Creating a new Life: Livelihood strategies and reintegration perspectives of internally displaced people in Bogota, Colombia

Abstract

The situation of forced displacements in Colombia is one of the most serious in the world. As we shall see in this work, the majority of the Internally Displaced People (IDP’s) encounters a situation of poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion after arriving in Bogotá. This is a direct consequence of the psychological, social and economic damage and fragmentation caused by the Colombian armed conflict. During my four months of qualitative research in Bogotá I have done research among two types of programs that were focused on the creation of a livelihood of its participants. The first type of program was a government program especially designed for IDP’s, with as final objective the economic stabilization of this population. The second type of program was a micro credit program, designed for “regular” vulnerable people in Bogotá. In this study I will expose in which way and to what extend these two different types of programs contribute to the livelihood strategies and reintegration perspectives of IDP’s in Bogotá, Colombia.