This Place Will Become Home

"As Laura Hammond demonstrates, human reality is much more complex, open to questions, and difficult to penetrate than many believe. In This Place Will Become Home she challenges common assumptions regarding repatriation and presumed homes and homelands. The self-reflective stance with which Hammond engages her experience is communicated to the reader. This approach further deepens the reality and integrity of her work and adds theoretical depth as well." -- Lucia Ann McSpadden, Life and Peace Institute, author of <I>Negotiating Return: Conflict and Control in the Repatriation of Eritrean Refugees</I> "Hammond delves into issues of birth and death, family, food, economy, mutual assistance, and network formation. She uses an impressive array of sources that include archival material, personal accounts, interviews, aid reports, and journalists' accounts. Recommended. All academic levels/libraries." * Choice * "Here at last is a study of refugees, return, place, identity, and home that is empirically rich, theoretically engaging, and utterly readablea treat. Laura C. Hammond illuminates 'the quality of the relation between person, community, and place' with consummate insight, sensitivity, and elegance." -- Nicholas Van Hear, Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (Compas), University of Oxford "This Place Will Become Home provides a fascinating insight into the way that refugees reconstruct their lives and their livelihoods once they are able to return to their own country. Based on extensive anthropological fieldwork in the Horn of Africa, Laura C. Hammond's book skillfully portrays the difficulties and multiple dimensions of the reintegration process. It is essential reading for scholars and humanitarian practitioners alike." -- Jeff Crisp, Director, Policy and Research, Global Commission on International Migration

Laura C. Hammond is Assistant Professor of International Development and Anthropology at Clark University.