Longing for Homes Where Mangroves Used to Grow: Narratives of Internally Displaced Persons in Southern Philippines

This master's thesis project, involving three months of ethnographic fieldwork using decolonial Filipino methodology and methods, is an exploration of armed conflict induced displacement in Zamboanga City (Mindanao, Philippines). The stories shared by eleven research participants from four barangays, interrogate the dominant representations of internally displaced persons (IDPs) as voiceless victims in need of rescue and reliant on humanitarian assistance. Using bahala na or agency specific to the Filipino cultural context, IDP women and gender diverse individuals challenged the conventional understandings of agency to recognize decision-making beyond individual choices. The findings highlight that the enactment of agency by Filipino IDPs in southern Philippines is shaped by class and ethno-religious-linguistic identities, revealing the inherently unequal and unruly patterns of mobility.