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Living Through Exile: (Not) Belonging to a State

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Refugees, Conflict and the Search for Belonging
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Abstract

Hovil focuses on the relevance and nature of national belonging for those in exile. She explores the extent to which national citizenship of the ‘home’ country has retained its validity; and considers the extent to which there are (or are not) opportunities to form new bonds of national belonging within the host country. Drawing on extensive empirical data from a number of case studies across Africa’s Great Lakes region, she points to the many failures around national belonging. Yet, at the same time, she emphasises that national identity retains a strong imagined reality for many who are living in exile. She points, therefore, to the difference between national citizenship in theory and the realisation of that citizenship in practice.

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Hovil, L. (2016). Living Through Exile: (Not) Belonging to a State. In: Refugees, Conflict and the Search for Belonging. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33563-6_3

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