Back to the land: the long-term challenges of refugee return and reintegration in Burundi

Burundi, a small and densely populated country in the heart of the East African Great Lakes region, has witnessed the return of more than 500,000 refugees over the past decade (UNHCR, 2011). These refugees fled the country during waves of political instability and conflict that mainly emerged after Burundi’s independence in 1962.
After the signing of the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreements in August 2000 many Burundians started to return voluntarily from exile, and official repatriation movements, facilitated by UNHCR in a joint initiative with the Burundian and Tanzanian government, started in 2002. The majority of former refugees were repatriated from neighbouring country Tanzania, which currently still hosts a relatively small group of 37,000 Burundian refugees, referred to as the ‘residual’ caseload (UNHCR, 2011).
Most Burundian refugees have physically returned to the country and the residual caseload is expected to return in the coming year. However, as in other countries facing large return movements, return marks rather the beginning of a long road than its ending.
The reintegration of former refugees in Burundi, hereafter referred to as returnees, is challenging due to structural problems of demographic pressure, poverty, unemployment, and a lack of infrastructure. In addition, the return of former refugees to Burundi puts additional pressure on the country’s scarce resources such as land.
Refugees who fled the country in the early 1970s, the so-called 1972-caseload refugees who returned mainly since 2008, face the largest reintegration challenges due to the time they spent in exile. Upon return all returnees receive assistance in the form of different food and non-food items from different actors and the Burundian government provides them with two years of free education and three (or in some cases six) months of health care (Haver, Hatungimana, & Tennant, 2009).
The 1972 returnees, as compared to the 1993-caseload refugees who fled the country in the early 1990s, face additional challenges of social and economic integration, mainly due to their limited access to land. The extent to which this group is able to reintegrate in Burundian society in the long run therefore remains unclear.
As the repatriation of Burundians from Tanzania slowly comes to an end several humanitarian agencies are decreasing their activities and aim for a gradual phase-out. According to studies that were done in Burundi there are no clear differences between returnees and the rest of the Burundian population in terms of assets such as land and housing and access to services such as healthcare and education (see e.g. Terra Group, 2008).
There is general consensus among the humanitarian agencies that the ‘crisis’ is over and both the Burundian government and international donors are now pushing towards a shift in status for Burundi, from a so called ‘post-conflict’ country that receives vast amounts of humanitarian aid, to a developing country with a clear vision for long-term development.
The question arises, however, whether or not the repatriation and reintegration of specifically the 1972 returnees has been successful. To what extent has this group been able to reintegrate into Burundian society and what are the challenges that both returnees and the people that did not leave, the so-called stayees or residents – a term which is often used in Burundi - still
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face? And what has been the effect of the large repatriation wave on the population as a whole?
This paper aims to answer these questions by providing an overview of the repatriation of Burundian refugees from Tanzania and by analyzing both the structural and individual factors that hinder the reintegration of mainly the 1972 returnees. The key challenges affecting both the short-term and long-term reintegration of this group in Burundi will be identified in order to draw lessons for other situations of large refugee return.