economic practices in refugee situations have the character of relational agency by being constituted and reproduced through their social interdependence.