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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
One of the most important and complicating factors in
defining ethnicity is the dramatic increase in the internal
migration of Sudanese within the past twenty years. It has been
estimated that in 1973 alone well over 10 percent of the
population moved away from their ethnic groups to mingle with
other Sudanese in the big agricultural projects or to work in
other provinces. Most of the migrants sought employment in the
large urban areas, particularly in the Three Towns, which
attracted 30 percent of all internal migrants. The migrants were
usually young; 60 percent were between the ages of fifteen and
forty-four. Of that number, 46 percent were females. The number
of migrants escalated greatly in the latter 1980s because of
drought and famine, the civil war in the south, and Chadian
raiders in the west. Thus, as in the past, the migrants left
their ethnic groups for economic, social, and psychological
reasons, but now with the added factor of personal survival.
Another ethnic group involved in migration was that of the
Falashas, who were Ethiopian Jews. In January 1985 it was
revealed that the Sudanese government had cooperated with
Ethiopia, Israel, and the United States in transporting several
thousand Falashas through Sudan to Israel. Their departure
occurred initially on a small scale in 1979 and 1982 and in
larger numbers between 1983 and 1985. In Sudan, the Falashas had
been placed in temporary refugee settlements and reception
centers organized by the Sudanese government.
In addition to the problems of employment, housing, and
services that internal migration created, it had an enormous
impact on ethnicity. Although migrants tended to cluster with
their kinsfolk in their new environments, the daily interaction
with Sudanese from many other ethnic groups rapidly eroded
traditional values learned in the villages. In the best of
circumstances, this erosion might lead to a new sense of national
identity as Sudanese, but the new communities often lacked
effective absorptive mechanisms and were weak economically.
Ethnic divisions were thus reinforced and at the same time social
anomie was perpetuated.
Refugees from other countries, like internal migrants, were a
factor that further complicated ethnic patterns. In 1991 Sudan
was host to about 763,000 refugees from neighboring countries,
such as Ethiopia (including about 175,000 soldiers, most of whom
fled following the overthrow of the Ethiopian government in May
1991) and Chad. Approximately 426,000 Sudanese had fled their
country, becoming refugees in Kenya and Ethiopia. Many of them
began returning to Sudan in June 1991. Incoming refugees were at
first hospitably received but they gradually came to be regarded
as unwelcome visitors. The refugees required many social
services, a need only partially met by international humanitarian
agencies, which also had to care for Sudanese famine victims. The
presence of foreign refugees, with little prospect of returning
to their own countries, thus created not only social but also
political instability.
Data as of June 1991
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