{"id":9958,"date":"2018-10-17T14:31:36","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T12:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/?p=9958"},"modified":"2018-10-17T14:36:50","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T12:36:50","slug":"homeland-but-not-land-for-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/2018\/10\/homeland-but-not-land-for-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Homeland but not land for home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feinstein International Center\u00a0| Tufts University<\/a><\/small><\/span><\/h2>\n

A report by Wali Mohammad Kandiwal<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jalalabad, Afghanistan: A Case Study of Refugees in Towns<\/h3>\n

This case report explores the challenges faced by Afghan refugees who have returned from Pakistan to\u00a0Nangarhar\u00a0 province of Afghanistan, including the city of Jalalabad and its neighboring townships and\u00a0districts. It explores the returnees\u2019 experience of reintegration back into their home country and focuses on\u00a0their access to land.<\/p>\n

Land ownership is the main pillar of the Afghan government\u2019s official reintegration\u00a0strategy. The Land Allocation Scheme and Presidential Decree define the land application\u00a0processes, selection of beneficiaries, and prioritize the neediest among landless returnees. InNangarhar, it\u00a0is nearly impossible to have status at the neighborhood level, to find work, or to become socially respected\u00a0without owning land.<\/p>\n

This report gives voice to returnees who explain the importance of land from their\u00a0perspective. The report is based on the author\u2019s own experiences as a resident of Nangarhar Province,\u00a0supplemented by fieldwork in Nangarhar.<\/p>\n

The response of the Afghan government to landless returnees has not addressed the problem adequately,\u00a0and thus the number of landless returnees and the challenges they face with reintegration are growing.
\nLand issues will become an increasing challenge for the Afghan government and for the reintegration of\u00a0returnees in the coming years. To avoid a worsening situation, the revised decree should ensure that only\u00a0landless returnees are included. The revision should avoid the misallocation of land and the misuse of land\u00a0as an incentive or \u201cpull factor\u201d to encourage refugees to return to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Afghan refugee returnees do not use the term \u201creintegration\u201d as conceptualized by the international\u00a0community, and often do not know the term\u2019s translation in Pashto or Dari. However, they can clearly\u00a0explain how landlessness affects them financially andsocially, andthe importance of accessing land and\u00a0regular housing in becoming settled and included in host communities.<\/p>\n

Finally, land plays an important role in building ties through marriage: the first or second question with a\u00a0marriage proposal is always whether the husband\u2019s family owns their home and land. Land is therefore the\u00a0most important thing linking people to each other in Nangarhar, and land ownership allows one to be a\u00a0participant in social life. In any social relationship, land has a crucial role, so if the aim of integration is the\u00a0\u201cdisappearance\u201d of inequality between returnees and hosts, this goal is unrealistic without access to land\u00a0and houses.<\/p>\n

Housing rents have risen with the dramatic increase of land prices starting in 2002 with the mass return of\u00a0refugees. Land grabbing by warlords and their supporters have enabled them to make enormous sums of\u00a0money in a very short time, with little investment. Consequently, a small minority of individuals own several\u00a0houses, while many families do not have a single room to stay in. Many returnees therefore live in informal\u00a0settlements, without documentation and are consequently vulnerable to forced eviction.<\/p>\n

Returnees explained that families living in a rental house are not seen as members of the community\u00a0because it is known that they could leave anytime and are not considered long-term neighbors. This means\u00a0they are less welcome in events like Kha Aw Bada or in community decision-making. Kha Aw Bada is a\u00a0Pashtu term meaning, in this context, Kha\u2014a party held because of a happy event such as an\u00a0engagement or wedding party, and Bada\u2014the opposite, an event held because of something sad or\u00a0sorrowful, as when someone gets injured or dies. In either case, the household invites relatives and\u00a0neighbors to participate. The role of relatives is to welcome guests and help serve food and tea, while\u00a0neighbors make their houses available for out of town guests for one or two days, or until the event finishes.\u00a0In most cases those renting houses are excluded from this role in the community.<\/p>\n

Read the full report HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jalalabad, Afghanistan : A Case Study of Refugees in Towns. This case report explores the challenges faced by Afghan refugees who have returned from Pakistan to Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":9959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,19,43,57,48],"tags":[995,996,998,997],"class_list":["post-9958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-citizens-and-civil-society","category-human-rights-online-library","category-refugees-and-idps","category-war-and-peace","tag-afghan-refugees","tag-forced-migration","tag-post-conflict-actions","tag-urbanization","country-afghanistan","Documents-conventions"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9958"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9964,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9958\/revisions\/9964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}