Researchers:

•  Juan Alvarez Vita (Ambassador of Peru and Professor of Public International Law)
•  Abdeljalil Akkari (Professor, Director of Research at the Higher Pedagogical Institute HEP-BEJUNE in Bienne, Switzerland)
and
•  Tzvetelina Tzoneva
and
•  Mercedes St. Elin

Summary
The problem of the internal displacement is found in all over the world. Latin America is the world’s second region affected with 3.7 million internally displaced people and nearly all new displacements recorded during 2004. It also constituted the region where all the factors for displacement occurred: internal violence, armed conflicts, political and economic interests as well as, natural and human-made disasters. Particularly relevant is the fact that the most affected populations are the indigenous peoples. Firstly, they are forced to leave their homes and their lands to which there are traditionally linked. Secondly, they are victims of discrimination because their cultural identity is conceived as inferior. In order to avoid humiliation, many indigenous displaced have renounced to their cultural identity. With this research, we will seek to find out in which measure the displacement has affected specific rights of indigenous people as well as their cultural identity; to analyze how the intolerance, discrimination and the non-respect for diversity has affected displaced persons in their live; and to recognize positive actions that has been implemented or may be implemented in order to overcome the dignity-humiliation.

Researchers:

•  Mons Bendixen (Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim)
and
•  Mari Otterlei Blikom

Abstract
The main aim of this study was to investigate how it is to live in a Norwegian asylum
centre. Research indicates that asylum seekers have to deal with acculturative stress,
psychological stress, social exclusion, humiliation, discrimination and social stigma on
a day-to-day basis. A custom-build qualitative research method inspired by grounded
theory and to some extent interpretive phenomenological analysis was applied. Six
asylum seekers were selected from an asylum centre close to a larger Norwegian city.
The interviews focused on fulfillment of core social motives in general and humiliation
in particular. The findings suggested that fulfilment of core social motives varied among
the asylum seekers. None of the informants, however, had all five core social motives
fulfilled. This was suggested to influence coping strategies and reactions to
discrimination and humiliation. All the informants experienced begin discriminated
against and being an asylum seeker as humiliating.

Researchers:

•  Richard Burns (MSc in Applied Psychology at Manchester University)
•  Martin Farrell (Ph.D. from the University of Strathclyde in 1993, lecturer at the Department of Psychology, University of Manchester, since 1997)
•  Ivan Leuder (Ph.D., Manchester University, UK)
and
•  Espen Sivertsen
•  Jacqueline Hayes
•  Peter Mosely
•  Johanna Turner Baker
•  Alex Dawson

Summary
By recording narrative biographical interviews with Iraqi refugees based in the UK and Denmark, and analyzing these accounts using existential discourse analysis, we hope to illuminate the experience of and the causes of humiliation in Iraqi refugees. This is a national group of particular interest to humiliation studies when seen in context of persons taking refuge within a country that has waged war on their place of origin. The host nations have the potential to be labelled as both provider, victor, and also as humiliator, and we expect that these factors will be more marked in the UK Iraqis than in Danish Iraqis due to the British government's much greater involvement in their country of origin. Growing hostility towards immigrants (particularly highlighted by the recent Danish and British elections) may add another dimension to the humiliation felt during the culture clash experienced by the refugee. In addition, there are marked differences between the quality of welfare afforded citizens of Denmark and UK (e.g. Philip & Smith, 2005), and this may affect the level of humiliation felt by refugees within the respective countries. We intend to study humiliation as an experience that could potentially 'disembody' a refugee; by dissociating themselves from certain aspects of humiliation, a refugee may eventually live their existence as fundamentally fractured, having denied and distorted an authentic openness towards being with others. We will further this existential perspective by explicating how humiliation inhibits social power, and by considering also the political consequences of humiliation. We hope that our study will both retain 'refugee dignity' and provide practical implications for minimising the humiliation enacted upon refugees.

