A questão do refugiado: um estudo de caso dos refugiados de guerra da Região dos Grandes Lagos, na cidade de Maputo, Moçambique.

Abstract

This work develops a reflection on the theoretical and political place of ‘refugees’, a topic that constitutes a challenge for Social Sciences because it is an academically valid and politically relevant subject. The work aims to understand, through a theoretical and empirical investigation, the strategies of integration of individuals called ‘refugees * in the city of Maputo. The work also tries to understand the relationship between individual socialization and the host society. The research universe consists of war refugees from the Great Lakes Region of Africa, who live in the city of Maputo. This reflection privileges the qualitative method, uses approaches made by eminent sociologists like Foucault (1977) and Mazur (1989), and anthropologists like, Wohlgemut (1997) and Cuillerai and Abélès (2002). These last two anthropologists provide us with an analysis of the work of Appadurai (1996) which suggests the theoretical transition from geocultural to biopolitical, revealing the importance of his approach to the study of the question of the refugee in the context of globalization. From the data that the semi-structured interviews and the life stories of the refugee offer, it is observed that people who develop a certain type of self-esteem do not sympathize with being labeled refugees because for them this term is connoted with the be dependent. These people called ‘refugees * use this category when they realize that they can take advantage of the situation, inserting such an attitude, in the development of their own strategies to guarantee survival or integration in the welcoming society. In this way, a new datum arises, which is the 'refugee' appearing to play another role; that of adventurer, adventurism, traveling the world as a 'refugee' looking for opportunities for better insertion. Finally, it appears through this work that the 'refugee' phenomenon is becoming public in the city of Maputo, justifying the existence of non-governmental organizations such as World Relief, not only because of the refugees, but also because of the constant flows of people, ideas, goods and consumption. This flow contributes to the restructuring of people's lives at levels: political, social, economic, family and cultural, allowing to question the fundamentals of socio-economic organization and political power, which according to Ribeiro (2005), is about questioning the permanence and changes in human interaction with the environment in the field of ideas, images, symbols, laws, rules, conventions, attitudes, feelings, aspirations, land ownership, labor relations, legal and political structure, and the structure socioeconomic status. (TRADUÇÃO NOSSA)