Urban Refugees Research Articles

Classified integration – Urban displaced persons in Dar es Salaam

ABSTRACT The strict encampment policy enforced by Tanzanian authorities in the last years made it harder for displaced persons to settle outside camps. The article showcases possible impacts of policy changes on the legal, social and economic position of once relatively well-integrated urban refugees. Many refugees that had formerly managed to integrate successfully into the urban space of Dar es Salaam as workers, artists, entrepreneurs, or service providers were increasingly forced into illegality, faced more systemic discrimination, and became prone to exploitation and threats. The paper argues that the likelihood of urban refugees to nevertheless stand their ground depends on a relational set of factors in which class background plays a decisive role on various levels.

Syrian Crisis Impacts on the International Refugee Education Fund in Jordan

This research evaluates the impacts of the international organizations’ fund on urban Syrian refugees’ educational environment in Jordan. It combines a mixed method theoretical and technical approach to answering the question of the research: what are the impacts of the international agencies’ resilience programmatic response on the refugee educational challenges induced by the Syrian crisis? The findings revealed that the donors have improved school buildings and enhanced the educational environment in terms of academic performance, sense of belonging, safety, and success. The results also show a high correlation between the spatial distribution of projects and the concentration of noncamp Syrian refugees in Jordan. The results revealed that schools and neighboring communities were not fully engaged in decision-making which left a gap in fulfilling the social and cultural needs. This research can be used as an assessment tool of refugee educational strategies especially when promoting education in host-sensitive conflict regions.

Refugees and claims-making in spaces of urban marginality: Syrian refugees build alliances across racial lines for collective action

ABSTRACT Increasing number of refugees are being resettled in U.S. cities that have been historically populated by urban poor, immigrants, and racial minorities. This study examines how urban refugees’ claims-making process may be informed by civil rights and political activism of the local established residents of migrant and minoritized communities on the ground. Based on a case study of Syrian refugees residing in a central city in New Jersey, the study uses mixed method of in-depth interviews, field observations, historical archives, and demographic data. The findings show that the newly arriving Syrian refugees, resettled in a city grounded in history of civil rights and political activism, formed alliances with other long-term migrants and minoritized groups to claim their own political and legal rights, advocate for state resources, and resist social inequalities. Although Syrian refugees acknowledged their protected legal and citizenship rights, the actual process of enacting these rights and claims-making involved active relationships with other racial and migrant groups in the city. The study illustrates how refugees are articulating their agency through producing social and political spaces in connection with other spaces of urban marginality – a process that reveals how urban spaces can also become important sites for articulating new politics.

Little Aleppo: The neighbourhood experiences of Syrian refugees in Adana, Turkey, ‘poor to poor, peer to peer’

The current refugee regimes (national/international and EUropean) present significant limitations in the ways they deal with refugee flows. However, both refugees and the host societies are able to develop their own agencies and strategies against such confines. This article pieces together the place-making and reterritorialisation efforts of Syrian refugees, the impact of their arrival on and interaction with the local population in the neighbourhoods of Adana in Turkey that has hosted the largest number of Syrian refugees and have become known as ‘Little Aleppo’. The analysis of Syrians’ experiences that emerge in their new settlements sheds new light on the ways in which urban refugees are able to increase their own agency and choose the solution(s) most appropriate to their own particular circumstances by establishing ‘poor-to-poor, peer-to-peer’ contacts, rather than depending on the few choices offered to them through refugee regimes. The locals, in return, are motivated by the newcomers’ presence to reassess their own socio-economic positions and choices in the land of nation states, even though encounters with the refugees may at times elicit negative feelings.

Protocol for a feasibility evaluation of a Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programme to improve resilience and academic achievement in refugee children from a community learning centre in Malaysia: PARSEL (Participatory Action Research on SEL).

