Making A Living
![Ayaan, Bosaaso: “I thank God that I can do small business. I go to the main slaughter house and buy several kilos of meat and cut up and resell in my village. This allows me to get and cook the rice for my children. Sometimes I get profit while the other times I may not since some people take it as credit and give me back after two to three weeks. I sometimes go to the livestock market. I go with a broker who will be responsible for me. Then I come with a goat and slaughter it to sell to the villagers though sometimes no one can buy from you or will take it as credit. Sometimes they pay it back sometimes you have to wait. It is a really difficult business to do. I go to the market every day. I go to look for vegetables and buy meat if I miss there I go to the livestock market or slaughterhouse if I get one goat as a loan it is good, if not I come back home. I then collect the money from the sale. I go alone and I use the bus. It is very far from here… I am here [at my stall] from eight in the morning up till 3pm. I hope to God that here we have education for our children – the place we came from had none, nothing, no livelihood at all.”](https://securityonthemove.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Ayaan-Bosaaso.jpg)
The majority of photographers fled to cities to escape ongoing violence and/or because of consecutive droughts. People were dispossessed, lost their livelihoods and moved to the city to increase their safety and to find new economic opportunities. Displaced people constitute an important labour force in all four cities, and they contribute to the economies of all four cities. Men often work as day laborers, porters, or in construction. While they are a vital part of ongoing reconstruction and development of urban infrastructure, their work is insecure, irregular, and employment often depends on personal contacts. No safety regulations exist, and no compensation is paid in case a worker gets injured.
Many interviewed women offer services to private homes. They work as house maids or cleaners, but also as porters or petty-traders. Their payment depends on daily negotiations and most of the female interviewees in Mogadishu had experienced either a refusal of payment or a lower than agreed rate. There are no means available to them to resolve labour conflicts. Several women additionally experienced violent threats, beatings or even rape during such daily employment. In all four cities, women have become the main breadwinners of their families. This may be because their services are more regularly requested, or that they are more persistent in searching for employment and more willing to do any work available. They generally work more for less and irregular pay, and face various security threats in doing so. Urban displaced people – men and women – are part of the globally growing number of people living under precarious conditions and in situations that can only be characterized as normalized emergencies.