ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the relationship between families and forced migration, setting out to unpack some of the common perceptions about the priorities and responses of refugees in contexts of socio-political upheaval. It focuses on the ethnographic work carried out with Sudanese refugees in Uganda over a long period, and questions assumptions relating to the constitution and character of crises for refugees and those who work with them. The chapter explains how the family and notions of family unity are variously constructed in situations of forced migration, and how challenges and opportunities associated with these categories are engaged by forced migrants. It outlines the way that families have tended to be constructed in international and refugee law, before thinking through issues arising from the idea of crisis in refugee situations. The chapter discusses some of the implications of the relationship between ideas of family and crisis, in the light of ethnographic material from the Sudanese case.