This paper describes a protocol for the feasibility evaluation of the Participatory Action Research on Social and Emotional Learning (PARSEL) programme. PARSEL aims to contribute towards the development of academic achievement and resilience among urban refugee students in a community learning centre in an upper middle-income country. The evaluation is a single arm pre-post design using a mixed methods approach, with the main focus on the feasibility of the programme. Measurements of impact are also included as the secondary outcomes of the study. The programme aims to enrol students from refugee background in a community learning centre. The programme is estimated to run for 18 months and the study is due to report in the end of fourth quarter of 2022.

Born in displacement: Psychosocial and mental health impacts of country of birth among urban Somali refugee youth

ABSTRACT Urban refugees often face tremendous adversities during displacement that exacerbate mental health and psychosocial outcomes. Given the lack of research on how extended displacement affects mental health in urban refugee youth, this study examines the differential effects of country of birth on trauma exposure and psychosocial factors that influence mental health experiences among Somali refugee youth in urban Kenya (n = 303). Findings reveals that childhood trauma and impeded social functioning predicted mental health outcomes. Being born in Kenya was a significant predictor of poor mental health despite there being no significant difference in trauma exposures and psychosocial factors between Somali-born and Kenya-born youth. This difference can be attributed to prolonged displacement, disrupted development of cultural identity, and discrimination experienced in the host country. Given the widely devastating effects of childhood trauma and community violence, mental health interventions need to be two-prolonged: addressing and preventing intergenerational trauma sequelae through family-based interventions; and community-level programs and advocacy for safety and protection for the displaced. Our findings also emphasize that future interventions for urban refugee communities should be inclusive to all community members, considering shared vulnerability to community violence as well as intergenerational transmission of traumas through childhood adversities and lacking support.

Predictors of Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Services by Urban Refugees in Kampala City, Uganda

Background: The influx of over 1.3 million refugees in Uganda, with 80,000 settling in the capacity city Kampala (16), challenges the ability of urban refugees to access Sexual and Reproductive Health services (SRH) and family planning (FP) amidst the multiple uncertainties of a precarious everyday life. Utilization of SRH services remains low among urban refugees even though these services are essential to those of reproductive age and vulnerable to unwanted pregnancies and its consequences and contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV. Mild may-Uganda conducted a multimethod outreach program to establish the predictors of access to SRH services by urban refugees in Kampala city this paper presents. Methods: A participatory, gender based, community-led, empowerment approach called Gender Action Learning Systems (GALS) was employed to deliver SRH including FP services to urban refugees in Kampala for 2 years. Urban refugees enrolled in GALS were interviewed at the beginning and end of the GALS intervention and quantitative data was collected. Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were conducted to determine social demographic factors influencing the uptake of SRH services by urban refugees. Results: The study enrolled 867 participants, with 605 completing the study. Median age was 29 (IQR:22-36) years. There were significant associations between SRH use and age, religion, and education level among the urban refugees. Pentecostal were more likely to take up FP compared to Muslims (Adjusted OR (AOR) 7.9; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 3.5-18) and those who had primary education were 5 times more likely to use FP compared to those who had no formal education (AOR 5.2; 95% CI 1.5 – 18). Adults aged 20 to 49 years were more likely to use FP compared to adolescents aged 15 to 19 years at both baseline (AOR 6.6; 95% CI 2.7-17) and endpoint (AOR 11; 95% CI 3.4 -36). Conclusion: Strategies to identify emancipated adolescents among refugees and support them to utilize family planning services need to be designed to successfully integrate newcomers into Uganda’s general healthcare services.

Examining the substance use, violence, and HIV and AIDS (SAVA) syndemic among urban refugee youth in Kampala, Uganda: cross-sectional survey findings

BackgroundInteractions between substance use, violence, HIV and AIDS, known as the ‘SAVA’ syndemic, are understudied among refugee youth. We assessed the synergistic effects of frequent alcohol use, depression and violence...

