Integration at Exile

Abstract

What kind of coping structures did Afghans develop while in exile? Could they build on prewar migration experiences? How were networks reconfigured among the refugees, between them and their hosts, as well as between the refugees and the people back home? Refugee studies have primarily focused on the ‘refugee condition’ in exile, and have only recently come to show interest in the continuities that bind refugees to other times and other places (Horst 2006b: 45; Koser 2007). Here, I will focus both on the ties people relied upon in exile and on how refugees coped with the challenge of maintaining and developing their ties with their home region in Afghanistan.