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I am displaced, so where do I belong? : on internally displaced people in Colombia and their decision to return or to stay

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I am displaced, so where do I belong?

On internally displaced people in Colombia and their decision to

return or to stay

Gwen Ouwehand 10590587

Master thesis Conflict Resolution and Governance University of Amsterdam

Supervisor: Dr. Martijn Dekker Second reader: Dr. David Laws Date of submission: 13 July 2018 Word count: 21.113

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Abstract

This is a story about the decisions IDPs make regarding returning. This choice is a lot more complex than often considered when only looking at practical considerations. Research has been conducted in Granizal, an informal settlement of IDPs in the outskirts of Medellín in Colombia. The research demonstrates that women in Granizal have a strong, shared victim identity that is based on shared past trauma and shared current challenges in their lives. Having a shared victim identity and shared traumatic experiences creates a strong, close community in which people look after each other. This feeling is enhanced since the women all participate in the community, which makes them feel responsible for the community. The connectedness in the community makes that the women help each other with coping with the past trauma. These dynamics result in that the women do not want to return home. First of all, they do not want to return home because of the trauma they have experienced there. Secondly, the women feel at home in Granizal, which is a feeling they actively work on by contributing to the community. Granizal offers them opportunities, despite the challenges they face there, that have the potential to move beyond the suffering their displacement has caused.

Key words: internal displacement, return of displaced people, victim identity, feeling at home, trauma

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Acknowledgements

First of all I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor dr. Martijn Dekker. Martijn, thank you for your support, guidance and insights. Our meetings were very valuable for simultaneously keeping me on track and develop new ideas. I really appreciate how you were able to provide guidance in the process of writing the thesis and how you always kept an open mind, thank you for that! Furthermore, I would like to thank dr. David Laws for his help in the early development phase of this thesis and for taking the time to be the second reader of this thesis.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to the women in Granizal who I interviewed for this research. Thank you for opening up to a complete stranger and for the trust you put in me by sharing your personal stories and admirable resilience. Furthermore I would like to thank the people working for Shalom, who gave me access to Granizal. In particular I would like to thank Elcy. Thank you for all the insights you provided about basically any topic relating to the Colombian conflict, help with Spanish translations, and not to forget the laughter.

Friends have been a major support during this process. Veera thank you for our amazing time during the fieldwork in Medellín. Thank you for all the fun we had and for keeping me sane during the sometimes stressful times, it was super cool! Helena, thank you for sticking with me during all these library sessions and for taking the time to review this thesis. Laura, thank you for your continuous mental support (wine) while writing the thesis and for always providing pragmatic perspective during this process. I would also like to thank all the people from the CRG course for this rewarding, stimulating, fun and exciting year. Finally I would like to thank my parents and brother for always offering a sympathic ear and encouraging support.

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Table of contents

1. Introduction………...……….………… 1

2. Theoretical framework………... 3

2.1. Concepts and definitions……….… 3

2.1.1. Internal displacement………... 3

2.1.2. Decision-making regarding return……….. 5

2.1.3. Implications of post-conflict label……… 6

2.2. Framework………... 7

2.2.1. Identity………..… 7

2.2.1.1. Group identities: social identity theory……….... 7

2.2.1.2. Displacement, trauma and victim identity………....… 9

2.2.1.3. Victimhood and shared trauma as part of identity………...……….. 10

2.2.2. Belonging and place belonging……….. 12

3. Methodology………. 15

3.1. Quantitative approach, grounded theory and use of a case study………... 15

3.2. Description case: Granizal………... 16

3.3. Methods………. 18

3.3.1. Semi-structured interviews and group interviews………. 18

3.3.2. Participant observation………..………. 20

3.3.3. Informal conversations………...… 21

3.4. Limitations and mitigation strategies……….. 21

3.4.1. Language……… 22

3.4.2. Safety and access……… 23

3.4.3. Sample respondents……… 23

3.5. Ethics……….. 24

3.6. Analysis………..… 25

4. Findings………..………..………..………..……….… 26

4.1. Identities……….…… 26

4.1.1. Victim identity: I am a displaced person……….... 26

4.1.2. Role victims in reconciliation process……… 27

4.1.3. Victim identity: why, for what, by whom? ……… 28

4.1.4. Survivor identity………..… 30

4.2. Community and coping with trauma………..… 32

4.2.1. Feeling part of a group………..…… 32

4.2.2. Contributing to the community………..… 33

4.2.3. Spaces for building the community……….…... 34

4.2.4. Coping with trauma………..……….…. 36

4.3. Returning……….………….. 37

4.3.1. Return as a non-issue………. 37

4.3.2. Returning to what? ………...…. 38

4.3.3. Feeling at home in Granizal………..…… 39

5. Conclusion and discussion………..……….… 41

5.1. Summary of findings and discussion of literature……….… 41

5.1.1. Victim identity………..…... 42

5.1.2. Shared victim identity and trauma………. 43

5.1.3. Community and feeling at home……… 44

5.1.4. Implications on desire to return……… 45

5.2. Answering the research question……… 46

5.3. Limitations………..…….. 47

5.4. Contributions and recommendations……….………… 47

5.4.1. Practical contributions and policy recommendations………...……… 47

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1. Introduction

As a result of decades of conflict, Colombia currently has more than 7,4 million internally displaced persons (IDP) (Splinder, 2017). This makes Colombia the country with the second highest number of displaced people in the world, after Sudan (Guego, 2017). Most displacements occurred from rural to urban areas (Carillo, 2009), mainly because the armed conflict mostly took place in rural parts of the country. Urban centres such as Bogota and Medellín have received the highest amount of IDPs (Lari, 2008, p. 9). The Colombian conflict has been quite complex, with multiple actors involved. The three main parties are Guerrillas groups such as the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), the Paramilitaries and government forces (Guego, 2009). Furthermore, Colombia is still suffering from extensive problems concerning drug trafficking, which increases the complexity of the Colombian conflict (Guego, 2009).

With the end of the armed conflict with the FARC, after signing of the peace agreement in 2016, the Colombian government has worked to recover from this long period of conflict (Brodzinksky, 2016). However, internal displacement is still a significant issue in Colombia, with ten per cent of the population considered to be an IDP (Splinder, 2017). Displacement has many negative effects on the lives of people who are displaced in both economic and social terms (Carrillo, 2009). On an economic level, people leave behind everything they have and have to start all over in the place of destination. Socially, displacement uproots people’s family life and social contacts. Furthermore, many IDPs suffer from the traumatic events they experienced before, while and after they were displaced (Carrillo, 2009).

