More than 10,000 Burmese migrants in Thailand’s Mae La refugee camp could soon be resettled in the US...

"It could be a scene from a travel trade show—a crowd of mostly young people clusters in front of poster boards bearing pictures of life in the US. These are no tourists, however, but Burmese refugees in Thailand hoping to resettle in the US and eager for any illustration of what they can expect to find there...

As thousands of Karen wait in resettlement camps, others already settled in foreign lands discover new challenges to their future...

Heh Nay Thaw has lived in refugee camps in Thailand for nearly a quarter-century since he crossed the border from Burma with his family at age five. He is now 29, with a wife and two children, and the long years of waiting for a permanent home may soon be over.

Like many of his fellow Karen, Heh Nay Thaw gave up hope that he could ever return to Karen State and applied for resettlement outside Asia—possibly in the US.

This Regulation concerns rural land management and rights and use of rural land in Amhara National Region. It seeks to create favourable conditions enabling the land administration system to promote long-lasting agricultural development and productivity in the regional state by causing the full implementation of the rights and obligations pertaining to the rural land holders as are stipulated under the Revised Rural Land Administration and Use Determination Proclamation.

For historical reasons, Kenya inherited a highly skewed system of land ownership at independence in 1963. British colonialism in Kenya was not merely administrative. Rather, it was accompanied by massive and widespread land alienation for the benefit of settler agriculture. As a result the best agricultural land-the White Highlands and the adjacent rangelands were taken from the Africans, without compensation, and parceled out to white settlers. Colonial legislation was enacted to legalize this process.

This report is a preliminary exploration of forced migration/internal displacement in Burma/Myanmar in two main areas. The first is the status in terms of international standards, specifically those embodied in the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, of the people who leave home not because of conflict or relocation orders, but as a result of a range of coercive measures which drive down incomes to the point that the household economy collapses and people have no choice but to leave home.

The paper discusses the interface of anthropological research on land with policy positions across formative periods – from the colonial period through to the present as land tenure reform has repeatedly become a development priority; and recent research on intensifying competition over land, its intersection with competition over legitimate authority, new types of land transfers, the role of claims of indigeneity or autochthony in land conflicts, and the challenges of increasing social inequality and of commodification of land for analysis and for land reform.

Introduction:
"The shifting nature of conflict in Burma over the past fifteen years has structured a range of
inter-linked displacement crises. In this paper, three main types of forced migration in – and
from – the country are identified: Type 1 – armed-conflict-induced displacement; Type 2 –
State/society-induced displacement; and Type 3 – livelihood/vulnerability-induced
displacement. Each is addressed in a case study, with material drawn from different
geographic areas, illustrating different aspects and impacts of (armed and state-society)

A second report for the World Bank’s Northern Uganda Recovery and Development Program – RDP. The objective is to inform policy processes on post-conflict land policy and administration on likely types of land conflicts and claims, their resolution, gaps in current land policy, resources needed. Survey suggests that Teso’s IDP displacement patterns are unique. Customary tenure has been transformed, with household heads now owners, not trustees, of rights in land, so clans are merely informed of sales. Common property resources are at greatest risk.

Increasingly, social capital, defined as shared norms, trust, and the horizontal and vertical social networks that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutually beneficial collective action, is seen as an important asset upon which people rely to manage natural resources and resolve conflicts. This paper uses empirical data from households and community surveys and case studies, to examine the role, strengths, and limits of social capital in managing conflicts over the use and management of natural resources.

This report addresses the environmental and human rights situation faced by villagers and migrant workers in Shwegyin township of Nyaunglebin District, Pegu Division, Burma.

Each year, tens of thousands of people in Bangladesh are internally displaced as a consequence of riverbank erosion. Yet, such erosion does not draw the attention of policy makers in the same way that other natural disasters do and as a result, a number of coping mechanisms are employed by those affected, with the burden of displacement largely falling on women. This brief argues that instead of attempting to alter the course of nature, it is time to address the institutional mechanisms needed to help affected people cope with displacement and their material and social loss.

Poverty in the Near East and North Africa region (NENA) is mainly a rural phenomenon. Almost half (48%) the area’s population lives in rural areas. This report focuses on key rural poverty issues in 13 diverse countries in the region, without attempting to propose policy or programme actions at national or local levels. Overall, the rural poor still face traditional constraints such as water scarcity, inadequate rural infrastructure, inappropriate policies and institutions, weak local-level organisations and gender inequity.