In From Migrants to Refugees Jill Rosenthal tells the history of how Rwandan migrants in a Tanzanian border district became considered either citizens or refugees as nation-state boundaries solidified in the wake of decolonization. Outlining the process by which people who have long lived and circulated across the Rwanda-Tanzania border came to have a national identity, Rosenthal reveals humanitarian aid’s central role in the ideological processes of decolonization and nation building. From precolonial histories to the first Rwandan refugee camps during decolonization in the 1960s to the massive refugee camps in the 1990s, Rosenthal highlights the way that this area became a testing ground for novel forms of transnational aid to refugees that had global implications. As local and national actors, refugees, and international officials all attempted to control the lives and futures of refugee groups, they contested the authority of the nation-state and the international refugee regime. This history, Rosenthal demonstrates, illuminates how tensions between state and international actors divided people who share a common history, culture, and language across national borders.

Jill Rosenthal is Assistant Professor of History at Hunter College, City University of New York.

Abbreviations  ix
Acknowledgments  xi
Introduction  1
Part I: The Making of Migrants
1. Tracing a Boundary: Cultural Connections and Mandate Separation  23
2. Canalization and Control: Unbounded Migrants  43
3. Developmental Disappointment: Continuities in Late Colonial and Early Independence Ngara  57
Part II: The Making of Refugees
4. Developmental Refugees: The Politics of Rwandan Refugee Settlement in Ngara District, 1959–1969  77
5. Citizens and Refugees: The Politics of Refugee Aid  95
6. Conflicting Sovereignties: Competition at Mwesi Refugee Settlement, 1963–1970  113
Part III: The Making of Citizens
7. Of “Natural” Citizens and “Natural” Illegality: Ujamaa, Magendo, and Naturalization in Ngara District, 1970–1984  139
8. Competition and Backstabbing: The International Response to the Rwandan Refugee Crisis, 1994–1996  158
9. Of Génocidaires and Humanitarians: The Rwandan Refugee Emergency n Ngara District  176
Conclusion: The Business of Nationalism and Humanitarian Aid  193
Notes  205
Bibliography  285
Index  301