Colombian IDPs have been recognized as victims of the armed conflict since 1997 under Law 397 (Historical Memory Group, 2016). Colombia’s legislation concerning IDPs is considered one of the most progressive of the world (Sánchez & Urueña, 2017, p.74; Balthazar, 2011, p.4). However, it is also argued that the government does little to implement the legislation and therefore demonstrate that they have “little intention or capacity to guarantee the enforcement of progressive laws” (Sandvik & Lemaitre, 2017, p. 3). In the literature this is referred to as the implementation gap. Literature about implementation of policies emphasises that policies that have been created do not always automatically lead to the desired results (Smith, 1973, p. 198).

Two main programs in Colombia support IDPs: the Land Restitution Unit and the Free Housing project. The first aims to support IDPs in their return to rural areas where they came

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from, while the second accepts that IDPs might permanently stay in urban areas (Sliwa & Wiig, 2016, p.11). Annual reports of the Internal Displacement Monitor Centre (2006, 2010) show that over the last decade the Colombian government has continuously argued that IDPs should be able to return home when their area is safe again (Desai & Anzellini, 2018). This ‘romantic’1 idea of returning where people came from is again emphasized in the 2016 peace agreement by setting up programs that are supposed to support IDPs in their return (Alto Comisionado Para La Paz, 2016). However, a survey conducted between 1997 and 2004 found that only 11 per cent of IDPs are willing to return to their place of origin (Arias, Ibáñez, & Querubin, 2014).

This discrepancy between what the Colombian government believes is best for IDPs and what they would prefer themselves is the primary driver for this research. When IDPs decide not to return, it is interesting to know why they make that choice. In order to get a deeper understanding of the decision-making process of IDP the following research question will be addressed: How does having a shared victim identity and the deriving social relations in the place of destination play a role in the decision-making process of IDPs regarding returning to the place of origin?

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2. Theoretical framework

In this chapter I will present theories that will help make sense of the decision-making process of IDPs regarding returning. First I will define the concepts of internal displacement (2.1.1) and returning (2.1.2). Then I will reflect on the use of the concept of post-conflict, which is how the current situation in Colombia is often described (2.1.3). After laying the foundation of these concepts I will review two main bodies of literature. First I will elaborate on how identities are formed with a specific focus on the victim identity (2.2.1). The second part discusses theories on belonging and feeling at home (2.2.2).

1.1 Concepts and definitions

As this research deals with IDPs, I will elaborate on the concept of internal displacement regarding the legal definition of internal displacement and what consequences displacement has on people’s lives. Next, I will review existing literature on the decision-making process of IDPs regarding returning. After that I will reflect on the use of the term post-conflict.

2.1.1 Internal displacement

In the 1990s the concept of internal displacement started to get more attention from the international community, as it became a pressing issue with the rise of civil wars (Cohen, 2004). Therefore, it was necessary to define the concept more specifically. The United Nations [UN] Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (1998) define IDPs as:

“Persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border.”

The concept of displacement has been defined in such a way that it takes into account both people who are forced to flee but also people who are obliged to leave due to for instance forced evictions. Furthermore, the definition recognises that people could be displaced

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because they anticipate possible future suffering, instead of only including people who flee because of the experienced suffering (Mooney, 2005). Moreover, multiple reasons are recognised to cause displacement. The last part of the definition relates to the difference between IDPs and refugees. IDPs are different from refugees based on the criteria that refugees always have to cross an internationally recognised border, while IDPs remain within their own country. Consequently, refugees are protected under international refugee law, while IDPs are under the protection of their government. An IDP status “does not connote or confer a special legal status in the same way that recognition as refugee does” (Mooney, 2005, p. 13). The government is responsible for the protection and wellbeing of the IDPs (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs [OCHA], 2010).

Displacement is often understood as a consequence of conflict and violence (Schon, 2015). Large statistical analyses (Davenport, Moore & Poe, 2003) demonstrate this relationship, in which displacement is considered to be similar to migration. People experience violence and, therefore, decide to move. However, this neglects the situation in which actors in a conflict use displacement as a strategic tactic (Steele, 2011). This aspect is of great relevance in the case of displacement in Colombia since several actors used displacement as an instrument to gain territorial control or political loyalty (Steele, 2011, p.427).

Displacement has many adverse effects on the lives of people that are displaced in both economic and social terms (Carrillo, 2009). In the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, the UN (1998) recognises internal displacement as “one of the most tragic phenomena of the contemporary world” (p. 2). On an economic level, people leave behind all their assets, jobs and land. They have to find a way to build a new life in a new place, but with their often low education levels and lack of contacts, this is challenging (Carrillo, 2009). Socially, displacement has large impacts on family life, as families are torn apart, and it cuts social and cultural ties. Furthermore, the human rights violations people possibly have experienced before they got displaced can have caused trauma that IDPs suffer from when they arrive in the new host communities (Carrillo, 2009). When IDPs arrive in the new place, they are often in a vulnerable position and in need of protection and assistance (UN, 1998).

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2.1.2 Decision-making regarding returning

The definition on internal displacement is not completely explicit on when displacement ends. The Guiding Principles, however, lay out three possible options that IDPs have to end their displacement: 1) return to their land of origin; 2) settling in the host communities where they went to once they were displaced; or 3) resettlement in another area of the country (Mooney, 2003). This makes returning one of the three ways in which internal displacement can be ended. The international community also more and more perceives the return of IDPs as an essential component of reconciliation and ending conflict situations (Stefansson, 2006).

