Abstract
The chapter explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the complex inter-dependencies and obligations that exist between Somali refugees and their relatives in diaspora that go beyond the value of remittances for those in poor countries. Drawing on network analysis, I demonstrate that although the pandemic impacted negatively on people’s ability to send remittances, it also threw into relief the extent to which those in diaspora relied on their refugee relatives for emotional and social support. COVID-19 considerably weakened refugees’ economic standing, but it did not render them helpless. There were many positive stories of resilience amid the gloom occasioned by the pandemic as people resorted to culturally-based mechanisms of coping with and even appropriate their difficult circumstances. The chapter contributes to debates on migration, kinship networks, and remittances by highlighting the strength and adaptability of refugees in the face of the pandemic’s dire impact. This is a departure from recent literature that has mostly emphasized the vulnerabilities that have been occasioned by COVID-19.
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Acknowledgements
I acknowledge the financial support I received from the German Development Institute (DIE) to conduct fieldwork at the Dadaab camps in 2021. My deepest gratitude goes to my informants at Dagahaley camp.
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Ikanda, F.N. (2025). Remittances and Kinship Obligations in the Era of COVID-19: Case of Somali Refugees at the Dagahaley Camp in Kenya. In: Owiso, M.O., Tufa, F.A., Hersi, A.M. (eds) Migration and Displacement in the IGAD Region. International Perspectives on Migration(). Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-6611-6_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-6611-6_12
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