Socio-economic consequences of development-induced internal displacement and the coping strategies of female victims in Lagos Nigeria: An ethno-demographic study

Abstract

The plethora of violent strife, man-made or natural disasters, economic vicissitudes, and major development schemes have swelled the number refugees and internally displaced people, in the developing countries of the world lately. Statistics revealed that there are over 55 million people in this dire situation globally consisting of over 38 million internally displacedpeople, over 16 million refugees and over 1 million asylum-seekers. This study highlights the impacts, the socio-economic consequences of development-induced internal displacement on females in the Lagos urban space, evaluating the coping strategies employed by them. This is a qualitative study that employed a combination of key informant and in-depth interview methods to generate primary data from the samples purposively drawn from the population of interestwhich comprised people forcibly evicted from Badia, in Lagos State, Nigeria. The interviews were conducted from Tuesday 14th to Thursday 16th October 2014 using unstructured interview guide. The study establishes thatforcible eviction and the consequent displacements brought a myriad of economic, social and psychological hardships on the female victims in Badia, to which they were compelled to devise various ingenious survival and coping strategies. The study ascertains that women cope better emotionally and economically than men in such circumstances and it also found that extended family members are a significant pillar of support to displaced persons.