ABSTRACT
Displaced livelihoods and collective returns This chapter compares two cases of spatial movement that usually fall into two separate fields of study. One is the return of refugees who, in returning, are by definition crossing an international border, in this case the border between Mexico and Guatemala. The other is the return of Peruvian highlanders who have left their rural villages and sought refuge from the widespread violence in their region in the nearest city. The two cases of movement are similar in the sense that both involve people who have been identified, labelled and assisted by national and international agencies as victims of violent conflict, as ‘refugees’ in the first case and ‘internally displaced persons’ (IDPs) in the second. We may categorize the two cases as ‘forced migration’, but the difference between voluntary and forced migration is not absolute.1 While the forced/voluntary distinction may not be the most fertile point of departure for an analysis of the directions, dynamics and effects of particular movements, it is important in defining rights, entitlements and livelihood spaces. I will therefore analyse the two cases of movement as taking place partly within a ‘transnational space’ generated through the appropriation and application of the categories of refugees, IDPs and returnees – partly outside this space.