Researchers:

•  Moira R. Rogers (Ph.D., Principal Investigator, Project Coordinator, Associate Professor, Department of Language and Literature, Eastern Mennonite University, EMU, Virginia, USA)
•  Nancy Good Sider (Ph.D., Project Consultant, Graduate Faculty, Conflict Transformation, Eastern Mennonite University, EMU, Virginia, USA)
•  Andrea Enders (German Journalist, fluent in English, Spanish, Italian, French)
•  Esperanza Moreno (BA, Justice Peace and Conflict Studies, fluent in Spanish, experience in work with displaced women, Colombia and Venezuela)
•  Laura Schildt (MA, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University, EMU, fluent in Spanish and English, experience in community development, Mexico)
•  Federico Laggi (MA, Development Studies, fluent in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Camp Manager of the UNHCR D’Jabal Refugee Camp for the Italian NGO INTERSOS (2004); currently Italy-Morocco Remittances Corridor Project Analyst)
•  Tobias Pechmann (Student in International Politics, University of Marburg, fluent in German and English, Photographer)

Summary
This study tells a chapter of the story of mass migrations in the 21st century. A rapidly growing number of African migrants enter the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in northern Morocco. Many pay for a place in tiny overcrowded boats that use darkness to cross the Straits of Gibraltar. Those who reach Spain find themselves stranded in Red Cross refugee camps, work as farm laborers or keep going to France and more recently Italy. Some make it only as bodies washed ashore.
Through qualitative interviews grounded in appreciative inquiry, we wish to explore the complexities of the humiliation experienced by these migrants through the sophisticated security mechanisms of "defense" implemented by the Spanish / Moroccan immigration systems financed by the European Union. These barriers include a new "wall" or fence, located in Ceuta, lately installed infrared and radar systems to identify the "pateras" on the sea, and xenophobic and racist responses in the societies that receive them. Those who succeed exhibit an incredible resilience that allows them to transcend their condition as "harragas," people who have burned their past. Through this study we hope to contribute to breaking the cycles of humiliation fueled by the displacement of many and to making our world a hospitable place for all people.

Researchers:

•  Brenes Abelardo (Ph.D., Director of the M.A. Programme in Peace Education at the University for Peace in San José, Costa Rica)
•  Alicia Cabezudo (Director, Educating Cities Latin America, International Relations Bureau, Municipality of Rosario, Argentina)
•  Antony Jenkins (Peace Education Center, Teachers College, Columbia University, NY)
and
•  Alphonse Nshimiyimana
•  Onen Christine Harriet
•  Veronica Pacini

Summary
Humiliation, which results in interference with goal-oriented behaviour or threat to life, material wellbeing or self-concept, is the key feature of violent conflicts in Africa today. The Great Lakes Region of Africa has been experiencing, for almost five decades, a continuous influx and efflux of refugees, stateless persons, and the internal displacement of the masses. The repeated displacement and disruption of livelihood has made displaced persons in Rwanda and Uganda dependent on handouts in addition to the loss of motivation for advancement, old self-reliance, progress or betterment.
Many times the refugees suffer dire life conditions in their new settings, which has a counter effect on their healing processes and state of mourning. The process of mourning is a necessary critical social need without which a cycle of humiliation will continue and hope for the community to prepare for a better future becomes unlikely.
The displaced persons camp is a place where humiliation is neither considered nor resolved. Thus, there is a need to investigate factors that fuel humiliation and identify the action to make refugees camps an educational place where humiliation can be transformed through peaceful means.

Researcher:

•  Raïs Neza Boneza (Norway/ Democratic Republic of Congo [Ex-Zaire]), BA in Social Sciences, MA of Humanities, Author and Poet. The title of his project is Afro-Hitlerism: Historic of Cultural Humiliation in the Great-Lakes)

Summary
By Hitlerism, we see a tendency or an ideology that duplicates political and racist values as well as concrete modalities of Nazism without necessarily having a total relationship or political affinity with it. This ideology includes mass killing, genocide, rhetorical patterns, falsification of history, and superiority, supremacist attitudes, aggressive militarism, interventionist mentality, propaganda, mass control through indoctrination, uncontrolled nationalistic emotions. The Hitlerism behaviour is accompanied by a "Sionic syndrome" that could be identified as "victimhood" both embodied in "Cyclic Humiliation."
The main aim of this project is to address the other facet on African conflicts. Namely issues concerning the culture of humiliation which consequently are provocative of "refugees flux or forced immigration" that raises states instability, insecurity and difficulties for regional integration on the continent. The project research relies on historic-political and archaeological data. The population targeted in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, R.D. Congo, Sudan, Kenya, Somalia, and eventually Sierra-Leone, Liberia.