Many factors determine the choice IDPs make regarding returning. First of all, IDPs assess the safety situation of the place they want to return to. This is of great importance in their decision since without safety guarantees they will not return (Camarena & Hägerdal, 2017; Mooney, 2003). Furthermore, the degree of violence that people have experienced plays a role in their decision. When people have experienced direct attacks that caused their displacement, this will make them less likely to return (Arias, Ibáñez, & Querubin, 2014). The same effect applies when people are traumatised by the violence they have experienced in the place of origin (Camarena & Hägerdal, 2017; Ibáñez, 2004). Additionally, economic opportunities in the host communities will increase the chance that IDPs stay (Arias, Ibáñez, & Querubin, 2014; Ibáñez, 2004), while opportunities to make a living in areas of origin make them more prone to return (Camarena & Hägerdal, 2017; Arias, Ibáñez, & Querubin, 2014). Moreover, vulnerable groups as female-headed households, minority groups (Arias, Ibáñez, & Querubin, 2014; Ibáñez, 2004) and families with children under fourteen years old (Ibáñez, 2004) tend to stay rather than return. The extent to which people still have social networks and contacts in their area of origin also influences their decision (Arias, Ibáñez, & Querubin, 2014; Rahim, Jaimovich & Ylönen, 2013; Ibáñez, 2004). This is because people need to feel attached to the place where they move back to (Camarena & Hägerdal, 2017). The possibility to return with a community group also makes it more likely that people return (Arias, Ibáñez, & Querubin, 2014). Finally, an incentive, such as being provided with land in the place of origin, increases the chances that people move back (Sliwa & Wiig, 2016; Arias, Ibáñez, & Querubin, 2014; Ibáñez, 2004), while offering free housing in urban areas where people fled to decreases the willingness to return (Sliwa & Wiig, 2016).

Literature relating to refugees and their desire to return home and their decision-making process reveals similar patterns in the sense that refugees and IDPs share similar experiences. Liberian refugees living in Ghana, for instance, consider social, familial,

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economic and political circumstances when deciding to return home (Omata, 2013).2 However, often it is argued, primarily by organisations that are working on repatriation of refugees, that ‘going home’ is a natural desire of refugees themselves and a way to return to ‘their roots’ (Omata, 2013). Although a desire to return to one’s roots is something IDPs can experience as well, this idea is in a way based on a notion of returning to the nation state or motherland, something that is not comparable with the situation of IDPs since they are still within the borders of their own country (Lundgren, 2016).

The literature found for this review was all based on quantitative methods. These provide a good overview of the different elements IDPs (and refugees) take into account when deciding to return or not. However, they do not explain how and especially why specific elements play a role. In the fieldwork that is conducted for this research it turned out that a lot of what people spoke about could be traced back to shared group identities and feelings of belonging. As will be demonstrated later on, IDPs and refugees (and other groups of people that do not stay in one place) tend to challenge the assumptions people have about belonging (2.2.2). Therefore, they are an interesting group to look at to expand ideas on belonging (Malkki, 1992).

Before going into literature on these two topics (having a shared group identity and feelings of belonging), it is relevant for the case of Colombia to briefly go into what the implications are when labelling a situation post-conflict, as is often done when the reconciliation process in Colombia is discussed (Historical Memory Group, 2016).

2.1.3 Implications of post-conflict label

The concept of post-conflict refers to the end of a period of official warfare (Handrahan, 2004; McLeod, 2011). Feminist scholars have critiqued this terminology because the label post-conflict implies that there is a period of warfare that has ended and that a new peaceful period has started. Furthermore it implies that there is a clear difference between these two periods, while often this line is blurred, as “post-conflict periods are characterized by violence, insecurity and militarization, even where official peace treaties have been signed” (McLeod, 2011, p. 596), especially for women (Handrahan, 2004). Moreover, labelling a country as post-conflict neglects the possibility of new violence. Consequently, when new violence does occur, the label of post-conflict makes it more difficult to act upon this, as it

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does not match the existing narrative (Autesserre, 2009). Therefore, although I will use the concept of post-conflict to address the post warfare sitation in Colombia, this does not neglect insecurities or possible renewed violence in the post-conflict situation.

2.2 Framework

Theories on identity, victimhood and belonging are useful to make sense of the situation of IDPs and their desire to return. These concepts are not as self-explanatory as one might think, which highlights the complexity of the choices IDPs make regarding returning. I will first explain how a shared identity is formed based on shared experiences of trauma (2.2.1). Then I will elaborate on the idea that feelings of belonging are highly related with physical spaces and people’s social relations and how these relate to forming a shared identity (2.2.2).

2.2.1 Identity

The concept of identity can be understood as an individual or a group identity. I will first explore more general literature on identity formation then go into group identities and how victim identity can be an example of a dominant group identity.

Giving meaning to oneself is a way of constructing one's identity (Castells & Ince, 2003). Identity can be seen as how people describe themselves to others. People can have multiple identities simultaneously, and their identities can change over time. Meaning people give to their lives is related to the group they feel they belong to (Castells & Ince, 2003). Castells (1997) argues that at the core, construction of an identity is an individualistic process, but that dominant institutions can also influence identities when people internalise the identities provided to them by these institutions. As formation of identities always takes place in a social context that is marked by power relations, it is of importance to always ask questions about why, by whom and for what a collective identity is formed (Castells, 1997).

2.2.1.1 Group identities: social identity theory

When identities are formed, they automatically, but often not explicitly, create a boundary between the included and the excluded. In other words, they form a group that can be defined in terms of the identity, and exclude people who do not belong to that group of people (Castells, 1997). An explanation for this phenomenon is provided by theories on social

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identity and intergroup behaviour (Tajfel &Turner, 2004). Social identity theory explains how people derive part of their identity, a sense of self, from being part of a group. Central assumptions of the social identity theory are that people tend to try to maintain a positive image of their sense of self. They do this by maintaining a positive feeling for the group they feel they belong to (Tajfel & Turner, 2004). It is often considered that the formation and favouritism of the so-called in-group is partly based on a negative perception of the so-called out-group (Brewer, 1999). However, empirical cases have challenged the assumption that this reciprocity is needed to create an in-group identity (Brewer, 1999, p. 431).

This is interesting for the case of identity formation among IDPs in Colombia because the conflict there is and has been very complex, with multiple parties who participated in the violence. IDPs are considered victims of the conflict, so it can be argued that IDPs form a group that can be seen as an in-group. However, the out-group, in other words, the perpetrator, is less clear-cut. People have become IDPs due to conflict between the warring parties. However, it depends on where people used to live which party they perceive as the perpetrator. Among IDPs there is no agreement on one group that caused their suffering and consequently the out-group is not clear-cut. Therefore it is interesting how a social identity can be formed based on the in-group without a strong hostility towards an identified out-group.

