Protracted Tragedy of Refugee Displacement: Why Afghans Are Leaving Pakistan

• In Event: The Political Effects of Forced Migration on States

Abstract

Why has Pakistan launched massive operations recently to close of Afghan border and remove Afghan refugees after four decades of hosting them? The participation of six million Afghan refugees in economy, ethnic structure, and society no doubt generated tensions, strain, and inequality that frequently negated the prospect of durable rehabilitation or even produced pressures for repatriation. Yet, very few studies examine domestic economic and political changes in Pakistan that shape its national capacity and refugee reception by state authorities despite its unchanged strategic interests. This paper will examine the impact of dual forces of liberalizing economy since 1980s and the two wars on Pakistan’s Afghan border in order to explain the foundations of increasing resentment at the societal level as well as the political level that currently seeks to remove its Afghan refugees.

Author

• Anshu N. Chatterjee, Naval Postgraduate School