Abstract
This paper examines how asylum seekers and refugees experience urban greenspaces. Whilst often overlooked in a focus on support services and integration, we argue that critically exploring the importance of urban greenspaces has wider implications for understanding how asylum seekers and refugees navigate experiences of displacement and resettlement. Drawing on empirical work foregrounding refugee experiences in Berlin, London, and Sheffield, we found that spending time outdoors in local recreational spaces such as parks, can have positive outcomes for wellbeing and inclusion, with the potential to support respite and the beginnings of belonging. However, though there were multiple positive accounts, especially of busier parks and of appreciating nature, many participants were uncertain or anxious about using parks. The interviews highlight the multiple barriers faced by asylum seekers and refugees, regarding information, legibility and in gaining the cultural capital and confidence needed venture out. The varied experiences reflect the diversity of greenspace typologies in Northern European cities, and also how individuals weight up public perceptions and, for some, the insecurity of their legal status. In unpacking the interaction between these barriers, we define and propose ‘curated sociability’ approaches as possible frameworks for supporting egalitarian participation and offering pathways to greater engagement. We conclude by highlighting a range of interventions that offer situated opportunities for asylum seekers and refugees to engage with urban greenspaces, and which provide insights into how the expectations and rules of urban greenspace are actively negotiated and may be rewritten.
Highlights
Recent years have seen an emerging concern with the informal and often highly precarious settlement of refugees in many European cities (Depraetere and Oosterlynck, 2017; Maestri, 2017; Picker and Pasquetti, 2015)
This paper offers a first analysis of how asylum seekers, refugees, and those working in the refugee sector of three European cities understand the role of urban parks in the lives of asylum seekers and refugees
Discussions of conviviality and ‘everyday multiculture’ have sought to highlight how cities are constituted by significant degrees of proximate diversity and histories of past and present migrations (Back and Sinha, 2016; Noble, 2009; Wise, 2016), and how the negotiation of such diversity in and through public space, are essential components of living with difference (Watson, 2009; Wilson, 2011; Powell and Rishbeth, 2012). Whilst drawing on such insights to consider urban greenspace, we examine how the limits of conviviality may be foregrounded when read through the ‘hostile environments’ faced by asylum seekers and refugees, and how these shape experiences of parks as a specific type of urban public space
Summary
Recent years have seen an emerging concern with the informal and often highly precarious settlement of refugees in many European cities (Depraetere and Oosterlynck, 2017; Maestri, 2017; Picker and Pasquetti, 2015). We suggest that it is precisely these factors of insecurity and poor living conditions associated with asylum systems across Europe that highlight the relevance of exploring resources for wellbeing and integration, and that use of urban parks could provide mundane but meaningful benefit Some foundation to this contention is provided by a well established literature base that publically accessible urban greenspace has multiple values for city residents, in particular through enabling connections to nature (Cooper et al, 2014), providing locations for informal socialising (Neal et al, 2015), and opportunities for physical exercise (Romagosa et al, 2015). We consider different forms of curated sociability, and how these may be used as means to encourage sociality and confidence in urban greenspace
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