Coping Strategies of East African Undocumented Immigrants and Human Rights Protection in Kenya (2010–2022)

Abstract

This study examines the coping strategies utilised by undocumented East African immigrants in Kenya and evaluates their effectiveness in safeguarding human rights within the 2010–2022 policy context. Undocumented migration has become a major governance and human rights concern in Kenya because the country serves as a destination, transit, and host state in East Africa. Despite regional integration efforts and international human rights commitments, undocumented East African immigrants continue to face legal exclusion and inadequate protection of fundamental rights. This study employed a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, combining quantitative surveys and qualitative phenomenological methods, guided by cosmopolitanism theory. The study sampled 82 participants from Nairobi County using purposive and snowball sampling techniques. Secondary document analysis supplemented the primary data. Results indicate that undocumented East African immigrants utilise a variety of coping strategies, such as informal employment (53.6%), unstable housing, strategic mobility, hiding their identity, and ethnic and religious solidarity-supportive networks (20.7%) and intermarriage with Kenyan nationals. However, few felt always safe from arrest (37.8%), and awareness of rights was low. These strategies helped provide access to livelihoods, shelter, and social assistance in the short term, but not long-term protection of human rights. Emotion-focused coping was more prevalent than problem-focused coping, prompted by the limitations imposed on immigration. The study concludes that coping mechanisms serve survival more than rights protection. It adds to migration scholarship by systematically analysing coping strategies within the existing human rights frame. It recommends improvements to the human rights-based approach to migration governance, migration pathways, and enhancing state–civil society collaboration.