From “Brothers and Sisters” to “Undesired Refugees”

Description

How the Neighbouring Countries Respond to Refugee Crisis in the Global South?

This paper sets out to show how the previously fluid borders of the countries of the
Global South became sharply divided and resistant to receiving migrants and refugees
from neighbouring countries. It traces the development of a historically political discourse from
“one people, one nation” to “dangerous refugees”. In doing so, it focuses on the case of the
Sudanese migrants and refugees in Egypt, the largest Sudanese population
living outside Sudan. Looking at the historical trajectories of migration between
the two countries, the present domestic challenges, and the current global shifts in migration policies
and discourse; the paper examines how “the Sudanese sisters and brothers of the Nile Valley”
became alienated in Egypt, and how their presence evolved from being
perceived as desirable and spontaneous to becoming risky and dangerous by threatening the
demography, cultural hegemony and economic prosperity and development of
the receiving neighbouring country.

Dr Amira Ahmed is both a scholar and practitioner in the fields of diaspora engagement, migration,
refugees, human trafficking, gender and climate change. She is an Assistant Professor currently
based at the American University in Cairo in Egypt.