Karen Jacobsen, Ph.D. is Associate Professor and Academic Director at Feinstein International Center, Tufts University, and teaches at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy (Tufts). She is also the director of the Refugees and Forced Migration Program at the Feinstein Center. Jacobsen’s current research focuses on urban refugees and IDPs, and on livelihood interventions in conflict-affected areas. She works with the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center and UNHCR on surveys of urban IDPs. Her most recent book, The Economic Life of Refugees was published in 2005. She directed the Alchemy Project from 2001-2005, which provided grants and conducted research and impact evaluations on micro-enterprise initiatives in displaced communities in Africa. She teaches courses on Field Research Methods and on Forced Migration. Her earlier research investigated security and protection issues in refugee camps, a study for UNHCR on self-settled refugees and local integration; research on security problems in refugee camps, on the environmental impact of refugees in asylum countries, and on the policy responses of host governments in Africa and Southeast Asia to refugees. She holds a B.A. from University of Witwatersrand (Johannesburg) and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Email: karen.jacobsen@tufts.edu
Reports
Refugees in urban areas face a specific set of livelihoods problems, and in recent years many aid agencies have begun to try to address these problems by supporting refugees through vocational training, microcredit and other services. So far, however, there … Read More
Refugees in urban areas face a specific set of livelihoods problems, and in recent years many aid agencies have begun to try to address these problems by supporting refugees through vocational training, microcredit and other services. So far, however, there … Read More
Refugees in urban areas face a specific set of livelihoods problems, and in recent years many aid agencies have begun to try to address these problems by supporting refugees through vocational training, microcredit and other services. So far, however, there … Read More
Refugees in urban areas face a specific set of livelihoods problems, and in recent years many aid agencies have begun to try to address these problems by supporting refugees through vocational training, microcredit and other services. So far, however, there … Read More
The Center for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS) teamed up with the Feinstein International Center, (FIC) Tufts University to conduct a three year research project on Sudanese refugees and migrants in Cairo and their transnational linkages with other Sudanese both in the Diaspora and in Sudan. Egypt being a country of first asylum for the Sudanese, Cairo was selected to undertake a case study on their transnational linkages.
Increasing numbers of the world’s rural population are moving to urban areas, and refugees, internally displaced people and humanitarian populations are amongst the recently urbanized. UNHCR estimates that almost half of the world’s 10.5 million refugees now reside in urban areas.
This report details the migration experience and livelihood choices of Sudanese and Eritrean asylum seekers and migrants in Tel Aviv. The research is based on a scoping study conducted by a Feinstein Researcher Rebecca Furst-Nichols in November-December 2010.
One of the most significant problems facing a disaster-affected population is the need for ready cash. In a post-disaster context cash is difficult to come by for a variety of reasons. A useful approach then, to enable recovery and reduce risk, is to identify effective ways to enable households to access (or hold onto) a lump sum of ready cash.
For more than 40 years, Colombians have been subject to chronic violence perpetrated by left-wing guerillas, paramilitaries, government forces, and drug cartels. In the past 20 years, an estimated four million people have been forced to leave their homes. Generally, the pattern of displacement has been within rural areas or to small administrative centers or larger cities. More recently, this pattern has changed, with displacement occurring within city limits or between city centers. This new pattern of intra-urban displacement has been notable since the conflict began to become ‘urbanized’ (primarily in Medellin and Bogota) from around 2000, leading to new forms of conflict and social tension in urban areas.
Effective monitoring of IDPs in Abidjan has been hampered by their invisibility. UNFPA and UNHCR carried out surveys in 2005 and 2007 respectively; however, these did not cover all of Abidjan and were not representative. We made Abidjan a case study to address the need for information about IDPs and because the city met our study’s criteria. Initial planning for the survey began in March 2007, and the survey was conducted in June 2007.
Briefing Papers
This briefing paper discusses findings from a study conducted in Darfur from 2006-8 that explored the changing role of migration and remittances in the livelihoods of conflict-affected people.
Books
By Karen Jacobsen. Kumarian Press, 2005.
Book Chapters
By Karen Jacobsen. In Khalid Koser and Susan Martin (eds.), The Migration-Displacement Nexus: Concepts, Cases and Responses. Berghahn Books. Forthcoming 2009.
By Karen Jacobsen, Helen Young and Abdalmonim Osman. In Contemporary Peacemaking. Palgrave Macmillan 2nd Edition. 2008.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
By Karen Jacobsen. The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs. Winter 2007. (Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 203-214.)
By Karen Jacobsen, Anastasia Marshak, Akua Ofori-Adjei and Jane Kembabazi. Refugee Survey Quarterly. May 2006. (Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 23-39.)
By Karen Jacobsen and Loren B. Landau. Forced Migration Review. May 2005. (Vol. 23.)
By Karen Jacobsen and Loren Landau. Disasters. September 2003. (Vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 185-206.)
By Karen Jacobsen. Journal of Modern African Studies. December 2002. (Vol. 40, No. 4, pp. 577-596.)
By Karen Jacobsen. International Migration. February 2002. (Vol. 40, No. 5, pp. 95-123.)
By Karen Jacobsen and Jeff Crisp. Forced Migration Review. December 1998. (Vol. 3, pp. 27-31.)
By Karen Jacobsen. Journal of Refugee Studies. March 1997. (Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 19-36.)
By Karen Jacobsen. International Migration Review. Fall 1996. (Vol. 30, No. 3, pp. 655-678.)