Researchers:

•  Van der Linden (Professor, Department of Cognitive Psychopathology, University of Geneva, Switzerland)
and
•  Tsempzang Simplice

Summary
African contest is always marked with war and social troubles. This situation has dire consequences on human life. Refugees have to move in order to find better conditions for life. Many Africans suffer in their countries due to poverty and war, however, as refugees, they suffer even more. They face a hostile environment, inadequate integration policies of the host government, exploitation and conflict derived from cultural clash. Even more, many refugees are still young and living without psychological support. There is often a lack of coordination between national and international organization policies as regards immigration.
The aim of this research is to show that instabilities deriving from war and poverty can lead to other forms instabilities that are specific to psychological functioning.
We hope that through this study, the authorities in charge will find within the occasion to better understand the consequences of their decisions and actions. We also hope that this study will bring more light into the mental functioning of the refugees.
The theory that supports this research is the theory of traumatism. Questions asked are as follows: How do refugees live psychologically their double humiliation?
The main hypothesis is that the daily life of refugees is more burdened with negative feelings than the lives of non-refugees, negative feeling meaning humiliation, low self esteem, depression, anxiety, lack of emotional regulation, and post traumatic syndrome disorder.

Researchers:

•  Linda Hartling (Ph.D., Stone Centre, Wellesley College for Women, USA)
and
•  Miriam H. Marton

Summary
Reports continue to flow from refugee camps about the interminable sexual violence committed against female refugees.1 The extent of such sexual violence, however, remains unknown. What is known is that sexual violence is one of the most humiliating experiences a human being can suffer. What is also known is that refugees are often from or displaced into countries with extremely patriarchal cultures with religious beliefs or social customs that prohibit reporting, seeking treatment, or prosecution in relation to acts of sexual violence, and, in fact, promote victim blaming.
Furthermore, most contemporary nation-states are based in patriarchal cultures themselves. Sexual violence is a part of these cultures and is often used to demonstrate conquest of one group over another, leading to condonation rather then condemnation of sexual violence. Thus, the international community has been outrageously reluctant to work for the cessation of sexual violence committed in the context of conflict. The study begins then with the hypothesis that female refugee rape survivors experience another wave of humiliation inflicted by both or one of local patriarchal cultures and the international community.
The study proposes to determine the extent of sexual violence committed against female refugees and understand the female refugees' experience of living with the rape experience. The study will further look at the options that have been put in place to deal with sexual violence against female refugees and how (a) the culture in which the woman finds herself prevents her from utilizing such options; and (b) the options themselves may constitute another wave of humiliation.
1 There are also reports of the sexual assault on children. This study limits itself to the sexual assault of adult female refugees.

Researchers:

•  Alicia Cabezudo (Director, Educating Cities Latin America, International Relations Bureau, Municipality of Rosario, Argentina)
and
•  Alyi Patrick Lalur

Summary
Adulthood sexual violence and the humiliation that result from such abuse occur in many places all over the world with very few being reported. Many programs that address symptoms of sexual abuses tend to concentrate on handling consequence of childhood sexual abuses (CSA). If reported they are reported as rape and not the many forms of sexual assaults that could have happened. For refugee women and girls, where human rights abuses take place on a daily basis, these atrocities assume special significance and may have life long impacts on their physical and psychological recovery, creativity, healing and sense of community. Consequences of adulthood sexual assaults are serious and long term ranging from community rejection and psychological trauma to HIV/AID infection and death. These vicious cycles of violence go on with sometimes full notice of the authorities who do not want to talk about. Whether women are vulnerable as result of previous sexual assaults has not attracted attention of researchers either.
Until lately, apart from rape, many sexual assaults among refugees have happened with very little attentions being given to investigate and particularly the psychological recovery of the victims, their coping strategies, the humiliation and the relationships that the victims later on develop with the perpetrators.
In the current case study I intend to investigate the correlation between resilience, healing and humiliation among 1,800 Sudanese sexually assaulted refugees living in Uganda. The study will use both quantitative and qualitative approaches in three case study camps all found in Northern Uganda which at the present host over 200,000 registered refugees.

