Refugee rights and wrongs: global cultural diffusion among the Congolese in South Africa

The goal is to put ethnographic flesh on the bones of what is normally a theoretical discussion. The refugee experience is particularly interesting because it provides a window onto two distinct layers of global civil society.

First, it sheds light on how individuals learn about and use global norms and practices and how this learning process varies in their home and host-country context. Second, the refugee experience reveals the ways in which organizations learn about and put into practice universal values and strategies. This paper includes sections following the introduction on 'Theoretical Debates', 'The Congolese-South African Connection', 'The Diffusion of Ideas and Practices Among Individuals', 'Cultural Diffusion in Organizational Contexts', followed by conclusion.