Promoting IDPs' and Women's Voices in Post-Conflict Georgia

groups do not differentiate between IDPs and other conflict-affected populations, however. Theythereby present an example of an advocacy effort that increases IDPs’ participation but not by rallyingaround their identity as IDPs. 344Also mentioned in a previous section, IDPs have the right to decide how they want to emotionallymanage their displacement and identity. They also have important choices about whether to actindividually or a collective group. Yet discrepancies exist between their identities as individuals and asmembers of an IDP community. One informal study conducted by Manana Gabashvili with theNorwegian Refugee Council demonstrates this tension, and highlights opportunities for new thinking onIDP identity. A group of 25 old-wave IDP women with jobs were asked to use words to identifythemselves and to identify IDPs as a group. Individually, the women would identify themselves withwords such as, “teacher,” “journalist,” and “strong.” Yet the same women would identify IDPs as agroup with words such as “helpless,” “hopeless” and “victims.” 345 Gabashvili’s survey illustrates howIDPs’ more positive individual identities differ from their less optimistic perception of IDPs as a group.This example sheds light on how these women see themselves and whether they would identify withthis group, which in turn influences how they choose to participate in public life.Closely related to IDPs’ contested personal and social identities is their fractured political identity. IDPsas a whole do not currently agree on one platform or one body to represent them politically; they donot represent a single constituency or voting bloc. There is no known study of IDPs’ political beliefs, butgiven the diversity among this population, we see no reason to believe that IDPs would necessarily sharea political ideology. Although IDPs do certainly share common interests in seeing a resolution theconflicts with Abkhazia and South Ossetia/Tskhinvali region that would allow them to return andensuring they are provided with adequate support in their places of displacement, when it comes tospecific policies, it seems they have different interests even within these broad areas of agreement. Themajor division in this respect seems to be between old wave and new wave IDPs, but our overall findingssuggest that IDPs in different geographic areas and different living situations would have differentpolitical interests as well.An old wave IDP from Abkhazia who has spent the majority of his period of displacement in a collectivecenter in Tbilisi but now lives in private accommodation described the lack of political connection hefeels with new wave IDPs. Even after visiting a new wave IDP settlement, he said, although he saw thesimilarities between old wave and new wave IDPs trying to adapt to displacement, he did not feel astrong personal connection or solidarity with the new wave IDPs. “We are all refugees, we have oneview that we all have to go back to our homes, but what else?” he asked. 346344 Caroline Stampfer, Personal Interview.345 Manana Gabashvili, Personal Interview.346 David Chochia, Personal Interview.67