Congratulations to Deo Mwapinga on successfully defending his PhD dissertation titled The Politics of Citizenship as a Durable Solution for Refugees in Tanzania: A Comparative Case Study of Naturalization of the Rwandese Refugees (1980-1995) and Burundian Refugees (2008-2023).
Deo Mwapinga completed his doctoral study at the Department of Political Science under the supervision of Dr. James Milner. Deo also has been an invaluable contributor to the LERRN (The Local Engagement Refugee Research Network) Tanzania working group. Prior to arriving in Canada for his doctorate, Dr. Mwapinga served as a government official in the Government of Tanzania working with Burundian refugees in Katumba and Mishamo settlements in Tanzania from 2012 to 2017.
With the average duration of a refugee situation now lasting over 20 years, Mwapinga’s PhD research aims to take up the global challenge of finding durable solutions for refugees. His research dives into the complex politics of refugee solutions with a particular focus on naturalization processes. The case of Tanzania is particularly interesting, as it has granted citizenship to large groups of refugees twice – Rwandese refugees in the 1980s and Burundian refugees in the 2010s. In his dissertation, Mwapinga proposes advancing the understanding of local integration as a triad by introducing the concept of “quasi-citizenship” to capture the transitional state of citizenship for ex-Barundi refugees.