Survival-Oriented Resilience

Sudanese Refugee Women and the Structural Politics of Displacement in Egypt
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-981-9268-22-1
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan

Buch, Englisch, 244 Seiten, Format (B × H): 148 mm x 210 mm

This book examines how Sudanese refugee women navigate gendered displacement and protracted urban refugeehood in Egypt. Drawing on mixed-methods research conducted in Cairo, Alexandria and Aswan, including a survey of over 300 women and 30 semi-structured interviews, it analyses how legal precarity, racialisation, economic marginalisation, gender-based violence and caregiving responsibilities shape everyday life.

Situating contemporary displacement within the longer history of Sudan–Egypt mobility, the book connects forced migration studies, feminist political economy, political sociology and refugee governance in the Global South. It develops the concept of survival-oriented resilience to describe forms of endurance sustained through informal labour, spirituality, kinship, mutual aid and transnational care, while emphasising their material and psychosocial costs. It also advances the Continuum of Displacement-Based Sexual Violence framework to examine how gendered harm can extend across conflict, flight, border crossing and exile.

The analysis shows how legal status, housing, employment, healthcare, education and humanitarian assistance interact with psychosocial stress, social navigation and conditional belonging. It argues that refugee protection must address the structural production of insecurity rather than treating women’s resilience as a substitute for legal rights, livelihood stability and sustained support. The book contributes an empirically grounded account of Sudanese refugee women’s agency and vulnerability to debates on gender, forced migration, urban displacement, racialisation and refugee protection in North Africa.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Karamalla-Gaiballa, Nagmeldin

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Afrikanische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziologie von Migranten und Minderheiten
• Geowissenschaften Geographie | Raumplanung Humangeographie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction.- 2. Historical Trajectories of Sudanese Migration to Egypt and the Continuum of Displacement-Based Vulnerability.- 3. Legal and Policy Framework Governing Sudanese Refugees in Egypt.- 4. Research Design, Methods, and Ethical Framework.- 5. Sudanese Refugee Women in Egypt.- 6. Everyday Insecurity, Psychosocial Stress, and Survival-Oriented Resilience among Sudanese Refugee Women.- 7. Sexual Violence Across War and Displacement.- 8. Social Interaction and the Navigation of Protracted Displacement.- 9. Conclusion.

Über Autor(innen)

Nagmeldin Karamalla-Gaiballa is Assistant Professor at the University of Warsaw, Poland, specialising in African politics, conflict studies, migration, and cultural anthropology. He holds a PhD in Political Science and has over 20 years of academic and research experience focusing on Sudan, the Horn of Africa, and the wider Sahel–Sahara region. His work combines political analysis, ethnographic research, and historical approaches to examine state fragility, displacement dynamics, and conflict transformation. He is the author of several books, including (Palgrave Macmillan 2025), (2023), and (2017).