Neither Tourists nor Refugees: Legal Limbo and Adaptive Strategies among displaced Sudanese nationals

This study investigates the lived experiences of Sudanese displaced persons, focusing on how legal status shapes access to protection, livelihoods, and social mobility. The study analyzes Sudanese displacement across legal frameworks, border governance, entry and registration challenges, livelihoods, gendered vulnerabilities, xenophobia, and repatriation, highlighting structural and experiential dimensions. It examines how changing policies, produce differentiated restrictions against legal border-crossing, influencing opportunities, vulnerabilities, and uncertainty in everyday life. It explores how Sudanese refugees navigate these constraints, develop coping strategies through irregular crossing to borders, informal livelihoods, and rely on social networks to sustain families and communities. By centering refugee perspectives alongside structural and policy analysis, the study addresses a critical gap in the literature. The findings underscore the need for evidence-based policies, including strengthened legal status and safe mobility pathways, gender-sensitive protection and livelihood programs, and the inclusion of refugee perspectives in policy design and monitoring to better support Sudanese displaced persons in host countries.