Researchers:

•  Vernon Jantzi (Ph.D., is a Professor of Sociology at the Conflict Transformation Program at Eastern Mennonite University, Virginia, USA)
•  Chantal Logan (Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the Eastern Mennonite University, Virginia, USA)
and
• Jean Berchmans Ndayizigiye

Summary
This study is about contemporary refugees from the countries of the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The research intends to present a more comprehensive, systematic and tenable understanding of the fact that so many people have turned into refugees. It also intends to understand the refugee world and what makes this problem continue until now, or what factors helped to sustain it. It aims to find out the types and extent of humiliation they are facing while living as refugees. As no research has been done to highlight the issue of humiliation in Burundian, Congolese, and Rwandan refugees, therefore this research will be a tool for the advocacy of the voiceless, stateless people and an authentic documentation of the plight and deplorable condition of these people who once had a family, a dignified life, and a country.

Researchers:

•  Jayne Seminare Docherty (Ph.D., Associate Professor of Conflict Studies Conflict Transformation Program, Eastern Mennonite University, Virginia, USA)
•  Howard Zehr (Ph.D., Professor of Sociology and Restorative Justice, Co-Director of the Conflict Transformation Program, Eastern Mennonite University, Virginia, USA)
and
• Manas Ghanem

Summary
This research aims to increases our awareness of the humiliation that refugees are suffering from in the country of refuge. It focuses on knowing the reasons behind this feeling of lack of self respect while in refuge; and the link between this feeling of humiliation and the various levels of violence starting with self destruction up to its effects on the community and society levels. We need to highlight the effects of such feelings of humiliation among refugees on the relationships they make in the society of the hosting country. The case study of this research is the Iraqi refugees in two specific countries in the Middle East, Syria and Jordan being the main refuge countries for a huge number of Iraqis of all categories for the past two decades.
This research could be of great importance in giving guidelines to the United Nations to help directing the official agencies of the countries of refuge (Jordan and Syria) to better deal with the phenomenon of refugee’s rehabilitation. It also provides international agencies dealing with refugees in the region with information to formulate better policies of rehabilitation and integration of refugees in the countries of refuge and resettlement so that the community as an organization learns how to deal with its conflicts which causes negative feelings of humiliation. Policies that would take in consideration the refugee’s psychological need to feel their self respect, dignity and honour.

Researchers:

•  François Audigier (Professor, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology at the University of Geneva, Switzerland)
and
• Jean-Damascène Gasanabo

Summary
The history of humanity has always seen conflicts, civil wars or international violence. In different parts of the world, people have been killed and others exiled as refugees, having to flee their homes. Despite the fact that local and international organizations provide essential necessities to the refugees and theirs employees show humanity and respect while accomplishing theirs tasks with professionalism, the refugees still lose their dignity. Their self-esteem may also suffer. In the country they arrive, refugees suffer sometimes of isolation because they are not integrated in the local community. They feel humiliated from both sides, from their original country as well as from the host country. As result of this, many refugees face psychological problems. While some children and adults show a high level of resilience to trauma, others suffer serious and lasting effects, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), distress, impairment of attachment, making it difficult for them to form strong relationships. Our survey would analyse and compare how African refugees in Africa and in Europe suffer humiliation.

Researchers:

•  Pierre Dasen (Professor of Anthropology of Education and Cross-Cultural Psychology at the Faculty of Psychology and Education of the University of Geneva, Switzerland)
and
•  Théogène-Octave Gakuba
•  Egide Rwamatwara

Summary
In Rwanda, the 1994 genocide of Tutsi and ‘moderate’ Hutu claimed more than a million lives and forced many more into exile. The Rwandan tragedy is one of its kind in the history of Humanity. Several forms of violence and humiliation were used during the genocide, including torture, rape, opening the womb of the pregnant woman, cutting the body into pieces using machetes, inhumation of alive people.
Survivors of genocide still suffer from the consequences of this traumatizing experience. They are not able to mourn their lost ones and have difficulties to give a meaning to their existence. Refugees have also an extra challenge of adapting to a new mode of life in exile and this worsens their psychological suffering. Thus most of them find their exile life very traumatizing since their return is not conceivable in a near future.
This research adopts a comprehensive/descriptive and explanatory approach to analyse the concept of humiliation and its socio-psychological consequences using the case of Rwanda refugees in Africa and in Europe. In order to attain this objective, we shall analyse the concept of humiliation from an interdisciplinary approach which make use of anthropological, sociological and psychological theories.

