The role of social interactions in integrating internally displaced people – Evidence from an insurgency in Mozambique

This project will focus on the current jihadist insurgency in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. It will
study how intergroup contact between internally displaced people (IDPs) and local hosts can
promote the social integration of both groups – measured with a combination of surveys, list
experiments, implicit association tests, lab-in-the-field games and text-analysis.
This project will conduct a field-experiment in the city of Pemba (the main location where IDPs
are sheltering), joining both IDPs and locals in a program of 12 community meetings happening
every 4 weeks. During these community meetings, moderated by local community leaders,
participants will share their viewpoints about topics related to their daily life, always trying to
understand each other’s position and to reach common ground. Insurgencies also rely at least
on the tolerance of the population towards insurgents. I will also measure how community
meetings can increase religious tolerance and they can decrease population’s bias towards
insurgents.