icma 2014_panel 4_carlos lopes

Refugees, reintegration and internal mobility:

looking at Angola’s case, 2002-2013

Carlos M. Lopes

(Faculty of Social Sciences at the University Agostinho Neto/CEsA-ISEG)

Internacional Conference on Migration in ÁfricaCape Town3/12/2014

Forced migration - A migratory movement in which an element of coercion exists, including threats to life and livelihood, whether arising from natural or man-made causes (e.g. movements of refugees and internally displaced persons as well as people displaced by natural or environmental disasters, chemical or nuclear disasters, famine, or development projects)

Internally Displaced Person (IDP) - Persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border (Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, UN Doc E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2.)

Internal migration - Movement of persons within the boundaries of a state or region; may have voluntary character or be forced

Refugee - A person who, "owing to a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinions, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country. (Art. 1(A)(2), Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, Art. 1A(2), 1951 as modified by the 1967 Protocol).

Repatriation - The personal right of a refugee, prisoner of war or a civil detainee to return to his or her country of nationality under specific conditions laid down in various international instruments (Geneva Conventions, 1949 and Protocols, 1977, the Regulations Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, Annexed to the Fourth Hague Convention, 1907, human rights instruments as well as customary international law).

0. Key concepts (IOM, Glossary on Migration, 2011)

The purposes of this reflection are:

to systematize the main characteristics associated with the process of return and reintegration of Angolan refugees in neighbouring countries;

to shed some light and identify clues that allow a better understanding of the linkage between the circumstances that surrounded the return of refugees and also the trajectories and the logic of internal mobility of former Angolan refugees;

to relate the return of the refugees with the characteristics of the urbanization of the country.

1. Objectives

Information relies:

on data collected in literature recently produced on migration in Angolan context;

scarce statistical information available;

and information published in main Angolan press.

2. Information sources

after the end of the civil war, Angola went through a phase of rapid economic growth, based on performance of oil and diamonds sectors;

Angolan economy experienced high rates of growth over the last 12 years, as a result of the establishment of a climate of peace in the country, the good performance of the oil sector, and the effectiveness of the strategy of economic stabilization prosecuted by the Angolan authorities.

3. General Background

Socio-economic indicators show some progress in the past 10 years;

However, many challenges remain:

the Human Development Index (HDI) of Angola in 2011 was 0.486; Angola was number 148 (178 countries) in the global ranking (UNDP, 2013, Human Development Report); high value of per capita income ($4.800) allows a better performance supported in a single variable; if it draw income factor, angolan HDI falls to position 161; Angola remains a country of low human development;

the distribution of wealth is still very unequal and according to the HDI, 54.3 % of the population still lives below the poverty line of US$ 1.25 per day;

Angola imports nearly everything, which makes the levels of life extremely expensive, especially in the capital Luanda.


in 2010, the population was estimated at approximately 19 million inhabitants; 45% of the population are very young, with less than 15 years old (UNDP, 2009);

the preliminary data of the 2014 Census reported a population of 24.383.301 inhabitants, 52% of whom were female;

more than half of the population (58.5 percent estimated for 2010) live in urban areas, with a high concentration in the capital Luanda and suburban areas (OIM, 2010);

according to preliminary data from the Census 2014, 62.3% of the effective Angolan population is urban, while 37.7% live in rural areas;

Luanda concentrates 26.9% of Angolan citizens and a set of 7 major provinces (Luanda and the provinces of Huila, Benguela, Huambo, Cuanza Sul, Uíge and Bié) corresponds to approximately 72 % of the population.


during war, Angola was mainly characterized by internal migration from rural areas to the urban environment (especially for the capital Luanda), by internal displacement and flows of cross-border refugees;

trends and patterns of migration, in the case of Angola, are in transition, with consequences that are not easy to fully understand, to evaluate and to manage;

patterns of migratory flows are similar to the majority of African countries although they present particular aspects: in the context of accelerated growth of the economy of the country labour migration, intense internal migrations, mixed flows, phenomenon of refugees and asylum seekers, trafficking of people and intensification of relations with the diaspora, coexist and interact with each other with impact on the volume and structure of cash remittances. (Almeida Martins, 2010)

4. The migratory context

internal migrations with high rates of mobility are still occurring, despite the end of the military conflict in 2002;

forced internal displacement in the direction of the main urban centers, and in particular to the capital of the country or to neighbouring countries were replaced by internal mobility motivated by the search for economic opportunities and access to decision-making centers, to social services and basic mechanisms of social mobility;

natural disasters, such as droughts and floods, also caused internal displacement;

return of a significant part of the population that had fled to the neighbouring countries has been a factor of internal mobility, since part of the migrants who returned to their places of origin have not remained there.


rehabilitation and the growth of the Angolan economy in the regional and international context induced a reversal in migration international flows;

country started to attract skilled immigrants, but also an increasing number with few qualifications. At the same time, the Angolans from the diaspora are returning to the country;

also, there has been a significant increase of the number of irregular migrants.


dynamics of transition and change of migratory flows that involve the State and citizens of Angola have different effects and cause different impacts on the economy and the Angolan society.