In the book The Nature of Prejudice, Allport (1954), start with an explanation of how in-groups are formed. He argues that before an in-group identifies an out-group, they have to create a sense of familiarity and attachment among themselves. It is argued that “hostility towards out-groups helps strengthen our sense of belonging, but it is not required. The familiar is preferred.” (Allport, 1954, p. 42). A group thus has to feel related to each other in such a way that they get a sense of familiarity. Therefore it is most effective for a group to be distinctive and relatively small in order to attract people who feel this sense of attachment with each other (Brewer, 1999). IDPs are a recognised victim group of the Colombian conflict and are a group of people with shared familiar experiences. The shared experiences form their victim identity. The last decade victimhood as an identity has become more recognised in academia but also challenged in terms of who is considered a victim, why, and by whom for what purpose (Jacoby, 2015). I will therefore develop the concept of victimhood as part of a group identity, but before I do that it is necessary to discuss how displacement and other experiences of violence can possibly cause trauma. The trauma is part of the shared

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experiences that forms the shared identity. Considering this I will from there elaborate on how this group identity can help to create a sense of belonging for IDPs.

2.2.1.2 Displacement, trauma and victim identity

Literature from psychology scholars demonstrates that people who have experienced violence and subsequent displacement experience cases of trauma, post-traumatic stress and continuous traumatic stress (Londoño et al., 2005; Richards et al., 2011; Eagle & Kaminer, 2013; Moya, 2015). As displacement almost always occurs after a period in which people have experienced direct or indirect violence, this has many psychological consequences (Moya, 2015, p.7). Displacement is a protracted situation that often starts with experienced threats and violence. This is followed by the departure from ones home, which represents the start of the displacement. The departure often comes with experiencing brutal violence in combination with the loss of everything one owns (Richards et al., 2011, p. 474). Since the suffering of IDPs continues after displacement, it is useful to understand their fear and trauma through the lens of continuous traumatic stress. Eagle & Kaminer (2013) argue that “the idea of continuous traumatic stress is tied to the recognition that, for many citizens of the world today, trauma exposure is both current and to be realistically anticipated in the future, rather than being past or post” (p. 89). Continuous traumatic stress “is understood to occur in contexts in which danger and threats are largely faceless and unpredictable, yet pervasive and substantive” (Eagle & Kaminer, 2013, p.89). Situations in which people experience continuous traumatic stress are, among others, low-intensity conflict areas, in which people experience violence on a daily basis and live within that threatening reality. Another situation is when people experience community violence and where the state is unable to protect its citizens. A third context in which continuous traumatic stress is observed is when people have become displaced due to fear of potential violence and live in a vulnerable situation in their new host communities (Eagle & Kaminer, 2013).

Continuous traumatic stress is a different form of trauma than historical or collective trauma. These two forms of trauma are often used when discussing trauma after a period of conflict (Somasundaram, 2010; Eagle & Kaminer, 2013). Historical and collective trauma are concepts used to explain suffering of communities over an extended period, often lasting multiple generations (Evans-Campbell, 2008). Historical trauma is for instance often used to explain trauma experienced by indigenous people in North America. Collective trauma relates

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to trauma that affects a group of people that have a shared identity. An example of collective trauma is the trauma of Jewish people after the Holocaust (Eagle & Kaminer, 2013).

Although IDPs can be considered a victim group with shared experiences, historical and collective trauma do not adequately capture the experiences of IDPs because it assumes that the conflict and violence has stopped. As mentioned before, a post-conflict situation is a highly debatable concept and in particular dismisses many experiences of especially women. Trauma can therefore be understood as a continuous process and a social phenomenon in which a violent experience or the fear for potential new violence plays a role in peoples lives (Matthies-Boon, 2017). Within a phenomenological approach, trauma is considered to be an individual feeling and experience, but as I will argue below, it is something that can become part of a group identity, as “healing (or the lack of healing) from traumatic experiences takes places within social contexts and has social and political consequences” (Matthies-Boon, 2017, p. 623).

2.2.3.2 Victimhood and shared trauma as part of identity

As mentioned, group identities are based on a shared experience, familiarity and a sense of sameness (Allport, 1954; Brewer, 1999). A group of people who experienced the same trauma can relate to each other in such a way that they create a shared identity based on shared experiences of trauma or victimhood (Volkan, 2001). Relevant to note here is that people do not necessarily have to have experienced the traumatic experience together or in the same way. They relate to each other based on the same consequences they experience caused by the trauma (Jacoby, 2015). It is an identity that can be transmitted over generations as is often argued in the case of the Holocaust and Jewish identity (Jacoby, 2015). What is often considered necessary for victim groups, is that they need to be aware of that harm was done to them by a perpetrator to create this victim identity (Meister, 2002). As mentioned when discussing how group identities are formed, an in-group can be created without a strong out-group (Brewer, 1999). The in-out-group then has to have a strong feeling of familiarity, something that shared experiences of trauma and victimhood can provide.

Being a victim is what bonds people together and what is the shared identity. However, providing a straightforward definition of a victim is difficult since it is context dependent and has to be determined in complex conflict situations (Jacoby, 2015). Victim groups often relate to each other by considering themselves victims of the same perpetrators,

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which forms a part of the group identity (Jacoby, 2015). However, the distinction between victims and perpetrators is not always as clear-cut, as perpetrators can be victims and victims can be perpetrators. Furthermore, not all victim groups and all perpetrator groups are the same and victim and perpetrator groups can overlap (Borer, 2003). Victim groups gain a part of their identity on getting recognition for being a victim and being labelled as such. By being recognised as a victim people receive all sorts of benefits, such as monetary compensation, a voice, potential on finding the truth and recognition for the harm that has been done (Jacoby, 2015). Therefore, in this case, hostility towards an out-group is less important in the formation of the victim identity.

Shared trauma can thus be a way of creating a shared identity. “Translating individual experiences of trauma into a social phenomenon” is a way of “constructing and reconstructing ties that binds communities together” (Hutchison & Bleiker, 2008, p.390). This indicates that when people are able to transform their individual suffering to a group of people who experience the same, this can strengthen their identity but also their individual well-being. The feeling of connectedness with a group has several benefits regarding physical and mental health. Research has been done on the medical health benefits of social relationships, which demonstrates that these relations have a positive effect on one’s mortality and general health. But even more so, social relations can possibly have a positive effect on one’s mental health in terms of providing mental support. Relevant to note is that social relations can als have destructive effect on one’s mental health in terms of psychological abuse. However it is argued, that having a shared social identity with a group with shared experiences is helpful in terms of providing each other with effective social support (Jetten, Haslam & Alexander, 2012).