Researchers:

•  Alicia Cabezudo (Director, Educating Cities Latin America, International Relations Bureau, Municipality of Rosario, Argentina)
and
• Sadaf Rassoul Cameron

Summary
This is a sociological study of Afghans who arrived in the United States in the late 1970’s. The aim is to delve into the stories of these people at this time and recount incidents of humiliation in the sharp contrast of East meets West, to then compare, contrast, and study these stories with incidents of humiliation post September 11th.

Researchers:

•  Richard Alapack (Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, Norway)
and
• Zahid Shahab Ahmed

Summary
The study will target both registered and non-registered refugees in South Asian countries. Registered refugees are formally entitled to any basic facilities offered by UNHCR and other International organizations like food, shelter, heath and education. Targeting non-registered refugees, because Tibetan refugees are not living in refugee camps provided by any international organization or UNHCR.
Mostly the refugees in this region are living in camps in the restricted areas. According to Refugees International’s report Rohingya refugees mainly live in Cox’s Bazaar district illegally among the local population. Further the report says that Rohingya refugees now live in horrendous conditions with mortality rates near emergency levels and no means of obtaining basic services and protection.
Refugees in South Asia are facing lots of problems and the most severe one could be if none of the nations are willing to accept them as their citizens, this is humiliation a root of severe psychological problems.
Therefore, this research is with intent to find out the dimensions of humiliation in case with specific refugee groups in South Asia. Furthermore, the researcher will try to find out the link of humiliation with basic human rights of refugees, such as food, security, shelter, health and education.

Researchers:

•  Williams R. O’Neill (Ph.D., Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, USA)
and
• Victor Boudjou Adangba

Summary
The major focus of this work will be on immigrants and humiliation. With several years of wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone, and ongoing political tensions in some West African countries, the experiences of refugees and immigrants come to the fore. These experiences raise ethical, theological as well as existential questions.
At the same time, however, the population of refugees in West Africa is mostly composed of immigrants. Because they are frequently pejoratively called "aliens", "foreigners", and "outsiders", immigrants become the first targets and victims of national conflicts and, thus, increase the population of refugees and internally displaced people (IDP). This research, therefore, seeks to analyze from the ethical and theological points of view humiliation that immigrants suffer in four West African countries.

Researchers:

•  Rubén A. Chababo (Literature Professor, Assistant Professor of Nineteenth Century Argentine Literature at the Humanities and Arts School of Rosario, and a Literature Professor at Bialik Institute in Rosario, Director of the Museo de la Memoria (Museum of Memory) in the city of Rosario, pertaining to a branch of the Secretary of Culture of the Municipality of Rosario, which is the first governmental institution devoted to reconstructing and safekeeping the memory of the recent past linked to the last military dictatorship, in power from 1976 to 1983)
•  Sandra Helena Cachenot (Psychologist)
and
•  Coordinator of Research Team: Marcela Valdata
•  Team Members: Advanced Undergraduate Students: María Laura Salafia, Delia Natalia Urquiza, Jorgelina Gabriela Almeida, Juan Manuel Walmaggia
Graduate: Ceferino Roque Moreira

Summary
The present work will realizes inter-disciplinary group (Political Sciences- Anthropology- Museum Conservation- History- Psychology- Social Work) who focused the problematic of the humiliations safer by individuals that have been persecuted, detained and liberated, refugees (both living abroad and in the country) and the families of the disappeared in the city of Rosario during the last military coup government (period 1975-1983). It will realizes through of data collection of the facts that caused the detention of individuals in Rosario and surrounding area, identification of causes of detention and investigating the treatment given to the detainees in Detention Centers, analyzing the different strategies of survival implemented by the persecuted/detained/liberated individuals that led to seeking refuges and analyzing the difficulties in reestablishing social life. The study will be qualitative. The researchers will use as a basis the ethnographic method of data collection with interviews and observation. The bibliographical, iconographic and photographic with modern technical museum conservation.

