ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the possibilities and challenges of rights-based community development initiatives in this context to foster and support autonomy and political participation in the absence of either legal rights of residency or citizenship. It highlights ways, without formal civil and political rights, that refugees engage in political activity and explores how this can be amplified through rights-based community development initiatives. The chapter explores the findings from two participatory action research projects with Afghan and Somali refugees living in New Delhi, India and Somali refugees in Nairobi. Refugees experience a lacuna of legal rights in protracted urban displacement. The chapter examines an approach which values local knowledge, skills and capacities and supports collective decision making and community ownership can enable political citizenship through reflection and action, even where legal citizenship rights are denied. It discusses opening spaces for dialogue, action and community training are central to refugee-led projects that aim to disrupt traditional power relations and move towards positive change.