To conclude, theories on identity and victimhood demonstrate that a shared victim identity based on shared experiences can form strong group dynamics. Furthermore, these shared group identities have the potential to be beneficial for groups that experienced similar trauma. As identity is often used in literature on displacement in combination with belonging, I will elaborate more on the difference between the two and on the concept of belonging itself.

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2.2 Belonging and place belonging

Identity and belonging are concepts often used interchangeably in academia, especially when discussing national or ethnic identities (Antonsich, 2010). For instance, according to Loader (2006), questions about ‘who am I?’ ultimately lead to questions about ‘where do I belong?’ (p. 214). The concept of belonging itself is “vaguely defined and ill-theorised” (Lähdesmäki et al., 2016, p. 234). I will first explain the concept of belonging and argue how the concept will be used in this research. Then I will relate belonging to feeling at home and how a feeling of belonging can become part of one's identity.

Although belonging and identity are often used in a similar context, there is a clear difference between them since belonging:

“…captures more accurately the desire for some sort of attachment, be it to other people, places, or modes of being, and the ways in which individuals and groups are caught within wanting to belong, wanting to become, a process that is fuelled by yearning rather than the positing of identity as a stable state” (Probyn, 2015, p. 19).

Belonging can be perceived as a process that relates to experiences in the past, the present reality one lives in, and expectations about the future (Lähdesmäki et al., 2016). Especially the idea that belonging is a process instead of a fixed status is of importance because it emphasises that it is something that can change over time, but also that it might be something someone will always long for, but will never establish. When looking at the definition provided by Probyn (2015), belonging to a certain place is a process in which it is possible that belonging becomes part of someone’s identity. The place one feels they belong to might become a way to describe oneself. Castells (1997) describes identity as a way of how people give meaning to themselves. So when people describe themselves in terms of where they belong, this is part of their identity. People are often considered to “being rooted in a place and as deriving their identity from that rootedness” (Malkki, 1992, p. 27). These roots are thought of in very concrete terms of places and spaces (Malkki, 1992). So the place where someone’s roots lie, is part of one’s identity because they describe themselves that way or are described that way by others, which makes that the place they belong to. Another important aspect of the concept of belonging is provided by Anthias (2008). She explains that “belonging questions often emerge because we feel that there are a range of spaces, places,

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locales and identities that we feel we do not and cannot belong to” (p. 8). It is interesting how Anthias (2008) uses questions on where one feels they do not belong to find out what belonging or ‘home’ means to someone. This would indicate that it is easier to know where one does not belong than to know where one belongs and therefore it emphasises the complexity of the concept of belonging.

IDPs and refugees challenge the assumption that people are rooted in and derive their identity from one place because they leave the place in which they are rooted and in some cases even feel they belong in the place where they settled. It is relevant to note here that this idea does not only apply to IDPs or refugees, but also to people who voluntarily move to different parts of the country or world, for instance, expats.

Antonsich (2010) provides an analytical framework that differentiates between two forms of belonging most used in academic literature; place belonging and politics of belonging. Place belonging understands belonging in terms of a “personal, intimate, existential dimension that narrates and is narrated by the Self” (Antonsich, 2010, p. 647). As it is easier to know how one feels when one does not belong somewhere, the absence of place belonging demonstrates in feelings of loneliness, isolation and displacement (Antonsich, 2010). Politics of belonging refers to how feelings of belonging should be understood not only in terms of individual emotions but also in a social and political context. The established society where one moves to has a substantial impact on how one would feel they belong there with regards that they can be welcoming or rejecting towards new people. Politics of belonging therefore relates to feelings of in- and exclusion (Antonsich, 2010). Although politics of belonging is a very useful way to understand power relations that are created by questions on belonging, for this research the individual feelings of belonging of IDPs are more relevant because this research aims to get a deeper understanding of their experience. Therefore I will develop the concept of place belonging further and relate it to other literature that discusses similar ideas.

Place belonging can be understood as the “emotional feeling of being at home in a place” (Antonsich, 2010, p.647). A home is, therefore, an example of a place where one can belong to. A home is a very personal and vaguely defined concept: Even though everyone has an image in their minds of what a home would look like, it means something different to everyone. As Anthias (2008) described in terms of belonging, it is easier to describe where one does not feel at home, than to describe exactly where one feels at home. Kabachnik, Regulska and Mitchneck (2010) describe home as “multidimensional, a concept in which

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temporality (past, present, future) intersects with spatiality (physical and imaginary) and social relations (family, oppression, domination)” (p. 318). I understand home as a physical place with symbolic meaning that provides us with feelings of familiarity, comfort and security, in other words, a place where we can feel at home. This interpretation does not include the ideas on home put forward by feminist scholars. They argue that a home can be a place of “reproducing gendered and patriarchal relations of oppression, violence and fear” (Antonsich, 2010, p. 646).

Taken together, I approach feeling at home as more of an ideal one longs for. Furthermore, although a home might be understood in terms of a physical place, a home entails more than just a house (Kabachnik, Regulska, & Mitchneck, 2010). Among others, it is the social interaction that occurs in the physical space that makes us feel at home. This relates to how Massey (2009) understands space as “the product of social relations” (p.16). In that sense, spaces without social relations are just empty spaces. Spaces get their meaning from connections, network, ties and relations with others (Massey, 2009). As demonstrated in research about homeless people, homelessness is often not simply just the absence of a physical home, but also the lack of social contacts and feelings of connectedness with people around one (Vandemark, 2007).

What I conclude from this is that for people to feel at home, social relations and connectedness are of great importance. Similar to the definition of belonging provided by Probyn (2015) and Lähdesmäki et al. (2016), feeling at home should be understood as a process. Mallet (2004) introduced an idea that she called home as a journey. This captures the experience of IDPs because it is a more fluid understanding of what a home is. A home could be a “place of origin” or a “point of destination” (Mallet, 2004, p.77). Perceiving home as a journey recognises that human beings are always searching for a place that they can call home and migration is thus understood as a human trait (Tucker, 1994). For this research, place belonging, or in other words, feeling at home, will be understood as a process of the establishment of an emotional feeling that is formed by both physical and social characteristics.