Researchers:

•  Rev. Fr. Joseph Xavier (PhD., Former Principal, Loyola College, Chennai, India)
and
• Florina Benoit
•  G. Gladston Xavier

Summary
The project is a qualitative study on the Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees living in camps in
Tamil Nadu and on the humiliation that they face. It proposes to highlight the present day situation. This study is important, because presently there is no documentation of the humiliation undergone by the refugees. Since India is not a signatory to the United Nations convention of 1951, they are not answerable to the international body. There are many human rights violation in the camps. All the humiliation is overruled by the humanitarian assistance that the Government of India gives to the refugees. The general objective of the study is to study the humiliation done to the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees. This will be done in the refugee camps in Tamil Nadu. Since this is a new venture the study will be one of its kind. It will add knowledge to the existing problems among the refugees. Recommendations based on this study will be valuable for refugee work.

Researchers:

•  Linda Hartling (Ph.D., Stone Centre, Wellesley College for Women, USA)
and
•  Victoria Fontan

Summary
The destruction of an estimated 2/3rds of the city of Fallujah, in November 2004, was widely publicized in the US as the ultimate fight for democracy in preparation for the January 2005 Iraqi elections. A direct result from the re-election of George W. Bush to the White House, Operation Phantom Fury has alienated the city's surviving population to an occupying force that was once welcome as a liberating entity. Today, this refugee population of approximately 150,000 people endures harsh living conditions in camps scattered in and around Baghdad. It refuses all humanitarian help from any country that is part of the US-led coalition and has often ordered the abduction of many Western journalists attempting to initiate any form of communication. Very few Fallujah refugees participated in the January 2005 electoral process, thus alienating this community to Iraq 's newly acquired democracy as well as the rest of the Iraqi population. What went wrong? What are the escalation dynamics that led the situation to reach such a tragic climax? Is the polarization between occupiers and occupied in post-Saddam Iraq an intractable situation? This research project aims at analyzing and understanding the mechanisms that led to the current socio-political situation, in order to foster a potential de-escalation between this specific community and the rest of the Iraqi population. A preliminary research that was carried out in Fallujah between May 2003 and April 2004 has identified humiliation as a key element in conflict escalation. This research will attempt to further earlier findings in the form of a survey of the surviving population of Fallujah and look for alternative strategies for stabilization in comparable situations.

Researcher:

•  Michael Roper, Sociology Department, University of Essex, UK
•  Ana Ljubinkovic

Summary
First influx of Somali refugees currently residing in Dadaab Refugee Camps in North-Eastern District of Kenya, escaped their war ravaged country and arrived to the camps in 1991. Between December 1992 and March 1995, Somalia was receiving American led UN military humanitarian intervention (UNOSOM). While it is generally accepted that the intervention had scarce success due to poor intervening strategy, the fact that intervening forces deliberately killed, raped and in many other ways physically and psychologically injured and humiliated Somali people has been widely overlooked. After the withdrawal of the foreign troops, second large influx of Somali refugees arrived to the refugee camps. Numerous victims of the foreign forces were among them. Once again Somali refugees were entirely dependent on UN and its implementing partners for their survival in the Refugee Camps. Besides the core humiliation inherent in such state of dependency, Somali people experience variety of other types of degradation and debasement induced by the UN and its partners. This research will attempt to unfold the complex and multifaceted experience of the humiliation in the refugee camps and try to disclose different shapes it might assume. Focus will be on the feeling of humiliation induced by the assistance provider while trying to understand the links between past humiliating experiences with UNOSOM and present the present one in the Camps.

Researcher:

•  Katrine Fangen

Summary
Life as a refugee attempting to create a new life in an unfamiliar country is filled with uncertainties. Due to a lack of language and cultural knowledge misunderstandings occur. People in these circumstances are vulnerable to experiences of humiliation. The majority population's prejudices against strangers also contribute to newly-arrived refugees experiencing more humiliating situations than do others. This project attempts to analyze experiences of humiliation among refugees, using Somali refugees as a case. The principal research question here is why and how refugees experience humiliation in exile? What kinds of situations trigger feelings of humiliation in refugees and why are these situations experienced as humiliating? The project attempts to develop a theory of humiliating experiences among exiles, based on interviews in advance, 35 Somalis and 20 Norwegians are already interviewed), as well as participatory observations and meetings with a focus group. Refugees in a society vastly different from that of their home country might be vulnerable to intimidation, and might also be met in hurtful ways. Humiliation occurring in the home country might continue in the new country, and new types of humiliating situations might develop between individuals from the home country in the new setting. The theory set forth to identify typical reactions of the refugees to certain humiliating situations, and offers some suggestions for ways to prevent humiliating experiences.