Urban Displacement

Relatively little is known about the precise numbers of those forcibly displaced into urban settings, their demographics, basic needs or protection problems.

People move into urban environments for a multiplicity of reasons. For many of these people, it is not a matter of choice. They may choose to be displaced in cities rather than in camps but they did not choose to be displaced, and therefore they may have rights to protection and assistance under humanitarian law.

For internally displaced people the situation is especially confused, as they are likely to be living among compatriots facing similar difficulties and challenges - whether city-born residents or, for example, rural-urban economic migrants. The humanitarian system will have to engage more closely with this reality in the future.

FMO Resources

• FMO Research Guide: Urban Refugees, (February 2004)
• Forced Migration Review: Urban Displacement, Issue 34, (February 2010)

Documents

Selected full-text documents (for more, search in the Digital Library)

• Urbanisation and its discontents: urban refugees in Tanzania, Marc Sommers, Tufts University (2009)
• Urban refugees in Mauritania, Channe Lindstrom (2009)
• Without refuge: Chin refugees in India and Malaysia, Amy Alexander, Chin Human Rights Organisation, (2008)
• Forced relocation in Burma's former capital, Donald M Seekins, Meio University's College of International Studies (2008)
• Urban asylum seekers and refugees in Thailand, Vera den Otter, Jesuit Refugee Services (2007)
• Burma: the changing nature of displacement crises, Ashley South, Refugee Studies Centre (2007)
• Recommendations for urban refugee policy, Karen Jacobsen, Tufts University and Loren Landau, University of the Witwatersrand (2005)
• In 'closed file' limbo: displaced Sudanese in a Cairo slum, Pascale Ghazaleh, Student, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, (2003)
• Responses to FMR 16 article on Sudanese refugees in Cairo, Vincent Cochetel and Pascale Ghazaleh, UNHCER (2003)
• Urban refugees in Kenya: a review of the literature, Peter Mwangi Kagwanja, Peter O Ndege, Edward Odiyo , Refugee Studies Centre (2001)
• Urbanization, Pentecostalism, and urban refugee youth in Africa, Marc Sommers, Tufts University (2000)
• Dilemmas facing agencies in the urban centres of Afghanistan, Peter Marsden, British Refugee Council (1998)
• Urban adaptation and survival strategies: the case of displaced groups in Arada area Addis Ababa, Ephrem Tesema, Addis Ababa University (1998)
• Urban refugees: a community-based approach, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (1996)
• The urban environment and population relocation, Michael Cernea, The World Bank (1993)
• Migration and urban problems: an entitlement approach, Philip Amis, Refugee Studies Centre (1985)

Web Resources

Selected web-based information resources (for more, search the FMO website)

• Displacement to urban areas: selected bibliography, Tim Morris (2009)
• UNHCR: Urban refugees (includes video resources)
• UNHCR policy on refugee protection and solutions in urban areas (2009)
• UNHCR's Policy and Practice Regarding Urban Refugees, Discussion Paper, Christine Mougne, Inspection and Evaluation Service, UNHCR (2003)
• Internal displacement to urban areas, Tufts university and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (2008)
• The Metropolis Project
• Surviving in the city: A review of UNHCR's operation for Iraqi refugees in urban areas of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, J Crisp, J Janz, J Riera, S Samy, UNHCR (2009)
• Ignored displaced persons: the plight of IDPs in urban areas, Alexandra Fielden, UNHCR (2008)
• What about us?- The exclusion of urban IDPs from Uganda`s IDP related policies and interventions, Refugee Law Project (2007)
• Violence, Exile, and Transitional Justice: Perspectives of Urban IDPs in Kampala, RLP Briefing Paper, Wyrzykowski Paulina and Okot Kasozi, Benard (2009)

Relevant Organizations

Contact details for relevant organizations (for more, search in the Organizations Directory)

• UN-HABITAT
• Meeting Humanitarian Challenges in Urban Areas Taskforce
• Women's Refugee Commission
• Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
• The City of Sanctuary
• Refugee Law Project, Kenya
• Feinstein International Center, Tufts University
• Migration Policy and Practice Initiative, Forced Migration Studies Programme, University of the Witwatersrand
• Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, Norwegian Refugee Council

Related FMO resource summaries

• Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement
• Disaster-induced Displacement and Resettlement
• Country information resources