indings suggest that pro- grammes for assistance to IDPs should take into more account the degree to which mobility forms part of people’s livelihood strategies before, during and after violent conflicts. 1 ‘Tourists’ or returnees ? Back in 1999, in a migrant neighbour- hood in Huancayo, a city of 1 million inhabitants in the Central Andes, a government official meets with a group of IDPs. A couple of teachers among them have organised a group of 40 families for their return to the villages they left between 1983 and 1992, when the war between the army and the Maoist guerrilla movement, the Shining Path, wracked the region. By the mid 1990s, between 300,000 and 600,000 people had been internal- ly displaced. In general, people left their rural villages to seek refuge in towns and cities, although these too were affected by the conflict. In Huancayo, the group discusses the procedures and criteria of return with the government official. He represents the Programme for Support to the Repopulation of Peru (Programa de Apoyo al Repoblamiento, PAR 3 ) which was formed in 1994, partly in response to pressure from interna- tional and national organisations that wanted the government to recognise the problem of forced displacements in Peru. The rapid deterioration of liv- ing conditions in the cities is a driving force behind the urge to organise assisted returns and PAR is the only potential source of support in this process. The main subject of discussion is the government’s condition that only fam- ilies who leave in order to settle permanently in the village and become ‘active comuneros’ (members of the peasant community) will receive support. In several return des- tinations, returnees have been characterised as ‘tourists’ because they did not stay in the villages but returned to the cities. At the meeting, the mothers argue that they have to stay in the city where their children attend school. Everybody knows about the inferior quality of the village schools and secondary schools are hard to find. The men want to be able to leave the village for different tasks. However, the official insists: "Father, mother, children, the entire group — that is what we call a family. ...this is the objective." Thus, he argues, the returnees will not be successful in developing their village livelihoods, nor will they receive governmental support for this, unless the families settle permanently and together exert pressure for improvement of the school and other services. The official asserts that more returns will follow. "Yeah," the women giggle, "returns to the city". Mobile livelihoods The discussion reveals different prob- lems in the perception of IDPs and delivery of assistance to them. Return to villages with poor services, no elec- tricity, struggles over access to former land and communal pastures with low productivity is very difficult for peo- ple who have spent up to 15 years in the city. A less obvious problem, how- ever, is the common underestimation of the degree to which mobility forms part of livelihood strategies in general, and in particular in the Andes. Historically, the population has lived highly mobile lives. During the 20th century, temporary migra- tion to the jungle, coastal plantations, mines and Lima enabled an increasing number of the villagers to establish them- selves in the city of Huancayo and combine rural and urban liveli- hoods. Today only the poorest families do not engage in seasonal migration and most influential families have dual residence. Thus, comuneros may live in the village as well as in the city. They just have to attend the general assem- blies and present themselves or a substitute for the general work turnouts in order to keep up enti- tlement as members of the peasant community. 36 FMR 14 IDPs and mobile livelihoods by Finn Stepputat and Ninna Nyberg Sørensen A recent research project has examined the relations between internal displacement and migration in the Peruvian Andes in the second half of the 20th centu- ry and the difference that the introduction of the IDP concept has meant for understanding mobile popula- tions. F IDPs, Peru USCR/H Ruiz