Financial Biographies of Refugees in Uganda

By: Kim Wilson et al. 

This collection of profiles from Uganda explores stories that highlight refugee and migrant journeys and their efforts to adapt to new surroundings. The profiles, dubbed Financial Biographies, included in this publication depict the grit and resourcefulness required by refugees and migrants to survive and in some cases thrive as they move and settle.

In Uganda, we interviewed refugees and migrants from Somalia, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda. We saw that those who had chosen to live in the city of Kampala, would overtime, likely experience a progression in their earnings from less than $1 a day to more than $4 a day and, for the enterprising few, far more. Those in the camp often resorted to selling their food rations to survive. 

The biographies in this publication are intended to preserve the entire financial story of selected respondents and are meant to supplement our other publications, taking the reader into the depths of individual migrant experiences.

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