LOCAL INTEGRATION OF REFUGEES IN THE HOST COUNTRY: The Perspective of Liberians in Ghana

Jenkins Macedo, BSc., in Geography & Sociology

 Chief Investigator

Undergraduate Research Thesis in Sociology

Dr. Fortunata Makene, Ph.D., Department of Sociology

Worcester State University

2009

ABSTRACT

The refugee crisis is a universal phenomenon. The integration of refugees into the local communities pose a serious challenge both to the UN Refugee Agency, the governments of host countries, the local communities in which refugees are hosted and the refugees themselves. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the world’s refugee population is estimated to be about 14 million. This study investigated the integration of refugees in the host country and the impacts that warehousing refugees in camps has on the prospect of local integration. A total of 311 Liberian refugees at the Buduburam refugee camp participated in a survey in 2009. SPSS version 17 was used to analyze the data by conduction correlation analysis. We hypothesized that refugees’ lack of interaction with the local host has a relationship with their inability to locally integrate and lack of local integrate is influenced by warehousing refugees in camps. The evidence suggests that there is a positive relationship (R (253) = 0.292, P (0.000), Alpha (0.01) between refugees’ lack of interaction with the local host (M = 7.31, SD = 5.569) and their inability to locally integrate (M = 3.62, SD = 0.1.119). The evidence also suggests that there is a positive correlation (R (253) = 0.292, P (0.000), Alpha (0.01) between the warehousing of refugees in refugee camps (M = 7.31, SD = 5.569) and lack of integration (M = 3.62, SD = 0.1.119).

Key Words: Refugees, Refugee Warehousing, Integration, Resettlement, Voluntary Repatriation

URL: http://www.slideshare.net/jmacedo1/integrating-liberian-refugees-in-ghana-a-case-study-of-liberian-refugees-at-the-buduburam-refugee-camp-in-ghana