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3. Methodology

In this chapter I will go into the methodology of this research. In other words I will explain which choices I made, and I will elaborate on the implications of these choices. First I will explain the qualitative approach that was used in this research (3.1). Secondly, I will set the scene of the case study that has been conducted by providing an overview of the place where fieldwork has been done (3.2). Thirdly, I will go into the methods that have been used to collect data (3.3). This research combined interviewing, focus groups, participant observation and informal conversations to collect data. I will reflect on the limitations and mitigation strategies of the research and fieldwork by looking at language concerns, safety and access and the sample of respondents used (3.4). Then I will dicussus the ethical implications of this research (3.5) and finally I will discuss how that data gathered in the fieldwork is analysed (3.6).

3.1 Qualitative approach, grounded theory and use of case study

For this research, I have chosen for a qualitative approach because I am trying to make sense of a situation of people, the research subjects, in a certain context by getting a deeper understanding of their reality. The aim of qualitative research is making sense of subjective meanings by providing an objective analysis (Johnson, 2010). Qualitative research recognises that reality is a complex system and that it is something that is difficult to measure (Johnson, 2010). The aim of this research is therefore not to find out how many times a certain phenomenon occurs but to find out why and how the research subjects come to certain decisions. By telling the story of the real experience of the lives of a few female IDPs living in Medellín I try to get a better understanding of the phenomenon of displacement and how female IDPs understand the idea of returning.

This method is based on grounded theory, a method first introduced by Glaser and Strauss (1967). This method allows for collecting and analysing data simultaneously (Charmaz, 2014). Grounded theory fits the aim of this research to gather rich, detailed data that would allow me to find and build theory based on that. Practically speaking this meant that I reshaped my research question while conducting fieldwork. While conducting interviews, besides trying to find out more about concepts I thought were relevant for my topic, I was open to find new discoveries that would potentially alter the research question. In that way, I tried to verify certain information, but also expand the understanding I had of the

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situation. Furthermore, in the analysis process I let the data shape the development of a framework that would explain the dynamics I observed.

I chose to conduct a case study in an informal settlement of IDPs in Granizal, Medellín. I will explain more about the setting of the case study, but first I will argue why I chose to conduct a case study and what the implications of this are for the methodology and analysis of this research. A case study is “a detailed examination of a single example” (Abercrombie, Hill & Turner, 1984, p. 34). It produces context-dependent knowledge that is necessary to become an expert in a certain field (Flyvbjerg, 2006). This case study aimed to get a rich understanding of the lives of IDPs living in Granizal in order to make sense of their perceptions on belonging and returning. I recognise that by choosing this case, I neglect others and I cannot generalise the findings presented in this research to all IDPs living in Colombia, or even to all IDPs living in Medellín. However, by doing qualitative research on the perceptions of IDPs living in Granizal I have gotten a deep understanding of the experience of the women living there. The goal of this research, therefore, is not to reach the objective truth about their situation that could be generalised to all other IDPs, but to get such an understanding of their situation that it would help me develop and push ideas on shared identities, what it means to belong and feel at home and what the implications of that are on possibly returning or not.

3.2 Description case: Granizal

When arriving in Medellín to conduct fieldwork, my plan was to find a community where many IDPs live to conduct my research. Through a professor I met at the Universidad de Medellín I got in contact with an organisation called ‘Shalom Transformación para la Paz’. This is a Christian non-profit organisation that works on several projects in Granizal. Working with a local organisation was very useful for practical reasons. I only had one month to conduct the research and therefore working with the organisation was extremely helpful for getting in touch with people from Granizal. They also helped me with identifying who would want to participate in the research. Furthermore, the people working for Shalom provided me with very useful background information on the neighbourhood and the issues people there are facing. I was aware of the fact the working with an organisation could influence the access I would get to certain people. Shalom works on several projects, however, most likely they would, out of practical considerations, suggest people that they have worked with. However,

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influenced the outcome of this research as neither Shalom nor the people I interviewed had anything to gain by talking with me. I will now first provide a short history of Granizal and describe what it is like living there for the people I have spoken to.

Granizal is an informal settlement3 at the hillside of Medellín. Officially the territory is part of the neighbouring municipality of Medellín called Bello. Since 1994, people who got displaced due to the conflict in Medellín and other regions of Antioquia, the province of Medellín, started settling themselves in this area. In a way, people considered living there a temporary solution and therefore built wooden houses. The police of Bello and Medellin came to the neighbourhood multiple times to shut it down. Till this date, neither one of the municipalities recognises the existence of the community. The name is therefore also non-existent on Google Maps. Furthermore, since none of the municipalities is recognising the existence and therefore responsibility for providing the neighbourhood with services, Granizal is deprived of several basic services as drinkable water, reliable electricity, schools and police presence. However, as people have been living in Granizal for over two decades, people started to build more permanent houses. Granizal consists of parts of several smaller neighbourhoods, which all have their own names, projects and people living there. I conducted most of the research in the neighbourhoods Manantiales and Oasis de Paz. The pictures below provide a impression of the neighbourhoods. Granizal is inhibited by people from several different backgrounds, who live segregated lives. These groups are mainly formed around where people came from and based on their ethnicity.

3 Invasión in Spanish

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3.3 Methods

In this section of the methodology, I will elaborate on the methods that I used during the research. My initial idea was to conduct semi-structured interviews and participant observation for the data collection. In some instances when conducting interviews more people joined the conversation, sometimes because they overheard us talking and wanted to contribute something and in other cases because the person I was interviewing invited them. In these cases, the interviews turned into group interviews. Therefore I will reflect on the implications of conducting interviews in a group. Furthermore, while spending time in Granizal to conduct interviews, I noticed that informal conversations were of great value. Therefore this became a fourth way of collecting data for this research.

