Influence of refugees on dadaab

Every year, thousands of refugees are forced to leavetheir countries of origin and are hosted by their neighboring countries. However, very little is known about the impact of these refugees on the localeconomy and its inhabitants. Dadaab town experienced natural vegetationcomprising of trees, shrubs and grasses that sustained the pastoral economybefore the settlement of refugees. However, most of the natural vegetation thatwas previously found in the Dadaab area has experienced the devastating effectsof the refugee settlement.

With the refugee settlement, which has continued togrow in size, there have been increased bush clearing activities in order tocreate more space, indiscriminate harvesting of natural vegetation for varioususes, and the general pressure on available natural resources. Nonetheless, there are instances when the refugee settlement has increased the value of landas well as natural vegetation. Despite the area being used by pastoralists, therefugee settlement has given the land more value. In this respect, it isapparent that settlement of refugees have two sides, positive and negativeimpacts. Notably, there has continued to be conflicts betweenthe government allowing the refugee settlement and the host communities. Whereasthe host communities believe that the effects of refugee settlement have beendevastating on them, the government continues to assure them of the benefitsassociated with the refugee settlement.

Even though there has been adequatedocumentation of the effect of refugees on natural environment, very little hasbeen done to establish how such aspects affect the host community. In otherwords, studies have generally looked at overall effects of refugee settlements withoutfocusing on the hosts. What’s more, the studies so far carried have alwaysfocused on a mono strategy, which is, leaning on only one research strategy. Forinstance, studies have focused more on providing quantitative understanding ofthe effects of refugee settlements. Concentrating on one method is likely toresult into a number of limitations. Focusing on this gaps, the proposed studyseeks to investigate the environmental effects of refugee settlements on hostcommunities while adopting mixed research design or methodology.