Seasonal Migration

The arid soil and dry environment made Somalia a based pastoral society, also has been described as a Nomadic. ( Gundel).
Marchal in 1996 characterised somalia nomadic culture by a subsistence economy, trade to produce necessities and transhumance to adapt to cycles of climate, and a political structure segmented horizontal.(Marchal 1996: 11).
The term nomadic involves mobility; Mobilities has been a traditional mechanism and strategy to combat drought and famine seeking rainfall and better soil to cultivate. Seasonal Migration had been the traditional type of mobility over the years. “They will, however, periodically migrate and “camp … near permanent water sites” during the dry seasons and “return [to the villages] on a regular basis” (

The causes, processes and effects are widely interconnected along
In this essay migrations will be considered as a movement rather than an static situation,(...) Migration does not correspond to a particular place and time. In contrast, migration had existed from the beginning of time without being subjected to just one particular place. What has been changing over the years is the forms of migration; from a diverse number of reasons of relocation, various paths to emigrate, broad amount of destinations and also different expectations.
Schapendonk (date,ref) differentiates Sub-Saharan migration from others, where considerable sums of money, courage, right contacts and some organizational capacity are key elements to migrate. Also something very characteristic is that migration are seen as fragmented journeys; starting with a departure, staying in a transit place and finally the settlement. The transit place it means immobility, waiting involuntary in certain areas before to settle.( Içduygu and Yukseker, 2008)
Those differences arise from the fact that sub-Saharan community, most of the times, is affected by geo-political closing ( boarders)

Analysing patterns Most IDPs originate from south-central Somalia and have remained within the region, likely in close proximity to their places of residence. In Somaliland, some of the IDPs were originally refugees that had fled to Ethiopia during the 1987 civil war. They became IDPs upon their return after having lost access to their land and unable to restore their pastoral livelihood.101 As of February 2013, the estimates of IDPs in Somalia ranged between 1.1 million and 1.36 million.102 The geographic distribution of IDPs regionally is ( IOM, 2014).
South-central Somalia-920,000, of which 372,000 are in Mogadishu; Puntland-130,000; and
Somaliland-84,000.103

Colonial time: During Colonial time, nomadic Somalis were mobilized into the five areas: British, Italian, and French Somaliland. An ancient Somali diaspora appeared from British Somaliland. Currently, the Somali diaspora (including UK citizens) in the UK is estimated at between 70,000 (Pérouse de Montclos, forthcoming: 2) and 100,000 (Ahmed, 2000), while the official number (which excludes pre-conflict Somalis in the UK) is 20,000. (Pérouse de Montclos,