THE MECHANISMS THAT SUSTAIN IMMOBILITY IN CONFLICT-AFFECTED COMMUNITIES IN THE NIGERIAN MIDDLE BELT

In migration studies, immobility is often overlooked, with most research focusing on individuals who flee conflict-affected environments, thereby rendering those who remain in such locations ‘invisible’ in the literature. Consequently, the migratory experiences of communities that choose to remain in conflict-affected regions have been ignored. This study addresses these research opportunities by examining the staying behaviour of indigenous communities that chose to stay put without state support in the conflict-affected Middle Belt region in Nigeria. This study explores how these hard-to-reach communities manage to sustain their preferred immobility without government support despite ongoing violent attacks. I collected the data for this project through focus group discussions with 106 community members from four communities during two waves in 2022 and 2024. Being a qualitative study, I analysed the data using reflexive thematic analysis. This thesis argues that understanding how communities in the study locations sustain their preferred immobility in conflict-affected areas despite limited state support requires examining how their local governance structures utilise human, material, and non-material resources (such as cultural beliefs, memories, and spiritual practices). The findings suggest that these communities sustain their preferred immobility in their ancestral land by repurposing their existing local governance structures. These structures create enabling conditions that motivate some key community members (ach’anyilo and ‘youths’) to lead collective actions – such as weaponising social networks and adopting a ‘fleeing in order to return’ approach – that support the sustenance of their preferred immobility without the support of the state. These collective actions are reinforced by non-material factors, including spiritual practices such as voodoo rituals and Otuoje narratives, as well as collective and materialised memories that anchor community members to their ancestral land and support their commitment to active immobility. Notably, the ‘fleeing in order to return’ strategy is an (im)mobility pattern that defies prevailing gender norms in migration which is a novel contribution to the understanding of the gendered division of mobility and immobility.
These findings, drawn from the study locations, provide empirical insights into persistent questions in migration studies, particularly regarding the measures communities adopt to remain in conflict-affected areas despite no support from the state. It also offers a novel perspective on gendered (im)mobility, highlighting a rarely explored division of mobility and immobility that challenges dominant narratives. By incorporating theories from social work and First Nation studies, this research broadens the applicability of the aspiration-capability framework to the communities in the study locations. The study further contributes to migration research by examining how intangible factors shape immobility among communities in violent conflict settings. The insights from these communities deepen the understanding of Indigenous contexts in IR and contribute to fostering greater relationality in the field.