This working paper is based on eight-months of research conducted from September 1, 2002 to April 30, 2003 under the auspices of and with the funding from the Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Program at the American University in Cairo and examines two interlinked processes in the lives of Somali refugees in Cairo, namely: (1) securing livelihood by using a set of shared strategies, and (2) the ways in which these daily strategies involve the refugees’ reconstruction of traditional collective identity constructs such as clan affiliation and Somali nationalism, and the creation of new and significant identity constructs based on shared diasporic experiences. In the Somali refugee population in Cairo, these two processes are interconnected precisely because the question of sharing identity is part and parcel of individual and collective efforts of securing livelihood and maximizing resources.