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.