Internally displaced persons are those who have been forced to flee their homes and who do not cross an internationally recognized border. There are an astounding 28 million people around the world who currently qualify as IDPs. Unlike refugees, they have no organisation to deal with their plight. Very little is known about how people respond to the experience of displacement. In economic terms, the presence of the internally displaced is obvious. What are less obvious are the informal protection mechanisms that enable people to cope with the experience of displacement: the information...