Urban Refugees’ Digital Experiences and Social Connections During Covid-19 Response in Kampala, Uganda

The Covid-19 crisis and its aftermath challenged economies and societal sectors globally. Refugees in developing countries are particularly vulnerable to the socio-economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. In Uganda, refugees significantly compose the marginalized urban population, dependent largely on the informal sector, and are severely affected by the crisis amidst limited social protection interventions. This article draws on key informant interviews with refugees and refugee-led organizations to examine the diverse ways through which social capital within refugees and host communities in Kampala enabled and shaped digitally mediated responses to sustain livelihoods, social wellbeing, and access to information and economic resources in the wake of the pandemic. The findings indicate that digitally enabled and mediated social networks and/or connections through bonds, bridges, and links are crucial in supporting refugees to cope with crisis effects. Networks of friends, families, and institutions are sustained by digital spaces that support the everyday lives of urban refugees through communication, social protection, livelihood continuity and recovery, and service improvisation during and after the crisis. The fragmented digital infrastructure, digital divide, limited government support, language barrier, and circulation of fake news challenged the utility of digital social networks in mobilizing support for refugees during the crisis. Digital technologies offer opportunities to strengthen social support and potentially mobilize refugee livelihoods in cities with fluid programs for displaced communities. The best practices around sustained multi-platform communications, technological innovations, data collection, and robust community engagement should be leveraged to garner the opportunities offered by technologies towards stimulating inclusive crisis responses.

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on The Livelihood of Urban Refugees in Arua City, Uganda

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on The Livelihood of Urban Refugees in Arua City, Uganda

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on The Livelihood of Urban Refugees in Arua City, Uganda

This study focused on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the livelihood of urban refugees in Arua City, Uganda. The research design adopted in this study was qualitative interview study, underpinned on the interpretivism philosophy. Data were sourced through 10 to 15 minutes face to face in-depth interviews consisting of 12 Urban refugee homesteads registered with the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), Arua branch. The Qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Thematic analysis is an accessible and flexible approach to qualitative data analysis, which is based on coding (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Results have shown that urban refugees have been hit hard by the COVID-19 Pandemic and will continue to face tough and difficult times in the future.

Policy Entrepreneurship and the Drafting of Refugee Law in a Non-Signatory Country: The Case of Thailand’s National Screening Mechanism

Abstract This study explores the creation of the National Screening Mechanism (NSM) to classify forcibly displaced persons in Thailand, a non-signatory state to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. It argues that the drafting of the NSM as Thailand’s first refugee law resulted from policy entrepreneurship by officials in the Department of International Organizations (DIO), who promoted innovations in urban refugee management. The global refugee events of 2016 provided windows of opportunity for DIO officials to structure the need for creating the NSM and convince ruling generals to commit to new policy directions. However, bureaucrats in other agencies, who endorsed the status quo, leveraged their power to amend the initial conceptualization of the NSM and made it less progressive. Policy entrepreneurship offers another perspective for exploring changes in non-signatory states’ refugee policies that can also be applied more broadly to the context of signatory countries.

Livelihood-related migratory practices of refugee families :

Integration of refugees into host countries' National Education System (NES) is becoming increasingly popular. According to recent scholarly research, efforts to integrate refugees into the NES have proven tough. Existing research on refugee children from both the global south and rich nations has identified a variety of educational barriers for refugee children. Recurrent livelihood-related movement habits are one of these barriers. Urban refugee families migrate often within and outside of the city in quest of better living conditions, disrupting their children's integration into public schools. This study uses qualitative methods and a case study research design to focus on urban refugee children in Maputo and Nampula. Integration of refugee children into host countries' NES is crucial because it has the potential to improve their academic or school continuity, stability, access to high-quality education, local integration, and social development.

