Young refugees and locals living under the same roof: intercultural communal living as a catalyst for refugees\u2019 integration in European urban communities?

Rilke Mahieu,Rut Van Caudenberg

doi:10.1186/s40878-019-0168-9

Rilke Mahieu, Rut Van Caudenberg

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-019-0168-9

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Journal: Comparative Migration Studies	Publication Date: Mar 13, 2020
Citations: 15	License type: open-access

Affiliation: University of Antwerp

Abstract

In various European cities urban authorities and local stakeholders are exploring ways to tackle challenges arising from recent refugee flows. A central concern is the social integration of refugees: how to connect this particular category of newcomers – and especially the most vulnerable ones – durably with local communities? In this article, we discuss an urban programme that offers young unaccompanied refugees (aged 17–23) cohabitation with young locals (aged 20–30) during a period of one to 2 years in Antwerp (Belgium) in small-scale collective housing units. The programme’s assumption is that this mixed, intercultural communal living will promote regular, informal and meaningful social encounters between refugees and locals, which in turn will strengthen the independence and social inclusion of the young refugees.In this article, we investigate the opportunities top-down organized intercultural communal living creates for refugee integration. We draw on interviews and observations collected among locals and refugees living together to gain insights into both groups of participants’ experiences with collective living and the actual social dynamics emerging in such a setting. Our findings suggest that intercultural communal living can be conceptualized as an environment where various informal forms of social support and mutual learning emerge. As such, we contribute to the conceptualization of the impact of intercultural communal living on newcomer integration.

Highlights

Migrant integration has largely been a purview of the nation state, as ideas about how to integrate often correlated strongly with ideas about national identity and the national community (Penninx & Garcés-Mascareñas, 2016)
(2020) 8:12 and pragmatism, as ‘a policy rebellion’ of cities against the state domination of the last decades (Zapata-Barrero, 2017). This ‘local turn’ in migrant integration policy making became pronounced in the wake of the 2015 Syrian ‘refugee crisis’, when local governments became engaged in finding appropriate solutions for some of the issues raised by the increased influx of asylum seekers, such as their need for education, housing and support
Six out of ten of the refugee participants are Afghan, while others come primarily from Eritrea, Syria and Somalia. 3Due to Belgium’s federalized structure – in which all matters related to migration and asylum, including the reception of asylum seekers, is a federal responsibility while matters related to integration and welfare are the responsibility of the different communities - young refugees who are granted legal protection while they are still minors usually move from a federal reception centre to a reception facility under the authority of one of the communities

Summary

Introduction

Migrant integration has largely been a purview of the nation state, as ideas about how to integrate often correlated strongly with ideas about national identity and the national community (Penninx & Garcés-Mascareñas, 2016). Mahieu and Van Caudenberg Comparative Migration Studies (2020) 8:12 and pragmatism, as ‘a policy rebellion’ of cities against the state domination of the last decades (Zapata-Barrero, 2017) This ‘local turn’ in migrant integration policy making became pronounced in the wake of the 2015 Syrian ‘refugee crisis’, when local governments became engaged in finding appropriate solutions for some of the issues raised by the increased influx of asylum seekers, such as their need for education, housing and support. Due to structural problems related to the local private rental market as well as long waiting lists in social housing, refugees (and more broadly, non-EU newcomers) face enormous difficulties to find decent and appropriate housing, especially in larger cities like Antwerp It is within this context that it was decided to make housing a central focus of the program.

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Conclusion