# Transnational Nomads (2006) by Cindy Horst: how Somalis cope with life in the Dadaab camps

> Cindy Horst's Transnational Nomads (2006): her fieldwork in Dadaab, its chapters on the nomadic heritage, camp life, remittances and buufis, and how it was received.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/books/transnational-nomads-horst/
Last checked: 2026-11-12
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## The book

**Transnational Nomads: How Somalis Cope with Refugee Life in the Dadaab Camps of Kenya** is by **Cindy Horst**, an anthropologist who studied at the Refugee Studies Centre in Oxford, worked for an organisation assisting refugees, and became a senior researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). It was published by Berghahn Books as volume 19 of its Forced Migration series, in hardback in May 2006 and paperback in December 2007, with 252 pages ([Berghahn Books](https://berghahnbooks.com/title/HorstTransnational); [PRIO](https://www.prio.org/publications/324)).

## How it was researched

Horst carried out fieldwork among Somalis in the Dadaab refugee camps and in Kenyan towns between 1995 and 2001, and among Somalis in Europe ([Berghahn Books](https://berghahnbooks.com/title/HorstTransnational)). The camps are described on [Dadaab and the Kenya camps](/en/diaspora/dadaab-and-kenya-camps/).

## Its argument

The book starts from the common tendency to see all refugees as "vulnerable victims", an image reinforced by pictures of people in harsh conditions. Horst challenges this by looking at the personal and social histories refugees bring with them. She shows how Somalis in Dadaab drew on a nomadic heritage of mobility and wide social networks, reaching as far as Europe and the United States, to manage the insecurity of camp life ([Berghahn Books](https://berghahnbooks.com/title/HorstTransnational)).

## Chapters

1. At a Distance? An Introduction
2. A Nomadic Heritage: Past Ways of Coping With Insecurity Amongst the Somali
3. Refugee Life in the Camps: Providing Security or Sustaining Dependency?
4. Transnational Livelihoods: The Role of Taar and Xawilaad
5. Buufis: Imagining or Realising Migration to the West
6. Historical and Transnational Approaches to Refugee Studies

Chapter 4 looks at *taar* (messages sent by radio and telephone) and *xawilaad* (money transfers through the hawala system), by which relatives abroad supported people in the camps. Chapter 5 is about *buufis*, the Somali word for the longing to migrate to the West ([Berghahn Books](https://berghahnbooks.com/title/HorstTransnational)). See [Hawala and money transfer companies](/en/economy/hawala-and-money-transfer-companies/) and [Remittances in numbers](/en/economy/remittances-in-numbers/).

## How it was received

- Jeff Crisp of the UN refugee agency UNHCR called it "by far the best account of what has become known as a 'protracted refugee situation'" ([Berghahn Books](https://berghahnbooks.com/title/HorstTransnational)).
- A review in African Affairs said it "should be read by anybody who wants to work with or is currently working with refugees" ([Berghahn Books](https://berghahnbooks.com/title/HorstTransnational)).
- Laura Hammond, in the Journal of Refugee Studies, praised the open way Horst discusses her research methods ([Berghahn Books](https://berghahnbooks.com/title/HorstTransnational)).
- The Forced Migration Current Awareness blog named it a "Book of the Decade" ([Berghahn Books](https://berghahnbooks.com/title/HorstTransnational)).

## Where to read it

- In a library: [WorldCat](https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=Transnational+Nomads+Horst)

## Related pages

- [City of Thorns (2016), Ben Rawlence](/en/books/city-of-thorns-rawlence/)
- [Refugee camps](/en/diaspora/refugee-camps/)

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