O relacionamento entre os refugiados e a comunidade local em Maratane/Moçambique: da tolerância a focos de tensão (2001-2015)

Abstract

Based on a literature review and fieldwork carried out in Maratane between 2003 and 2015, this article analyses the development of the relationship between refugees and the local community, focusing on the main factors that contributed to the transformation of the “tolerance that characterised this relationship into “focus of tension” and possible implications. It is argued that the arrival of refugees initially represented many advantages for the locals, as they began to benefit from various infrastructures created in the centre, such as fountains, schools, a health centre and a market for basic necessities. In addition to the benefits in terms of infrastructure, the presence of this population also gave them the opportunity to obtain professional training in different areas and to acquire small locally remunerated jobs. The gains in the areas indicated above created closer relations between refugees and the local community, thus generating a healthy relationship in the early years. However, the government’s willingness to allow them to develop certain activities such as agriculture, livestock farming, and trade, as well as the refugees’ proactivity in seeking supplements for survival, has allowed them to go from being simple recipients of support to owners of various goods and services, such as passenger transport, grocers, mills, etc. Therefore, this change in the socio-economic status of refugees in relation to local communities is generating tensions in the relations between the host population and refugees. It is concluded that these changes in the relationship generate stigma – in relation to refugees – which, if there is no intervention to change this climate, could degenerate into waves of violence.