This dissertation is about refugees in Somalia, how they got there, where they came from, and why they stay. It discusses the community development program, the notion of self-reliance and the manipulation of these concepts to create a circumstance of regional dependency. The research puts refugee circumstances in Somalia into a global context of economic and military oppression. Dispelling the myths of poor farm management, drought, overpopulation, and backwardness, war is named as the primary cause of refugee origins worldwide. A major theme of the research is that we live in a corporate warfare/welfare world in which development aid pursues hearts and minds, as well as markets. Within this system, development workers must understand local political/social structures and put them into the context of global political/economic realities.