3.3.1 Semi-structured interviews and group interviews

The aim of the structured interviews was to get a deep understanding of the perceptions, ideas and narratives of the interviewees. Semi-structured interviews allowed for participants to express their ideas freely since I as an interviewer asked questions, but they could answer in any way they felt most comfortable with. I prepared questions beforehand to start the interview. However, the responses provided by the interviewee were leading the questions that followed. By using this method of interviewing I ensured that the interviews remained relevant to the topic of research, but also allowed for freedom and input for the interviewee (McIntosh & Morse, 2015). In that sense, the semi-structured interviews followed a descriptive/interpretive and a descriptive/confirmative pattern (McIntosh & Morse, 2015) since the interviewees, on the one hand, were free to tell me what they wanted to share, which allowed me to gain a better understanding of their narratives and it allowed for new discoveries. On the other hand, since the interviews were semi-structured I tried to confirm certain ideas I read about in academic literature or tried to find out if perceptions mentioned by other interviewees were prevalent for the interviewee as well.

Eight interviews were conducted with women living in Granizal. All of them were working in some way together with Shalom, the organisation that gave me access to the neighbourhood. The women were all mothers and were between 30 and 40 years old. Usually, I would go to Granizal with a volunteer who was going to do work there. They would then help me with finding someone who would want to participate in an interview. The interviews were conducted in a community centre that was used by Shalom to provide lunch to children.

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Six of the eight interviews were recorded with permission of the interviewees. Two were not because the women started sharing their story quite abruptly. I did not want to stop their story by asking if they would give permission to record it, so instead, I took notes. The setting for the interviews was sometimes quite chaotic since many other people, including children, were around. Therefore it was necessary for me as in interviewer to be flexible and responsive to the situation the interviewee and I were in. In practice, this could be stopping the interview for a few minutes when someone needed to discuss something or expanding the conversation to a bigger group. A positive side of this interview setting was that the women were in an environment where they felt comfortable. Furthermore, I could observe the women and other people in the neighbourhood centre where some of them worked. I will reflect on the participant observation I did later on.

Usually, I used the same set up for interviews. I started with questions that would give me a better understanding of the life of the interviewee. I would ask questions about their family situation, whether they had children etc. Besides helping me understand the background to their stories, it also made them feel more comfortable because it would feel as a casual conversation. As discussed in the theoretical framework, I was interested in getting an understanding of peoples ideas on their identities, feeling of belonging, feeling at home and feelings of connectedness. These are pretty vague concepts, especially for people who have never thought about their own lives in these terms. Therefore I tried to rephrase these concepts in a more practical way in order to get the data I was looking for. At times this worked, and other times it could create some confusion. Partly this was caused by the language barrier, something I will reflect on later. During the interviews, I had a topic list of possible things to discuss with the interviewee. Often I did not need this list because the conversation would go naturally and we would discuss the topics on the list anyway. An important reference point for the interviews was the experience of the IDP women. They did consider themselves to be IDPs. However that might be a different experience than how this is discussed in literature in terms of legal or social implications. Therefore I tried, as proposed by Weiss (1995), to start from their point of reference, which usually was categorized in three periods of time. The first one is the place where they got displaced from, then the actual displacement and finally the place they were now living. This allowed me to get a good understanding of how the women experience their displacement because I would follow a timeline that felt natural to them.

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One time I was planning to conduct an interview with one woman, but three others joined. Therefore this turned out to be more of a group interview. Since I did not prepare a group discussion but an individual interview I had to improvise. First I started with the questions I would have normally asked in an interview. Just to get an idea of the lives of the women I was talking to. After that, it naturally turned into a discussion among them. Interviewees having their own discussion without too much interference of the interviewer can be one of the benefits of a group interview since it allows for getting a better understand what people think and why (Kitzinger, 1995), because the interviewees have to explain to the others why they said a certain thing. In this case, the group interview worked because the women knew each other. They normally also talked about the topics we discussed together, so they did not feel hesitant to answer certain questions. It was actually beneficial because they would supplement each other’s answers or comment on what another woman had said. It was also interesting to see how much support the women gave each other when talking about traumatic experiences, something I will reflect on in the analysis.

Furthermore, interviews were conducted with professionals working in Granizal. Most of them were with people working for Shalom, since this was the organisation I went to Granizal with. With these professional I talked about the neighbourhood and the issues people are facing. This helped to get a better understand of the situation, which turned out to be very helpful for the interviews I conducted with the IDP women. Furthermore, I conducted an interview with a government representative who was able to provide information on how the government perceives the situation. Interviewing professionals allowed for a more bird’s eye perspective on the situation since it was easier to connect things happening in Granizal to the bigger picture of Colombia as a country coming out of decades of conflict, trying to rebuild a peaceful society.

3.3.2 Participant observation

Another method of data collection used in this research is participant observation, although it will be mainly used supplementary to the interviews, group interviews and informal conversations. By participating in the lives of the people a researcher would like to learn something from, it is possible to acquire to the “physically observable environment” and “meaningful experiences, thoughts, feelings and activities” (Jorgensen, 1989, p. 1). Because a researcher is participating in the daily lives of the research subjects the setting of the research

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and handle situations in their daily routines (Johnson, 1989). In the case of this research, participant observation was mainly used to get a better understanding of what living in Granizal is like. Although I did not stay in Granizal out of safety considerations, something I will reflect on when I discuss the limitations of this research, I spent considerable time in the neighbourhood. Observing how people were living in Granizal helped me get a better understanding to write about it, but also helped when conducting interviews, as I was able to refer to things I had seen in the neighbourhood. I observed several meetings that were held by Shalom regarding the opening of a canteen that provided free lunch to children of the neighbourhood and meetings held with teen girls living in Granizal. These meeting provided me with insights into the structures that exist in the community and demonstrated a sense of connectedness in the neighbourhood.

3.3.3 Informal conversations

As mentioned, informal conversations were a way of data collection I did not anticipate on when conducting fieldwork. However, when conducting interviews in Granizal I spent considerable time travelling to the neighbourhood. I often travelled with volunteers from Shalom. During these cable car rides, we would talk about their work, the neighbourhood, the people living there or general politics. These informal conversations provided me with interesting insights about more general ‘issues’ in Colombia, but also about how people working in the Granizal thought about certain problems in the neighbourhood. Since these were informal conversation I did not record this. However, when someone would say something I thought would be relevant I would make a quick note in my phone. If I thought I would like to quote them, I asked their permission. This has always been granted.

3.4 Limitations and mitigation strategies

When conducting research all kinds of limitations occur due to time constraint, practical considerations or just bad luck. It is of great importance to recognize these limitations and try to mitigate them when possible. In this research language was one of the greatest limitation since Spanish is not my native language. Furthermore, as areas as Granizal are not as safe as other parts of Medellín, I had to take my own safety into consideration, which had several consequences in terms of access. Finally the sample of the women I talked to is rather

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specific. In a way this is not a problem, as I am not aiming to generalize the findings to a larger group of people, however, I will reflect on the diversity of people I talked to.