“How to Live a Good Life”

This article provides an ethnographically informed critique of the humanitarian self-management model that informs reproductive health trainings for young urban refugees in Kampala, Uganda. It draws on interviews with 16 adolescent refugees, as well as policymakers, aid workers and health care professionals in Kampala in April 2019. We found that reproductive health education training sessions are a site of gendered learning where displaced boys and girls gain an understanding of what it means “how to live a good life” and how to become marriage material. Their focus on self-control also reflects a wider shift in humanitarianism toward female empowerment as a tool of neoliberal governance. In a low-resource context, however, “self-managing” one’s reproductive health takes on a different meaning, as displaced adolescents weigh up opportunities for short-term income from transactional sex with imagined reproductive futures elsewhere.

Initial outcomes of a community health worker programme for patients with type 2 diabetes in refugee camps at the West Bank, occupied Palestinian territory: a retrospective, matched cohort study

BackgroundNon-communicable diseases are the leading cause of mortality in the occupied Palestinian territory, and the burden of diabetes among refugees in the West Bank region of the territory has increased drastically in the past three decades. Community health worker programmes have been effective in controlling diabetes in many parts of the world, but data from the Middle East and north Africa regions and in settings of chronic violence are scarce. This study sought to assess the efficacy of diabetes control with a home-based community health worker programme, Health for Palestine, which included Palestinian refugee community health workers and patients in Aida and Al-Azza Camps in the occupied Palestinian territory. MethodsWe conducted a retrospective, matched cohort study, over 19 months, comparing the concentrations of haemoglobin A1c in individuals with diabetes cared for by Health for Palestine community health workers (n=30) and in non-health worker individuals with diabetes (n=90), all of whom were refugees who received care at UN Relief and Works Agency clinics. The Health for Palestine community health worker intervention, collectively termed social accompaniment, includes diet and exercise counselling, medication supervision and adherence support, vital signs and glucose monitoring, trauma-informed psychosocial counselling, facilitation of transportation to clinic, and supportive referrals to clinics or hospitals. We tested for significance with multivariable linear regression with robust standard errors, using an ordinary least squares regression of the outcome with and without prespecified covariates. FindingsHealth for Palestine community health workers had an average 1·4 absolute percentage point (95% CI 0·66–2·1) greater decline in haemoglobin A1c per year than the non-community health worker cohort, after adjustment for potential confounders including smoking status, hypertension, physical activity, and history of myocardial infarction or stroke (p<0·001). Potentially relevant unmeasured confounders include patient proximity to a UN Relief and Works Agency clinic, whether the control patient lived within a refugee camp or nearby, and traumatic events related to the occupation. The unadjusted reduction in haemoglobin A1c in Health for Palestine community health workers with diabetes was 1·2 points (from a baseline value of 8·4% to 7·2%). At baseline, 50% of individuals with community health workers and 47% of individuals without community health workers met the haemoglobin A1c target of <8% (p=0·83, Fisher's exact analysis); at the end of the study period, 77% of individuals visited by Health for Palestine community health workers and 46% of those without community health workers met the target (p=0·003, Fisher's exact analysis). InterpretationA community health worker intervention grounded in social accompaniment is associated with improved diabetes control in urban refugee camps and in communities experiencing chronic violence. A low exclusion cutoff for haemoglobin A1c (<6·5%) might underestimate the programme's effectiveness. Although community health worker programmes are uncommon in the occupied Palestinian territory and the greater region, these results suggest that such programmes can successfully augment existing efforts to improve diabetes control and outcomes. Funding1for3 and Lajee Center.

Ambivalent (In)Securities: Comparing Urban Refugee Women’s Experiences of Informal and Formal Security Provision

Abstract Using feminist theories of geolegality, geopolitics, and intersectionality, this article presents Syrian refugee women’s experiences and perceptions of both formal and informal security providers in Amman and Beirut in 2016–2017. Based on qualitative data from refugee women based in these cities since the onset of the Syrian civil war, this article argues three related points regarding urban refugee women and their experiences with security providers. First, that although not gendered at the State level, refugee law is applied in gendered ways in the everyday by State and non-State security providers and that this has direct outcomes as to how refugee women perceive and access security services in their host cities. Secondly, that whilst women perceive both formal and informal security providers in ambivalent terms, they are deeply appreciative of State security presence in urban areas which seem vulnerable to tension and conflict. Lastly, in order to understand ambivalent experiences of (in)security of (in)formal security providers, we need closer examinations of the ways in which identity interacts with structures of policy, law and culture, using feminist theories of intersectionality and geolegality.

