Financial Biographies Vol. II: People Coping with New Surroundings (2nd Edition)

This new edition of profiles builds upon Volume II, Financial Biographies of People Coping with New Surroundings, adding interviews from Colombia and the United States.

By Kim Wilson et. al.

The volume takes up where Volume I, Financial Biographies of Long-Distance Journeyers, left off. In Volume I, we traced refugees’ and migrants’ journeys on the move, viewing their passages through an economic lens. In Volume II, we examine the lives of migrants and refugees who are managing new environments, be they are displaced for long periods, in limbo waiting for the chance to move onward, or settling into their final destinations. 

In this updated edition, we draw on the primary research undertaken in 2019 and 2020 and bring new insights from research in 2021 and 2022. Our profiles include material from Tijuana, Mexico; Tunis, Tunisia; Quito, Ecuador; Jijiga, Ethiopia; Kampala and Bidi Bidi Camp, Uganda; as well as Nairobi, Kenya; Amman, Jordan; New Rochelle, United States; and Medellín, Colombia. In Ethiopia, respondents had been near Jijiga for between 10 and 20 years. Most respondents had been coping in their new surroundings for between two and four years. These biographies explore stories of adaptation, adjustment, and in some cases, integration.