(unplanned urban development, difficulties in access to basic social services and social protection, increasing participation of migrants in informal activities, increasing opportunities for exploitation and abuse of migrant and irregular workers, increase of insecurity, vulnerability and poverty and the growth of threats to human and environmental safety)

both the relative lack of success of the policies and programs of reintegration and the scarcity of options and opportunities in rural areas, strongly affected by the military conflict, induce high rates of migration to urban centers particularly, to the capital, Luanda;

young people and women, but also ex-soldiers, refugees and internally displaced population thicken these migratory flows creating an enormous pressure for urban equipment and social services, as shown in the study carried out by the ACP Migration Observatory; (Lopes, Rodrigues and Simas, 2013)


Program of Voluntary Repatriation (2003-2007) conducted in partnership by the OIM, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Ministry of Assistance and Social Reintegration (MINARS) endorsed the repatriation of 420.000 refugees;

(after this operation, which ended in March 2007, about 146.814 Angolans have chosen to stay in the countries of asylum, as refugees, of which 27.073 were in Zambia, 111.589 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), 5.600 in Namibia and 2.652 in Congo Brazzaville) (UNHCR, 2008)

between June 2011 and June 2012, 23.343 Angolan citizens returned to the country, within the framework of a program of voluntary repatriation approved in 2010 by the Angolan executive and implemented in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

(about 5.000 Angolan refugees wanted to return from Botswana, Congo (Brazzaville), the Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia and Zambia) (UNHCR, 2011)

5. The return of former refugees

through the Technical Unit for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (UTCAH), MINARS has been involved in the different steps of the process of repatriation of Angolan refugees in neighbouring countries;

in addition to the Program of Social Reintegration in the areas to which refugees return, MINARS has an ongoing Project of Assistance to foreign refugees in Angolan territory;

the document Rules on the Resettlement of Displaced Populations published in 2001 by the Government of Angola (and regulated in 2002), was intended to the people directly affected by the conflict as soon as it ended, recognizing the importance of the voluntary character of their resettlement and seeking their involvement relocation, identification and distribution of land procedures;

although this process has been somewhat simple in the national context, many of the effects of the war, of the policies and actions of reinsertion and reintegration of displaced populations remain, such as the high concentration in the urban environment, especially in coastal areas of the country.


The repatriation process is not yet definitively closed, as recent news published in the Angola press show:

MINARS Minister said that approximately 29.000 refugees in the DRC expressed intention to return; 4.222 have done so from 20.08.2014; of these, 2.500 chose to settle in the province of Uige; the slow process is related to the re-verification process to prevent the entry of foreign nationals (Jornal of Angola, 11/24/2014)

according to the same source, the Angolan Executive foresees the voluntary return of the last 26 thousand refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, among others;

recent public statements of the head of the department of Refugees of the Ministry of Assistance and Social Reintegration of Angola (MINARS) within the framework of the International Day of Refugee, suggest that "from 2002 to 2013 more than 500.000 Angolans who were refugees have returned”;


a study on the integration of Angolans who have recently returned (Melo/DW, 2013) analysed the return migration, the strategies of reintegration and the relations between these migratory flows and human development;

main conclusions are the following:

results show that the majority of migrants returned from the nearest neighbouring country of their current residence;

a significant part of respondents revealed that their current socio-economic situation was better or equal to the conditions in the host countries; most of them expressed satisfaction with the level of access to social services;

a high percentage of the respondents specifically mentioned the assistance of the Government of Angola in the process of return;

study shown that more attention to the specific case of highly skilled ex-refugees was demanded; study concluded that further studies are needed to assess the needs that serve as the basis for the design of more

appropriate and effective plans and policies of reintegration; study showed the failure of the access to land and to basic social services as well as the problems arising from the

cultural barriers such as threats to the process of reintegration, inducing feelings of marginalization among some groups of ex-refugees;

study stresses that the initial destinations of the vast majority of returnees were the provinces that are closer to the borders of the countries in which they lived while refugees and that a significant percentage of ex-refugees moves to other areas or provinces some time later (typically, for cities characterized by the existence of more opportunities) to improve their living conditions.