Psychological distress and social support among conflict refugees in urban, semi-rural and rural settlements in Uganda: burden and associations

BackgroundRecent research shows that psychological distress is on the rise globally as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions imposed on populations to manage it. We studied the association between psychological distress and social support among conflict refugees in urban, semi-rural and rural settlements in Uganda during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsCross-sectional survey data on psychological distress, social support, demographics, socio-economic and behavioral variables was gathered from 1014 adult refugees randomly sampled from urban, semi-rural and rural refugee settlements in Uganda, using two-staged cluster sampling. Data was analyzed in SPSS-version 22, and statistical significance was assumed at p < 0.05.ResultsRefugees resident in rural/semi-rural settlements exhibited higher levels of psychological distress [F(2, 1011) = 47.91; p < 0.001], higher availability of social interaction [F(2, 1011) = 82.24; p < 0.001], lower adequacy of social interaction [F(2, 1011) = 54.11; p < 0.001], higher availability of social attachment [F(2, 1011) = 47.95; p < 0.001], and lower adequacy of social attachment [F(2, 1011) = 50.54; p < 0.001] than peers in urban settlements. Adequacy of social interaction significantly explained variations in psychological distress levels overall and consistently across settlements, after controlling for plausible confounders. Additionally, adequacy of social attachment significantly explained variations in psychological distress levels among refugees in rural settlements, after controlling for plausible confounders.ConclusionThere is a settlement-inequality (i.e. rural vs. urban) in psychological distress and social support among conflict refugees in Uganda. To address psychological distress, Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Services (MHPSS) should focus on strategies which strengthen the existing social networks among refugees. Variations in social support are a key predictor of distress which should guide tailored need-adapted interventions instead of duplicating similar and generic interventions across diverse refugee settlements.

Revisiting Urban Resilience: A Review on Resilience of Spatial Structure in Urban Refugee Neighborhoods Facing Demographic Changes

Providing a durable and sustainable approach based on urban resilience is essential for solving many spatial challenges in neighborhoods with sudden refugee influxes. As refugees settle in different locations in host cities, many of these neighborhoods have high urbanization, poor infrastructure, and over-population and their conditions impact their urban stability, livability, and quality of life. Hence, this study will review the urban resilience literature focusing on a set of resilient spatial elements of a neighborhood to support the design and planning of refugee settings. First, the theories of urban resilience are reviewed to identify the characteristics of resilience and classify the reviewed literature by different focused categories of spatial resilience. Second, the resiliency of spatial structure are explored focusing on the links between resilient characteristics and urban form attributes at the neighborhood scale. The review summarizes a set of resilient spatial measurements that use urban form indicators of resilient characteristics facilitated by geospatial technologies. Further, a framework of resilient spatial structure for refugee neighborhoods is proposed using existing urban resilience frameworks. The proposed framework includes factors of urban form attributes at the neighborhood scales (e.g., blocks, plots, and building scale), resilience in refugee contexts, and urban resilience mechanisms. The study is not limited to providing an operative resilience knowledge. It provides spatial strategies for humanitarian organizations and inter-governmental agencies to improve the vulnerable spatial structures of refugee settings and to broaden opportunities for the assessment, profiling, communication, monitoring, and planning of resilient refugee neighborhoods.