3.4.1 Language

All of the respondents in this research were Colombian and thus Spanish is their native language. A few of the professionals I spoke with also spoke English. I have an intermediate level of Spanish, which allows me to have a normal conversation in Spanish. However, it turned out that in some cases, especially in Granizal where people had a strong accent and were not used to talking with foreigners, there was a language barrier. Therefore I decided to make use of a translator during the interviews with the women in Granizal. I was a bit hesitant about using a translator, as the conversations I had with the women were quite personal. I had the idea that the women might wanted to share their stories with me since I am a complete outsider, but that they might be more hesitant when there was another Colombian person that they did not know present. People in Colombia who speak English are from a very different socioeconomic class, as they most likely went to university. The reality of the women in Granizal and the possible translator are words apart. In the end I found a student of the Universidad de Medellín through the professor that also put me in contact with Shalom. She turned out to be very sensitive towards the topics we were discussing. During the group interview she translated certain things when the conversation went too quickly. In a way having a translator present creates an even more unnatural setting, however, in this case it also had an unexpected positive effect. I had the impression that the women in Granizal were sometimes a bit intimidated by my presence. What did this Dutch blond girl want from them and why was she so interested in them? By telling them that my Spanish was not good enough to follow their quick Spanish and that the translator would help me I made myself more vulnerable towards them. I had the impression this created a more equal situation, which benefited their willingness to open up.

Although having a translator present mitigated some of the language barrier, I believe it would have been possible to follow up on certain things the women said in a better way when my level of Spanish would have been higher. Sometimes I would for instance ask someone if they could repeat what they had said because I did not quite get it. This breaks the flow of a casual interview. Furthermore, I believe I would have been able to go in more depth when the language barrier would not have been present, as now I have to admit some things

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3.4.2 Safety and access

As an outsider of Colombian society who tried to get access to a community of IDPs living in Medellín in a month’s time, I had to make certain choices based on practical considerations. Getting access to a community as Granizal is not easy. The neighbourhood is not safe to go to when you do not know anyone, let alone finding people who would want to talk to you. Therefore I decided to collaborate with a local organisation that already has established these connections in the neighbourhood. The neighbourhood knows the people working for Shalom and they appreciate the work they are doing. This made it a lot safer and more accessible to go with them instead of going alone. However, it meant that I only went to the neighbourhood at days that the organisation was working there. This was always during the day, which implies that I only have observed life in Granizal during the day. From what I have heard this is a lot different than during the night, as the safety situation changes when it gets dark. Furthermore, it meant that I could never become an insider of the community. However, it is debatable if that would have happened if I had stayed in the neighbourhood. I believe the women in Granizal did perceive me as a visitor. People working for Shalom told me that some of the people in Granizal have issues with foreigners coming to the neighbourhood, especially people working for NGOs, since they have some bad experiences with people promising them the world, but in the end not delivering what they promised. Therefore I tried to make it very clear that I was not working for an NGO, and that I was only there for research purposes and was interested to hear their stories. I believe that this research would have benefited from a more extended period of fieldwork in which I would have been able to get the people living in Granizal a little bit better.

3.4.3 Sample respondents

As mentioned before, Granizal is a very segregated neighbourhood. This means that people from different ethnic groups live in separate parts of the neighbourhood. These borders are not clear-cut, but you can observe how for instance the Afro-Colombian people tend to be in different groups than the people with a Paisa background. Paisa’s are people who are origninally from the Antioquia region. Shalom seemed to work mainly with people who had a Paisa background, which resulted in that I mainly talked with women with a Paisa background. On the one hand, this is useful because I got a good understanding of their situation, which allows me to tell their story. However, this might be completely different

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Afro-Colombians and indigenous people are disproportionally affected by the Colombian conflict and displacement (Splinder, 2017). In terms of ethics and getting a full understanding of what displacement means for different people I believe it would have been better to have included these groups in my research as well. Especially since the stories of these groups are heard the least and they are already the most marginalised groups in society.

3.5 Ethics

In terms of ethics, the most important implication is that I interviewed women who all have been through traumatic experiences. Although for the aim of the research it was not necessary to go into these experiences, they often came up when the women were talking about how they, for instance, got displaced. As it was mostly background information, although still very useful for getting a better understanding of the lives of the women, I did not ask them myself about what happened to them. I let it up to them to decide what they wanted to share. It did occur that someone would start crying during an interview. This creates a complicated situation for the researcher since one of the most important ethical considerations is ‘do no harm’ (Wood, 2006). When this happened, I gave the woman a hug, told her that I felt so sorry for her and told her we could stop the interview if she did not want to continue. Her well being was always more important than hearing her story. Usually, they eventually did want to continue. It felt as if they found it more important to get their story out there, and they did not mind getting emotional from that. Usually, the people working for Shalom recommended me someone to talk with. They know what people have gone through and I asked them to make a judgement on whether a person would be able to talk about their lives. This helped to some extent, however, as everyone living in Granizal has experienced horrific things, the conversations would always get a little emotional.

The anonymity of the women is guaranteed by making the interviews anonymous by only using their first name. All the people that were recorded gave permission to record the interview and to use their stories for this research. I ensured that the people I interviewed know that I was going to use their stories in my research. While analysing the data, this was something that was very important. I aim to do justice to their stories in the best possible way I can by staying close to their words and nuances they provided.

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3.6 Analysis

To analyse the data collected for this research the conducted interviews were transcribed. The transcript were analysed by labelling common themes that come forward in the literature. Quotes were then organized within these themes in order to make them into a story in such a way it does justice to how the interviewees intended what they said. Some of the quotes used for the research got translated from Spanish to English. The Spanish original quotes can be found in the footnotes. I did that because as mentioned before, when working in two languages, certain things might get lost in the translation. I tried to translate quotes in such a way that they made sense in English, but kept their initial meaning. For complete transparency and for people who speak Spanish, the original quotes are included. Data collected from the informal conversations and participant observation were collected in the form of field notes. These notes also were categorised into the common themes I identified and make a contribution to the data collected in the interviews.

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