The Philippines and the Mindanao Conflict – An Ethnographic Study on a Conflict Induces Internal Diaspora from Mindanao in Metro Manila

The conflict in Mindanao, Philippines, is highly fragmented and characterized by multiple sources of violence, which leaves the affected civil society immensely vulnerable. Entire villages are repeatedly forced into displacement, whereby a considerable number of the so-called “bakwit” (evacuees) seeks shelter in either official evacuation camps or unofficial evacuation sites. Due to the long duration of the conflict, IDPs (internally displaced persons) in Mindanao, specifically in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), often face protracted displacement. The destruction of livelihoods as well as of family-structures, and the severe interruptions in the daily life undermine the development in the affected areas significantly over generations.

Hence, apart from the immediate need to evacuate, it is suggested that a significant part of the affected civil society decides voluntarily to leave the place of origin in order to seek for more stability elsewhere in the Philippines or abroad. The movement of respective internal migrants thereby remains unregistered, they consequently fall out of national as well as of international monitoring schemes. Even though there is a lack of official statistics about such internal migration movements, it can be observed that since the outbreak of the conflict, the emergence of Muslim communities all over the Philippines increased decisively. Metro Manila thereby shows the largest share. Due to the religious dimension of the conflict and the resulting marginalization of the Muslim population native to Mindanao in the Christian dominated surrounding, these visible dynamics of movement and settlement indicate existing migrant networks of Muslim Filipinos within the Philippines. In this respect, an ethnographic field research was conducted in the Muslim community from the Salam Compound, Quezon City, Metro Manila in February 2016 and May until July 2016 with the support of International Alert Philippines. The research focused on the impact of internal migrant networks on the emergence of conflict induced internal diasporas in terms of push and pull factors, the settlement and the maintenance of home ties.