Developing strategies to address barriers for tuberculosis case finding and retention in care among refugees in slums in Kampala, Uganda: a qualitative study using the COM-B model

BackgroundGlobally, displaced populations face an increased burden of tuberculosis (TB). Uganda is currently hosting unprecedented big numbers of refugees from the East African region. Recent evidence shows increased spread of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) across East Africa as a result of migrants from Somalia- a high MDR-TB prevalent country, calling for urgent identification and management of cases for the countries in the region. One of the strategies recommended is optimization of diagnosis, treatment and prevention of TB in refugees. This study aimed at exploring the barriers to and facilitators for TB case finding and retention in care among urban slum refugees and suggestions on how to improve. This was to guide the development of interventions to improve TB case finding and retention in care among the said population.MethodsA cross-sectional study utilizing qualitative methods was conducted among refugees in an urban slum in Kampala City, Uganda. Key informant interviews with health care workers and community leaders and in-depths interviews with refugee TB patients and care takers of TB patients were conducted (30 interviews in total). Interview questions were based on constructs from the COMB-B model (Capability, Opportunity and Motivation Model of Behaviour change). Manual content analysis was performed and identified targeted intervention strategies guided by the related Behavior Change Wheel implementation framework.ResultsKey barriers included; physical capability (availability of and easily accessible private facilities in the community with no capacity to diagnose and treat TB), psychological capability (lack of knowledge about TB among refugees), social opportunity (wide spread TB stigma and language barrier), physical opportunity (poor living conditions, mobility of refugees), reflective motivation (lack of facilitation for health workers), automatic motivation (discrimination and rejection of TB patients). Facilitators were; physical capability (availability of free TB services in the public health facilities), social opportunity (availability of translators). We identified education, incentivization, training, enablement, and restructuring of the service environment as relevant intervention functions with potential to address barriers to and enhance facilitators of TB case finding and retention among refugees in urban slums.ConclusionThe key barriers to TB control among refugees living urban slums in Kampala- Uganda, included; poor access to health services, limited knowledge about TB, TB stigma, language barrier and lack of facilitation of community health workers. Identified intervention strategies included; education, training, enablement, environmental restructuring and persuasion. The findings could serve as a guide for the design and implementation of interventions for improving the same.

Do Refugee Camps Offer a Refuge From Conflict? A Spatially Explicit Analysis of Conflict Incidence at 1,543 Refugee Camps Across Africa (1997–2020)

By the end of 2020, 20.7 million refugees worldwide were under the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Despite the intended role of refugee camps as sanctuaries for people fleeing conflict and persecution, recent empirical research has shown that many refugees continue to experience conflict even after settling in camps. Measuring refugee exposure to conflict, especially recurrent conflict, is important for the design and evaluation of refugee settlement and asylum policies, refugee-host relationships, as well as refugee security and protection. However, existing research is either nationally aggregated or highly localized at a small number of refugee camps and does not consider changes in conflict incidence following refugee arrivals, leaving uncertainty around near-camp conflict dynamics across refugee hosting countries. To address these gaps, we measured conflict event proximity, frequency, and trends around refugee and non-refugee settlements in all refugee-hosting countries in Africa over a 24-year period (1997–2020). We used georeferenced data on 1,543 refugee camps from UNHCR and conflict event data from the Armed Conflict Location Event Database (ACLED), and compared localized conflict incidence at refugee camps to 4,003 non-refugee settlements from the Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project (GRUMP). Our results show that 52% of all refugee camps and 94% of urban refugee camps were within 10 km of at least one armed conflict event after camp establishment. Conversely, only 82% of urban settlements without refugee camps were within 10 km of a conflict event, suggesting that urban refugee camps are subject to nearby conflict at a disproportionately higher rate compared to both rural refugee camps and non-refugee settlements. We also find that conflict events moved an average of 11.2 km closer to refugee camps after camp establishment, indicating a general encroachment of conflict upon camps. Such persistent and widespread conflict challenges the security of camps and the protections afforded to refugees, and merits increased attention from host countries and humanitarian actors.