while the Angolan authorities assess the process as a success in spite of the difficulties, an assessment report published in 2008 by UNHCR stressed the following difficulties in the process of reintegration of returnees:

low levels of food security;

limited access to jobs, to income-generating activities and to public services;

significant movements of returnees from rural to urban areas;

serious constraints to obtain national identity documents and validate the academic and professional qualifications obtained abroad.


study by Development Workshop on the integration of former Angolan refugees, published in 2013, emphasized that the majority of respondents considered being in a better situation than before the repatriation;

however, the shortfall in access to land property and to basic social services as well as the problems arising from the cultural barriers continue to threaten the process of reintegration, inducing feelings of marginalization among some groups of ex-refugees.


with the independence of the country in 1975, internal migrations increased exponentially due to the outbreak of civil war in the country, affecting especially the rural areas;

the war led to the internal displacement of a large number of soldiers, at the same time that a significant number of people were kept in captivity by military forces;

Angolan civil war forced a large number of people to seek refuge in the cities, since the war took place mainly in a rural environment;

for several decades all the cities of the country, with special emphasis to Luanda, were characterised by a continuous growth of population. At the time of the conflict, the number of internally displaced Angolans was estimated at 3.8 million ; (ADB/OECD, 2008)

after the end of the war, the return of this population to rural areas was not significant and the pace of growth of cities remained high;

the demand for better conditions of life was the major cause of this growth in a post-war context characterised by poverty and insecurity;

the patterns of internal migration have become more complex (Lopes, Rodrigues & Simas, 2013); in Luanda and in other urban centers, the populations are also on the move and phenomena of temporary inter-provincial migration occur.

6. Internal Migrations

sources of data on migrants are census relating to population and housing, population records, administrative records, border statistics and sample surveys (household);

Angola combines an insufficient number of sources of reliable data with significant data gaps;

in 2008/09 a sample survey (IBEP, or Inquiry on the Welfare of Population 2008-09) was conducted by INE, with support from the World Bank and Unicef, containing a limited number of questions about migration and a reduced sample of migrants, as a result of the difficulty to find migrants in structures of regular sampling and the fact that the measurement of flows requires dimensions of sampling large enough;

IBEP considered four issues to assess the migratory phenomenon: place of current residence, place of birth, place of residence before 1975 and place of residence after 2002. IBEP focused on the permanent migration, ignoring temporary or seasonal important population movements, that are also crucial determinants of the structure of population;

collection of information based on an analytical grid identified four crucial historical moments: (i) before the national independence in 1975; (ii) between the independence and the first general elections in 1992; (iii) after the elections in 1992 and before the peace agreement in 2002, (iv) after the peace agreement.


IBEP 2008/09 estimated that 12.6% of the Angolan population migrated from their province of birth and 19.7% moved from rural areas to urban centers while 4.1% have done the opposite moving from urban areas to rural areas;

data also indicated a migration rate of 13.4 % and showed that approximately 1% of the population was made up of immigrants from foreign countries;

rate of internal migration varied between provinces: Luanda had the highest rate (30.5 %), in line with the level of availability of basic services in relation to other provinces, the level of urban growth and the perception that Luanda could offer more opportunities for income generation;

data collected indicated that the provinces of Luanda (30.5 %), Namibe (19.8 %) and Cunene (16.4 %) were the ones that presented more expressive indicators when it comes to internal migration;

Huambo (2.7 %), Uige (2 %) and Kwanza Sul (1.7 %) are the ones that registered less expressive indicators;

findings revealed that the patterns of internal migration in Angola are not explained only by differences in economic and social opportunities between the provinces: Benguela and Huila provinces that present higher economic rates registered indicators that are less expressive than the ones from border provinces, such as Cunene, Lunda Sul and Zaire.


