ABSTRACT

Urban refugees now account for over half the total number of refugees worldwide. Yet to date, far more research has been done on refugees living in camps and settlements set up expressly for them. This book provides crucial insights into the worldwide phenomenon of refugee flows into urban settings, repercussions for those seeking protection, and the agencies and organizations tasked to assist them. It provides a comparative exploration of refugees and asylum seekers in nine urban areas in Africa, Asia and Europe to examine issues such as status recognition, international and national actors, housing, education and integration. The book explores the relationship between refugee policies of international organisations and national governments and on the ground realities and demonstrates both the diverse of circumstances in which refugees live, and their struggle for recognition, protection and livelihoods.

chapter |10 pages

Between a rock and a hard place

Urban refugees in a global context

part I|126 pages

A continent on the move

chapter 1|30 pages

Demonstrable needs

Protest, politics and refugees in Cairo

chapter 3|22 pages

The politics of mistrust

Congolese refugees and the institutions providing refugee protection in Kampala, Uganda

chapter 4|18 pages

Increasing urban refugee protection in Nairobi

Political will or additional resources?

chapter 5|21 pages

Practices of reception and integration of urban refugees

The case of Ravenna, Italy

part II|132 pages

A country's population on the move

chapter 6|26 pages

Surviving the city

Refugees from Burma in New Delhi

chapter 7|23 pages

Life in limbo

Unregistered urban refugees on the Thai–Burma border

chapter 8|19 pages

Urban refugees and UNHCR in Kuala Lumpur

Dependency, assistance and survival

chapter 9|35 pages

The Japanese pilot resettlement programme

Identifying constraints to domestic integration of refugees from Burma

chapter 10|28 pages

Coping as an asylum seeker in Japan

Burmese in Shinjuku, Tokyo

chapter |2 pages

Postscript