This paper investigates the complex security and economic dynamics that influence the lives and opportunities of self-settled refugees living in Uganda. It focuses on the opportunities and problems faced by self-settled refugees, and questions the assumption that Uganda’s current local settlement policy is best suited to the country’s social, economic and political realities. It suggests that far from being passive victims, self-settled refugees are taking control of their lives without any additional external assistance and are planning for the day they can return to their homeland. Consequently, the paper argues that there is reason to believe that local integration is likely to succeed where other models have failed.