Internal migration rate – mainly provinces

Luanda:30,5%

Namibe:19,8%

Cunene:16,4%

Source: IBEP 2008/09

Internal migration rate – border provinces

Cunene:16,4%

Lunda Sul:9,6%

Lunda Norte: 6,0%

Zaire:4,6%

Cabinda:4,2%

Source: IBEP 2008/09

war was the main factor that led to the change of residence of the great majority of the immigrant population;

family reunion (a war consequence) was the main cause of migration both in rural (50.6% rural migrants) and urban areas (47.3% urban migrants);

migrants from the majority of the provinces identify war as the factor responsible for migration: Huila (35.6 %), Kwanza Norte (33 % ), Luanda (28.3 % ), Kuando Kubango (28.2 % ), Kwanza Sul (26.8 %), Benguela (25.3 % ), Lunda Norte and Huambo (17.1% each), Namibe (16.6 %) and Bié (15.5 % );

in three of the provinces, the factor resettlement emerged in the responses obtained: Kuando Kubango (26.5 %), Zaire (20.1 %) and Moxico (15.6 %);

economic and social factors (job search, transfers in the context of professional activity and demand for further educational studies) had less influence on the decision of permanent change from the province of origin.


IBEP also examined trends of migration between 1975 and 2002; in global terms, the period between 1992 and the Peace Agreements of 2002 concentrated 35.2%

responses; 33.1% responses referred to the period between 1975 and 1992, while 22.6% referred to the period after the peace agreement. 9.1% referred to the period before 1975;

reasons for migration also varied according to the period of reference:

about 39% of the migratory movements, in the period between the independence in 1975 and the first general elections in 1992, were motivated by the war, but an equal number of migrants moved due to family reunion plans during the same period;

the proportion of migrants who aimed at reuniting their families reached the peak (59%) immediately after the peace agreement of 2002, a period in which there was also a higher proportion of children at school age (5-14 years of age) who migrated in search of opportunities for better education.


in Angola, colonial urbanization motivated by (relative) need for labour in industry caused migration flows; internal migrations in the period of colonialism were linked to the slave system, forcing thousands of people to move from their areas of origin; the criation of a system of forced labour, associated with the demand for better conditions in the cities by the rural population, maintained high numbers of rural exodus;

however, the largest concentration of population in urban centers occurred after the independence;

the main cause for the exponential increase in urbanization in Angola during the 39 years after independence was the civil war; people sought places that offered greater security and settled in informal settlements, without any planning, in periphery and semi-periphery of major urban centers;

installation of migrants occurred mainly with the support of family and their networks; destination were not planned settlements, characterized by inadequacies of infrastructure and conditions of habitability (water, energy, sanitation, transport);

after 2002, human mobility was voluntary and it was associated with socio economic and cultural factors;

the concentration of approximately 72% of the Angolan population in 7 provinces.

(according to preliminary data from the Census 2014 remains the continued growth of an urban trend, since these are the provinces where the major urban centers of the country are located: Luanda Lubango, Benguela, Huambo and Lobito)

7. Urbanization

process of voluntary repatriation, developed by the Government of Angola, in partnership with several international organizations and non-governmental organizations, mobilized programs, policies and measures of social reintegration covering ex-refugees and internally displaced persons;

despite its relative success, the process of repatriation and reintegration, which is close to the end, did not solve several collateral issues;

Melo/DW (2013) in their report point out the following issues: access to land and/or decent housing, the possibility of adopting strategies for viable living conditions, the promotion of harmonious coexistence between migrants and the host communities and the mobilization of specific skills of migrants that returned home in the context of economic and human development of Angola.

8. Conclusion

after the transition and the consolidation of the peace process, with the subsequent socio-economic developments the country changed its condition of "exporter" to "importer" of refugees;

this process has been conducted in parallel with a change in the nature and dynamics of migration flows, which remain intense and not yet well known.

part of these flows may have a relationship with dynamics of mobility of former refugees, however, current internal movements of population in Angola are to be explained as a consequence of the concentration/dissemination of centers of economic opportunities, labour attractiveness, education opportunities and demand for services generated in a context of economic growth.

one of the most expressive effects of the long lasting military conflict in Angola was the massive displacement of populations to safety areas in urban centers of higher dimension, and in particular to the capital, as well as to neighbouring countries;

8. Conclusion

in Angola, migration dynamics have been non planned and weakly managed;

on the other hand, its management has been primarily directed to the issue of sovereignty and security;

there is still no sight of the positive potential of migration for development; Migration management has been treated as residual in the context of government intervention, which has substantially limited the potential for positive impact on development and in society.

8. Conclusion

icma 2014_panel 4_carlos lopes

Government & Nonprofit

return of refugees

internal migration movement

movements of refugees

displaced persons

forced migration

status of refugees

country ofnationality

internal displacement