A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

life after reSettlement
The length of the conflict and the multiple changes of government resulted both in an extended
period of emigration from Liberia as well as the emigration of specific groups as their political,
social and economic fortunes changed. Resettlement, while clearly a desirable and safe outcome for
many, has stresses of its own. This section of the report considers the experiences of Liberians in
the third phase of the paradigm, resettlement
outside their country of origin, and will focus
specifically on the experiences of the diaspora
community in the United States and the United
Kingdom.
Successive waves of emigration to the United
States by various groups are reflected in the
statements of those who fled the Doe regime in
the period 1980-1990, and the Taylor regime in
the period 1997-2003, as well as those who left
the country in the intervening years between
the two regimes. Many early arrivals in the
United States were not driven by the need to
escape violence or persecution, but rather left
Liberia for political or economic reasons, 332
to further their education 333 or to work. 334 In
the 1970s there were only about 25 Liberians
in Minnesota. 335 “Most came to attend…a
technical college in the Minneapolis Uptown
area that was providing training in mining
technology…” 336
In the aftermath of the 1980 coup, emigration to escape violence and persecution or to ensure personal
safety increased and continued until the end of the conflict. “1980 came, the coup came, and Liberia
became uninhabitable for a lot of people. And many of them found their way to [a third country], and
it became sort of a temporary but permanent home, hoping that conditions in Liberia would change.”
337
As war broke out, Liberians who were already abroad were sometimes stranded in their host countries.
One Liberian now living in the United Kingdom noted that he had arrived in the United Kingdom on
a scholarship in 1989. 338 He had been planning to travel back to Liberia to see his family when Charles
Taylor’s and Prince Johnson’s forces began fighting for control of Monrovia.
342