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Sudan
Migration
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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