Assessment on Socio-economic impacts of Suoth Sudanese Refugees on Life Standard of the host Communities of Itang Special Woreda;The case of Kule Refugee Camp in Gambella Regional State

Abstract

The main objective of the study was to assess the socio-economic impacts of refugees’ life standard on the host communities in Itang special wareda the cast of Kule refugees’ camp. To this end both primary and secondary sources were employed, and qualitative and quantitative approaches were utilized. The respondents were selected by using purposive and systematic samplings and instruments like interviewee, focus group discussions, and observation and survey questionnaires were used to collected data. Finally thematic analysis and SPSS V 20 were utilized to analyze the qualitative and quantitative data collected respectively .The study found out that the presence of refugees in the region has both negative and positive implications .In its negative side the presence of south Sudanese has multiple effects on hosting community in terms of employment opportunities, environmental degradation, health sanitation problems, socio-cultural, economic and security related problems. On the other hands, positive implication like opening new opportunities, cultural transitions, economic transitions, availability of small markets for local inputs. Finally the study concluded that the negative impacts identified overweight the positive contributions of the refugees where the refugees were contributing to the security, economic and cultural threats for local people. Therefore concerned bodies, such as governmental and non-governmental, institutions should cooperate each other so as minimize the negative effects of refugees on the hosting community, and exploits the opportunities available with the presence of refugees.