Strangers in a Strange Land: Social Conflict among Urban Refugees in Kampala, Uganda

When refugees arrive in urban areas of Uganda, they face daunting challenges. Notably, refugees report instances of discrimination and mistreatment by the Ugandan welcoming culture. However, scholars or NGO's studying urban refugees have excluded the Ugandan population from data collection and research methods. By comparing ethnographic data collected from 9 Congolese refugees and 19 Ugandans over a one-month period, this article answers the following question -- what are possible causes of the social discord between refugees and the Ugandan welcoming culture? Focusing on urban areas of Kampala, Uganda, this article considered the areas of medical care, police interactions, or more general associations of food sharing and economic situations as Ugandans and urban refugees experience them. Answering this question, this article argues that reports of discrimination and mistreatment against refugees in urban Uganda should not be viewed as a primary phenomenon, but rather as ancillary products resultant of cultural misunderstandings. John W. Berry's theoretical work on acculturation strategies provides additional insight to the claim of this article.