English

B Guerin

doi:10.5897/ijsa12.062

Abstract

Appropriate housing for refugees in Western countries is a major contributor to successful resettlement. Agencies responsible for refugee resettlement often find themselves contemplating whether to 1) house refugees close to each other (example, ‘ethnic enclaves’) or 2) disperse refugees to facilitate acculturation. We describe our community-based participatory research including in-depth interviews and ethnography with a Somali refugee community in New Zealand. We discuss four themes related to housing and the dilemma of where refugees should be housed. Themes included: the perception that housing was inadequate; a preference for housing to be located closer to services and family support; personal experiences of racism and discrimination, and a desire for improved consultation in relation to housing matters. We also describe methods for preserving the contextual detail of such complex issues for both policy and community development. Key words: Refugee, housing, policy, contextualizing, community-based.

Highlights

Affordable and appropriate housing for refugees in Western countries is an important contributor to successful resettlement especially in terms of health and wellbeing, education, and employment (Blackman and Harvey, 2001; Calsyn and Winter, 2002)
Much of the research relating to housing issues has relied on survey questionnaires, telephone surveys, or data gleaned from market research or from census data
Housing was often perceived by Somali to be inadequate and this generally related to houses being too small for large families

Summary

Introduction

Affordable and appropriate housing for refugees in Western countries is an important contributor to successful resettlement especially in terms of health and wellbeing, education, and employment (Blackman and Harvey, 2001; Calsyn and Winter, 2002). There are many issues concerning housing for refugees or migrants when they arrive in a new country (Beresford, 2001; Chambon et al, 1997; Dion, 2001; Hulchanski, 1997; Kearns and Smith, 1994; Murdie et al, 1995; Peach, 1998; Roscigno et al, 2009; Zetter and Pearl, 1999). Many of these issues are interconnected with various other issues that arise from being a refugee or migrant. Much research relating to refugee or migrant settlement concerns whether refugees or migrants should be: 1. housed together in suburbs or areas so they can be together (that is 'ethnic enclaves' or clustering) and segregated from the wider society or 2. dispersed away from one another as a strategy to facilitate acculturation (Bolt et al, 2008; De Jong and Vurkuyten, 1996; Flippen, 2001; Goodkind and FosterFishman, 2002; Johnson et al, 2002; Novac, 1996; Soholt, 2001; Zetter and Pearl, 1999)

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